Before I left for on vacation for 10 days, I canceled my newspaper because I did not read it and it was easier than putting it on hold and then having to deal with canceling later. I felt guilty about having the paper in my house, and I did not like the space required to recycle it especially when I did not read it. The same ads and information is online and if I view them online I am not contributing to the destruction of trees and the energy and cost of recycling. Since I did not read the paper this was a good decision for me. The only reason we signed up for the paper to begin with is my husband answered the phone when a sales person gave him an amazingly low rate for a year. We paid for one full year and no longer wanted any more papers after that period.

When I was on vacation I was getting multiple messages on my cell phone each day alerting me to the fact that I had voice messages on my home phone. I would call the house phone to listen to the message and there was only multiple clicks or just plain silence recorded for up to 60 seconds on the voice mail. The same thing happened each day, most days multiple times from one of the two numbers, 1702-554-1465, 1715-254-0345. It made me concerned that someone was calling our house to try to scope it out to verify that we indeed were not home, or I was actually concerned that someone was trying to get a hold of me for an emergency, so I looked up the number. It turns out that I am not the only person receiving these calls because other people were complaining about these numbers calling their homes multiple times each day as well.

I have documented how many of these calls I have received and how many voice mail messages were left from the automated service and will be contacting Pioneer Press directly to tell them to take me off their phone call list forever. I will never subscribe to the Pioneer Press again due to the harassing nature of these phone calls. I am writing this in case someone else is trying to figure out who keeps calling them, maybe they will find this post and realize it is not an emergency, just Pioneer Press.

Do you have a closet full of clothes but don’t know what you should keep and what you should get rid of?

At the beginning of each clothing season, turn all of your hangers backwards. When you replace the clothes after wearing them once turn them forwards. What you have not worn at the end of a season or at the end of the year you should donate or sell at a consignment sale and help un-clutter your life. If you can live without it for an entire year you don’t need it, and it will free up room to buy something new and fun!

Do you have kids that loose one glove or mitten all winter long?

I buy some thick elastic and cut it so that is about 3 inches shorter than the length of the sleeves of their winter coat. I sew a couple of stitches to connect the elastic to the gloves. Pull the gloves or mittens through the jacket making sure the right glove is on the right side, and you will have a pair of mittens all winter long. My kids have not lost a mitten since I started this 2 years ago.

I have a theory that in order to have a truly clean house with kids you should be gone constantly, then you and your kids wont have a chance to get it dirty. I thought that when I quit my job my house would always be organized and clean, but quickly learned that is definitely not true, the more I am home the messier my house gets. Since we are home everyday for most meals and the kids playing, my house certainly gets dirty fast. I may not be the best housekeeper around, I hate dusting and my bedroom is the pit of despair for all things that don’t have a home, but the one room that I try to keep clean is my kitchen.  

Every night after I put the kids to sleep, I walk into the kitchen to pick up any mess that I didn’t get put away after dinner, any snack dishes, and cups. I make sure that I pick up the counter tops, spray them with my vinegar and water solution, wipe the counters, wipe the table, empty the coffee pot set it up for the next morning, empty all the dishes from the sink, fill the dishwasher and wipe out my sink. Doing this every night makes it so I am greeted with a clean kitchen in the morning. It sets the tone for a less chaotic morning. I can’t cook in a dirty kitchen, so when it is cleaned at night I don’t feel like I need to clean before I can prepare my kids breakfast.

Try cleaning your kitchen before bed so that everyday you wake up to at least one room that makes you feel like there is order in the world, it might even balance out some of the craziness of raising kids.

I was fortunate to get the Euro-Pro Shark S3501 Deluxe Steam Pocket Mop for Christmas. I wanted to use it for a few weeks before I wrote a review to make sure I was not still in the honeymoon phase and so I could be honest as possible.

The reason I wanted a steam mop was because I wanted to eliminate cleaning with chemicals on my floors. I had been using vinegar and hot water and a microfiber washable mop head that I washed after each use. I did not like the fact that I had to empty my bucket after each room I cleaned so I was not using dirty water on my next room floor. Even though I felt my floors were visibly clean, they were wet for 20-30 minutes after mopping and I did not think they were sanitized and certainly did not smell fresh, heck vinegar does not smell fresh, it smells like vinegar, but I would rather use that than any other chemical cleaning product.

When I opened it for Christmas I could not wait to get home to try it out! Unfortunately, I had to put away the truckload of gifts that the kids received and put away the Christmas decorations so I could have an clear floor to clean. We have hardwood floors in the kitchen, living room, in two bedrooms, tile floors in bathrooms and the entryway, carpet in the basement family room and one bedroom along with plenty of area rugs to warm up the wood floors. I swept and vacuumed the rugs then was ready to get to work with the steam mop. I read the instructions, filled up the reservoir to the top, plugged it in and pumped the steam and started mopping. I used the rectangle head and the white pocket pad and was amazed at the steam, it started strong and stayed strong the whole time I cleaned the floor. The steam cleaned my floors and got the corners cleaned, I loved how the head pivoted so easily, I loved that when one side got dirty I flipped the mop over and cleaned with the other side of the pad, I actually used one side for each room. I tried out the triangle head for corners and small spaces but I felt I had no problem getting into the corner with the rectangle head in case you don’t want to switch heads.

Since I have wood floors it is much easier to use the purple steam duster cleaning pads, they glide so nice along my wood floors and they are no effort at all to push like the white pocket pads are on a textured surface like wood floors. The purple dusting pads still clean off the dirt off my floor and shine it well as well as emitting the perfect sanitizing steam the whole time. One of my favorite features is the long cord, I can clean my kitchen and halfway into my living room without having to replug the cord in. My Dyson Ball
cord is at least 5 feet shorter so a longer cord does make my cleaning faster and easier.

The coolest option on this steam mop is the carpet glider for carpet freshening and deodorizing. We have a large golden retriever that is not always the best smelling dog, he swims and rolls in dirt and does all the other gross hunting dog things. With all of the area rugs in my house I simply drag the steaming purple dusting pad across the rug till I cover the entire area, it makes my carpets smell great, I don’t like to think that my kids that enjoy sitting on the floor to play and watch TV sitting on a stinky carpet. I can smell the difference immediately after they have been steamed and they are dried in minutes, I know the kids are playing on fresh area rugs.

Today I tackled an even bigger job than my hard floors, the basement carpet! You are not supposed to get carpets wet because it will break down the carpet fibers and shortens the life of the carpet which is why many people get their carpets professionally steam cleaned instead of shampooing them, so I figured this is steam, I have to try it. The dog likes to sleep on the basement carpet and when I was doing push-ups with Gilad the other day I could certainly smell the dog.

I took the carpet glider out of the box put on a fresh white pocket pad and fired up the steam. I steamed the whole carpet twice, when it was wet on the first run I could certainly smell wet dog, I flipped the head over and saw the dingy side that had swept over my whole carpet and started on the other side. After the 2nd pass the carpet looked like it woke up, it looked lighter and brighter. I put the fan on the carpet to make sure any remaining steam was dried, and then I went down into push up position to get a close up whiff, and seriously the carpets did not stink, I had my nose across the fibers and felt success that my kids could sit on that carpet without smelling that it is my dogs favorite resting place.

I read multiple reviews by other people who put chemicals in the water reservoir. Why? The point is to have chemical free cleaning and people are adding Febreeze or Lysol into the steam, now you are not only putting those chemicals on your floors but it is also getting into your air with the steam. If you are buying this steam mop to reduce chemicals in your home don’t put them into your water reservoir! Honestly you do not need chemicals to make your house smell good, this steam mop makes your house smell fresh.

Now that I have expressed how happy I am with the Shark Steam Pocket Mop I want to compare it to the other steam mops. The Bissell 1867 Steam Mop Bare Floor Steam Cleaner only has one sided steam pad, it has a swivel head but it is a very thick head which some people who review it complain makes it difficult to get under tight places, it also does not come with the carpet glider. The H20 Steam Cleaner Mop appears to come with a carpet glider and it has the triangle head but it does not come with the large steam head for large areas or the long cord. The Euro-Pro S3202 Shark Deluxe Steam Mop is the smaller unit without the extend-able handle, the triangle head, the steam pocket, or the swivel head. I would recommend to pass up these three models and invest in the Euro-Pro Shark Steam Pocket Mop, it has all of the good features of these other three steam mops and tops them with more inventive features and attachments.

I am happy I have the Shark Steam Pocket Mop. I am enjoying mopping, I love that my floors are clean, disinfected and completely chemical free.

It is fall in Minnesota which means it is time to start winterizing the yard, the gardens, the pool and the house.    I live in a house built in the 1960’s that is not as energy efficient as new homes.  I try to save money and energy by sealing up the house.

One project that can save money by making your house more air tight is caulking around windows and doors. This summer I painted the house and caulked every crack and crevice in the exterior around windows, doors, siding, pipes, boxes on my house.  I went through 16 tubes of exterior caulk using a basic handheld caulk gun and I became pretty good at laying a good bead by the end of the project.  As I was working around the house I noticed that the old caulk had shrunk, cracked and become brittle in all areas, there were even some areas under replaced windows that never had caulk applied and were letting cold air right into my house.    Caulk is cheap repair to keep out bugs, water and $3 a tube is a cheap energy saving option, in comparison to heating and cooling costs.

We use a Touch Screen 7 Day Programmable Thermostat to turn the heat down a few degrees at night, since I am home during the day with the kids I can’t lower heat during the day.  Since we replaced the old fashioned dial thermostat with the programmable one the furnace runs less often and maintains a more consistent temperature.

Our windows were all replaced in the early 90’s so they are still not as energy efficient as modern windows, so I use 3M (Plastic) Insulator Kits on the interior of the windows. I apply the plastic over each of the bedroom windows, and over the large picture windows in my house to keep the cold out and keep more of the warm in.  If you have never put plastic on your windows before it is a fast project and it is very rewarding.  I usually do it on a cool day when you can feel the cold air leaking from the windows.   When I am done you can feel the increase in warmth in the room and can no longer feel any draft by the windows.

I use applying plastic as my reason to wash the interior of the windows.  Make sure you get the little finger prints off  before applying the plastic because once the plastic is on the windows those smears and smudges are sealed in till spring.    Make sure you fully close, lock and close the storm windows before putting on the plastic.  If you have mini blinds on the windows, cut a little hole and seal the mini blind wand outside of the window and seal it up with clear scotch tape so you can open and close blinds on sunny days.  I also close curtains and insulating window blinds to keep even more drafts out of the room especially at night and on really cold days.

Minnesota gets cold so little energy saving steps will  help save you money and keep you warmer this winter.