DIY Eucalyptus Yoga Mat Cleaner/Freshener - Easy Gifts Ideas on a Budget (Part 6)

I decided, at the last minute, to add this Eucalyptus yoga mash freshener for my sister and sister-in-law's spa basket. I know it isn't a perfect fit with bath salts etc., but if you have ever had a smelly yoga mat before, you might appreciate this. Both my sister's love yoga and I thought this might be well liked. Plus, it took no effort and I had all the ingredients on hand... both are great things when making gifts!

In case you are new to this series, here is my running list of spa related items I making (and sharing with you):

• Lavender bath salt ($2) DONE
• Lavender sugar scrub ($2.50) DONE
• Lavender scented wax cubes ($0.50) DONE
• Spa towel ($7)
• Lavender scented Catalytic Lamp oil (you know like Lampe Berger oil) ($2.50) DONE
• Lavender linen water ($1.50) DONE
• Eucalyptus Yoga Mat spray/cleaner ($0.50) DONE

If you have not heard of Yoga Mat cleaners/fresheners, well all they really are is a spray that has antibacterial qualities(since eucalyptus is antibacterial) that freshen and clean your yoga mat. You simple give you mat a spritz and wipe it down. You can use other essential oils that are also antibacterial for this recipe; I have hear lavender is antibacterial as well, but I really wanted to use eucalyptus for this one. 

I have seen these little spray bottle being sold for around $10 at a local yoga studio. I am not sure the ingredients in those ones, but mine cost my around $0.50 to make and I know they don't have any chemicals. Perfect!

Materials Needed:

• 6 tablespoons Vinegar
• 2 tablespoon Distilled Water
• 20-30 drops Eucalyptus essential oil (or lavender)
• Small spray bottle (My bottle was in a travel pack of 3 from the Dollar store)

Note: If you want to do a large batch of this,  you can use the recipe as 3 parts vinegar to 1 part water and add essential oil to your personal preference.

Mix the vinegar and essential oil together in the little spray bottle. Add the distilled water and you are done!

To clean your mat:

1. Spray the cleaner liberally over the surface of your mat.
2. Wipe with a damp cloth or sponge.
3. When the cleaner has been removed, 'buff' the mat with a soft dry cloth.
4. Repeat on the other side.
5. Allow your mat to air dry.

Has anyone ever used a yoga mat spray like this before? Have you ever made your own?

Merry Christmas everyone.
Stephanie

Getting Organized - Plastic Bags

I am going through something right now; not anything bad, I am just tired of looking at stuff.  It is like I want to spring clean but multiply that by 100. Have you ever had that? I literally spent 6 hours in my children's rooms just tearing everything out and only putting back what we absolutely love. I have cleaned, purged and organized under every sink in the house. Closets are on my next to do list...I can't wait. I am not sure what it is about but it is making me happier and I feel lighter.

So, this is not going to be an earth shattering post, but it will be helpful for those of you, who like me, seem to amass piles of plastic grocery bags. I honestly use reusable bags as often as possible, but it seems that they end up neatly piled in our mudroom after I put my groceries away but they don't make it to the car by the time I need them. So over months I am left with a kitchen drawer full of plastic bags.

What do you do to keep them neat and tidy and convenient enough to use them again? Well, I tested out the three technique that I thought were the best options I could find:

1. Cleaning wipes container
2. Kleenex container
3. Folding into triangles

The first two I found as solutions on the internet and the third was taught to me by my mother-in-law.

In all three options I used 6 plastic bags just so I could easily compare how well they hold the same amount.

Cleaning Wipes Container
The first method I tried was to put plastic bags in the disposable cleaning cloths container. Someone on a blog did this and covered the outside of the bottle with pretty scrapbook paper. It really did look nice and I would have done this if I felt this was a viable option, but I really didn't. I have a hard enough time getting those cleaning cloths out without pinching a finger or scratching the back of my hand.

I literally stuffed 5 bags into the container and was quite surprised that it would only hold that many. I might have been able to cram another one in but it was tight.

There were two flaws with this technique. Firstly, I should have cut out the prongs that keep the wipes from coming out in clumps because it ripped the bags as they were pulled out. Secondly, the bags are next to impossible to get out from the bottom. The first 2 came out because I could easily reach them, the last few I have to get a chopstick out to bring them to the top.

 

I guess if you were really ambitious, you could lay the bags flat and then roll them up so they are similar to a roll of paper towels before putting them in. Honestly, this did not work for me. I have the scratches on the back of my hand to prove it too :)

Kleenex Box
The second method I tested was using a Kleenex box to house the bags.I didn't have any empty tissue boxes on hand, but I had purchased a Kleenex box cover for a future craft so I tried that.

I took my 6 bags and stuffed them into the opening. The container held them nicely and could have probably housed a few more. This isn't a bad option, but I don't think it saves that much space.

Triangle Folding Plastic Bags
My mother-in-law has always folded her plastic bags and I never realized how easy and space saving it was. You might think it is not worth the time (30 seconds per bag) to fold the bags but this is by far my favorite method to store/organize plastic bags.

You start by flattening the bag, tucking in the side folds.

 

 Fold the bag in half length wise so the handles line up. Some bags will have the handle in the middle, so you don't have to worry about lining them up.

 Fold it in half again.

 Make a triangle on the bottom by folding the one corner up.

 Flip the triangle up so the sides line up.

 Just keep folding and flipping that triangle....

 until you reach the top.

 Fold the handles over and tuck them into the opposite side.

 Easy Peasy..you are done. You now have a neat little triangle plastic bag.

 It is amazing size difference.

 Here are the 6 folder bags.

This is  my favorite solution! It only takes a few seconds to do each and it really does save a lot of space.

If I had to rank the methods, they would be in the following order:

1. Triangle Folding
2. Kleenex Box
3. Cleaning Wipe container

Look at the size difference between the three methods. All hold 6 but look how small the 6 folded bags are.

I have used a long tube of fabric with elastic on both ends before to hold the bags, but it also really doesn't save much space. 

What do you do with your plastic bags? Give it a try to fold them and let me know what you think!

I will be back on Christmas stuff very soon! I did a great ornament with the kids yesterday that I can't wait to share.

Have a great day,

Stephanie

Out Damned Spot! Out I Say! Cleaning your not so stainless stainless steel sink

Do you agree that the term stainless steel is an oxymoron when it comes to your kitchen sink? My stainless steel kitchen sink is always stained so lets be honest, it is really just a steel sink. In fact, I find sometime my stainless steel cutlery stain from tea and coffee. Do you find this too?

So, I set out to find the best method to clean the stain out of our stainless steel sinks. I have my favorite method, but I thought I would test out a few others and see how they hold up vs mine.

I tested the following 6 methods to clean a stainless steel sink:

• Fantastic cleaner (This did nothing to remove the stains so I won't share photos)
• Magic Eraser
• Baking soda paste
• Stainless steel cleaner
• Dawn dish soap and peroxide
• Vinegar and dish soap

I personally hate bleach and try to avoid it as much as possible. So you will very rarely see me use it in any of my cleaning. So if bleach is your trick and gives you great results...let me know.

Magic Eraser

This is a staple in my cleaning bucket and under my kitchen sink. It is actually how I have always cleaned my kitchen sink prior to this test. Please note I have never had a new sink so mine are always scratched..so I cannot guarantee it won't scratch a brand spankin new sink. Mine are so sctrached up I didn't see a difference.

I dampened my magic eraser with water and lightly scrubbed the bottom of the sink. The magic eraser pulls the stain off immediately with very little scrubbing. You can see a clear line where I stopped and you can see the dirt on the eraser.

I highly recommend this method because you can get the eraser into the cracks and even all over the drain plug.

Baking Soda

I sprinkled baking soda on the sink and added a little water to make a paste. I then scrubbed the paste over the sink using a kitchen sponge.

 

To be honest with you, this method did very little to remove the stains. I was a little disappointed with the results because I find baking soda usually does a good job on kitchen projects. But I have to say next to the magic eraser, this was a fail.

Dawn Dish Soap and Peroxide

Using the same recipe I used to remove dirt from my grout here (mix 1 part Dawn with 2 parts peroxide) and scrubbed the sink. This recipe did well with the grout so I had high hopes, but it didn't do anything for the staining in the sink.

 So Dawn dish soap and peroxide is not fix to a stained sink problem.

Stainless steel powder cleaner
I have this powder cleaner for my Logastina pots and pans. It works great on them to remove staining and discoloration so I thought I would try it on my sink.

It worked amazing but scratched my sink. As mentioned, my sink was already really scratched but this created little fine scratches so you could see where I scrubbed. Don't recommend this one at all if you worry about your sink being scratched.

Here is a photo comparing the first four methods.

 

I then thought I would try one more since the Dawn dish soap spot was still really stained (I could have done it on the other sink but you wouldn't be able to see them all together then).

Vinegar and Dish soap

 I poured white vinegar onto a kitchen sponge and added a drop of dish soap. Scrubbed away and found it worked surprisingly well. Is it as good as the magic eraser...no. But it did a fairly good job.

Ranking of the methods to remove stains from your stainless steel sink (after I disqualified the pot cleaner for scratching too much and Fantastic for doing absolutely nothing):

1. Magic Eraser - Clear winner
2. Vinegar and Dish soap -Did an Ok job
3. Baking soda

Here are the before and afters again:

 Here is the sink after it was entirely cleaned with the magic eraser. So my personal favorite won hands down!

Do you have any tricks you use to keep your sink from being stained?

Up next in Out Damned Spot! Out I say- Cleaning windows. You know spring is here so we can go outside to clean the outer windows.
Have a great Mother's Day weekend everyone!
Stephanie

Out Damned Spot! Out I Say! Removing Candle Wax from Carpet

For my birthday last year, my sister gave me a Scentsy type of wickless candle. I absolutely love the look of the container and the amazing scent it puts off.

Well, for my daughter's first communion, I moved it to my formal living room (off the hardwood and onto a carpeted spot) because I thought it looked nicer. Little did I think about what would happen if it spilled. This is what happens..you have beautiful green melted wax all over cream colored carpet.

Initially, the first reaction is to wipe it up. NO! Believe me, leave it alone and let it dry. I know it is hard to stand back and stare at dark colored wax on your carpet, but believe me, do it.

Once it sat for a day, I tried to tackle it with a butter knife. I thought "how hard could it be to scrape off the wax?" Very hard. In fact it doesn't work.

 

Then I thought a hot steam clean might do the trick...nope that didn't do a thing but leave my carpet damp.

I had heard about using your iron to remove wax, but I honestly thought it would set the stain into the carpet. You know what you were taught about stains on clothes...never use heat or it won't come out. That is what I worried about with this. If I put heat on it, then my carpet would be stained green.

But after exhausting my limited options and watching a few YouTube videos, I pulled out my iron. I started by setting the iron on low (again hoping to avoid staining). I placed paper towel over the wax and then put the iron on the paper towel. This did not work!

 

So, I held my breath, turned the heat on my iron up to the medium-high cotton setting (with no steam) and ironed away on top of the paper towel.

I made sure to do two things frequently: I changed the paper towel (so that the wax wasn't put back into the carpet) and I wiped the bottom of the iron with an old dishtowel (so I wouldn't ruin my iron).

In the areas where the wax had gone down into the carpet, I used the tip of the iron to get between the carpet fibers.

I was and still am shocked at how well this worked. It did take some time (about an hour), so you will need to be patient, but there is absolutely no stain left on the carpet. This method was a great way to get wax out of carpet.

Here is my before and after. (They were taken a few hours apart...so different lighting :))

Have any of you had this fun experience and found other techniques that work?

Note: I do recommend spot testing the iron on your carpet to make sure you don't melt or damage your carpet with the heat. Also, I cannot guarantee that other waxes will not stain. I am overjoyed mine didn't.

Up next in Out Damned Spot! Out I Say! - the best way to clean a stained stainless steel sink. If it is called stainless steel...why does it stain so easily?

Have a great weekend.
Stephanie