March 2014 - Our Cone Zone

Pinterest Cleaning Tips– Do They Even Work?

March 30, 2014 10 Comments

You’ve all seen the magical “too good to be true” cleaning tips circulating Pinterest. Through necessity (aka, my insane spring cleaning rampage, don’t judge!), I’ve actually been testing them all. And, let me tell you, there are a couple great ones, and a couple not so good ones!

So, let me give you Part 1!

1. Magic Eraser in a toilet bowl to remove hard water stains– DUD. Complete failure. Don’t waste a perfectly good magic eraser on this! I had learned a trick from phs washrooms company who used to help with the cleaning of the company I used to work previously. The only thing that works for the mineral deposit rings on our toilets is a pumice stone (hard to find in the store, bought ours on Amazon) and bleach (I’m okay with harsh chemicals on TOILETS. I live with 4 boys, okay?).

2. Vinegar/Oil on wood to remove scratches— eh, it doesn’t quite do what it claims. I used this on our piano, and all the original scratches remain. The wood does look a lot nicer overall though, without any greasy residue.

3. Vinegar bag on shower head to remove hard water stains– worked great, but super hard and messy to get on! Make sure to put the rubber band around the shower head first, THEN add the bag. Or you will get soaked. Oh. And make sure to tell your husband before he goes to take a shower. Not that this ended poorly…

4. Make your own air freshener— works, but not as well as a reed diffuser. Still working on this one!

5. Lemon icecubes in the garbage disposal— AWESOME! Do this immediately! So easy and it works. I even use orange peels and it works well.

6. Newspaper to prevent weeds— TERRIBLE IDEA. I can’t vouch for the long term effectiveness, but I tried this on a new landscape bed I constructed, and it was sooo hard to cover with bark! It just kept sliding off, leaving the newspaper poking through. Not into the I-leave-trash-in-my-yard vibe? Then buy some REAL ground cover.

7. Baking soda/oil solution to clean off cabinets— WORKS GREAT but it’s very very messy. The baking soda tends to fling all around, so be prepared to spend a lot of time cleaning up afterwards.

8. DIY Air Freshener— Stop me before I get too excited about this one. It was SO easy, and SO effective. I just added 5 drops of peppermint and 5 of lavender to a glass spray bottle filled with water. The most amazing scented freshener! I went around spraying upholstery and pillows, and let me tell you– it eradicates the “boy” right out of a 4 boy house!

9. Stainless steel sink cleaner— Honestly, I didn’t know my sink could ever get this clean. I don’t know if that says more about my bad housekeeping skills or the fact that this WORKS? Try vinegar soaked rags instead of paper towels, as this one calls for a lot of them (or reuse the paper towels throughout the morning for the bathrooms, like I did!).

10. Cream of Tartar to remove grease stains on kettle– Big flop, guys. Keep searching! I tried forever to get some simple grease stains off of my tea kettle, and this was just a waste of time. Save the cream of tartar for Snickerdoodles!

11. Make your own eye makeup remover— this stuff is amazing. Works better than the Neutrogena stuff I used to buy, and never makes my eyes sting. Only costs pennies per bottle! I skip the baby shampoo step, and it works just as well. Can’t believe I ever spent more money at the store!

12. And….SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST!!! Make your own natural powder to freshen carpet before vacuuming– do this and your house will smell DIVINE. I used Peppermint and Lavender essential oils, and even though we have 4 boys living here (2 in diapers!) you would’ve thought we live in a spa. It smelled amazing. Like having 5 air fresheners in one room. I really cannot say enough about this. Go try it!

Were any of these things you’ve had on your list to try? Please, if you have a better way to get rid of grease stains on a tea kettle, leave me a link!

Organizing the Pantry

March 26, 2014 2 Comments

Remember how I mentioned that one of my spring cleaning goals was to clean out and organize our pantry? Well, I did it! And boy, was it worth the time and effort!

You see, one of my favorite parts about our kitchen is the GIGANTIC closet/pantry the seller put in for us. Originally, there weren’t any doors on it, but during negotiations, I said to the seller, “Look, I have two toddlers. This is uselsess to me without doors!”. And whaddya know, he had some doors custom made! Who knew there were decent people in the world, right?

Do you see our pantry, way back there in the corner? It wasn’t even stained yet at this point.

Looks a lot better now, right? (Sorry, I still can’t get over how much I love our kitchen updates!).

Anyways, back to the pantry. Let me take a moment to say, we have a LOT of food in here. With 4 boys and both parents working, we have a lot of last minute dinner changes. We also have 4 hungry boy tummies who need snacks all the time, at the most in-opportune times. I’m gluten/soy/chocolate free, Jesse’s currently vegan (Lent), Gregory’s currently dairy and gluten free until some bloodwork comes back, AND our two foster boys are the pickiest eaters out there.

So, it goes without saying, we need a lot of variety! I frequently make 3 different options for every single meal. I have to remember what each person likes/dislikes/can/can’t have, and it can get pretty tricky.

I wanted to make all these different options easy to find, so I used dollar store bins to organize them. I took things like snack bars and fruit cups out of their packaging to make more room.

The last two shelves are still a work in progress, in case you can’t tell 🙂 We also store all of our larger appliances down here.

And, while I was at it, I went ahead and did the refrigerator too! Snazzy, right?

Spring cleaning is fully underway! Bring it on!

What I Wore Wednesday– Chambray and Printed Leggings

March 25, 2014 12 Comments

You guys, I’m so all about the chambray shirt craze. This one from Target, in particular, is durable and goes with ANYTHING. It’s like the jeans of shirts. Versatile, unfailing, on TOP of it. Yes. See what I did there?

And my converse. Oh, converse. Why do you entice me so, with your teenage vibes? I can’t resist, I can’t!

Shirt: Target/ Pants: Levi’s Skinny Leggings/ Shoes: Converse

Is anyone else as in love with their chambray shirt as I am? Should we form a support group? How many do you have (I’m up to 3, ah!).

Linking up with The Pleated Poppy and Because Shanna Said So.

House Tour: Kitchen Facelift COMPLETE!

March 24, 2014 6 Comments

Our kitchen facelift is now complete!

There’s only been one major change since my last kitchen update with the home remodeling company in Everett Washington we chose; but it’s a biggie. Remember how we added the shelf in that weird open space and then stained it to match the cabinets? It now holds our microwave– the first we’ve owned in California! We’ve gone for over 2 years without one, mostly because we make everything from scratch anyways. But it’s already been nice for heating up leftovers, something that’s hard to do in a toaster oven 😉

(If you’re curious, here are the before pictures).

So much better than THIS!

I am loving how much brighter the seaglass backsplash makes things. Is it my perfect white kitchen? No, but it definitely puts a smile on my face every day! I’m so happy that I attempted it on my own, despite how daunting the task seemed at the time.