Fall is here and the leaves are just beginning to change colors here in West Virginia. I'm pulling my jeans and sweatshirts back out and putting up all the canning supplies for the year. As I look around and know that we are going to be spending more time inside as the weather cools down, I started noticing some things on my cleaning to do list that may have fallen by the wayside for a little too long.
Maybe that's you too, so I'm going to share my fall cleaning checklist with you in case it helps you remember to tackle a few of these sometimes forgotten cleaning tasks. I'm going to break it down by area so that I can break it into manageable chunks of time.
Laundry room - I do laundry everyday and I wipe out the lint filter on the dryer almost every load but it's time to really get the vacuum down in there and go outside and clean out the vent as well. Lint build up can be a fire hazard, so it's really important to really clean it out at least once a year. The use of fabric softener and dryer sheets will cause more lint build up as they leave a coating on the dryer vent pipes which attracts more lint to stick to it. Try using distilled vinegar in the rinse cycle of your wash and wool dryer balls in the dryer as natural fabric softeners instead. It's also a good time to vacuum and wipe down the walls and floors behind the washer and dryer while you're in there.
If you don't run a clean cycle on your washer regularly, this would be a good time to do that and put a note in your calendar to do it once a month. You can do this easily with 2-3 cups of vinegar in the drum or detergent dispenser on the hottest cycle on your machine. Then you can run it again with 1/3- 1/2 cup baking soda in another cycle. Don't use vinegar and baking soda in the same cycle as they will neutralize each other and you won't get the cleaning benefits of each of them.
Kitchen - I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and feel like I clean it everyday, but one thing I don't get to that often is under the refrigerator. We have pets that are inside a lot so I really need to make this more regular than once a year! The dust and dirt build up under the fridge on the coils prevents the appliance from operating at it's optimal levels. It's recommended to clean underneath at least once a quarter. Just use your vacuum and a coil brush you can get at most big box stores fairly inexpensively. We actually got one for free when we had the APCO come out and do a free energy assessment where they recommended different things we could do to save on our electric bill. Cleaning under the fridge was one of those things!
I might wipe down the counters every day but I honestly don't wipe down the cabinets very often at all. So that's going on my list as well. A bucket of warm water with a few capfuls of Thieves Household Cleaner and a good microfiber cloth (like the Envirocloth from Norwex) will make this job quick and easy.
Clean the dishwasher too! Remove the drain screen if you have one and wash that by hand in the sink and return it. Put a cup of vinegar in the top rack of the empty dishwasher and run it on a normal cycle. Then put a cup of baking soda in the bottom rack of the dishwasher and run it on a short cycle. Wipe down the seals/gasket with vinegar. You should do this once per month to keep everything running well.
Clean the oven - this is one thing I do not do often at all because I tried that cleaning cycle on the oven itself and just about died. Ok not really but the stink was terrible because it was burning every bit of gunk in the oven and I still had to clean it out afterwards. So this time, I'm going to mix together a tablespoon of Thieves Dish Soap, 1 1/2 cups baking soda, 1/4 cup vinegar, 20 drops of Lemon Essential Oil and enough water to make it a paste that I can paint on the inside of the oven. Let it sit overnight and wipe it down with warm water in the morning. That sounds like a better plan than choking out everyone in the house from the cleaning cycle.
Bathrooms - The regular wipe downs occur but those drains.... ugh, I HATE clogged up drains. If you get into a routine of regular maintenance with this simple concoction, it will help keep them clear and eliminate the clogs form happening in the first place. So I'm going to add this to my weekly bathroom cleaning routine. Pour a pot of boiling water down the drain first. Then pour in a cup of baking soda. Then pour in a 2 cup solution of equal parts water and vinegar (in other words a cup of each already mixed together). Let that sit for 5-10 mins (while you clean the rest of the bathroom) and then pour another pot of boiling water down the drain.
Another thing we are plagued with is mold forming on the faucets. So I'm going to instill a regular routine of soaking them in vinegar by placing vinegar in a sandwich bag and putting a rubber band around it to hold it in place for 20-30 minutes. Then use an old toothbrush to scrub away any remaining gunk after the bag is removed. I have read that manganese and iron in the water is what the main culprit for causing the mold on the faucets.... reverse osmosis water filtration may cure that, but that's for another days research... until then, I'll use vinegar.
So here are 8 things to clean this fall that you might have been forgetting about:
- Clean dryer vent
- Clean cycle on the washing machine
- Clean under the fridge
- Wipe down cabinets
- Clean cycle on the dishwasher
- Clean the oven
- Drains in the bathrooms and kitchen
- Soak faucets
I hope these are great reminders for you this fall. It might also be a great time to check the batteries in your smoke detectors if you haven't done that in a while! Be sure to grab a copy of my Click here to get a copy of the Cleaning Tips for Sports moms Guide!
If you think of something that's missing from my list, please drop me a comment with your suggestions!
Thieves Household Cleaner (THHC) is a concentrated plant based cleaner that is what I use for an all purpose cleaner in my home. The most common application is a 30:1 ratio of water and cleaning solution.
I'm sharing with you 5 unconventional ways, I use THHC at my house to tackle some other jobs around the house!
This past year, also known as the corona coaster, was a wild ride to say the least. Worldwide confusion, fear, panic, and isolation sent us into a tizzy of finding ways to find normalcy in a vast canyon of unrest. I found myself journaling more just to get things out of my head and doing things I had not done in a long time like busting out the sewing machine and digging through old pictures to relive some memories. I went through the questioning phase, the consume all the news phase and then decided I couldn’t sustain that and maintain a good state of mental health.
What I noticed though is that the kids just kept bouncing back time and time again. When it all started and everything came to a screeching halt, they didn’t like it, but they adapted. They did their schoolwork remotely and worked through the technology issues that came up. Winter sports ended abruptly, and spring sports didn’t get to start. Instead of choosing to just sit around, they found basketball hoops in the neighborhood to shoot baskets, threw baseballs to each other in the front yard, found things to jump onto to improve jumping skills, found trampolines to jump on to work on flips and challenged each other with workout routines they made up.
Then summer came and they couldn’t do things like summer camps and hang out in groups at each other’s houses, so they figured out ways to still have fun and spent the entire summer outside riding bikes and running around in the woods building bridges and lean-tos and all sorts of things.
When school finally started again in a totally different format (in person a couple days a week and remote learning the rest of the days), they didn’t like that either, but they adapted once again. They figured out how to plan their week, they worked through even more technology issues and adapted yet again when quarantines started happening because of school exposure. They wore their face masks and carried their desk shields, washed their hands and sanitized all day long. Did they grumble about it, sure, but they adapted to the new rules.
Sports started up again, but they had to wear facemasks, be prepared with their own water instead of water fountains, keep distanced during practices, compete virtually, etc. They agreed because they just wanted to get out there and play and compete.
When it was announced that we were going back to school 5 days a week, they were ready and when ice storms and flooding prevented that from happening, they just rolled with the punches. They have been the most resilient of all during all the restrictions and changes in rules over the last year. I believe we have a lot to learn from how well they have adapted and bounced back after every set back.
As babies, the only way they learn to go from crawling to walking is to fall down a bunch of times until they get it right. Maybe it’s because they are closer to that time in their life than I am because they just kept going and kept trying different things. They learned what didn’t work and tried different things until they got the hang of all the changes that we kept throwing their way.
As an adult, I found myself acting more like a toddler and throwing a fit when there was a new restriction or change in rules. I would argue that it didn’t make sense or didn’t seem right in some way. I would work myself up about it and mull it over in my head for hours at a time, which always impacted my mood in a negative way. When I recognized what I was doing, I would try to take a few minutes put some happy oils in the diffuser and write it out in my journal to get it out of my head and that helped put things in a better perspective.
As we are coming to the end of this roller coaster ride, we will all get off of the ride but the only difference is, the kids rode through it with a lot less stress and trepidation than I did.
Kids are sponges and soak up the entire life experience in a way that molds and shapes their way of thinking that they will carry into adulthood. I believe they have learned a great deal about how to work within an ever-changing world dynamic at a more accelerated pace than I ever did that’s for sure.
Kids are resilient. Adults are too, we just have to work a little bit harder at it. It might seem silly to some but journaling really helped me ride this corona coaster and keep things in perspective. I delve deeper into this process in my course Corralling Life into One Notebook. If you are looking for a way to corral your stress and put it in perspective, I would encourage you to jump on the waitlist for my course and snag a discount code HERE.
Be resilient my friend… and keep your hands, arms and legs inside the ride until it comes to a complete stop. 😏
Your child is having fun and you are enjoying watching them do their thing and then it happens… It could be a strain, a sprain, a broken bone, a sore arm but whatever it is, life comes to a screeching halt and it impedes them from continuing their sport for a while.
As a mom, you know your kid better than anyone else! You know their reactions to things. You know if they scream bloody murder at a spider on the wall the same as they do about a splinter. You know if they don’t say a peep about a skinned-up knee or bloody nose until you find the trail of band aids or tissues in the trash. Or maybe you have already explained The Boy Who Cried Wolf story too many times to recount at this point!
After you wipe away the tears and have a minute to assess the situation, I find it helpful to first take a minute to take a couple of deep breaths myself. No need to have your adrenaline on overdrive when your dealing with an injury right?
Some things will obviously need medical attention like broken bones, split open skin, and injuries that present concussion symptoms to name a couple. If that’s the case, get in the car and go directly to the doctor, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars and do not worry about your chair.
What I tend to deal with more often than not are repetitive use injuries, simple sprained ankles or bumps and bruises. These can be troublesome in the form of actual pain for the child and the pain moms go through in hearing about the pain or missing practice or how it was someone else’s fault. 😂
I have 5 tips for you when dealing with these kinds of injuries.
- Confirm what they are saying about the injury/pain – repeat it back to them – so they know you are listening, and this may also it may trigger more discussions/descriptions about the pain that could be helpful for you.
- Ask them the question “what do you think I should do for you” this will often give you insight into how they are really feeling. If they say something specific like “I want an icepack” or “I want you to put Ortho Sport on it” that will a good place to start.
- Ask them to perform some simple moves and watch their faces while they do them. For example, if it’s a complaint of shoulder pain, ask them to move it around in different ways and see what their face tells you about their pain level. Unless your family is in a poker club, their face will usually tell you what you need to know.
- Ask them “How is your pain on a scale of 1-10 (1 being everything is wonderful and normal and 10 is we need to go to the hospital now)”. This may not tell you everything you need to know right now, but after you’ve done #2, you can ask this question again and see how it’s changing or if it is at all.
- Take some notes in your bullet journal! It is always helpful to refer back and know when something started, what they said, what happened when the pain started, etc. especially if you end up at the doctor with the issue. This information is gold when it comes to getting back to normal quickly.
Injuries are going to happen, but it’s not the end of the world. Everything is figuroutable! If you’re like me, the phrase “we can’t go to the hospital right now, it’s covid season” has been used too many times to count in the last year! 😂 I have put together a masterclass on some of the ways I take care of my athletes at home in regards to sleep, keeping them healthy, dealing with minor injuries, and more! I explain some simple shifts you can make to implement some of these strategies at your home too! I am not a doctor and I absolutely will go to one when needed but many times, I rely on my gut instinct to try some things at home first and it works well for us.
I have also relied heavily on my bullet journal for keeping track of everything, not just injuries, but schedules, to do lists, meal planning and more. I highly recommend this simple way to keep things organized in one notebook. This is also a great place to keep a list of medicines your athlete takes, or allergies they have or any other important information that you might need to tell a medical professional in the event something serious happens. When that kind of situation arises, it's best to have a sheet of paper you can rip out of your notebook rather than relying on your adrenaline filled brain to remember the details they need.
In the Corralling Life into One Notebook mini course, I teach you how to implement this simple way to manage life the crazy life of a sports mom! Just CLICK HERE to sign up for the course and get started simplifying life into one notebook today!
You got this momma!
I have read many articles about setting up a morning routine that kick starts your day in a way that boosts your mood, sets your focus and helps you stay on track. I believe it’s true, the way you start your day absolutely impacts how you will move through the rest of your day.
If you start your day by scrolling Facebook, that may bring up things that make you sad, frustrated or concerned especially in these days of COVID updates, mask debates, political debates, school debates and more. If you start the day by watching the news, the same thing may happen as well.
If you start your day by checking your phone notifications and emails, you might just feel overwhelmed and not even know where to start with all the to do’s on your list now.
So, starting the day in a way that brings joy and peace to your mind is absolutely one of the best things you can do for yourself. We all know that when you fill your own cup, you can be ready to pour into others. As children of God, we are here to serve others with our unique gifts and talents. If we begin our days with frustration and overwhelm, we will not be at our best to serve with a heart of joy and gratitude.
But I’m going to propose something here, your evening routine is just as important and can set you up for success for the morning!
I used to start the day with my people waking up asking for this shirt or that pair of pants or feeling frustrated because I didn’t get that uniform out of their sports bag/backpack to be ready for their activity that day. So laundry was a point of frustration for me almost every morning in some way.
Another point of frustration was finding a coffee cup or glass still sitting on the coffee table or a bowl that someone used for a snack in a bedroom. I’d run the dishwasher at random times during the day and then whenever I had time, I’d unload it and start loading again. I wasn’t in a rhythm and found myself pulling something dirty out of the dishwasher and washing by hand because I needed it in the middle of the day.
Well, it occurred to me, my evening routine needed to include some things so that my mornings were off to a good start. So now, as I tell the kids goodnight and set up their diffusers, I scan their rooms for dirty dishes and laundry. I throw any laundry in my room down the shoot too. Once I get downstairs, I scan the living room and office for any dishes and I load the dishwasher and hit start before I go to bed!
I also start a load of laundry every night. I know some of you are going to think I’m out of my mind but I put all the clothes (unless it’s just a crazy big amount) into one load, add my Thieves Laundry Soap, white vinegar for the fabric softener and run that sucker. I usually have time to switch it to the dryer before I head upstairs.
And before you ask, yes I put it all together – jeans, under armour, shirts, leos, sports uniforms, whatever is in the laundry goes in together. Now, some things I may not put in the dryer but I’ve never had any issues with throwing it all together in the washer.
So in the morning, I get up to my alarm on my phone which is downstairs (so I have to get up and get moving to turn it off), drink my Ninja juice, take my thyroid medicine, let the dog out and feed him, unload the dishwasher, fold the laundry out of the dryer and voila – I know the dishes that I need are clean and if anyone asks me for a particular piece of clothing, they know its in the laundry basket about to go upstairs.
There are a few other things that go into my routines in the evening and morning but I find these 2 things have made a huge difference in my levels of peace and joy in the household!
What about you? Do you have a routine that helps you stay on track?
Welcome to the Secret Sauce Blog where I help modern moms simplify life with tools that make life easier. We have a lot of responsibilities and it can get overwhelming. Keeping the family healthy, organized, actually eat together and tread lightly in the process takes some serious #momskills!
