My new blog

I know I've said this already but I am really excited about my new blog.  For years people have asked me questions about cleaning, organizing, decorating and meal planning and now I've finally figured out a way to share all those things with everyone at once!  I seriously can't stop thinking about it.  I go to bed thinking of ideas, I spend Malea's nap time writing blogs and I've spent a couple evenings looking over my blog adding/taking away things.  I think Matt is starting to feel neglected, but I have so many ideas that I have to get down (before I forget them) on top of all of the questions that I've received so far from you all!  I want to make this fun, not just for me, but for you the reader as well.  I have about 5 polls that I'll be posting over the next few weeks, I've got 10 or more "products of the week" and so much more!  It's kind of silly how excited I am about this but I seriously feel like I've come alive in the last few days thinking about all of this stuff.  Maybe all the info won't be helpful, but if I can make one mom's life just a little easier with a few cleaning tips and meal tips then it will be worth it.  I really hope you all enjoy it because I'm loving every minute of it so far!!!

Ask Anna... Dish towels?

Question:
"I've gone to peoples houses and their towels soak up the water really well, where as mind don't feel like they do that as much. Especially my dish towels. Is there a special kind of dish towel that works better than others?"

Answer:
In my opinion yes. I absolutely don't buy any microfiber dish towels. I think that if you are trying to dry your dishes they just smear the water around--and I hate that. I take a long time to replace my dish towels because I'm so picky. The ones I have now I bought at TJ Maxx. They have a waffle-type pattern in the fabric that makes them really absorbent. Here are some from Target that would be a good set, equivalent to what I have. Beware of soft dish towels, usually if they are really soft it means they are microfiber. Lean toward the more plain, rougher, absorbent type towel if you really want to get your dishes dried quicker!

Ask Anna...

Question: Do you have a cleaning schedule? Like certain chores on certain days of the week? I'm really good at following a routine, but pretty horrible at establishing one for myself and was curious as to what you do!

Answer: Absolutely! I think it is so important to have a cleaning schedule. I hate to feel like I'm cleaning every day of the week so I pick a day and do all the major chores.

Step 1: Make a list of all the cleaning things that need to be done, etc: bathrooms, mop floors (upstairs, downstairs), dust, vacuum, etc.

Step 2: Break the items into categories, etc: 1/wk, e/o wk, 1/mo, e/o month, etc.

For example the bathrooms are something that need to be cleaned every week. You need to clean the floor around the toilets every week but if you hate to mop you could probably get away with only doing it e/o week. Dusting if you have animals should be done 1/wk but if you don't you could probably get away with e/o week. A 1/mo thing would be dusting the fans, an e/o month thing would be changing your air filters, and so on a so forth.

Step 3: Stick to it! Once you have the list in place stick to it. It will take a little getting used to and on your first couple cleaning days you might get overwhelmed but in the end you will realize that it's so nice to have the whole rest of the week off!

If you are having trouble give me a call, I'd love to help you set something up!

Ask Anna...

Questions:

How do you clean makeup brushes? What do you clean them with and how often should you clean them?

Answer:

I clean my makeup brushes with a little bit of hand soap. I'm sure there are much more expensive cleaners that you could buy but a little bit of liquid hand soap works just fine. What I do is place a little bit of soap on my finger and then I get my brush wet and then rub it back and forth on my finger until I don't see anymore color coming out. Depending on how dirty the brush is you might have to do this a couple of times. Then I rinse the brush well with a slow stream of water and then lay them on the counter to dry. Make sure that they are completely dry before using them!

You should clean your make up brushes at least once per month. You should actually do it more than that but at the very least once a month is good.

Ask Anna...

I received an email this morning from my sister-in-law with an Ask Anna question. I did not know the answer but after about 2 seconds of searching on Google (I love Google!) I found the answer so here it is for all of you:

Question:

Do you happen to know how to get a stain out of suede? I have these adorable suede flats that I spilled peach cobbler on about a year ago.

Answer:

Step1 Rub suede gently with a bath towel to restore some of its nap.
Step2 Remove dry stains and marks from suede by gently rubbing a pencil eraser on the affected area. For wet stains lay a paper towel on top of stain to absorb most of the liquid. Do not apply any kind of stain remover or other products, especially if you want to have it professionally cleaned. This can interfere with the cleaning process.
Step3 Brush with a suede brush.
Step4 Apply a small amount of white vinegar to a lightly dampened cloth as a last resort for cleaning suede shoes.
Step5 Gently rub the surface of the shoe with the cloth, then allow it to air dry.
Step6 Remember that stains on leather and suede should be professionally treated. This is always the best option. You never know how the leather was treated during the making of your fabric and what will happen if you try to clean it yourself.

Referenced from http://www.ehow.com/how_3139_clean-suede.html

Ask Anna...

Question: What is the best way to clean kitchen linoleum/tile? I use a mop and pine sol and clean off the mop really well after each use with extremely hot water, but I still feel like I'm just spreading germs around even though it looks clean.

Answer: This is a tricky one. Linoleum is not a friend of mine and I have spent many hours scrubbing it on my hands and knees. My best suggestion would be to get a really good mop that has a pretty rough spounge on it. You can find a pretty decent/inexpensive one at either Target or Wal*Mart. Then for your water mixture I would fill a bucket with about 1/2 cup of bleach, 1/2 cup Pine Sol and then fill it the rest of the way with really hot water. This is what I use on my tile floors and it does the trick pretty well.

The other thing that's very important is that you switch out your mop head at least every other month. If you don't you will end up just spreading the germs.

And lastely since linoleum has all of those bumbs and places for dirt to hide, if you are really motivated, I would suggest getting down on your hands and knees about once every 6 months to give the floor a really good scrub down. Good luck and happy mopping! :)

Ask Anna...

Question: How about base boards? ... in our house, they get so dirty ... and how often should I clean our base boards?

Answer: You really should clean your baseboards at least once a year. If you are really motivated I would recommend every 6 months, but for some people like me every 6 months is just too much to tackle a couple thousand feet of baseboards! :)

Ask Anna...

Bethany Hardy recently told me that I should start an "Ask Anna" blog where people can ask me anything they want about cleaning, organizing, etc. If I get a big response I will start a whole other blog but here's how it's going to work until then: If you have a question for me you can write it in a comment on any of my postings, or shoot me an email, and I will re-post your question with an answer as an "Ask Anna" posting.

Question #1: What is the best way to clean the top of the fan blades?

Answer: The best way to get the top of the fan blades is with a good duster. I highly recommend a wool duster that comes with a telepole. You can buy them at Target or Wal*Mart. The wool dusters are great because they have oils in them that attract the dust and don't let it fly off into the rest of the house. The dusting head, of the one that I have, is at a bit of an angle so it makes it perfect for cleaning the top of hard to reach places like fan blades, plant shelves, the top of cabinets, etc. After I clean each fan I vacuum the duster because it is the quickest, easiest way to trap the dust and dispose of it. I also recommend that you clean your fan blades at least once a month because it won't allow enough time for the dust to build up and it will take you less than a minute to clean each fan!

On the topic of dusting the other thing that I HIGHLY recommend for people that really hate to dust are the Pledge dusting wipes. They are super easy to use and in a matter of minutes you can easily wipe down every surface in your house and your whole house will look sparkling clean.

Question #2: What is the best way to clean those pesky baseboards?

Answer: Well anyone that read confession #2 knows that I hate to clean my baseboards, but if you must here's the best way to do it. I always keep utility clothes on hand (basically they are cheap wash cloths that I bought at Wal*Mart and I use them for EVERYTHING). So start by buying about 5-10 cheap washcloths that will be designated for cleaning purposes only. Then take a bucket, or bowl (depending on how many baseboards you have), and mix about 1/4 cup of bleach and 1 gallon of warm water. Then get down on your hands and knees and scrub away.

Good luck!