Tools of the trade- Cleaning house with mothers

Hello Kelowna!

So ...back to cleaning your home, our favorite hobby!

 You know, not many people like to hear about my day. All I am doing is cleaning and listening to hours of podcasts.  So I guess I found my new outlet. I feel like I am writing a diary about cleaning. To myself of course, but about things I already know.! Hahaha..I guess it is good practice for my horrible grammar and spelling! How I love to read, but the details  just go out the window when I start writing! :)

Okay back to the main topic "TOOLS OF THE TRADE"

Today we are going with my favorite natural cleaner of all time! My Mothers Choice! No really it is called Mothers Choice. In the end Mothers Choice is just Pink Solution, but on steroids. It is something like 10x the strength of Pink Solution. It is in a small container,  a thick grey paste that contains small pumice throughout. All it needs to be of use is a little water. ***CAREFUL*** because of the small pumice. I avoid using it on anything that can scratch! Mostly I use it on showers or bathtubs. Makes the job quick. In all honesty we use one of those netted dish cloths.

This is the cloth and cleaner.  I like the net as it doesn't scratch things while I am cleaning. Bristle brushes do not work as well. You lose way more cleaning product. Also they do not cover the whole surface area. The bristles can spread apart while scrubbing and can miss big areas. 

Soak it down and rub the cloth around in the paste.  Once you have a small amount in the cloth continue to lather it. Bubble's always feel like they will help. So its a good sign if you have made a lather. With the now wet and lathering cloth start washing down the bath or shower.  I have found I shouldn't have to go over then same area for long. The cleaner does most of the work for me. once the area is all scrubbed and bubbles, run your hands over the area you have just cleaned.  You are checking for soap scum. If there is none left, your hand should glide across the area without feeling any gritty areas. Rinse well! As this natural cleaner does have a slight grey color. You don't want any grey residue left over.  Not to worry it is safe to bath in. I just don't like the grey color in my bathwater. Now start to polish and dry. Wipe all the walls down. Then use a dry cloth and polish the taps and shine the handles.  

P.S. If you have hard water marks on the glass or taps and have already cleaned it once with Mothers Choice. Take some diluted vinegar and spay and polish using that. It is helpful as it is an acid base and takes off a lot of hard water marks.

The best tip I can give you when using this natural cleaner Mothers Choice is  a little goes a long way. The small container cost's $10. It can last a very long time. I hate to just rinse it down the drain. In Kelowna I buy these cleaners at London Drugs. You can order them online as well.

Well thanks again! Hope this can help with every day house cleaning.

TTYL!

House Cleaning-The tools of the trade

My Husband Jonathan and I in Fiji 2014 

The photo doesn't suite the blog. But I thought you may want to see who I am, just for kicks. :) 

House Cleaning. 

Yawn ...right?.......Well I do it for a living. All day every day, I clean people's homes. I am a residential house cleaner or Cleaning Lady..... and I love it!  I love walking into a new home and seeing how other people live. Some homes look like a Frat Boys party gone wrong,  stampeded by a herd of cows, and then little children ran through that home covered in pasta sauce and chocolate, hand painting as they go.  (Yes that bad. Not a joke!)  Others you walk into a museum that has been cleaned every day and bless their heart they still apologize for the horrifying state of the home they live in. While I walk around they are tucking away small pieces of paper and moving the one pillow back into place. Don't get me wrong I love seeing a clean home. After all the is my job. But OH, do I love a good challenge! 

This is where we get to the tools of the trade. As you may know we work with only Organic Cleaning Products. You can call them what you like, Green, Natural, Organic. But at the end of the day the important thing is that they do not contain any chemicals and they are SAFE!! One product we use is called Pink Solution.  It's not what I started off using but now that I have tried it I am hooked! On our web page we do talk about the cleaners and have a link to the Pink Solutions web page. I love this product because it is safe for me to use, it is colorless, and odorless.  This cleaner does take a small amount of prep. You need to get a 4 liter bottle. Fill it with hot water from the tap.  You can make two solutions out of the paste Light and Heavy. You need to melt the amount specified on the container and pour it into a labeled 4 liter bottle. Make one Light solution cleaner and one Heavy solution cleaner. Shake and pour into labeled spray bottles. Now you are ready to clean your home.

As you can see I use my old Vinegar bottles to mix my solutions in. Look around your home and see if you have any 4 liter bottles laying around. Why not re-use instead of buying a new one. 

I am not fancy so I hand label my LIGHT and HEAVY onto the bottles. Tape it down well so it can get wet. I know you can make them look 100% better, but they just sit in my garage or the back of my car. I am not great at the whole Pinterest cuteness thing so I figure this is the best it's ever going to look. 

 When I train anyone to use these house hold cleaners I tell them " the light solution is a streak free, easy clean, polisher." " The Heavy is for heavy grime and soaking. ***CAREFUL!!** be careful with the Heavy solution in any type of bath tub. It works so well that if you spray it on the tub and let it drip, the drip can leave a very clean streak ,it can be hard to match by sheer arm power."   Bath tubs  and showers use "Mothers Choice" (We will get to that another time)

Light Solution

My favorite Use:

This natural cleaner is great on stainless steel!

 Take a clean microfiber cloth and spray your light solution cleaner in the middle. You want it slightly damp. Then add a few drops of your favorite scented essential oils (mine is Sweet Orange).  Place 3-4 drops of oil in the same area as the Light Solution. Take the cloth and rub it together, this helps spread the oil out evenly. You can just use the light solution but I think the oils add more shine to the stainless steel. Make sure you fold the corners of the cloth inwards and use only the soft seamless area to polish. You don't want to leave any marks. Wipe down the area and use a circular motion. If you are leaving a lot of water marks it is to damp. Keep going until you see your appliance sparkling clean.

(*I also love this natural cleaner for wiping down granite counter tops. You won't see a streak on them.)

Heavy Solution

My favorite use:

This natural cleaner makes it soooooo easy to clean a microwave!

When you clean a house, you have to pick an area to start in. For me that area is the kitchen. First thing I do when I start is spray down the microwave with my Heavy solution. If it is one of those Frat-boy/stampede/finger-painted baked on messes. I grab a coffee cup fill it with water and turn the microwave on for two minute. Then let it steam! It will be the easiest thing just to wipe out after that. No elbow grease for you!

This is my first blog post! Thank you for reading! Hope it wasn't to much of a "Yawn"....!  Enjoy using these cleaners at home or at work. They make my life so much easier! Thank you Pink Solution!