Browsing Tag

household tips

Rusty Porch Bar Cart

Good Morning, friends! Today is my first official day of summer break, and as I’m typing this, I’m lounging around in my pajamas. I’m ready to have a nice refreshing break from work this summer!

Now that summer is officially here, I have lots of plans which include porch sitting, painting things, lounging, and not much else. 🙂 I’ve been working on making our porch a little bit more enjoyable this season, and I wanted to share a new addition to the front porch. A month or so ago, I added our cable spool table to the porch, and it has been wonderful! I knew that I wanted to add more, so when my father-in-law sent me a picture of a rusty old bar cart asking if I wanted it, I jumped at the chance.

I’ve been desperately trying to keep a few plants alive (not very well, I might add), and I knew an old bar cart would be the perfect thing to house my little plants. The problem was that it was so rusty, I couldn’t even tell what color it was originally. I wanted it to be rusted, but I wanted to see if there was a way to scrub some of the rust off so that some of the original paint was exposed.

I didn’t really want to buy anything to remove the rust with, knowing I would only use it for this project (assuming it even worked) and would then be destined to cluttering the back of my cleaning supply closet. So, I figured I’d do my own thing. Recently, I shared my DIY all-purpose household cleaner, and I’m happy to report that it truly does work for all purposes. You can check out the full article in the link above, but it’s what I used to expose some of the original paint on this little cart.

I generously sprayed the cart completely. I let it sit for about an hour, spraying a bit more at that time (the Texas heat didn’t quite allow for a soak, as it just dried it up). After about two hours of the solution on the cart, I began scrubbing with the same brush we generally use to clean the grill. As I would scrub a certain spot, I would hose it down. If it needed more scrubbing, I would spray a little more solution on it, and immediately continue scrubbing.

Eventually I began to see little spots of green paint emerge from behind the scrub brush. I’m not going to lie and say this was super easy; it took quite a bit of elbow grease. I did intentionally stop at this point, since I wanted the cart to keep a bit of it’s rusty charm. If you have a bit more muscle than I do, you could certainly scrub off more rust than I was able to.

This little cart makes the porch just a little bit more cozy! And I’m absolutely thrilled with how it turned out, with it’s rusty, chippy goodness. I think once I get up from this couch, I’ll make my way out there to enjoy this little spot. Do you have something old and rusty? I’d be willing to bet you can clean it up a bit with some elbow grease and some items you have around the house!

Well, that’s all for today, friends! Have a fabulous day!

May 27, 2016 by Fawn Rumfield

Organization

DIY Household Cleaner

Hi friends! Long time no chat! I’ve seriously been so busy lately I haven’t had a spare moment to update here and I feel terrible! I’m so glad I could finally carve out a little time to stop by and say hello! School (which is work for me, since I’m a teacher) is moving full steam ahead into the end of the school year and I’m struggling to keep up. Thankfully in just two weeks I’ll actually have some free time!

Well, I’ll be short and sweet today, but I wanted to share with you a little homemaking tip for you fellow budget conscious friends. If there’s one thing I hate spending my money on, it’s cleaning products. They can be so expensive, and it seems like you need a different product for everything! I don’t know about you, but I’d rather spend my money on pretty things for the house than boring cleaning supplies. A while back, I shared my DIY laundry soap, which has saved me tons of money over the past few years. If you didn’t catch that post, you can read all about it here.

Recent’y I’ve started making an all purpose cleaner, something that takes the place of many of the bottles that I previously had under my sink. So here’s the super easy all purpose cleaner that I make for my home.

I use about 1.5 cups of vinegar and put it in a jar, and then add one small lemon, thinly sliced. I place the lemons in the vinegar, and leave the jar to sit for a few weeks. This will allow the lemons to fully soak into the vinegar. I don’t really know much about chemistry (I barely passed that class in high school), but I know both lemons and vinegar have some super strong stuff in them, so working together makes them doubly great I suppose? Who knows. I just made that up.

After two weeks, I pour the liquid into a spray bottle, and that’s about it! My spray bottle has a pretty narrow neck, so I don’t bother trying to squeeze the lemon slices into it. I just throw them away. My spray bottle was something I picked up for a dollar or so in the cleaning section at Walmart. Lemon and vinegar are both pretty inexpensive, so this is something that comes out to be much more budget friendly than typical cleaners.

I use this spray for just about anything. Countertops, stove top, sinks, shower walls, and even the inside of the fridge and microwave. The lemons take away the strong smell of the vinegar, and it smells more like citrus than like vinegar. I absolutely love using this method because it saves me a couple dollars, and I do enjoy making the things I use in my home. It’s also chemical free, which I know is a big deal for a lot of people. Safe for expectant mamas, and easy to make!

I told you I’d be short and sweet today, but once my summer vacation has started, I’ll be around much more frequently. I hope you enjoyed this little post, and that you’ll give it a try. I would definitely recommend this one, I can’t stress enough how easy it is! Well, that’s all for today, friends! Have a fabulous day!

May 9, 2016 by Fawn Rumfield

Organization

DIY Laundry Soap

Hello friends! I hope this week has been treating you well! Spring Break is winding down for me, and I am silently crying tears of regret after not having accomplished everything that I had planned. Just kidding. Sort of.

We did have a super fun and relaxing week of camping for a few nights, which was wonderful! Even though we were only about twenty minutes from home, it felt as though we were truly out of town. And it just feels good to get away! Coming home from camping, everything in our bags smelled like campfire smoke. Which is wonderful while you’re actually out, but once you come home, it’s not so great (in my opinion anyway). I had a bunch of laundry to do, and I realized it would be a great idea to share my homemade laundry detergent recipe with y’all.

I’ve been making my own laundry soap for about three years now, and I have not had to re-buy supplies since I first started. Talk about thrifty.

So here’s what you’ll need:

3 Tablespoons of Washing Soda

3 Tablespoons of Borax

2 Tablespoons of Original Dawn Dish Soap

Any scent of essential oils (this part is totally optional)

Here are the (super simple) steps:

First, you’ll mix your washing soda, borax, and dish soap together in a gallon size container, adding about one cup of hot water. No need to boil the water, I just use the hottest water I can get out of my faucet. This amount of water is just enough to dissolve the power into the water. You’ll need to shake well until everything is dissolved.

Next (and you will need to do this in your sink), you’ll fill your container with the cold water. I just use the tap water from my faucet. This process will create a mess load of bubbles, so I cannot tell you how important it is to do this in a sink! Once the container is filled, I close it up and shake again. This will allow any particles that didn’t disolve before to fully dissolve.

Last, and this step is optional, I like to add a few drops of essential oil. No need for the expensive stuff, I just bought one bottle of lemongrass oil from my local grocery store, which may have cost about five bucks. The oil will make the laundry soap scented, which I prefer in a laundry soap. It is totally optional though. The cool thing is that you can make it any scent you want. After adding a few drops, I close it up and shake thoroughly.

That’s it! It really is that easy. like I mentioned before, I have been making this laundry soap for about three years, and I have yet to buy new supplies. I would estimate the total cost at about fifteen dollars, but for three plus years of laundry soap, I would say that’s a pretty good deal! Now, I use this recipe mainly for economical reasons, and not necessarily for all-natural health reasons, so if you’re looking for an organic or suchandsuch-free product, this is probably not for you.

Personally, I love it. It takes just a few minutes to make, and my clothes and linens smell and feel just as fresh as with any other laundry soap I have purchased. I use about a cup of the soap per load, and one “batch” will last me a few weeks. I would definitely recommend making your own laundry soap!

Have you tried making your own laundry soap before? If so, I’d love to hear about it! That’s all for today, friends. Have a fabulous day!

March 18, 2016 by Fawn Rumfield

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