Spice Drawer Organization

The first time we went house-hunting, I fell in love with a house that had a spice drawer in the kitchen. Just a shallow drawer with all the spice jars laying down, gorgeously organised – functional and pretty. We didn’t buy that house but I still remember that wonderful drawer!

When we moved into our house in Brisbane, there were lots of drawers in the kitchen and I bought a spice organiser drawer insert. Unfortunately, with our deep drawers, it wasn’t an efficient use of space and quickly had more jars than organiser space:

That photo is not staged – my spices were a disaster and it was impossible to find the one I needed.

A change of plan was needed, and with the help of some Avery round labels (Product number J5624 – seem to be hard to find these days…) and my printer, I turned my spice drawer into this:

So much tidier and so much easier to find my herbs and spices!

I plan to either refill the jars or swap the lids over as I buy new jars.

And to help you, I created a printable:

Click on the image to go to download the pdf file. I’ve added all the usual herbs (with green labels) and spices (with brown labels), and with a few blank labels if your spice of choice isn’t there. If you’d prefer, click here for blank herb labels or here for blank spice labels.

Since moving house, I don’t have the drawer space for my spices, but I’ve just put all the jars into a plastic container and store it in the pantry.

This is working really well for me too. So let’s have another look at the before and after:

So much better! How do you organise your herbs and spices?

Linking at:

What to clean before the wife comes home

As I’m flying across Australia to visit friends, I can’t help but wonder what state the house will be in when I return.

Bit of a back story first: in my previous life as an engineer, I spent 2 months in Ireland on a business trip. I made sure the house was spotless when I left, and told my husband I wanted it in the same state when I returned. (Bossy me…I think we’d been married less than a year then!) I wasn’t completely cruel though – I gave him the number of a friend’s house cleaners, but told him if he called them, then he’d have to schedule them permanently.

Surprise, surprise, that’s how we ended up with house cleaners!

Now that I’m out of the workforce, we no longer have house cleaners, and I don’t want to lose the benefit of my holiday by coming home to a disaster zone, so here’s my wish-list for a clean house.

Kitchen: dirty dishes in the dishwasher and benches wiped down (Ok, I’ll be reasonable, the odd dish or two on the bench that couldn’t fit in the dishwasher is ok!). Any majors spills on the floor cleaned. Bins not overflowing (even though I know I left the recycling bin in a bad state )

Bonus points for a clean coffee machine, with a full water-tank, empty drip tray and beans in the grinder!

Dining room: sticky messes and crumbs wiped up from the table and the floor. Dishes/packets/wrappers taken to the kitchen. Hint: Try to corral the kids to the table while eating so the mess doesn’t spread (or take the kids outside!).

Living room/playroom: Most of the toys put away (there are photos on the boxes, if you don’t know where something goes – or I’m sure the 3yo will tell you if you put things in the wrong spot). I know it’s not possible to get them all put away as the tricky little monkeys will pull them out again as soon as they see you put them away.

Bathrooms: No obvious spills and drips, blobs of hand-wash on the basin, and yes, I’m going to say it….remove any skid-marks!

Bedrooms: Dirty clothes in the hamper. Umm, that’s all I can really expect!

Laundry: Fold and put away the load of washing you insisted I do the night before I left (and no more should be said about that!).

Children: clean as you go – if not, the mess will spread far and wide.

And lastly: the cordless vacuum cleaner is your friend – use it early, use it often (and please plug it in when you finished!).

So what have I forgotten? What cleaning disasters have you returned to after a holiday?

Note: I wrote this post on the plane interstate, and my husband must have read my mind. The house was pretty clean when I came home – he even did a load of washing after a bed-wetting incident. I think he’s a keeper!

In-Drawer Plastic Bag Holder

I started with the very classy plastic bag filled with lots of plastic bags. I then moved on to fabric bag holders. You know the type – long cylinders with drawstrings that you stuff bags in the top and pull out at the bottom. But something about them always annoyed me. They’re too squishy, they bang against the door if you hang them in the pantry. My kitchen mostly has drawers too, and they just didn’t work for me. They just weren’t neat enough (yes, the engineer in me is just a little obsessed with order and neatness).

Then I found an old wooden tissue box cover that I wasn’t using, and a light bulb turned on. So I present to you my neat and tidy in-drawer plastic bag holder:

It’s also a drawer divider, stopping my paper towel from rolling away – double tidy duties, even better.

I have no idea why it is painted a bright blue. I can’t remember where I was originally using it. I probably should pretty it up a bit, but it’s not high on my priorities.

Does plastic bag messiness irritate you? (I can’t be alone in this, can I?) How do you store your plastic bags?

6 Smart Thinking Cleaning Tips

Thanks to Tervis for sponsoring my writing. Visit their website http://www.tervis.com to learn more about the world’s first smart cup.


Lifestyles of the Stay-at-Home Mum: sounds glamorous? I’d love to say I spend my days lounging around the pool, sipping mocktails while my kids play happily , but the reality is my days are filled with changing nappies, cleaning up the trail of destruction that follows my kids around and trying to sneak in some crafting.

I need smart thinking to keep on top of the cleaning (to justify my crafting time). Here are my smart thinking cleaning tips:

1. Clean before the mess spreads. It doesn’t matter what I feed my son, he leaves a trail of crumbs (actually, my baby girl does this too now!). Quick clean up can prevent the whole house from becoming crunchy underfoot!
2. Keep cleaning tools on hand. I don’t want to spend all day cleaning, but having cleaning cloths, all purpose cleaning spray and dustpans stashed in drawers and cupboards makes quick spot-cleaning easy.
3. Share the load. Train everyone (as best you can) to keep things tidy. Create clean-as-you-go habits and routine chores for all family members so it’s not all up to you. My 2 year old’s first chore is to unpack the cutlery from the dishwasher and he actually did a brilliant job removing his dirty marks from the walls!
4. Think like a cleaner. If you were to hire someone to regularly clean your house, how long would it take them? 2-4 hours once a week or fortnight (depending on the size of your place). How do they do it? They work quickly, don’t get hung up on the making things perfect and are organised.
5. Only own what you’re happy to clean. I don’t like dusting decorations, so I don’t have a lot on display in my house. I don’t have more stuff than I can shove into cupboards and drawers (although it does feel like we’re starting to get over-run by toys). Think “where can I store this?” before you buy.
6. Avoid double-handling. Take the extra 10 seconds and put things away properly. Hang up your towel, put your dirty clothes in the basket, hang up your jacket

I’ve got more tips for clean as you go cooking here. What are your smart thinking lifestyle tips for the stay-at-home Mum? How do you stay on top of the cleaning?

I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. To learn more about Tervis, visit their website http://www.tervis.com.

How to Sew Fabric Basket Liners: Tutorial

Yesterday, I showed you my DIY Dinner Meal Kits. I used plastic baskets for the kits, but I wasn't happy with just plain. So I made up some fabric baskets liners, with Velcro to attach my recipe cards to the front.

You could find lots of other uses for these fabric-lined baskets: in the bathroom, nappy-change station, craft room. Wherever you use a plastic basket, you could pretty them up with a liner.

With elastic around the edge to hold them on, they are also easy to take on and off to wash, or if you just want to change the fabric.

Here's the full tutorial for how to sew fabric basket liners (previously shared at the CSI Project).

Return to Clean

I took an unplanned blogging break, for no reason other than months of children-induced sleep deprivation catching up on me (and Masterchef Australia filling my small amount of “recreation” time). Baby Little Miss and Toddler Little Man have been ganging up on me to minimise the amount of sleep I get! Things are on the improve though, so I’m trying to get some order back in my life.

Cleaning got put on the back-burner along with blogging when I was feeling exhausted (and rightly so!), and I was doing the bare minimum to keep the house in order – really only laundry and keeping the kitchen hygienic, with occasionally cleaning something if it really started to get on  my nerves.

The state of the house was getting me down, and I felt so overwhelmed I didn’t know where to start. So of course, my solution was to procrastinate and so the downward spiral continued.

One of my procrastination tools is an internet parenting forum. A week or so ago, I read a post asking how to catch up on housework when your routine gets out of whack. One commenter said (in that blunt way reserved for the anonymity of the internet), “How long is actually going to take to do? 3-4 hours? Just do it!”, with an implied “and stop stuffing around on the internet!”.

This was just the shove I need (plus slightly more sleep). The next day, I just got into it, and cleaned the bathrooms, vacuumed and dusted. Not perfectly, but just a quick run-through to get the ball rolling. Wow, did my outlook on life suddenly become more positive!

Since then, I’ve tried to tackle the annoying jobs each day, and avoid the internet until I’m done. Slowly I’m getting back in control. It’s spilling into other areas of my life too. With a more positive outlook, I’m cooking more interesting meals, am having more fun with the kids and my crafty inspiration is returning too. Shock horror: I’ve even done some exercise!

It will still be a while before I feel totally in control (maybe when the kids start school in a few years?), but my attitude has improved and I feel so much better.

Have you been staying on top of your housework? What has sparked you to get back in order when things got out of control?

Dyson DC35 Vacuum Cleaner Review

(Image from Dyson Australia)

As I’ve mentioned previously, my kids (ok, my husband) bought me a vacuum cleaner for Mother’s Day. Normally, I’d be annoyed to receive such a practical and boring gift, but this wasn’t any old vacuum cleaner. It was the Dyson DC35 cordless Digital Slim vacuum cleaner. Now that I’ve used it for more than a month, it’s time for a full review.

Firstly, it looks like a handheld vacuum cleaner on steroids. The chemical engineer in me loves looking at the little cyclones. It’s really light and easy to take upstairs (vacuuming the stairs as I go) or to quickly grab it after a messy meal with the kids. Then it’s so easy to just keep whipping around the house since you don’t have to worry about a cord or changing power outlets.

It comes with a full-size hose attachment with a medium floor attachment, as well as a crevice  attachment and brush that converts into a straight nozzle. The attachments click into a clip and are released by pressing a button and pulling them off.

It feels nice and sturdy when clicked on and you can’t push them on too far and not be able to remove them. However, it is a little annoying to have to bend down to unclick the floor attachment (rather than just pulling it off with your foot) when you want to quickly clean a crevice.

The floor attachment has a rotary brush inside, which I’m sure does wonders for picking up extra dirt, but my long blonde hair just gets wrapped around it. Another thing for me to clean! It is easy enough to detach the brush for cleaning though.

It also comes with a storage bracket, that I’m not using. It lives on a shelf in my laundry, with a power cord that easily plugs in for charging. It’s a smart charger, so you can leave it plugged in without over-charging the battery.

There are two modes for vacuuming – normal and max. Normal is great for hard surfaces (floorboards, tiles etc) and max is for carpet. The battery gives you about 15 minutes vacuuming on normal and 7.5 minutes on Max. When operating, it sounds like a hairdryer and is not as loud as a full-size vacuum cleaner (drat, I can still hear the toddler’s incessant whingeing!). 15 minutes doesn’t sound like long, but it’s perfect for a quick whip around my floorboard-covered house and I’m amazed how much I can get done before the battery conks out. Actually, most times I’ve lost interest before the battery dies.

The vacuum is operated by a trigger and you can’t lock the trigger on, so you have to continuously squeeze the trigger. For the first week or so, this caused a bit of strain on my hand and wrist, but after using it most days for a month, my muscles have built up!

So how well does it clean? It easily picks up the crumbs under the high chair and Little Man’s dining chair (and scattered through the house).  Larger and softer pieces of food (such as sultanas, small pieces of pasta) get pushed around and are harder to vacuum up (and not being able to pull the floor attachment off with my foot makes it a little more hassle to try to suck stuff up with just the hose).

You may have noticed this foam play mat as the backdrop to a lot of photos with my kids (in our playroom). I love that the DC-35 picks up any dirt and crumbs, but the play mat itself doesn’t stick to the vacuum. So much easier to clean!

It’s a bagless cyclonic vacuum, so no bags to pay for, but  I have to get a bit closer than I’d like to the spiders and bugs I vacuum up (yep, no problems vacuuming up creepy-crawlies) when emptying it. There is a slider to open the waste barrel (the red clip in the photo above), so my hand doesn’t have to get too close (but once again, my long hair gets caught so I have to reach in to get things moving!)

Overall, I love the Dyson DC35 vacuum cleaner. It is so quick and easy to do a quick vacuum and I’m staying on top of the crumbs and other dirt that comes with having a toddler. I still need a normal vacuum cleaner for a full deep-clean of your house though.

Note: My husband paid for this vacuum cleaner. This is an unsolicited review.

Benefits of Cleaning

It’s easy to think of cleaning as a thankless, endless, monotonous task. But for Me Me Me Month, let’s look at some of the benefits of cleaning.

Clean House = Relaxing House

Clutter, dirt and grime stresses me out. Looking at it makes me think of the work I should be doing. A (mostly) clean house relaxes me. Reading a book, watching TV or doing some crafting is that much more enjoyable when I don’t feel guilty about what needs to be done.

Vacuum Cleaner Silences the Loudest Toddler

When Little Man is having a loud day and I’m struggling to cope with all the noise, getting the vacuum cleaner out actually gives me some respite. He’s still as loud as can be (and sometimes louder!), but that lovely white noise drowns him out and gives me some peace. It’s sounds backwards – make more noise to get peace – but it works for me!

Cleaning = Thinking Time

Cleaning is mindless. Once in a rhythm, I don’t really have to concentrate on what I’m doing and I can get lost in my thoughts. I write blog posts in my head, plan holidays or just let my mind drift to wherever it wants to go. If I’ve got a lot on my mind, the exertion of a bit of physical cleaning together with some thinking time helps me work through it all.

Blank Canvas Increases Creativity

When the toys (including my crafty toys) have been put away, it gives space to think about what we actually want to play with (for both Little Man and me). Emptiness opens up a world of opportunities rather than  me feeling compelled to play with what is in front of me. Or I can look at my supplies and see what I draws me in. It’s not always what I expect!

What benefits do you find in cleaning? Let me know in the comments.

Laundry Routine

I’ve been struggling to do the laundry since Little Miss arrived. The thing that drives me nuts and stops me from even starting is the fact that it just takes all day.

Round up washing…take it downstairs…put it in the washing machine…turn washing machine on…wait wait wait…get it out…hang it out to dry…take it off the clothesline…fold it…(iron it – um, not likely)…put it away – All with a baby and toddler demanding attention, not easy!

After getting completely overwhelmed with housework, I decided I needed to build up my cleaning routine in small steps, and the laundry was the place to start. The key to keeping housework in control is to do a little bit often, but how could I apply this to washing the clothes? Here’s what I’m doing:

Project Simplify: Paper Clutter

As I mentioned in my ramblings yesterday, the hot spot for this week for Project: Simplify at Simple Mom was paper clutter. This was just the motivation I needed to get my paperwork in order. Here are three areas I decided to tackle:

Entrance Hall Drop Zone

Study

  

Cardboard Collection in the Playroom

The study is the most disorganised room in our house (except for maybe my craft room, but that’s a happy mess). I’m in charge of recording our finances and filing the paperwork, and that’s been low on the priority list since Little Miss came along (and in fact, records for one account were more than a year out of date). I was determined this week to chip away at the filing and updating our financial records. I stole moments during nap times and when I could get Little Man to play on an old computer, and here’s the result:

Most of the accounts are up-t0-date, with a small pile still to be processed. I’ve got rid of the index folder (that was really useful, but has just been hiding stuff that I should be dealing with). It even had a section for recipes to try – really useful in an upstairs study with kitchen downstairs! There’s another similar-sized pile of things still to sort out, but it feels much more manageable.

I sorted and process the paper in our drop zone. One of the things that annoys me is the way the folders gape open, so I added a few hook and eye dots to keep them closed.

 

The drop zone still doesn’t look great. I’ll pretty it up and coordinate the folders one of these days.

I culled the cardboard boxes in the playroom. The goal was to only have boxes stored under the table, but I couldn’t cull that much. Hopefully Hubby appreciates the efforts anyway, since the boxes were starting to annoy him. I’ve got a few ideas of toys I want to make, but it’s another thing I’m not quite finding time for.

Thanks Simple Mom for motivating me to do this. I feel so much better knowing one area of  my home management is almost under control… Can’t wait see what the next hot spot is!

Do unto yourself…

…as you wish others to do.

Do you ever let crumbs drop onto the floor thinking “it’s me who has to sweep/vacuum them up”?

Do you ever wipe your grubby hands on your clothes thinking “well, it’s me who has to clean them anyway”?

Do you ever leave bits of food in the sink thinking “it’s me who’ll scoop them out later”?

Are there eyes watching you and seeing the result (or noticing the result later)?

Not only are you creating more work for yourself, but you’ll soon find people around you copying your behaviour (whether that’s your kids, your significant other, maybe even guests…). You’ll create resentment if you try to correct that behaviour in others (and rightly so!).

You may not even realise you are doing some of these things. So the challenge for today is to be conscious of what undesirable, less-than-cleanly  behaviour you are modelling, and try to call yourself out on it.

Do you have “dirty little habits” like this? Let me know in the comments!

Messy Perfectionist

A post over at Home Sanctuary really resonated with me this week. Rachel Anne talks about how perfection can stop you from actually doing anything:

“perfectionists like to do things the Right Way.  We know how things should be done. We know that we should scrub the grout with a toothbrush and bleach whenever we clean the shower.  We know that the insides of garbage cans should be disinfected.  We know the blinds need to be dusted slat by slat. We see the filth and the grime and the clutter....and feel powerless to do anything about it because it would take 10 lifetimes to take care of things the Right Way. So we get bogged down in inertia instead, and spend a lot of time thinking "I should be better than this. Why can't I get it together??" ”

Click here to read the full article. I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately, feeling overwhelmed with things to do and just how out of control I feel. As with anything, just doing something is the important thing, and then try not to get bogged down in the detail. It doesn’t just happen with cleaning for me– check out this post of mine on perfection-induced craft paralysis!

Have you been in a rut? Do you suffer from messy perfectionism?

P.S. Home Sanctuary is a lovely blog, sharing a daily Small Thing to do to make your house a sanctuary.  Each activity takes just a few minutes, but can have big impact on your home. Rachel Anne shares her experiences in the blog and there are fun prizes each month for completing the tasks.

Happy Australia Day!

Happy Australia Day to my fellows Aussies, and anyone else who wants to join in the celebrations!

So what am I doing to celebrate this fine day? Catching up on housework. Normally, I like to get out and about on public holidays (just like everyone else), but the state of the house has been getting me down since I got back from holidays. Bub is 3.5 months old now and the gradual decline of our standard of living since her arrival has finally hit breaking point.

Having hubby home to entertain the small folk is just what I needed to hit housework hard. Mt Wash-iuszko was conquered (I was going to call it Mt Washmore, but thought I’d go with an Aussie theme - three loads of washing done and folded away), clean sheets on all the beds, fresh towels in the bathrooms, upstairs mopped, kids’ bathroom cleaned and a bit of dusting done downstairs, plus general tidying as I go. I’m exhausted but happy that I’m back on track with the housework. Now just have to settle into a routine to stay on top of things.

Hubby is now doing his gardening chores. The plan is to head out and do something fun on the weekend. I’m going to enjoy it that much more without all that housework hanging over my head.

Do you ever use public holidays to catch up on housework? How did you celebrate Australia Day?

Scrambled Egg Mess

I’m not a big fan of eating eggs, so cooking them is my husband’s domain. While I appreciate his cooking, the frypan is usually left looking like this:

Baked-on egg is tough to remove. My usual trick of throwing everything in the dishwasher and hope for the best just does not work with this stuff. The frypan looks exactly the same coming out as going in. It’s hard labour and not very effective to scrub off (with the risk of damaging the pans).

I’ve read that using a little oil in the pan before cooking prevents the problem, but if I try to tell hubby how to cook eggs, it’s a sure-fire way to get him to stop cooking for me. I’m not willing to take that risk!

Fortunately, the internet lead me to the solution: the Vinegar Book by Tip King states:

soaking your pan with hot water and a half cup of vinegar will clean up the pan easily

I gave this a go, and the pan was back to sparkling clean with a quick wipe.

Do you end up with the same mess when cooking eggs? Is there another food that refuses to budge from your pans? Let me know in the comments.

2011: A Whole New Year

Image from Free Digital Photos

So it’s a fresh and sparkly New Year. Time to reflect on the past and set some goals for the year ahead.

Quite a few blogs are using a word (or three words) as a focus for the year, and I’m going to join in on the trend. My magic word is:

ROUTINE

I like order and organisation – it’s the engineer in me. 2010 was a year where my routines and order disappeared. I blamed fatigue in my first trimester, colds and flus in my second trimester and again fatigue and being big and uncomfortable in my third trimester. The year rounded out with me blaming the chaos that is having a newborn and toddler for my lack of routine. The house slowly descended into chaos. Most of the time, I managed to do just enough to keep the place looking tidy enough to the outside eye, but I knew where the dust (literally and metaphorically) was building up.

With a new year, it’s time for a fresh start and to get back into the swing of things. It’s going to take a while to catch up and get the house in order, but I’m just going to do a little bit extra each day.

Routine is not just about the boring and mundane though! I also want to include in my routine more focused activity time with my two kids and a few more adventures with the whole family on weekends, as well as routine craft time for me!

Here are a few of my more specific goals for the New Year:

Cook
52 New Recipes (I tried this in 2010, but only got to 41, using the excuses above – still a pretty good effort though!)
Make my own bread (This was originally going to be no store-bought bread, but I’ve decided that’s a bit too ambitious. I am going to count how many loaves of bread I buy as my measure.)

Craft
Learn to use my DSLR camera in manual mode
More sewing – clothes for me, clothes for the kids – bring on the Kids Clothes Week Challenges!
Crochet – Finish the cardigan I’m currently making, and add some more toys to the crochet collection.
Felt food week to boost our modest collection.

The plan is to get a bit more routine in my blogging as well, with a Cook, Clean and Craft post each week (I may need some guest posts to keep this up – email me (see contact page) if you’re interested!), and a weekend round-up of favourite links and what I’ve been up to.

I’m looking forward to sharing my adventures of 2011 with you. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2010: What a Year!

The year is fast drawing to a close, and what a year it’s been! My life looks so different from 12 months ago. My family has grown with the addition of our adorable baby girl, and I entered the fun world of blogging. I’m loving all the changes life has brought me this year!

Looking over my blog this year, here are some of my favourite posts:

Cook

I’ve enjoyed sharing some family favourite recipes (my comfort food):

Apple and Cinnamon Pancakes

Savoury Scrolls

Tuna Mornay

Best Roast Potatoes

Apple Puff Squares

Clean

My three favourite cleaning posts:

10 Tips for Clean as You Go Cooking

5 Cleaning Tasks Before Going on Holiday

Kitchen Cleaning Confessional

Craft

The tutorials were the most time-consuming, but I love sharing them with you. Here are my two favourites:

  

My favourite craft project without a tutorial (if I had to pick just one) was:

My son’s big boy bed quilt cover!

Thank you to all the people who have stopped by my blog this year, especially the people who followed or subscribed, and the people who left comments. You all bring a smile to my face!!

Happy New Year!!!

PS. I hope everyone who celebrates it had a great Christmas. I never got around to wishing you all Merry Christmas. I’ll try harder next year…

3 Steps to Tackling the Difficult Chores

There are some chores that fill me with dread that I put off as long as possible (usually making the task worse!). As much as I try "clean as you go cooking" and making sure the kitchen is clean and tidy before I go to bed, the stove is one area that I tend to neglect. It's difficult to clean as you go without setting the cleaning cloth on fire, and just seems to hard to clean at the end of a hard day. I've hit the point where I have no idea when I actually cooked most of the food stuck to the stove, and I really have to get the job done!

Here is my approach for tackling difficult chores - the principle is the same for just about any chore, but I'm using the stove as an example:

1. Look for the quick win: The goal here is to break the task into smaller steps and give yourself a pyschological boost. Suddenly, the chore doesn't seem so huge! For the stove, this is the splash-back - there were only a few spots on it, and with a quick spray with cleaner and a wipe, I could start to see progress.
2. The 80/20 rule: 80% of the result comes from 20% of the effort. This is the bulk effort - not worrying about the finer details. Wiping down the whole of the stove-top area to remove the really obvious mess - chunks of food, oil spatters etc. Don't try to remove every last stain and mark. Then, if you only get this far because life (that pesky toddler!) gets in the way, at least the area doesn't look like a total disaster zone.
3. Fine-tune (until you just can't be bothered anymore!). Scrubbing the burners, removing the black baked-on mess, giving the whole area a polishing shine - keep working while you have the energy until you've reached that standard that you are happy with. This will mean different things to different people!

Finally, don't forget to be happy with what you've achieved when you're done - stop looking for imperfections!

What chores do you put off? What approach do you use to tackle the hard chores? Let me know in the comments.

Superwoman's Tips On Spring Cleaning

With my husband away on a business trip this week, I thought I'd have lots of free time in the evenings to write all the blog posts that are floating around in my head. Alas no, Bub-to-be is draining all my energy. So for this week's CLEAN post, I direct you to "Superwoman’s Tips On Spring Cleaning" on the Lifehacker Australia website.

I really wish I had friends like this:

Spring clean with a friend (who doesn’t talk too much) to spur you on, cheer you up, patch you up or wipe you down and — ideally — complete the job for you when you get stuck or bored.

I'm going to have to find a copy of this book! Looks like lots of great pearls of wisdom.

Prevent Rust Rings on the Bathroom Vanity

Do you like to keep your cans of hairspray and/or deodorant on the bathroom vanity? Somehow water gets everywhere in the bathroom, the bottom of the can gets wet, and you're left with an ugly orange ring on your bench-top.

Now you can remove the offending by sprinkling a little bicarb (baking soda) and then rubbing it with some vinegar on a cloth or sponge. However, I'm a big fan of the principle that mess prevention is better than cleaning. What can you do to prevent the ring in the first place?

1. Find another home - Put the cans in a cupboard or on a shelf when they won't get splashed. (This comes down to what space you have available and personal preference.)
2. Sacrificial surface - Stand the cans on a tray, plate or a piece of fabric (go crazy with the modge podge and craft something up to match your decore!).
3. Seal the cans yourself - coat the ring on the bottom of the can with clear nail polish.

One less thing to scrub when you're cleaning the bathroom - sounds good to me!

10 Tips for Clean As You Go Cooking

I enjoy cooking, but I hate the mess afterwards, and I can definitely make a mess! The problem with having lots of bench space in my kitchen is that I fill it with dirty dishes, empty tins and packets, and leftover ingredients. I'd like to have the philosophy that I cook, so my husband should clean, but he does the evening bath and bedtime routine. It's a bit unfair after a long day in the office to ask him to clean the kitchen as well!

Clean as you go is my answer, and here are my top ten tips:

1. Start with clear benches and an empty dishwasher (or at least with space in it, assuming you have the luxury of a dishwasher).
2. Fill the sink with hot, soapy water to wipe up spills and clean dishes straight away. As it takes forever for hot water to get to my kitchen, I often boil the kettle and use that to top up the sink and keep it hot.
3. Clean up spills on the floor straight away too! Have a dustpan and broom and cleaning cloth specifically for the floor on hand.
4. Have a receptacle for scraps and waste collection where you are working. That could be a bowl, plastic bag or rubbish bin. Balancing scraps on a chopping board as you walk across the kitchen, open a cupboard and empty into the bin is a disaster waiting to happen.
5. Put ingredients away as you use them. It doesn't take that much more effort than putting them on the closest bench! Better still, measure out, prepare and put away excess ingredients before you start cooking. It makes a few extra dishes, but somehow makes a lot less mess (or gives you more time to clean up). Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury to time to do this with a toddler wanting attention...
6. To make 5. easier, have easy access to containers and cling film.
7. Use time between "processes" (got to throw a bit of Masterchef jargon in there) to keep things tidy (don't just stand there watching your food cook if you don't have to  - or decide to check your Google Reader!)
8. Learn how to stir pots and bowls without spilling stuff everywhere - this is a skill I've yet to master, as you can see by looking at my stove (sorry, I'm not taking photos of that!).
9. Scrape, rinse and/or soak pots and pans as you go. My only exception to this is dishes with fats that solidify at room temperature - it's much more environmentally-friendly to scrape once solid and dispose in the bin than wash down the sink.
10. Put leftovers in containers and have a quick clean up before sitting down to the dinner table. The food isn't going to get that cold in 60 seconds! (This also helps my husband's waist-line as it makes seconds more difficult!).

What are your tips for keeping a tidy kitchen whilst cooking? Let me know in the comments!