Floor cleaning the enviromentally friendly and frugal way...

I really gotta stop talking about cleaning - what is the problem with me??
'But I just had to mention my one other favourite cleaning tool - my microfibre mop.

I find this to be the most environmentally friendly way to clean my floors - I use only about a cup of water to clean all my floors (and I have 'mop-able' floors throughout my house) with not a single drop of any type of chemical / cleaner and my floors always look shiny and clean.

But the very best thing, it is the most simplest and easiest and cost-effective way.
And you can't beat that!

I have had a big clean-out of my DD's rooms - sorting out outgrown clothes, school books and stationary for next year and just general junk! I often declutter their rooms and it is getting easier by doing it fairly regularly.

I'm a huge fan of de-cluttering and trying to keep the clutter down as it makes cleaning soooo much easier.

Now I need to finalise the last of my Christmas shopping and work out what I'm cooking for Christmas day so I may not be around for a while.

I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

Soil Fixing

Thanks to Gavin at http://greeningofgavin.blogspot.com/ I am hopefully on the way to fixing my soil problems. I've watered it with detergent/water mix to try and help it to be a little less water repellant and the next day I watered the Powerfeed in.

I will see how this goes before I try testing the soil with a PH kit as they approx $16 from Bunnings which was a bit expensive so I'm kind of hoping I won't have to resort to that.

If this crop doesn't end up thriving, I may count my losses and concentrate on working in our homemade compost which should be good enough to use soon - I think and I hope!?

Thanks again Gavin for all your help.

Soil Problems :(

I am very disappointed with the soil in my new vegetable beds. Nothing is thriving and it is very water repellant. So I have some work ahead of me to try and fix it now.....humph!

The plants are not thriving and are very yellow so it seems to be very deficient in something.














This is my sweetcorn - they are actually a lot yellower than they look in this photo :(

And the lettuces are not doing much better...

(Again, they look a lot yellower in real life!)
I planted the chives on the left the same time as the ones on the right which were planted in a different bed. You can certainly see the difference.

Whereas my SFG bed is doing very well and everything grows so much better in it. I have heaps of tomatoes and will probably need to find some recipes to use them up in! Though I have heard that they can be frozen by just directly placing them in the freezer. Of course they are not suitable for salads as such, but great for spaghetti bolognaise, etc type dishes (a staple in our household!) so I will definitely be trying that.

I am very pleased with the beans - we have several nights worth of meals in the freezer now. I have also planted bush beans to compare them to the vine type.

I have little baby capsicums everywhere - they are so cute!! So I can hardly wait for them to mature. The cucmbers are doing well though I have noticed powdery mildew growing on them - possibly due to rain we have had lately? I know last year I sprayed them with a milk and water mixture though I have forgotten the ratio so will have to look that up too.


Growing vegies is certainly proving to be a huge learning experience for me! Off to do some research again....

Christmas decorations!

I love putting up the Christmas decorations - not the taking down and putting away part so much though!

Other than the Christmas tree, which has fairy lights, these are my favourite decorations because they have fairy lights too - I have a 'thing' for fairy lights - love 'em, love 'em, love 'em! They add such a magical feeling to the room. Probably not very frugal nor environmentally friendly but I can't resist them and we only have them on for such a short time.

This idea came from my sister. We bought the garlands on special at Myers and I decorated mine with fairy lights, tinsel and baubles and they look absolutely wonderful at night....

This is also a craft my sister created and I copied! I probably must stop doing that....

This JOY was cut out of wood (thanks to my Dad) though you can buy these from scrapbooking shops or Spotlight and I then modge-podged scrapbooking paper onto them, painted the edges and wha-la! Unfortunately I did mine when I was rushing so I was a little disappointed but it still looks okay - just hope my sister doesn't see it up close! LOL

I can't believe Christmas is just around the corner and sneaking up fast - are you ready??

Cleaning....again

Whilst on the subject of cleaning, I cannot recommend the microfibre cloths enough. If you haven't tried them yet, you just got to! I cannot believe how many kitchen sponges I went through before changing to microfibre cloths. The sponges would get stinky and disintegrate whereas the cloths can be washed again and again and again. And a lot of the time you don't need to use any cleaners with them. You may have to try a few different ones though because the one that I love my Mum doesn't like much at all whereas the one she loves I don't like because I think it goes 'slimy' quickly!

I have also found that using the netting from orange bags works fantastically as a scourer and again, can be used over and over - the best bit of course is it is 'free'!

I also use a homemade general purpose cleaner for most of my cleaning now. This is the recipe that I use:

1 litre water

200ml white vinegar (I use cleaning vinegar)

40ml dishwashing detergent

few drops eucalyptus oil

2 dessertspoons washing soda

I pretty much clean everything with this other than the inside of the toilet and I use it together with bicarb soda to clean the shower recess - I spray it on, then wipe over with some bicarb on a microfibre cloth, then wash off.

I love walking past that cleaning aisle!

Cleaning.....ugh!

Cleaning is not a favourite word of mine and certainly not my favourite thing to do. But I have found a way to actually make it a little more enjoyable. I have been downloading things to my MP3 to listen to whilst I work.

Lately I have been listening to some interesting sermons from www.sermonaudio.com by Dr John Barnett which I know wouldn't be a lot of people's cup of tea but nevertheless I feel as though I am achieving two goals at once - getting the cleaning done and learning something. And the best thing is sometimes I have to FIND extra things to clean or declutter because I have finished cleaning before whatever I have downloaded has! LOL.

Now I am sure there are lots of interesting MP3 downloads out there in internet land on living frugally, being green, etc so if you know of any please let me know as I haven't had time to really have a good look!

Happy Cleaning!