How to maintain your kitchen appliances:

You can go to any supermarket today and find hundreds maybe even thousands of cleaning products. Every product claiming to be better than the next. The prices seem to be higher on those products that have the most advertising. I would like to let you in on a few cleaning secrets. The cost of a cleaner does not determine its level of effectiveness.

Here are some of my suggestions:

Cleaning Stainless Steel Appliances: Baby Oil

Take a micro fiber cleaning cloth and put a quarter size amount of baby oil on it on one side. Apply this baby oil rub to any stainless steel appliance. Once you do this, turn the micro fiber cloth over to the side that does not have any baby oil on it and rub your appliance with the dry side. The baby oil creates a protective barrier on the appliances. The barrier will work for up to a month. When you begin to see fingerprints on the front of appliances, just take a dry microfiber cloth and rub the front of the appliance. No need to reapply the baby oil each time.

Cleaning The Interior Of Your Microwave: Steam

Place 2 cups of water in a measuring cup and place the measuring cup in the middle of your microwave. Heat the water for 2 minutes and let it sit in the microwave for 3 minutes. Carefully remove your measuring cup from your microwave and discard or recycle your water. Take your dry microfiber cloth and wipe out the interior of your microwave. This will steam the interior of the microwave, making for easy removal of any stuck on foods.

So today, you have saved yourself some money and accomplished some household tasks. Now, take 30 minutes of your day to relax, tell someone you appreciate them and Enjoy Life!

purpose project. You accomplish your task, spend 30 minutes outdoors and will even burn some calories during this process.

 How to keep your kitchen clean:

Have a place for everything. It's much easier to use a utensil or appliance, clean it and put it away when it has a home. 

Load and run your dishwasher after you finish your meals. If you just had a snack and don't have enough dishes to run a load, wash it by hand, dry and put it away. 

Wipe down your kitchen table and counters after every meal.

Clean up spills as they occur so you won't be faced with one huge cleaning session.

Do a quick sweeping of the floor after each meal or snack.

Keep small appliances off of the counter tops. Place them in a cabinet or make a home for them in the pantry.

Once a week, remove all the food from your refrigerator, wipe down the inside with warm soapy water, clean all the shelves and trays, then replace the food. As you work, check expiration dates and discard food past those dates. Place an open box of baking soda in the back of the fridge.

Once a month, remove all the food from your pantry, wipe down with a clean damp cloth, check for spoilage and expiration dates, then replace items in their designated places.

Keeping up with these small tasks will help you save time. This means more time to do what you want to do and Enjoy Life!                  

Diane Daniel President & CEO

How to reduce household dust:

The solution to most household problems is to attack the source. But you can’t eliminate the sources of household dust. You can’t even do much to reduce them, because more than 90 percent of household dust comes from people and fabric. Our bodies constantly shed tiny flakes of skin. Our clothes, bedding and furnishings constantly shed barely visible fibers. These flakes and fibers float on the slightest air currents and settle on every surface in your house. In a spot sheltered from air movement, the particles stay put. In other areas, they constantly rise and settle as doors swing open and people pass by.

Even if fighting dust is a battle you can never completely win, you can save a lot of time and energy with these dust-busting strategies.

Keep closet floors clear for easy cleaning

Box or bag items on shelves

Enclose the clothes you rarely wear

Keep closet floors clear

Closets are dust reservoirs, full of tiny fibers from clothes, towels and bedding. Every time you open the door, you whip up an invisible dust storm. You can’t prevent clothes from shedding fibers, but you can make closets easier to keep clean and vastly cut down on dust.

Box or bag items on shelves. Clear plastic containers are best—they lock fibers in and dust out and let you see what’s inside. When you dust, they’re easy to pull off the shelves and wipe clean.
Enclose the clothes you rarely wear. Those coats you wear only in winter shed fibers year-round. Slip garment bags or large garbage bags over them. They help to contain fibers and keep the clothes themselves from becoming coated with dust.

Keep closet floors clear. If the floor is cluttered, chances are you’ll just bypass it while vacuuming. But a wide-open floor adds only a few seconds to the vacuuming chore. And a wire shelf lets you clear all those shoes off the floor without losing storage space.