I get busy. Sexy and I are BOTH busy. And sometimes the dinner dishes don’t get done till the next morning. (We’re human, it happens.)Last week I picked up my cast iron skillet which had been left in the sink from the day before and the sink looked like this…

eeewwwww.....

Now I know what most of you are thinking… there’s no way those “natural” cleaners she’s always talking about are gonna REALLY clean THAT!

Think again my friend

The night before I go on a trip, I check the weather for the destination’s forecast, and plan my outfits for the whole week. I narrow down my footwear to what I’m going to wear on the plane, a pair of sneakers, 1 pair of heels, and a 1 pair of black flats. I decide what size suitcase and what carry on to bring, and what will go into each. I stay up late planning, and prepping, and funneling various oils, creams and conditioners into travel-size containers with the precision of a chemist. I try to get cash and packets of oatmeal ahead of time, so I won’t have to deal with the high prices of food and $5 ATM fees at the terminal, and I reserve a parking space near the airport. This process usually works out pretty well, and I get to my destination ready to relax or work or whatever. Pretty savvy right?

BUT…

For some reason, getting up, working out, and getting out of the house and to the office by 9am on a daily basis completely eludes me. I don’t hear the alarm, nothing that I want to wear (or can fit comfortably) is clean, I can never find at least one of my shoes, my phone isn’t charged, I forget to feed the cat, (who in protest, has thrown-up on my yoga mat). Sexy is ALWAYS telling me to slow down after hearing me yelp out in pain from accidentally slamming one of my appendages into a stationary object. I walked halfway to the subway once when I realized that I still had 3 twists in a roller in the back of my head, I forgot my earrings, and the alarm company was calling me because the alarm was going off because I’d left my keys in the door and it had swung open.

Then it dawned on me.

Why not approach every (week)day as if I had to be on a plane, leaving at 9am? Hmmm. With some modifications, this just might work.

So here’s my top 10 list of how to get through the week a bit smoother. I have tried this and it actually works!

Thrifty Jinxy posted this tip this week, and it’s right up my alley! Several of you have also commented that you do the same thing. Just mix Baking Soda and vinegar and voila! Clear Drains! For the details, click here.

If you’re trying to cut back on using paper towels, then using Handi Wipes, Microfiber cloths and Skoy cloths and even sponges are a good option. However, in the kitchen we all want to reduce germs right? So what I do is every couple of days or so I wet my sink sponge, or cloth or whatever I’ve been using to wipe off the counters and stick it in the microwave on high for 30 seconds. (The item being nuked MUST BE WET , trust me on this.) Then at the end of the week, any cloths or dishtowels get sprayed with Hydrogen peroxide and tossed in the washer. Simple, cheap and..(wait for it) Savvy!

I love finding new uses for things I already have!

I’m lucky enough to live in New York and have a sizeable kitchen, (no closet space though, I guess you can’t have everything right?), with a double sink to boot. So usually whatever is not going into the dishwasher gets washed and drained on the other side of the sink. But sometimes there are things that don’t fit, or I’m too tired to dry them, or they’re too fragile, or well, we’re being just plain lazy. That’s when I came up with the brilliant idea of using a pan and a cookie rack as a dishdrainer. It’s easy.

Just place a “10 x 15″ cooling rack inside of a 17″ x1 2″ baking sheet like this, and voila!

Your glasses, bowls, bottles and jars all drain quite nicely.

Those are some pretty wine goblets we got as wedding presents, (thanks Vikki and Terrel!)

What are some of your kitchen DIY ideas?

I love when I can find products with all natural ingredients, but I’m THRILLED when I can find them at a discount. Here’s the story…

My brother and I were visiting my mom and went to run some errands. He made me go to GameStop, so I retunred the favor and had him accompany me to Marshall’s. He was NOT happy about this believe me. (Apparently no self-respecting gamer would be caught dead in Marshalls). I was poking around the cookware section, looking for a small double-boiler for one of my various beauty experiments, when I saw a bottle of pure maple syrup. This wouldn’t have been strange, except for the fact, it was Pure Vermont Maple Syrup that usually goes for something like $12 at Whole Foods.

I flipped it over, and it was $6.00!

Huh?

I ran into the next aisle to determine if this was just a fluke and stopped in my tracks…

There before me, in Marshalls of all places, was an entire aisle of preserves, honey, cookies, crackers and oils of all shapes, sizes and fabulous containers. Now I had seen the cookies, and the crackers and the little Ghiardelli chocolates by the register, but THIS! Below are pics of my condiment shopping spree at Marshalls.

Marshalls loot

100% Pure Maple Syrup 12oz. for $6.00
24oz. of Mediterranean Kosher Sea Salt $3.00
34oz. of La Tourangelle Grapeseed Oil $8.50 (I’ve seen this stuff retail for $15.00!)
12oz. peach/mango preserves $2.50 (I LOVE to stir preserves into my greek yogurt, plus, it’s cheaper to buy the plain yogurt, rather than the fruit kind, besides, what do you think you’re stirring in there anyway? preserves!)
18oz. organic reduced sugar strawberry preserves 3.99 (way cheaper than the farmer’s market)
1 tin of English breakfast tea $2.99
8.47 oz of Hazelnut syrup. (This stuff tastes great in coffee, hot chocolate, even drizzled over granola, yogurt or pancakes YUM!)

PLUS I found a veggie cookbook for $5 and did you see those botles? I will keep every single bottle and tin in the bunch! I can reuse the Sea Salt container for my epsom salts in the bath, The grapeseed oil tin can hold olive oil instead of that huge can it comes in, I can keep my hair pins in the tea tin (it has a hinged lid), the hazelnut bottle I’ll use for infusing oil, and the jelly jars I’ll use for homade lotions, cream, bath salts, scrub or who knows what else?

I had enough restraint NOT to buy the organic raw honey, the organic scones mix, the truffle oil, the walnut oil, the lemon curd or the herbal tea sampler. And when I looked up, my brother was standing right next to me with a FULL cart, a bottle of maple syrup in his hand and was saying, “Marshalls?! This is so weird.” Not only did I find some GREAT stuff that I’ll use over and over, but none of it will end up in a landfill! Marshalls! Who knew?

Anybody else find some great discount stuff in random places? (TJ Maxx or IKEA perhaps?)

- Savvy

There is a real fear out there, (as well there should be) that many of the products that we clean our homes with are making us sick. Unfortunately, home cleaning products don’t have to list their ingredients like food manufacturers do. After doing a bunch of research for myself, I’ve stopped using bleach, ammonia, store-bought laundry detergent, fabric softener, and dishwashing detergent. This is shocking to most people I know and confusing to others because most people don’t know what they would do without those products.

So then I went a little “green” crazy and ended up a little  broke.

There is a growing trend of overpriced products out there that play into our toxicity fears and will charge you upwards of $25 a bottle for a so-called “green” laundry detergent. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with many of the new green products out there, but there is talk of harmful ingredients being present in some of these products, and there is no way of knowing, because green products don’t have to list their ingredients either. And if they do, what’s stopping them from leaving the objectionable items off the list?

Here’s a list of some common cleaning agents (and their side-effects) found in most of the products listed above:

Household Bleach: (aka- “Sodium Hypochlorite”) Asthma, headaches, skin irritations throat conditions. Prolonged exposure can cause pulmonary edema, hardening of the arteries. Used in combination with ammonia creates a very toxic and poisonous gas (I have firsthand experience with ths one, TRUST me)

Ammonia: Irritates eyes, lungs (asthma), nasal passages, and can cause chest pains. Prolonged exposure can damage liver, kidneys, throat and skin and can lead t blindness.

Phosphates and Phosphoric acid: Environmental pollutants that do not fully breakdown in sewge water and septic tanks, creating over-production of algae in rivers and streams contributing to the “green slime” that often occurs in these areas, choking plant and wildlife.

Paradichlorobenzene (PDCB): Eye and skin irritant and is a possible carcinogenic. Breathing and lung problems and could have an adverse affect on the central nervous system.

Monoethanolamine (MEA): asthma, and birth defects in animals

Hydrochloric Acid: poisonous and toxic, causes skin, lung and eye damage. Deadly if swallowed.

Ethoxylated Nonyl Phenol (NPE): possibly grows cancer cells, corrupts proper hormone development. Hard to remove from water, and has been banned in several areas of Europe, but is still found in most US detergents

This is by no means an exhaustive list, and I am NOT a scientist but all of the above ingredients can be found in regular laundry detergent, drain cleaners, furniture polish, fabric softener and one of the ingredients can be found in soda.

Yes, I said soda.

I now make all of the cleaning products for my home, and after turning my home into a lab for a while ( I LOVE to experiment) I was surprised at how easy it actually was, and how much money we actually saved. Here in the “Home” section I share those cleaning recipes, and tips and hopefully, you’ll send some my way too so that we can grow together!

- Savvy