1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:05,240 Glue it on to the board and then you go over it with Modge Podge. 2 00:00:07,440 --> 00:00:11,520 I'm Ronnie and you're listening to Clean With Me, the podcast 3 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:14,280 where I walk you through cleaning your house step by 4 00:00:14,280 --> 00:00:16,680 step. When you clean along with this 5 00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:20,920 show, you'll get more done in less time, so you can spend the 6 00:00:20,920 --> 00:00:23,800 rest of your day doing what matters most to you. 7 00:00:24,320 --> 00:00:27,240 Thanks for joining me. In today's episode, I'm going to 8 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:32,720 talk you through cleaning your kitchen and I'm also going to 9 00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:36,160 give you some unique decorating ideas. 10 00:00:36,480 --> 00:00:40,560 Let's get right into it. It's time to gear up for our 11 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:44,520 cleaning session. Maybe you need to get fixed up 12 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:48,080 for the day so that you're feeling presentable. 13 00:00:48,320 --> 00:00:51,760 You might want to slip into something comfortable yet 14 00:00:51,760 --> 00:00:55,760 presentable that you don't mind cleaning in. 15 00:00:56,440 --> 00:00:59,400 You can also, if you're already like dressed for work or 16 00:00:59,400 --> 00:01:03,000 something, put on an apron to protect your clothing. 17 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:07,080 Aprons aren't just for cooking. Sometimes I put on an apron to 18 00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:10,200 clean and do dishes if I'm in something really nice. 19 00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:14,320 I mean, more often than not I'm not in an apron, but there are 20 00:01:14,320 --> 00:01:19,560 situations other than cooking that call for an apron if you 21 00:01:19,560 --> 00:01:21,760 need to be dressed up for whatever reason. 22 00:01:21,760 --> 00:01:25,400 But a lot of you just need to put on something comfortable yet 23 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:28,400 presentable. Maybe you need to run a brush 24 00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:33,440 through your hair or put it up. Maybe you need to wash your 25 00:01:33,440 --> 00:01:38,120 face, put on some moisturizer, and whatever your minimums are. 26 00:01:38,120 --> 00:01:44,280 As far as makeup, if you wear makeup, remember if you look 27 00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:47,480 good, you feel good. So it's important to get fixed 28 00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:52,920 up early each day, even if you're a full time homemaker or 29 00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:57,040 you work from home. Or maybe you're already ready. 30 00:01:57,040 --> 00:02:01,680 Another way to gear up for this cleaning session would be to 31 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:07,160 start a load of laundry. OK, if you're new to the show, I 32 00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:13,120 often recommend starting a load of laundry at the beginning of a 33 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:16,600 cleaning session, because then when you're done, you can switch 34 00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:19,160 that load from the washer into the dryer. 35 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:24,040 And it just feels good when your machines are working for you 36 00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:29,280 while you're doing housework. So I like to get those machines 37 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:32,320 running. And by machines and by machines, 38 00:02:32,320 --> 00:02:37,160 I mean the dishwasher, if you have one, the washing machine 39 00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:40,040 and maybe the dryer. Maybe you need to switch the 40 00:02:40,040 --> 00:02:44,480 clothes from the washer into the dryer and start a new load. 41 00:02:44,480 --> 00:02:47,080 And we're going to be cleaning the kitchen, so we'll talk about 42 00:02:47,080 --> 00:02:51,160 the dishwasher in a few minutes. But your first machine that 43 00:02:51,160 --> 00:02:53,960 you're going to want to get running is probably your washing 44 00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:58,760 machine. And if you don't have enough 45 00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:03,960 clothing for a full load today, maybe it's a good time to strip 46 00:03:03,960 --> 00:03:08,720 your sheets and pillowcases and get those washing or wash your 47 00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:13,560 comforter or duvet cover. And I know I can talk faster 48 00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:16,440 than you can do these things. I'm just giving you a few 49 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:21,920 different ideas of how to kick off this cleaning session. 50 00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:27,240 When cleaning the kitchen, it's important to take out the trash 51 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:31,000 and reline it because chances are you have some trash in your 52 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:33,880 kitchen and you need a place to put stuff. 53 00:03:35,480 --> 00:03:41,280 Sometimes the front entrance of your home is in disarray and you 54 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:43,920 want to kind of start at the front door and straighten up a 55 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:50,280 little bit in case your spouse gets home early or someone 56 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:54,240 knocks at the door. That first impression area is 57 00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:57,600 important. Or maybe you need to get your 58 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:02,880 house smelling fresh. Maybe you need to start a wax 59 00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:07,120 warmer or an essential oil diffuser. 60 00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:12,920 Maybe you need to sprinkle your carpet with some carpet fresh, 61 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:19,279 or maybe you need to run your garbage disposal. 62 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:22,400 I'm going to give you a couple more minutes to do whatever you 63 00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:26,760 need to do to gear up for your cleaning session. 64 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:30,040 Again, you might need to get presentable and ready for the 65 00:04:30,040 --> 00:04:32,440 day. You might need to start some 66 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:34,720 laundry. You might need to straighten up 67 00:04:34,720 --> 00:04:37,360 your front entrance. Take out the trash. 68 00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:40,840 I mean, you probably for sure should take out the trash, but 69 00:04:40,840 --> 00:04:43,720 whatever needs to be done, now's the time. 70 00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:48,560 And then the next step is gathering up dishes. 71 00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:52,640 By the way, this episode is going to be a 2 parter. 72 00:04:52,760 --> 00:05:00,560 For this session, we're focusing on the kitchen, but in Part 2 we 73 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:05,040 are going to continue to the rest of the house. 74 00:05:05,080 --> 00:05:08,360 I'm going to entitle the episode either Decorating Ideas or the 75 00:05:08,360 --> 00:05:13,800 Power of Decor, and then there's going to be a Part 2 of that 76 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:17,160 same title. Special thanks to those who are 77 00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:23,120 already supporting the show, which unlocks those longer bonus 78 00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:25,960 episodes. And those bonus episodes are 79 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:29,400 probably already getting advertised to you if you're 80 00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:32,680 listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. 81 00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:36,360 But to learn more about that, you can visit my website, which 82 00:05:36,360 --> 00:05:41,440 is clean with mepodcast.com. And of course, I'll put a link 83 00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:45,640 in the episode notes. And while even just listening to 84 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:50,640 these free episodes helps me, I really appreciate those who go 85 00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:54,880 the extra mile and subscribe to the show. 86 00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:59,040 You're really not going to be on the full program unless you also 87 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:02,640 subscribe to bonus content. But I understand not everyone's 88 00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:06,880 able to subscribe. OK, by now you've done whatever 89 00:06:06,880 --> 00:06:10,920 you needed to do to gear up for your cleaning session. 90 00:06:11,240 --> 00:06:15,360 If you have not already done so, it's time to gather up dishes 91 00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:19,920 from around the house. This could be a coffee mug on 92 00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:22,600 your night stand. It could be your husbands ice 93 00:06:22,600 --> 00:06:26,040 cream bowl on his night stand from last night. 94 00:06:26,520 --> 00:06:31,120 It could be a forgotten fork and plate in a teenagers room. 95 00:06:31,600 --> 00:06:35,120 It could be dishes left on the table. 96 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:37,520 You probably have that rule if you have kids, where they're 97 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:40,400 supposed to clear and rinse their dishes, but sometimes they 98 00:06:40,400 --> 00:06:44,560 forget and leave something on the kitchen table, dining room 99 00:06:44,560 --> 00:06:49,280 table, living room. You know where those dirty cups 100 00:06:49,280 --> 00:06:51,680 and other dishes might be lurking. 101 00:06:51,680 --> 00:06:55,920 It's time to gather them all up and take them to the sink. 102 00:06:56,080 --> 00:06:58,120 And I'll give you a couple minutes to do that. 103 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:03,920 Something to keep in mind while cleaning is the pre clean is an 104 00:07:03,920 --> 00:07:07,600 important step. If you just jump into deep 105 00:07:07,600 --> 00:07:11,160 cleaning, you're going to be working around a lot of 106 00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:15,360 obstacles. And let's face it, cleaning the 107 00:07:15,360 --> 00:07:21,320 actual surfaces is often the easiest part of your housework. 108 00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:25,800 It can be tedious kind of putting everything where it goes 109 00:07:25,800 --> 00:07:30,960 and tidying up, but that's such an important step in cleaning 110 00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:35,920 and I definitely recommend doing your pre clean 1st. 111 00:07:36,480 --> 00:07:40,320 And when it comes to doing dishes, part of the pre cleaning 112 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:44,560 is getting all the dishes to the sink or at least next to the 113 00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:48,360 sink. It doesn't take long, but you 114 00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:53,280 don't want to find dirty dishes. After you thought you were done 115 00:07:53,320 --> 00:07:59,360 washing, the next step in your kitchen pre clean is to put away 116 00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:03,400 any clean dishes. Those of you who hand wash 117 00:08:03,720 --> 00:08:08,680 probably have a drying rack, a drying pad, or even just a towel 118 00:08:09,080 --> 00:08:13,280 for drying your clean dishes. And if you're like me, you don't 119 00:08:13,280 --> 00:08:16,440 towel dry them immediately and put them away. 120 00:08:16,560 --> 00:08:21,040 So now's the time to empty that drying rack and get those dishes 121 00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:24,240 put away. More often than not, I let stuff 122 00:08:24,280 --> 00:08:27,160 air dry. But what you want to avoid is 123 00:08:27,160 --> 00:08:30,240 just kind of adding to the pile. You don't want to be playing 124 00:08:30,240 --> 00:08:35,679 dish Jenga where you're making that drying rack pile higher and 125 00:08:35,679 --> 00:08:38,640 higher. And there are a couple reasons 126 00:08:38,640 --> 00:08:40,919 for this. One, something could fall off 127 00:08:40,919 --> 00:08:44,360 and break. Two, it can make your kitchen 128 00:08:44,360 --> 00:08:47,680 look cluttered to have just mountains of clean dishes. 129 00:08:47,680 --> 00:08:50,360 I mean, obviously clean dishes are better better than dirty, 130 00:08:50,560 --> 00:08:53,320 but it can still make your kitchen look cluttered. 131 00:08:53,680 --> 00:08:57,840 And three, and this is probably the most surprising, 1, you will 132 00:08:57,840 --> 00:09:01,560 actually work harder if you don't have to slow down and 133 00:09:01,560 --> 00:09:05,040 think about positioning that clean dish or where to put it. 134 00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:09,080 If you have an empty drying rack, you're washing, rinsing, 135 00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:12,160 placing things in the drying rack, it takes a lot of the 136 00:09:12,160 --> 00:09:15,080 thought out of it and you can go a lot quicker. 137 00:09:15,320 --> 00:09:18,960 And I know most of you know all this, but some people are new to 138 00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:22,240 the show, so I like to reiterate some of these key points. 139 00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:27,360 And of course, emptying the dishwasher could be one of the 140 00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:29,480 steps to putting away your clean dishes. 141 00:09:29,520 --> 00:09:34,440 If you have a dishwasher at our house we do a combination of 142 00:09:34,960 --> 00:09:37,440 washing in the dishwasher and hand washing. 143 00:09:37,720 --> 00:09:41,480 So when I'm putting away clean dishes, it involves emptying the 144 00:09:41,480 --> 00:09:44,360 drying rack and the dishwasher both. 145 00:09:44,400 --> 00:09:46,840 And sometimes my husband and I are working together. 146 00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:50,800 I'm emptying the dishwasher and drying rack while he starts on 147 00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:55,080 washing the dishes. But I realized that a lot of you 148 00:09:55,080 --> 00:09:58,800 are working alone right now. When I listen to a cleaning 149 00:09:58,800 --> 00:10:03,240 podcast, it's during my own personal cleaning session when 150 00:10:03,240 --> 00:10:06,000 I'm home alone or everybody's sleeping. 151 00:10:06,800 --> 00:10:11,080 So that may be your current situation as well. 152 00:10:12,240 --> 00:10:15,000 So I'm going to give you a couple more minutes to put away 153 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:18,160 the clean dishes. If you finish early, obviously 154 00:10:18,160 --> 00:10:21,000 start washing your dishes, whatever that means for you, 155 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:23,720 whether you're pre rinsing things and loading them into the 156 00:10:23,720 --> 00:10:29,160 dishwasher or your hand washing. And not everybody has a backlog 157 00:10:29,200 --> 00:10:31,800 of dishes who's out there listening right now. 158 00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:35,080 I don't know what your current situation is, but what I'm 159 00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:40,000 hoping that you do is stay in the kitchen for the duration of 160 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:43,480 the episode and just look for things to do. 161 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:46,600 Because if it's a day when you don't have a lot of dishes to 162 00:10:46,600 --> 00:10:50,160 deal with, that's the perfect time to go deeper with your 163 00:10:50,160 --> 00:10:57,080 cleaning and maybe wipe down the walls or clean a baseboard or 164 00:10:57,080 --> 00:10:58,880 clean the inside of your microwave. 165 00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:04,240 By the way, if you have any heavily soiled items, you want 166 00:11:04,240 --> 00:11:07,160 to get those soaking at the beginning of your dishwashing 167 00:11:07,160 --> 00:11:10,400 session. Maybe there is a pot and a pan 168 00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:15,000 that you cooked in or a container in your refrigerator 169 00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:17,320 that had some old leftovers in it. 170 00:11:17,320 --> 00:11:21,400 And you remove those leftovers and toss them and now you have a 171 00:11:21,400 --> 00:11:25,360 container with kind of dried on food or baked on food. 172 00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:29,480 If these are your cooking pans or whatever, you want to get 173 00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:34,280 those things pre rinsed and fill them up with hot soapy water, 174 00:11:34,440 --> 00:11:38,240 Get those soaking and they don't necessarily need to soak 175 00:11:38,240 --> 00:11:41,560 overnight or anything. Often just getting the difficult 176 00:11:41,560 --> 00:11:45,320 items soaking at the beginning of your dishwashing session is 177 00:11:45,320 --> 00:11:48,520 enough because by the time you've washed all the easy 178 00:11:48,520 --> 00:11:51,800 stuff, those other items have had time to sit. 179 00:11:52,200 --> 00:11:54,880 You know, the dish soap and the hot water has done a lot of the 180 00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:57,680 work for you. And then you can wash those 181 00:11:57,680 --> 00:12:00,600 items last. It's just a good use of your 182 00:12:00,600 --> 00:12:04,400 time. So once you've put away all your 183 00:12:04,400 --> 00:12:08,600 clean dishes, get those difficult items soaking and then 184 00:12:08,600 --> 00:12:15,680 start washing your easier items. OK, your glasses, your plates, 185 00:12:15,680 --> 00:12:19,120 your bowls, your silverware. And sometimes a glass could be a 186 00:12:19,120 --> 00:12:21,560 difficult item. You know, a forgotten glass 187 00:12:21,560 --> 00:12:24,720 could have something dried on in the bottom of it that might be 188 00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:27,840 one of the items you're going to have soaking while you wash the 189 00:12:27,840 --> 00:12:31,120 rest of the stuff. But whether you're washing a few 190 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:35,160 sink loads by hand, filling up the dishwasher and starting it, 191 00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:38,960 or a combination of both, just be working on your dishes, 192 00:12:39,080 --> 00:12:43,560 whatever that means for you. And if you finish early, start 193 00:12:43,560 --> 00:12:46,800 cleaning the surfaces of your kitchen from the top down, of 194 00:12:46,800 --> 00:12:50,520 course, while you're working. I wanted to talk a little bit 195 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:55,640 about kitchen Decor. A while back I went through this 196 00:12:55,640 --> 00:12:59,880 phase of making these decoupage plaques and it's kind of a 197 00:12:59,880 --> 00:13:03,480 unique idea so I thought I'd throw it out there. 198 00:13:03,480 --> 00:13:08,320 But of course there are pre made versions of these things that 199 00:13:08,320 --> 00:13:12,400 you could buy in certain stores or order online. 200 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:19,000 And what I'm talking about is using recipes as decorations. 201 00:13:19,560 --> 00:13:27,240 OK, For example, I made one where I typed up the recipe for 202 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:31,400 chocolate chip cookies. I typed it up and I also had 203 00:13:31,400 --> 00:13:33,720 purchased some stickers from Hobby Lobby. 204 00:13:33,720 --> 00:13:37,440 You can get sheets of stickers. You want to get the flat ones. 205 00:13:37,440 --> 00:13:41,280 Not, you know, puffy stickers or anything, but I had these sheets 206 00:13:41,320 --> 00:13:44,640 of stickers that were a baking theme. 207 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:48,880 So I typed up the recipe, you know, in a cute font or 208 00:13:48,880 --> 00:13:51,760 whatever, you know, the right size that I wanted. 209 00:13:52,160 --> 00:13:56,840 And then after I printed it, I put the stickers on it like 210 00:13:56,840 --> 00:14:01,200 little mixing bowls and oven mitts and cookies and things 211 00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:04,920 like that, and kind of positioned them artistically 212 00:14:04,920 --> 00:14:07,960 around the wording of the recipe. 213 00:14:08,440 --> 00:14:12,160 And obviously there are a lot of nuances to creating these 214 00:14:12,160 --> 00:14:16,080 decoupage plaques. So if you decide to do it, 215 00:14:16,080 --> 00:14:18,600 definitely do your research online. 216 00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:24,120 This isn't going to be just a super detailed explanation of 217 00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:27,520 how to do it. I'm mainly just giving you the 218 00:14:27,520 --> 00:14:31,720 idea about decorating with recipes in the kitchen. 219 00:14:32,520 --> 00:14:39,240 And the point is to use recipes that you want to be able to look 220 00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:41,680 at often, things that you make often. 221 00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:44,720 Another one that I made is the recipe for tortillas, and I 222 00:14:44,720 --> 00:14:46,520 actually still have that one hanging up. 223 00:14:46,680 --> 00:14:50,080 And sometimes when you make a recipe a lot, you have it 224 00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:52,120 memorized. But if you're like me, you go 225 00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:56,200 through phases where you don't make something for a long time 226 00:14:56,200 --> 00:14:58,960 and then you don't have the ingredients memorized. 227 00:14:59,720 --> 00:15:04,960 Or you might want to post these recipes for school aged kids. 228 00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:07,320 And I get it. There are cookbooks. 229 00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:12,280 I have a recipe binder where I print recipes or tear them out 230 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:15,960 of cookbooks that I'm getting rid of and I put them in a 231 00:15:15,960 --> 00:15:20,240 binder and sheet protectors. That way, you know, if you have 232 00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:23,080 grubby hands while you're cooking or whatever, you're not 233 00:15:23,080 --> 00:15:27,040 getting, you know, batter on the recipes themselves and you can 234 00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:29,080 kind of wipe the sheets clean when you're done. 235 00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:31,240 There's definitely a place for that. 236 00:15:31,480 --> 00:15:34,040 But in this episode, I'm talking about decor. 237 00:15:34,480 --> 00:15:37,280 Anyway. After you've printed the sheet, 238 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:39,960 you've placed the little decorative stickers, and 239 00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:42,720 obviously the stickers are optional, but it made it 10 240 00:15:42,720 --> 00:15:45,200 times cuter. You have a board that's already 241 00:15:45,200 --> 00:15:47,800 ready, like a little plaque or something maybe that you 242 00:15:47,800 --> 00:15:51,640 purchased at Hobby Lobby. Or if you're using just more 243 00:15:51,640 --> 00:15:56,440 rustic wood, you might have had to sand and cut your own wood. 244 00:15:56,920 --> 00:16:00,320 I mean, it's up to you how how deep into this this hobby you 245 00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:03,000 get. But it's pretty cheap. 246 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:07,320 I mean, to get just a plaque that's already smooth and 247 00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:13,280 beveled and then to glue your sheet onto it and you can cut 248 00:16:13,280 --> 00:16:16,560 it, you know, in the size you want or whatever, glue it onto 249 00:16:16,560 --> 00:16:19,880 the board. And then you go over it with 250 00:16:19,880 --> 00:16:25,160 Modge Podge, you know, you use like a a sponge on a stick or a 251 00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:32,120 paintbrush or whatever, and you do several coats of it to where 252 00:16:32,160 --> 00:16:36,520 the paper is kind of embedded in the wood and it looks like more 253 00:16:36,520 --> 00:16:38,800 like it was painted on or something like that. 254 00:16:39,040 --> 00:16:41,800 Be working in your kitchen by now. 255 00:16:41,840 --> 00:16:44,160 Some of you are done with your dishes. 256 00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:48,320 It might be time to wipe down your cabinets, the front of your 257 00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:52,240 large appliances, like the outside of your refrigerator, 258 00:16:52,240 --> 00:16:56,800 the outside of your microwave, your stove top, the control 259 00:16:56,800 --> 00:17:02,440 panel, the front of the oven, the front of your dishwasher, 260 00:17:03,160 --> 00:17:06,319 you know, and of course, your countertops. 261 00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:10,040 But no judgment here. If you're facing a dishwaster 262 00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:13,680 today and you're just still plugging away on dishes, the 263 00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:16,760 important thing is to keep working in the kitchen. 264 00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:22,440 And then eventually you're going to sweep or vacuum the floors 265 00:17:22,440 --> 00:17:26,640 and then mop again. There are a lot of nuances to 266 00:17:26,640 --> 00:17:32,400 creating these decoupage projects, so I don't recommend, 267 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:36,120 you know, making one of these recipe plaques until you've done 268 00:17:36,120 --> 00:17:38,520 a little bit of research into decoupage. 269 00:17:38,520 --> 00:17:40,800 Again, it's been a long time since I made these. 270 00:17:40,800 --> 00:17:47,680 It was years ago, but another type of decoupage art that I did 271 00:17:47,960 --> 00:17:54,880 was I would take either like a sheet of paper from an old 272 00:17:54,880 --> 00:17:58,640 hymnal. OK, if you know, you know, some 273 00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:02,400 of you go to churches that still use hymnals or you grew up in 274 00:18:02,400 --> 00:18:06,160 those kinds of churches. But you could take like a 275 00:18:06,160 --> 00:18:10,800 favorite hymn and then you could take a lighter and burn around 276 00:18:10,800 --> 00:18:14,920 the edges of that sheet. You burn a little bit, blow it 277 00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:18,560 out, burn a little bit and blow it out so that it kind of had, 278 00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:22,920 you know, so that it has jagged burnt edges around the page 279 00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:27,000 without burning, you know, the the part with the, the music, 280 00:18:27,040 --> 00:18:29,040 you know, the sheet music and the words or whatever. 281 00:18:29,840 --> 00:18:33,920 It does kind of warp the paper a little bit. 282 00:18:34,440 --> 00:18:39,760 So what you do is you turn it upside down, you know, face down 283 00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:43,080 on the ironing board and then you iron the sheet to get it 284 00:18:43,080 --> 00:18:46,800 flat again. And then same process as with 285 00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:52,360 the other projects, you glue it to the little plaque and by 286 00:18:52,360 --> 00:18:58,360 gluing it, the Modge Podge serves as both the glue and the 287 00:18:58,760 --> 00:19:01,160 kind of glaze coating or whatever. 288 00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:04,560 And there are other products, shellac, things like that, that 289 00:19:04,560 --> 00:19:07,480 you can use. You can use sprays. 290 00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:13,560 In fact, after I would attach a paper and then go over it with 291 00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:16,240 the decoupage and do a few coats of that. 292 00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:21,480 I would often finish with a spray so that it wouldn't be 293 00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:25,320 tacky or whatever. Again, you're going to, you're 294 00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:28,640 going to need to do a deep dive online before you begin one of 295 00:19:28,640 --> 00:19:31,960 these projects unless you've already done decoupage work 296 00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:35,480 before. But you can get really creative 297 00:19:35,560 --> 00:19:40,880 with different fonts and different stickers. 298 00:19:41,080 --> 00:19:43,320 And it's not even just for the recipes. 299 00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:46,880 You can create decorations for virtually anywhere in your 300 00:19:46,880 --> 00:19:49,480 house. You can make custom gifts for 301 00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:54,440 people for like Scripture versus Old English fonts look best. 302 00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:58,920 You can get a stick set of stickers that has crosses and 303 00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:01,880 Bibles and things like that. I mean, you don't want to go 304 00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:04,520 crazy with the stickers. You, you want to use them 305 00:20:04,520 --> 00:20:07,160 sparingly or you may prefer not to use them at all. 306 00:20:07,160 --> 00:20:11,680 So anyway, that's my idea. Decorate with recipes. 307 00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:14,240 It's super cute. They make great gifts. 308 00:20:14,360 --> 00:20:18,320 I mean how cute of a wedding gift would it be if you knew 309 00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:23,160 someone's colors and they're they're decorating style and you 310 00:20:23,160 --> 00:20:25,600 made them a recipe plaque for their kitchen? 311 00:20:25,600 --> 00:20:28,560 It'd be super cute. Obviously, be careful when 312 00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:32,440 buying people decor because people are kind of particular 313 00:20:32,440 --> 00:20:34,640 about how they decorate their house. 314 00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:38,280 But if you know the person well enough, you can create the 315 00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:42,920 perfect custom gift. So that's just the idea of the 316 00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:45,400 day. But I wanted to say that when 317 00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:51,520 you decorate your house, it helps to keep you excited about 318 00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:54,280 doing your housework. You've got to love how your 319 00:20:54,280 --> 00:20:58,520 house looks clean. So I encourage you to decorate 320 00:20:58,520 --> 00:21:01,720 each room of your house. And it doesn't have to cost a 321 00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:04,640 lot. And I have purchased things 322 00:21:04,640 --> 00:21:06,920 before. You might say I'm overwhelmed 323 00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:09,200 right now. I can't take on any new hobbies 324 00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:11,880 or whatever. I have purchased things before 325 00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:15,640 that had recipes. Years ago we had this ceramic 326 00:21:15,840 --> 00:21:20,400 bowl that we got at like one of those trading posts that you 327 00:21:20,400 --> 00:21:23,720 find like in New Mexico and Arizona along the along the 328 00:21:23,720 --> 00:21:27,040 highway. We had like a porcelain dish 329 00:21:27,080 --> 00:21:32,360 that had a recipe for salsa and it was a super pretty dish and I 330 00:21:32,360 --> 00:21:35,400 had it displayed in the kitchen. Things don't last long in our 331 00:21:35,400 --> 00:21:36,920 house. We move a lot. 332 00:21:37,040 --> 00:21:42,200 I have 6 kids and four grandkids, so a lot happens to 333 00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:45,680 stuff over the years, but I've had a lot of cute things over 334 00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:48,200 the years and that was one of them. 335 00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:51,680 I think that's where I got the idea of when I got into 336 00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:55,440 decoupage. At first it wasn't to post 337 00:21:55,440 --> 00:21:59,560 recipes in my kitchen, but I remembered that dish with the 338 00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:01,960 salsa recipe. So that was kind of the 339 00:22:01,960 --> 00:22:07,240 inspiration for using recipes in my decor and it is nice to make 340 00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:10,680 a recipe without having to touch the cookbook. 341 00:22:10,760 --> 00:22:14,440 But I've also seen at some people's houses, they have a 342 00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:18,760 little cookbook holder and then they just open the cookbook to 343 00:22:18,760 --> 00:22:21,840 the page that they're going to be using, but then they don't 344 00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:25,840 have to touch it because it's kind of displayed in this like 345 00:22:25,840 --> 00:22:28,160 book holder. So that's another idea. 346 00:22:28,360 --> 00:22:32,560 Hopefully by now you're done with your dishes and you've 347 00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:35,560 wiped down the surfaces of the kitchen. 348 00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:39,000 If not, you might want to pause the episode or just be doing 349 00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:41,000 something other than what I'm talking about. 350 00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:47,680 But a lot of you are ready to sweep or vacuum the floor. 351 00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:52,480 Maybe you have a vacuum that's good on hard floors, or maybe 352 00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:58,480 you need to sweep, but now's the time to get those crumbs off of 353 00:22:58,640 --> 00:23:02,600 the floor. And even if you have a dog that 354 00:23:02,600 --> 00:23:06,560 eats up a lot of the food that gets dropped, they're not 355 00:23:06,560 --> 00:23:10,480 dealing with the sand and the the sediment that can collect on 356 00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:14,080 your kitchen floor. And let's face it, there might, 357 00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:17,440 if you've got young children, there might be sticky spots on 358 00:23:17,440 --> 00:23:20,400 your floor. Kids are notorious for spilling 359 00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:22,880 juice. And then all the sudden you hear 360 00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:28,360 that dreaded sticky sound when you walk into the kitchen and 361 00:23:28,360 --> 00:23:31,680 shoes or where's your barefoot and you feel the stickiness. 362 00:23:32,160 --> 00:23:34,920 You've got to get it swept so that you can mop. 363 00:23:35,360 --> 00:23:39,400 I love mopping my kitchen floor but I don't love sweeping. 364 00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:44,200 So I recently got one of those shark vacuums that's really good 365 00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:50,400 on hard floors so that my pre clean can be a vacuum instead of 366 00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:53,680 a mop. But you still need a broom and 367 00:23:53,680 --> 00:23:57,080 dustpan in your kitchen for when you knock egg shells off the 368 00:23:57,080 --> 00:23:59,120 counter or you break a pickle jar. 369 00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:03,320 And you may be thinking, why would I buy a vacuum for the 370 00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:06,480 kitchen when it only takes a minute to sweep? 371 00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:10,920 But some of us have just a large expanse of tile. 372 00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:15,960 A lot of houses nowadays are designed with a large eat in 373 00:24:15,960 --> 00:24:19,520 kitchen instead of a separate formal dining room. 374 00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:24,960 Or even houses with a formal dining room also have an eat in 375 00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:27,680 kitchen at times. So if you just have a small 376 00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:32,000 U-shaped kitchen like you're in an apartment or just your house 377 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:35,960 has a small kitchen, yeah sweeping with a broom is no big 378 00:24:35,960 --> 00:24:37,560 deal. And some people like sweeping 379 00:24:37,560 --> 00:24:41,240 more than others. One way to make your sweeping 380 00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:45,480 easier in a large kitchen, if you don't have a good vacuum for 381 00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:48,800 it, is to use one of those dust mops. 382 00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:52,040 I call it a push broom, but a push broom is actually something 383 00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:54,360 a little bit different. It's something that's more heavy 384 00:24:54,360 --> 00:24:57,920 duty that you know your husband might use out in the garage or 385 00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:01,920 something. Okay, but the dust mop is a 386 00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:07,920 great way to kind of get all of that debris that's in the middle 387 00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:11,640 of your floor into a pile. You'll still need to do edge 388 00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:14,280 work with the regular traditional broom that's going 389 00:25:14,280 --> 00:25:18,200 to be more effective at getting under the countertops and stuff, 390 00:25:18,480 --> 00:25:20,360 you know? But a lot of times you can sweep 391 00:25:20,360 --> 00:25:25,680 the middles with the push broom, then do the edge work and also 392 00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:31,440 use the push broom to get that debris pile swept into the 393 00:25:31,560 --> 00:25:35,760 dustpan. And there are also machines that 394 00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:38,800 do the sweeping and mopping in one step. 395 00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:43,160 We all have certain tasks that we don't like doing. 396 00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:47,840 I encourage you to invest in whatever tool you need. 397 00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:51,800 I mean, some of you might want to get like a Roomba vacuum that 398 00:25:51,800 --> 00:25:53,840 does the vacuuming of your house. 399 00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:59,560 I would rather that the members of my family just exercise while 400 00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:02,680 vacuuming. Some of you might have an 401 00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:06,600 exercise regimen where you're already getting exercise, 402 00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:09,800 whether you're going for walks, riding a stationary bike, 403 00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:13,280 lifting weights. I mean, you might not need to 404 00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:17,800 vacuum as a form of exercise. So getting a Roomba might make 405 00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:22,040 sense for you. My point is, we're all different 406 00:26:22,320 --> 00:26:27,360 as far as which household tasks we struggle with the most. 407 00:26:27,360 --> 00:26:31,760 For example, if my dishwasher breaks down, I'm going to buy a 408 00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:35,720 new one, even though technically we could just wash the dishes by 409 00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:40,520 hand and save some money by not purchasing another dishwasher. 410 00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:42,960 You see what I'm saying? But it's a priority for me 411 00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:47,200 because when I do the dishes, I like to load all the small stuff 412 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:51,640 into the dishwasher. And, you know, maybe having a 413 00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:56,160 special tool for vacuuming or mopping your kitchen or the rest 414 00:26:56,160 --> 00:27:00,000 of your house would make your house work a lot easier for you. 415 00:27:01,360 --> 00:27:06,160 Hopefully by now you've swept or run a ran a vacuum over your 416 00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:09,960 kitchen floor. It's time to mop the floor, Get 417 00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:12,520 your floor super wet while mopping. 418 00:27:12,520 --> 00:27:17,120 You can do the thing where you take a large bath towel and I 419 00:27:17,120 --> 00:27:19,440 usually just pull one out of The Dirty clothes hamper. 420 00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:23,360 I'm not going to do this with a clean towel and only do this if 421 00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:25,600 if you're stable enough on your feet to do so. 422 00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:30,560 But I kind of walk with the, you know, barefoot with the towel 423 00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:33,040 under my feet, sliding each foot. 424 00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:35,840 Hopefully you can picture what I'm motioning here. 425 00:27:36,520 --> 00:27:42,840 But you know, walking that towel around and that dries the floor 426 00:27:42,840 --> 00:27:45,040 right away. So you don't have to worry about 427 00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:49,600 somebody walking in and either slipping and falling or getting 428 00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:55,720 your freshly mopped floor dirty. And a lot of times, you know, 429 00:27:55,920 --> 00:27:59,920 drying it with the towel is part of the cleaning process. 430 00:27:59,920 --> 00:28:04,480 It gets your floor even cleaner. So that's one way of doing it. 431 00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:10,840 Or you might want to use like a Swiffer with the pre moistened 432 00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:13,200 pads. There's also like the Swiffer 433 00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:15,480 wet jet where you're actually like spraying. 434 00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:18,720 But let's face it, sometimes you need to really scrub your floor 435 00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:23,040 with a more traditional mop. OK, we don't use the Swiffer 436 00:28:23,040 --> 00:28:25,280 every time. Sometimes I'm just scrubbing it 437 00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:30,360 with a string mop and mopping it can take a while, so maybe 438 00:28:30,360 --> 00:28:33,600 listen to some of your favorite music after this. 439 00:28:33,600 --> 00:28:37,120 Hopefully you have like an upbeat playlist to clean by. 440 00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:41,200 I hope you got a lot done during this episode. 441 00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:46,800 I'm going to talk more about decorating and how it can help 442 00:28:46,800 --> 00:28:53,040 motivate you to keep your house clean in Part 2, which is for 443 00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:57,040 financial supporters. But even just listening to these 444 00:28:57,040 --> 00:29:00,240 free episodes helps me. I appreciate each and everyone 445 00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:02,840 of you. And as always, happy cleaning. 446 00:29:03,080 --> 00:29:04,560 I'll talk to you in the next episode.