Kitchen Tips

CLEANING
Cutting boards/utensils that smell like onions, garlic or other strong odors, rub with have a lemon or lime. (also your hands after cutting the onion).

Coffee/tea/rust stains--use good old baking soda. On your sink, you can also use steel wool.

Stainless steel--wipe down with plain seltzer or white vinegar for sparkling shine.

ODORS/FRAGRANCES
Disposal/drain odors--pour 2 T in every week.

Cheap air fresheners: put clove studded oranges in a decorative bowl; put cinnamon in a pie pan, put in oven & heat oven to 250 for about 30 minutes. (make sure that it doesn’t burn).

Liquid potpourri: there are 2 kinds of burners that I know of: 1st--has a little pot/bowl that you put the fragrance in & put a tea candle underneath (disadvantages: kind of messy, tea candles don’t last long & pot can turn black underneath where flame heats up bottom of pot), 2nd--electric, like a little mini crockpot (advantage--no fire). You really have to watch it though, to keep an eye on the level of potpourri you have. Don’t run it with little or no liquid in it, you could crack the pot.

Light a scented candle (keep away from children).

Put a wreath inside with eucalyptus, cinnamon sticks or spritz with liquid oil scents.

Clean with scented cleaners.

Use glade plug-ins, or other such plug in air fresheners.

Bake bread or cookies, brew coffee, make anything that fills your whole house with a yummy fragrance.

Fill with fresh flowers.

Baking soda in the freezer/fridge help eliminate smells. They even sell little boxes especially for this now.

PESTS
Ants--mix 8 oz. vinegar & 8 oz. water in a spray bottle (available at dollar tree or Wal-Mart). Spray on ants, will kill them instantly.

Roaches--set out a dish containing equal parts sugar & baking soda. The sugar attracts and the baking soda eliminates.

Slugs--put out dishes of salt or beer. Salt dries them out, beer gets them drunk & they drown.

MISCELLANEOUS
Unclog drain--pour ½ cup baking soda mixed with ½ cup vinegar into the drain and cover tightly. After a few minutes, rinse the drain with 2 qts. Boiling water. Also, using this as a preventative measure, can keep drains from becoming clogged. If drain is clogged with grease, use 1 cup of salt & 1 cup of baking soda, rather than the baking soda/vinegar mixture, follow the remaining step.

Pantry Dilemma/Organization

I didn't have a pantry or any cabinet space in my kitchen, so I bought one of those 9 cube organizers that have the fabric drawers you can buy.

Each drawer has a theme, larger groups may have more than one drawer......ex: baking drawer, pasta drawer, etc.

On top of the pantry are all my staples (flour, splenda, sugar, etc) in labelled clear lock & lock containers.

If you do have a pantry, you could still use the drawer system by getting clear plastic bins to use as drawers & sort by category. For my refrigerator and large upright freezer, I use this clear bin system.

For my small (over the fridge freezer), I only keep one weeks worth of OAMC meals, ice cream and ice.

I also keep an inventory of my pantry, small freezr, large freezer, fridge, spices, cleaners and bath products. I mark off things as I use them.

I use a master grocery list to mark things I need, and I can use my inventories to make sure I don't buy duplicates. Also, with this system, I am not running back and forth to the kitchen to see what I already have.

I update my inventories as I put the groceries away.

My 4 Beautiful Loving Babies

Left to right: Brea 3 1/2, Jacob 5, Caity 6 & Rory 21 months.

Pics of the Table after dinner...

Hence the baby's bowl still under the table. LOL... All I did was clear off the table, take the tablecloth off and wipe the table down.

My Kitchen Table

Tami, I found my camera .

Here's my new table before dinner (aka clean...LOL). Yes the wall behind my table is 1/2 white & 1/2 pink (we had to borrow a few feet of dds' room to have a table), you should also see a couple of Aurora wallies.

LOL...

Blessings~Cherylann

My Wonderful (almost) Kitchen

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted. We’ve been on the go lately.

I got a new dining room table & chairs yesterday!!! Free!!! Gotta love that FreeCycle.

It is a very nice WOOD farmhouse table and chairs. The table top is butcher block and it has hunter green spindle legs. It has 4 hunter green chairs with tapestry flowered seats (I am going to recover…going to try to find an apple print, hopefully in tapestry). We are having to use 2 of our folding chairs for the other 2 chairs, but that’s okay by me. At least the folding table is now reserved for holidays & family get-togethers!!!

My kitchen is already red/hunter & decorated with apples. I need to get dh to paint my kitchen & put my border up (apples…of course). It’s just a very small kitchen, and it’s been the bane of my existence. But, slowly, it is getting better. It’s still small, but I am making changes here & there, as my budget & FreeCycle allow. Just think, 2 months ago, we didn’t even have a kitchen table!!! I didn’t think I had the room.

Also included in my deal was a stool for my scrapbook table, an office chair for my son’s desk, and a stand-up fluorescent light that lights up half the house (with no need for other lights to be on). We had it on last night, in my daughters’ room and it lit up the kitchen and laundry room as well. So, we can now leave all the lights off except this one if we are in one of those 3 rooms.

I am slowly starting to like my too small kitchen. To make up for the lack of counter space, I now have my long beautiful table to roll out dough or cool cookies………..Yay!!!