Friday Faves #13: How Do You Clean Your House?

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           Last Saturday was April Fool's Day, and Alicia cracked us all up with her post giving 3 housecleaning tips.  If you didn't get a chance to read it, you really should.  My kids are all comedians at heart.  But, seriously folks, this is the time of year when all of our thoughts turn to Spring Cleaning and so that is the theme of today's Friday Fave question:  

What is your favorite housecleaning tool?

My little grandson is only 2 years old, and already he is learning to clean-up! Alicia is teaching her technique for streak-free windows.

           Alicia worked her way through her undergrad years in college as a custodian on campus!  That is also where she met her husband.  She picked up some good cleaning tips in that job.  Today she is sharing two favorites!  
           First, microfiber cloths are something she loves to use for cleaning.  She got me to start using them, and they are great!  In the photos above,she is using only water to get those windows looking gorgeous.  She says:

• Spray one spritz of water on a pane.
• For a larger window or mirror, just a few spritzes should do. (You don't want to get your rag too wet.)
• Use a dry microfiber rag to wipe off the water, cleaning the window.  Use your now damp rag to wipe the other panes, spray just a little more water if you need to.
• You can also soak one rag in water and then wring it out so it's wet and wipe your windows with that.  Then, use a dry microfiber rag to dry it off.  
• Voila!  Streak free and no lint residue!

           Microfiber cloths are great for dusting, they pick up the dust very well.  The texture of the microfiber saves on elbow grease when cleaning other areas of your house and helps you have streakfree windows.  They are soft enough for TV screens and computer monitors as well. Here are a couple of resources for microfiber cloths:

These are from DollarTree!

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             Alicia's second choice is her vacuum cleaner.  She points out that a good vacuum is really useful.  She vacuums everything, cabinets, the fridge (dry crumbs), and when she sweeps, she uses the vacuum to clean up the pile she makes.  She loves her vacuum, although it was fairly inexpensive.  She has had it 5 years and it's easy to clean and to keep it working well.  It is the Bissell Rewind Smart Clean.  It currently has 4 stars on Amazon.  I am in the market for a new vacuum, so I will have to check this one out.  Alicia gives it high marks. 

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            I have tried out a new product for cleaning TOILETS that I am really liking!  I live in an older house with older toilets.  (They are on our list to replace.)  Cleaning them is never fun.  They stain easily.  Then, one day I noticed on ibotta that there was a $2.50 rebate for the Clorox Toilet Wand.  I decided to give it  a try!  I really like how it disinfected and cleaned so easily and my toilets looked whiter than they had in a long time!  Also, you just push the button and the head gets thrown in the trash (not in the toilet!) and you don't have to touch anything gross!  
             Have you tried the ibotta app yet?  It is an app that gives you rebates on groceries and other things that you normally buy.  For example, here are a few of this week's offers:  Sargento Cheese Shreds are on there, as well as Freschetta Frozen Pizza, Ruffles Chips, and Nesquik Powder.   I have already gotten well over $200 in rebates so far.  I always get mine in Amazon Cards so that I can use them to shop there. I bought a bookcase with some of my rebates!  If you click on this link, you can join and get a $10 rebate to get you started!  (I will get $5, so thank you!)  So, I was able to get a $2.50 rebate off of the already fairly low price of the Clorox Toilet Wand!  

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           Lindsey, who also worked as a campus custodian for part of her undergrad years, claimed Mr Clean Magic Erasers as her favorite cleaning tool.  She says, and I concur, that they seriously do work like magic!  When she worked at the giant basketball/event center called The Marriot Center at BYU, they used them there and they did a great job!  In her recent move, as she cleaned to show the house they were selling, Magic Erasers were life savers, keeping walls and doors clean and shiny.  I have used them after my grandchildren, cleaning up pencil and crayon marks off of walls, hand prints off of everything and I have used them on my stove top as well.  Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are amazing!  If you haven't tried them yet and you are a mother, these will save your sanity! 
          You can get a case of 24 from DollarTree.com, and that is fine with Lindsey because she says she wants a year's supply of them.  You can get free shipping from them if you have them sent to your local store.   You can also get a smaller number for a really good price from Amazon.

This is the link to the DollarTree bulk purchase.

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           Maddy has chosen a book that she read that is going to help her be more organized.  It is called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up:  The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo.  Madalynn says it is fascinating how she simplifies things and doesn't have you clean just one room at a time, but organizes the entire house at once.  We have big plans to implement her methods in our home.  I am excited to have a much more organize house! You can grab her book here.

             Well, now that I have spent so much time getting this post written, I guess I had better start my own cleaning!  Let me know if you have any tools that make your life so much easier!  Thanks for stopping by Friday Faves this week!  
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