Does this Pinterest homemade floor cleaner really work?

In today's post we test out a post I seen on Pinterest. It is a tile and grout cleaner made using baking soda, white vinegar, water and lemon juice.

I have made a video for my YouTube channel that is also worth a watch. Please scroll to the end of this post to view.

Below is the procedure to follow:

1. Mix all the ingredients into a plastic bowl or basin. You will need 3 cups of hot water from tap, 1/2 cup of baking soda, 1/4 cup of white vinegar and 1/3 cup of lemon juice.
2. Once these are mixed you may wash the floor with a mop or cloth or place the mixture into a bottle and squirt on the floor. Leave to sit for 5 - 15 minutes once applied to the floor.
3. You will need a toothbrush or hand held scrub brush to scrub the floor and grout. Ensure you pay special attention to the grout.
4. Once you have scrubbed you need to wash the floor a time or two to remove the dirt and mixture.  
5. Leave to dry to see the finishing result.

How did it work for me?

I started off with my floors looking very dirty, see the pictures for reference. As we are in rented accommodation it seemed years of dirt and grime were worked into the floor.

Scrubbing the floor took a lot of energy, I was beat once I finished. We have a steam cleaner so I used this to remove the mixture and dirt after scrubbing, it took 2 times and wiping the floor with a damp cloth to finally remove the mixture as it left a residue on the floor once it dried. Once it dried I ran the stream cleaner over once more and it was finally finished, see the pictures for reference.

Overall I was happy with the results I got, I will do this again next month and document the results also.

Here is the video I made for our YouTube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/tidythingsireland

Plumbing Issues?

We have some kitchen drain issues in the apartment ladies and gents so let me give you the back story.

We moved into this apartment on 3 April 2014. After two weeks here we noticed a draining issue in our kitchen sink. Basically the water would take forever to go down the drain. If we used the tiniest drop of water it would take 2 minutes to drain. 

After days of this we headed to Woodies DIY store and got ourselves some drain unblock. I was so excited that our drain would now cooperate with us and do what all kitchen sinks do. How disappointed was I when I noticed that after using the 14euro product the drain did not unblock :(

We went back to Woodies another day and picked up a high quality product but still would not budge the blockage, in fact I think it made it worse. The draining was impossibly slow we had to resort to washing our dishes in the bathroom.

As this is a rented property we contacted the letting agents and demanded someone (a plumber) be sent out to us. On Tuesday 3 June a plumber arrived with industry strength drain unblock. As he was pouring it in the smell would literally burn your eyes and nostrils. Both the plumber and I had to stand on the balcony the smell was that bad. 
He left the product in there for 15 minutes and tested, there was still clogging issues. He proceeded to pour boiling hot water from the kettle into the sink. Eventually the block was dislodged and now we have a fully functioning sick. I could have kissed the man I was that happy, until I looked into the sink after he left and saw this.

He left a stain that will not budge, I've tried everything I could think of (bleach being the main ingredient in all products tried). Does anyone have any ideas on how to remove this?

If you know of anything I can try to remove this stain please let me know in the comments below. 

I hope you have a great day. I will see you all in the next blog.

A review of the first week with my new cleaning schedule.

As the title suggests this short post is to review my first week with the cleaning schedule.

I can confirm that everyday except Tuesday I followed the daily cleaning. As for the weekly schedule that was a complete fail. I deep cleaned the bathroom but that''s about it. 

Today is June 1 and I plan to ensure that I follow the full schedule from here on out. I have planned out the weeks of June below.


June 2 - June 8

Everyday - Daily cleaning
Monday -  Laundry
Tuesday - Kitchen & Office
Wednesday - Bedrooms
Thursday - Balcony Screen & Rubbish Bins
Friday - Living & Dining 
Saturday - Bathroom

June 9 - June 15

Everyday - Daily cleaning
Monday -  Laundry
Tuesday - Kitchen & Office
Wednesday - Bedrooms
Thursday - Refrigerator & Oven
Friday - Living & Dining 
Saturday - Bathroom

June 16 - June 22

Everyday - Daily cleaning
Monday -  Laundry
Tuesday - Kitchen & Office
Wednesday - Bedrooms
Thursday - Windows & Blinds
Friday - Living & Dining 
Saturday - Bathroom

June 23 - June 29

Everyday - Daily cleaning
Monday -  Laundry
Tuesday - Kitchen & Office
Wednesday - Bedrooms
Thursday - Kitchen cupboards & schrod paperwork
Friday - Living & Dining 
Saturday - Bathroom

Thanks for reading, I'll see you with the next post.

How to remove the odor from your kitchen drain with a natural remedy.

Today's post is a little different. Have you ever had a stinky pong from your sink well stay tuned to discover a remedy for this.

This post will also appear on Pinterest. Be sure to pin it to one of your boards. (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/479633429038199372/)

On Wednesday I noticed that my kitchen sink was rather smelly, so like any sane individual would do I jumped on google and looked up a remedy. What I found was to use a mix of baking soda and white vinegar. 

So if you have a smell coming from your sink follow these steps below.

• Measure one cup of baking soda per sink hole and pour into sink. Leave to sit for 20 minutes.

• Measure 1/4 cup of white vinegar per sink hole and pour into sink. This will cause a foaming reaction. Cover immediately with a cloth for approx 1 minute.

• Run hot water into your sink for 1-2 minutes, this will dislodge the organic food particles and clear the pipe for you.

On a whim I decided to check the overflow pipe under my sink. I discovered that there was food particles blocked in the pipe, so make sure you remove these also as this could be adding to the odor.

Having tried the above myself I can confirm that it worked in my home. My sink now smells fresh.

I really hope someone finds this helpful/beneficial. I will see you all on my next blog update.