Why You Should Clean Your Oven

When the occasional accident occurs as you remove dinner from the oven...

... it is helpful to have a clean oven, so that you can at least scrape up most of the food and use it, rather than needing to throw it away.

Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow (assuming it doesn't rain again!)


For more frugal tips visit Frugal Friday @ Life as Mom.

Cleaning Out Peanut Butter Jars

A confession: Sometimes recycling seems to be more trouble than it's worth.

There, I've said it.

Recycling is good. It helps reduce the waste sent to landfills. It gives a few people jobs.  I try to recycle as much as I can. But, sometimes I wonder if cleaning out a bottle or container is creating more water/energy waste than I'm saving by recycling my bottles.

For instance, it takes a good bit of water to fully clean out the bottle of conditioner I use. I fill, shake, dump. Fill, shake, dump. Repeat. I don't know if I'm helping or hurting the planet when I re-cyle my bottle of conditioner. But I do.

The same problem happens with plastic peanut butter jars. Peanut butter is very sticky stuff (as if anyone didn't already know that). And getting the jar clean enough to recycle was always a challenge until I accidentally began using this method. It works very well. It isn't such a chore anymore and I don't think I'm wasting as much water to get the jars clean.

So, here's what I do...
1. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides and get out as much peanut butter as humanly possible. You can make at least half a sandwich from the leftover peanut butter on the sides and bottom of a jar.

2. Squirt a small bit of Dawn Dishwasing Liquid* into the jar.

3. Fill 2/3 full with hot water.

4. Replace lid on jar.  Shake.

5. Leave jar on counter overnight. Shake again a few times as you think of it or have time.

6. The next morning the majority of the remaining peanut butter will be floating in the water, not sticking on the jar. A quick swipe with a dishrag and your plastic peanut butter jar will be clean

*I prefer Dawn for this because it is so much better at cutting through grease.

This works for me.

Have a good tip that works for cleaning out conditioner bottles?

Cleaning Glass Top Stoves

This week at Works for Me Wednesday is a theme edition, "cleaning tips."

If you have a glass top stove, you know that they can be tricky to clean because many of the usual cleansers will scratch the surface. Scratching the surface of a glass top stove is not good.

When we moved into our current home a few years ago, the stove was a bit foreign to me - it has a glass top stove. I had a hard enough time keeping my "regular" stove top clean in our previous homes. I did not get the clean gene in my family . That would be my sister. I got the cooking gene. I make a mess. She cleans up.  So that left me with a dilemma... how do you keep a glass top stove clean?

I had no clue, but for the graciousness of the previous owners. They left the owner's manuals for all the kitchen appliances.

SO, I searched the owner's manual,. "Cleaning a glass top stove."

It, of course, recommended their brand name product, "specially designed for cleaning glass top stoves." It had to be ordered and shipped. I didn't want to wait for that process before I cleaned my stove top (I think I'd spilled spaghetti sauce on it.) So, I went to the grocery store and searched the cleaning aisle and sure enough I found a small slightly expensive bottle of cleaner that was safe for glass top stoves. I brought it home and used it.  It worked great.

But, I cook a lot. So, I tend to make a mess of my stove top fairly often. That would mean a lot of expensive cleanser over the years. Then, my sister, the cleaner, mentioned in passing what she uses, and she doesn't have to worry about scratches either.

Are you ready?  Here it is...

Baking Soda. Well, to be specific, baking soda, hot water and elbow grease.

And you know what? It works. And it works really well. I have even cleaned sticky jam spill-overs off my stove top with baking soda, hot water and elbow grease.

I can't tell you how thrilled I was to have this tip. It works and it's frugal. As cleaning tips go, it doesn't get much better than that!

For more cleaning tips and lots of other great ideas, visit Works For Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.

Laundry Day

I hate winter laundry.

What is it about doing laundry in the winter that I hate so much? There is so much of it! With all the long sleeve shirts, long pants, long underwear, long pajamas, sweatshirts, sweatpants, sweaters, and socks and more socks -- there's a whole lot of laundry to do in the winter. I know I spend twice the amount of time on laundry in the winter that I do in summer.

And I know I'm not alone in my winter laundry hatred. There must be enough of us out there to form a club. And the thing is - I don't have a big family. There are only 4 of us. How does a family with 6 teenagers ever get ahead of the laundry in winter? I should be more grateful that I don't have that amount of laundry to do, but I'm just not. I hate winter laundry.

I was singing "the laundry blues" recently, when I happened across the following email while doing some cleaning at my Dad's. This little story, reminded me of my own grandmother, who was born in 1904 and surely experienced the winter laundry blues often.

Years ago an Alabama grandmother gave the new bride the following recipe for washing clothes. It appears just as it was written, and despite the spelling, has a bit of philosophy. This is an exact copy as written and found in an old scrap book (with spelling errors and all).

1. Bild fire in backyard to heat kettle of rain water.

2. Set tubs so smoke wont blow in eyes if wind is pert.

3. Shave one hole cake of lie soap in boilin water.

4. Sort things, make 3 piles.
1 pile white,
1 pile colored,
1 pile work britches and rags.

5. To make starch, stir flour in cool water to smooth, then thin down with boilin water.

6. Take white things, rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard, and then bile. Rub colored don't bile, just wrinch and starch.

7. Take things out of kettle with broom stick handle, then wrinch, and starch.

8. Hang old rags on fence.

9. Spread tea towels on grass.

10. Pore wrinch water in flower bed.

11. Scrub porch with hot soapy water.

12. Turn tubs upside down.

13. Go put on clean dress, smooth hair with hair combs. Brew cup of tea, sit and rock a spell and count your blessings.

Kind of puts it all in perspective doesn't it? Reading this definitely put a smile on my face. My favorite part is #13 - rock a spell and count your blessings. The next time I do laundry and I'm finally finished at the end of the day I think I"ll do exactly that. I'm still trying to figure out what "...scrub hard, and then bile. Rub colored don't bile" means...

Hmmm. Winter laundry? Somehow it doesn't seem so bad now. That electric washer and dryer sitting in my basement are definitely working for me. There's a suggestion at the bottom of the page: Paste this over your washer and dryer and next time when you think things are bleak, read it again and give thanks for your blessings.

An Electric Washer and Dryer - definitely works for me.