Thing I learned in January: I really like my new Cole Haan red canvas penny loafers. I wore them A LOT last month. My plan of wearing more dresses even though I’m working at home kind of fell through. I wore dresses twice: once just for fun, once for a dinner out. Which was for the 12th anniversary of my first date with Adam. Twelve years! I’m 36, so that is officially 1/3 of my life.
Tag: cleaning
I’ve kind of been on this kick to get rid of our standard household cleaners in favor of some greener, more natural options. This is really because H is so mobile, and touching, tasting, smelling, and seeing everything in sight. I started to become very aware of the number of chemicals she’s coming into direct contact with these days. Not that she’s drinking bleach from under the sink, but I wonder about the lingering residue and fumes in the air.
The problem with green cleaners is they don’t always actually get things clean. This is a fundamental requirement of cleaners, especially with a toddler everywhere. And I know people swear by homemade vinegar solutions, but when I tried that I could not deal with the smelly aftermath. I’ve tried green products in the past and been pretty underwhelmed. But they’ve come a long way in recent years.
I decided that my diabolically filthy oven would be a good test of the power of the green clean. If a natural cleaner could conquer that, it could probably do anything. Let’s just say that in the 5+ years we have lived in this house with this oven, I’ve cleaned it exactly zero times. I mean, I’ve wiped up pie drippings and cheesy toppings from the oven floor, but I haven’t stuck my head in there to really scrub it into submission. Another reason for the green cleaners; I knew the job would take hours (4 solid scrubbing hours, in the end), and I did not want to inhale toxic fumes all day.
This is what it looked like when I started, don’t you judge me:
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