How to use Pinterest to clean up the mess
One of my favorite memes that’s been making the rounds on Pinterest and other social media sites reads, “I am going to start cleaning the house. And by cleaning, I mean drinking wine and spraying everything with Febreeze.”
This declaration pretty much sums up how I took care of business when I was single and no one else really cared about the state of my house. I could, if I so chose, let dishes and laundry pile up, and no one was the wiser.
When there are two other people in the house, however, the wine/ Febreeze solution doesn’t really cut it so much anymore (no matter what those Febreeze commercials may lead you to believe), and dishes, dirt and laundry pile up at an exponential rate. Pinterest is a wonderful resource for different ways to clean and organize every corner of your house.
Grout Grossness Remover
My Pinterest win for this month comes with a prologue request from my husband. He wants me to be clear we are not gross and disgusting people. Our home stays pretty clean. (It’s subjective after all.)
Our kitchen counters are white tile with some black and red thrown in for a splash of color. The grout is white, and let’s face it, unless you are tending to that stuff with a toothbrush on a regular basis, some of it is going to get dirty. The spots you see in the pictures are by far the worst I found, but I got rid of that gunk so easily thanks to Pinterest.
I have a few pins on my “Wifey Duty Assistance” board that promise to remove grout stains with ease, but this one didn’t require making any special concoction on my own as some others did, and I want it as easy as possible.
All it called for was spray-on, foam carpet cleaner and a scrub brush. I bought a generic brand and followed the super easy pin instructions, I sprayed the foam directly down the line of grout, let it soak for a couple of minutes, then set to scrubbing with a moderately stiff brush. The results were amazing and so satisfying. Without even using too much elbow grease, the dark stains lifted with ease. Where it was once dingy was now bright white. I then wiped the counters clean, and it was almost as though I had replaced the grout. I used two cans of carpet cleaner, but it was worth every penny.
Banana DVD/CD Repair
This is another pin on my “Wifey Duty Assistance” board and also one that has been floating around on Facebook. It is part of a pin about 25 crazy ideas that are called “life hacks,” little tricks to make your life easier. The premise for this is you are to wipe a banana on a scratched up DVD or CD and it will magically fill in the scratches and no longer skip. I was really excited about this one since I still have CD books in my car and several old ones are scratched. We also have a pretty extensive DVD collection, and a few weeks ago I discovered that one of my favorite movies, “Almost Famous” had somehow become a scratchy, wrecked mess. (If you love ’70s classic rock, it’s a must-see.) It wouldn’t even load the menu, it was so damaged. The banana repair pin resurfaced on Pinterest, and I figured it was the perfect time to give it a shot.
I had high hopes for this trick.
The instructions call for all of the following to be applied in a circular motion: First, the banana, then the inside of the peel, then a clean cloth for three to four minutes to set in the mush, and finally clean it up with glass cleaner.
Despite the fact that the disc shined like ice while it was being bananafied, as soon as I hit it with the glass cleaner it looked just like it did before I started. I did get about five minutes into the movie, which was an improvement, but it froze up and never recovered. Enjoy the bananas with ice cream or cereal and save up to replace your scratched discs.
This one isn’t worth the time or mess.
