Monday 29 July 2013

The Miracle Cleaning Power of Water

I have been getting my house ready to sell and my to-do list  seems to be getting longer and longer every day. I am amazed how many things have been on my list since they day we moved in (almost 4 years ago). One of these (never-seem-to-get-to) items is to address this:
And no, the grout is not supposed to be dark grey. Gross right?

I find it is one of those tasks that gets forgotten - how many people pay that much attention to the kitchen floors anyway? OK, maybe a lot of people. But it seemed like a big and not very fun task so I kept on putting it off - for 4 years. Now that I am about to invite a bunch of strangers into my house to criticise it I finally bit the bullet and decided to tackle this gross grout one night.

I remembered a pin from a friend that made it seem like there was a quick and easy solution. I'm sure you have seen similar pins all over Pinterest.




After a week of cleaning with various cleaners around the house all week I was also looking forward to a less harsh cleaning solution, and one that promised to be quick and easy.

I will admit I was a little hopeful (With so many version of the same thing being re-pinned all of the time it had to work, right?) yet skeptical. In principle I do not like vinegar and backing soda miracle "cleaning solutions." On occasion I do clean with vinegar and baking soda separately, but I don't understand why you would mix them together. If you have ever taken a high school chemistry class you know that when you mix the two you will end up cleaning with water. The one time I do mix the two is for maintenance drain cleaning, but it is for the bubbling action not the "miracle cleaner" that results from mixing the two (though water itself is a great cleaner). When it came to cleaning grout I thought this bubbling action may be helpful again.

So I went through my kitchen cupboards and gathered my supplies.

Water, Vinegar & Baking Soda


I adapted the directions a bit to hopefully make it work a little better for me.

  1. I made a paste of water and baking soda and using a small brush and worked the paste into the grout and gave it a light scrub.
     
  2. I then sprayed the baking soda covered grout with vinegar and watched it bubble away for about 10 mins.
  3. I  gave it another light scrub then sprayed with water and wiped the tiles down.




This is what it ended up looking like.



It is a little cleaner, but I'm thinking I would have had the same results with just spraying with water and scrubbing. It definitely did not end up looking like the pin results.

In the end I was not really out much (except my time) as I already had everything on hand. There are other version of similar recipes out there that I considered trying. But since I already wasted a night on this in the end I used a commercial grout cleaner. Maybe I will give the others a try in my next house.

Friday 26 July 2013

Sunny with a chance of rainbows

This year I was happy to once again help my good friend plan a birthday party for a very special girl. After she decided on a rainbow themed second birthday party I started pinning ideas right away.

I found a lot of great ideas, but since the party was to be simple and low-key we choose a few of our favourites and planned a perfect summer time gathering.

Here are a few highlights of the day:


 Rainbow Cake


 
Decorations



Bubble Party Favours

Food
 
 
One of the great things about the rainbow theme is that it is really easy and quick to put together. All you need is a variety of colours and you have a rainbow party. One of the best pins I found was for this site http://catchmyparty.com/blog/free-rainbow-birthday-printables-from-printabelle which have free party printables. I used it for the water bottles, and a few other things I did not have pictures of.  It also has many other great party theme printables.
 
There are a lot more great ideas that we didn't have time to try, but if you are thinking of a rainbow party check out my pin board and have fun planning your own perfect party.
 


The sign of a great party
 

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