When someone visits your home the first thing they will notice is how it smells. Like I said before I am a sniffer. I sniff everything from a glass, before I drink from it, to the family room to make sure there are no unflattering, lingering scents. There are times when my house picks up the scents of my cooking and I don’t readily notice. So I make it a point to deodorize after cleaning.
There are plenty of commercial product on the market to extinguish offensive smells, but I would rather use ordinary everyday solutions.
If you have an offensive smell …read more

There never seems to be enough time in a day for me and I’m sure it is the same for you. I came to the conclusion recently that I needed to set up a time schedule for myself and it really helps. We all need to make the most of our available time in a way that is constructive.
Here are a few tips to help you spend your time wisely.
Create a schedule and stick to it. It will be hard to do at first, but will become easier; make it a habit.
Prioritize chores and activities daily. Do the …read more

If you have carpet in your home, it will take a little work to keep it clean.  Here are some tips for keeping your carpet smelling fresh.

1)  Take off your shoes when you come into the house.  Your shoes have dirt, leaves, and germs from other places you have been.
2)  Have your carpets cleaned a few times each year.  You can do this yourself if you have a steam cleaner or you can rent a machine for about $30-40 per day.  If you’re able to, you can hire a professional to clean the carpets.
3)  Keep a rug over high traffic …read more

Kitchens tend to be a dumping ground for everything.  We walk in the door and drop our keys, purse, mail, and shopping bags on the counter.  We put away the groceries and somewhere in our subconsciousness find it ok to leave the mail there.  Next thing we know, we have a few little items scattered throughout the room.  

I am guilty of disorganization in my kitchen.  I am trying to get better though.  Here are a few kitchen organizing tips.
1)  Put things away when you’re done using them.  If we did this with everything our lives would be so much cleaner …read more

It seemed that no matter how careful I was while cooking, I still had issues with food and grease getting stuck to my stove top.  I would wipe the stove, let the hot wash rag sit on the stains, add dishwashing liquid, and some other cleaners, but I could not get it cleaned properly.  After complaining to my mom about the stuck on grease and food on my stove top, she suggested that I try Fantastik cleaner.

This is a picture of my stove top with the burners removed. Although this picture does not show all of the mess, you can …read more

I have this issue with mopping my bathroom floors.  I don’t like to use a mop because it seems like the floors don’t get as clean as I like them.  When I hand mop the floor, I see all kinds of dirt and hair that the broom and mop did not get.  I also see the dust on the cabinets, baseboards, and such and I end up wiping those down too.  The problem is, I don’t hand clean my floor as often as I should because it takes so much longer.  Basically, my preference for cleanliness is getting in the way of …read more

Here are a few highlights from June at Keeping the Castle.

Free 4th of July Crafts and Recipe Book
Helpful Links for This Week
May Highlights at Keeping the Castle
A Tip for Painting Your Home
The Lowdown on McDonald’s Iced Coffee
What is the Temperature of Your House?
Cucumber Salad Recipe
Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough Recall
Five Minute Chocolate Mug Cake
Cleaning Challenge: Clean Your Coffeemaker
Hamilton Beach Dispensing Blender
Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas Recipe
10 Meals in 10 Minutes
Enjoying the Wildlife Today
Health Benefits of Drinking Tea
Time Saving Laundry Tip
Save Time with Bed Linens
Links I’m Enjoying
The Martha Stewart Blog
Works for Me Wednesday: Bag Organization
Cleaning Challenge: Clutter Patrol
Which articles did you enjoy?
image (c) Karen …read more

Sometimes our houses can be clean, but they just don’t look clean.  Most of the time it’s due to clutter.  This is my issue today.  Does it ever go away?  With three young and active children, it seems I can barely keep up with the daily clutter.

Today it started when I went into the kid’s room to vacuum and tidy up a bit.  Next to my son’s bed was a basket where he keeps his stuffed animals and such.  I picked it up to vacuum and noticed it was mostly filled with small toys and books.  No doubt they were …read more

Last week, I mentioned a resource for grill recipes.  Then it occurred to me that some of us don’t know how to properly clean our gas grills.  What are the proper steps to ensuring a clean and healthy grill?  No worries.  It’s pretty easy.

If this is the first time this year that you are using your grill, then it’s a good idea to do a more thorough cleaning.  Turn on the burners, close the lid, and let the grill run for about 30 minutes.  It needs to cook long enough to burn off the residue.  Brush the grates with a brass …read more

Got a few minutes to spare?  Talking on the phone?  Consider dumping out a kitchen drawer. 

Dump everything out of the drawer and sort it into three piles – throw away, put back, and put away.  Wipe out the drawer.  Come on, get those fuzz balls out of there.  Put back items to keep, throw out the trash, shred any personal papers, and put away things that were out of place.
How long did this take?  Probably just a few minutes.  It’s amazing how we let things go sometimes.  A small project like this one helps keep the house in order and …read more