Speaker 1: Episode four seventy seven, twenty twenty five Simple cleaning schedule
Speaker 1: and Products.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace.
Speaker 3: Simplicity, and live at your life. Here your hosts Jen
Speaker 3: and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends Podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill. And the interest sounded like it
Speaker 1: was episode four hundred and seventy seven thousand, two hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty five, but it's really just a cleaning schedule
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty five. You could really use it any year,
Speaker 1: but we're going to lay it out for the next year.
Speaker 1: You are going to be so thankful because Jill has
Speaker 1: really customized this episode. It is unique to anything you
Speaker 1: will find on the internet.
Speaker 3: I shouldn't get so excited about this episode, but I
Speaker 3: am this. This thrills me because this has been something
Speaker 3: that has been really difficult for me over the years.
Speaker 3: Having a clean home and keeping on top of the
Speaker 3: tasks has always felt really stressful to me. But literally
Speaker 3: this past year, I found the solution that works for me.
Speaker 3: It might not work for everybody, but I'm going to
Speaker 3: talk about what works for me and maybe you'll get
Speaker 3: your own tips along the way, as well as we'll
Speaker 3: look at an article. Don't worry, it's not just me,
Speaker 3: it'll be the internet too.
Speaker 1: But first, this episode is brought to you by the
Speaker 1: orange ring around the inside of your toilet. Yep, that one.
Speaker 1: It's not a contrary to popular belief, anything organic, but
Speaker 1: well maybe it is organic. It's not from your body though,
Speaker 1: it's some kind of chemical reaction. But who has the
Speaker 1: time to clean it?
Speaker 3: Right?
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Speaker 1: teach you how to do that in our book, our
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Speaker 1: maybe what you love is you want to be able
Speaker 1: to will ford somebody to come in and clean that ring.
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Speaker 1: are looking to spend more but make that more aligned
Speaker 1: with your values, to spend less but still feel like
Speaker 1: you are getting in alignment with your values. Either way,
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Speaker 1: you loovebook dot com, you can get your copy of
Speaker 1: Buy What you Love Without Going Broke, or head to
Speaker 1: your closest indie bookstore or Barnes and Noble. And if
Speaker 1: you already have a copy of the book, leave us
Speaker 1: a review. Let us know what you liked about it,
Speaker 1: what it helped you with. Buy what you lovebook dot com.
Speaker 3: I can't believe it's out out in circulation now.
Speaker 1: It's a long time coming. But you know what, if
Speaker 1: you get it, you won't have to dust it because
Speaker 1: it's self dusting. I haven't verified that fact, but I
Speaker 1: believe that the book is self dusting dust.
Speaker 3: Repellent RELI yeah, because you know what, you're never setting
Speaker 3: it down right exactly.
Speaker 1: So if you have other books though, that may have us.
Speaker 1: We've done a few cleaning episodes in the past. Also,
Speaker 1: we love decluttering as a way to clean because I mean, seriously,
Speaker 1: if you don't want to clean it, just get rid
Speaker 1: of it. So Episode two forty six Frugal Home Cleaning Tips,
Speaker 1: Episode three forty eight Declutter your Home in thirty Days.
Speaker 1: These are some of our most recent episodes on it.
Speaker 1: But I really like that this is going to give
Speaker 1: us a succinct plan for cleaning this year. So take
Speaker 1: us on a journey, Jill.
Speaker 3: Let's do it. Okay. So the article that we're going
Speaker 3: to go through it comes from Better Homes and Gardens
Speaker 3: and it is called a house Cleaning Schedule you'll actually
Speaker 3: stick to. And I liked this one the most because
Speaker 3: that's what I want. I want a schedule that i'm
Speaker 3: actually it's actually going to work for me, that I'm
Speaker 3: actually going to stick to. So they give us nine
Speaker 3: We're going to kind of combine them, move through them,
Speaker 3: and I'm going to give you my own tips along
Speaker 3: the way. But of course, to start out, they say,
Speaker 3: get ready, that's step one, which, well, that is the
Speaker 3: biggest barrier to because I'm never ready to clean. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so they recommend getting it just pen and paper. I
Speaker 3: love that. I do love to write things down, but
Speaker 3: you could also put things in your phone as well.
Speaker 3: But with the way that I'm going to describe what
Speaker 3: I did and how it worked for me, I'm going
Speaker 3: to say, write it down, write down what all of
Speaker 3: your tasks are. I guess your initial list could be
Speaker 3: in your phone, and then I'll walk you through another
Speaker 3: way that you can do this.
Speaker 1: She wrote hers down on paper she has on her phone.
Speaker 3: Yeah, actually, so that I could get both me and
Speaker 3: Eric on board with this, because just because I'm coming
Speaker 3: up with the plan and the strategy doesn't mean that
Speaker 3: I'm the only one to implement, am I right? Friends,
Speaker 3: if you've got more than just you in the house,
Speaker 3: it's not just you that is doing the work. So
Speaker 3: you're going to walk through then room by room, getting
Speaker 3: an inventory of the areas and the tasks that are
Speaker 3: going to make up your home cleaning schedule. And I'm
Speaker 3: going to encourage you, and this article does too, to
Speaker 3: think about all of the tasks room by room. So
Speaker 3: that's the second step is kind of choosing your rooms.
Speaker 3: I'm going to imagine that you're going to want to
Speaker 3: clean every room that's in the house at some point
Speaker 3: in time, So going room by room with pen and
Speaker 3: paper and thinking through what are the different tasks, both
Speaker 3: large and small, that you want to be doing, or
Speaker 3: that even your fantasized version of yourself would do at
Speaker 3: some point. So that could include in the kitchen, and
Speaker 3: we're going to get here, but for now, an example
Speaker 3: like both wiping down the counters in the kitchen as
Speaker 3: well as cleaning the hood, the vent over the stovetop
Speaker 3: or deep cleaning the oven itself. So going room by
Speaker 3: room with pen and paper, writing out all of the
Speaker 3: various cleaning tasks that catch your eye.
Speaker 1: Step three is identifying those tasks like Jill just mentioned,
Speaker 1: and you can google these on the internet like lists
Speaker 1: of tasks and then just black out the ones that
Speaker 1: don't apply to you. They always put too many tasks
Speaker 1: on those lists, and so step four is build on
Speaker 1: the list. But I'm going to take a subtractive approach
Speaker 1: because that's what I like to do with cleaning. So
Speaker 1: they actually have a pretty minimalist list on here. So
Speaker 1: can I go through it?
Speaker 3: Jill?
Speaker 1: Yeah, the time. Okay, So all rooms would need to
Speaker 1: dust the light fixture and ceiling fans. We're cleaning door handles,
Speaker 1: We're dusting door frames, we're dusting blinds, windowsills, picture frames, furniture,
Speaker 1: dusting nicknack and books, shaking out rugs or taking your
Speaker 1: ruggables to the laundromat, sweep vacuum up. In the kitchen,
Speaker 1: we add to that cleaning, sanitizing counters and sink. Sanitizing
Speaker 1: is something you don't have to do every time, but
Speaker 1: you do have to do it sometimes. Cleaning stove, oven,
Speaker 1: range hood, cleaning inside and outside of the microwave, wiping
Speaker 1: down cabinet fronts and appliances. And then in the bathrooms
Speaker 1: we add to that cleaning the mirrors, sanitizing counters, and
Speaker 1: sinks again, wiping down cabinet fronts inside of cabinets, cleaning
Speaker 1: and sanitizing the toilet, the shower, the shower door, and
Speaker 1: the tub. So this is like the bare minimum, but
Speaker 1: you can build on that list if you want.
Speaker 3: Okay, here's the thing. This all sounds so overwhelming. I'm
Speaker 3: taking like a I'm doing a little bit of an
Speaker 3: intermission here now to describe that. I think one of
Speaker 3: the things that can get so overwhelming with clean our
Speaker 3: homes is seeing all of the tasks that need to
Speaker 3: get done and not knowing when are we going to
Speaker 3: end up doing these things. At least for me, that
Speaker 3: was the thing that caused kind of the most stress.
Speaker 3: I would see all of these things around me, not
Speaker 3: just the dishes, but then that would cause this heightened
Speaker 3: awareness of all of the dust on the base boards,
Speaker 3: and the windows are dirty, and the toilets need to
Speaker 3: be scrubbed. And that's what leads to overwhelmed is not
Speaker 3: knowing when am I going to do this? And I
Speaker 3: think that's one of the reasons for having this schedule
Speaker 3: and knowing that this will eventually get done even if
Speaker 3: it can't get done today. Now I know, I look
Speaker 3: at the baseboards, and I know that's on the list
Speaker 3: that's going to come up. Even if it's next week,
Speaker 3: I know it will end up getting cleaned. So my
Speaker 3: level of tolerance for the dirtiness it can increase because
Speaker 3: I know that there's a plan to tackle it. So
Speaker 3: it's at this stage then that I'm going to describe
Speaker 3: a little bit how I approached this. So you've got
Speaker 3: your entire list right, and we don't have it prioritized yet,
Speaker 3: we don't have a schedule yet, but we've got everything
Speaker 3: listed out that we would ever want to clean in
Speaker 3: the home on these pieces of paper. What I then
Speaker 3: did from there, So this is a departure from what
Speaker 3: Better Homes and Gardens says, But this was actually a
Speaker 3: very fun activity for me and help me make use
Speaker 3: of my post it notes. I wrote out each of
Speaker 3: these tasks individually onto a post it note, and then
Speaker 3: I arranged kind of across my entire table frequency, So
Speaker 3: I had a category for weekly, bi weekly, monthly, quarterly,
Speaker 3: bi annually, and annually, and then I took all of
Speaker 3: my post its and started to arrange them around frequency.
Speaker 3: So laundry I want to do weekly, so that went
Speaker 3: under that weekly category, cleaning the range hold for me
Speaker 3: that only needs to happen quarterly. Put that under the
Speaker 3: quarterly category. Mopping the floors bi weekly. That's where that
Speaker 3: one went. So I just kind of went through every
Speaker 3: single post it note and arranged it towards the frequency
Speaker 3: that I want to see these things happening. And I
Speaker 3: will say even just that process made the whole thing
Speaker 3: feel less daunting to start to realize, oh wow, there's
Speaker 3: not actually that many tasks that I want to get
Speaker 3: done weekly. And it kind of did get spread out,
Speaker 3: really really well over what's happening, you know again weekly,
Speaker 3: by weekly, monthly, and kind of in that rhythm and order,
Speaker 3: which was so so helpful. So that's where they describe
Speaker 3: and here is step five select frequency. That's just my
Speaker 3: tip of identifying how you end up going about it,
Speaker 3: and then you can make changes there too. If as
Speaker 3: you look at the list you realize you know what, no,
Speaker 3: actually I want to do. I want to wash all
Speaker 3: the mats in the house bi weekly instead of weekly,
Speaker 3: that's going to be fine for me. Or I want
Speaker 3: to move this category over to here, or I want
Speaker 3: to actually combine some of these tasks. So maybe instead
Speaker 3: of going room by room and doing everything possible in
Speaker 3: one room. You kind of combine like tasks. So for me,
Speaker 3: that's the choice that I made was I have a
Speaker 3: whole category for just wiping horizontal surfaces is like a
Speaker 3: category for me. So that's in the entire house. But
Speaker 3: that's the only task I'm doing. So that'll be wiping
Speaker 3: the countertops, wiping the windowsills, wiping bedside tables. That's it
Speaker 3: horizontal surfaces. Another one is wiping base boards, so that
Speaker 3: just that one task will happen in the entire house.
Speaker 3: So I'm not necessary I don't go like room by room,
Speaker 3: but that could be an option if you more so
Speaker 3: wanted to do, like you know, guest bedroom is this day,
Speaker 3: and kids' bedrooms are this day, and the bathrooms are
Speaker 3: this day. That works for people too, So that could
Speaker 3: be something that you consider, is what's your preference on
Speaker 3: how you kind of want to arrange the tasks. For me,
Speaker 3: I found it easier to kind of break it down
Speaker 3: in that way, no thing is so daunting, but then
Speaker 3: kind of the whole house regularly strategically is getting cleaned.
Speaker 3: So that kind of coincides with number six on here,
Speaker 3: which is identify your cleaning style again kind of whether
Speaker 3: you want to do it once and done, like once
Speaker 3: a month, I'm going to do an entire deep clean,
Speaker 3: or if you'd rather have these smaller tasks broken up
Speaker 3: on kind of a daily basis. You're doing something, but
Speaker 3: it's only going to take you ten to thirty minutes
Speaker 3: to do it, So identify whether you want to do
Speaker 3: it that way. You want to do the time session,
Speaker 3: you decide on the days that you're going to clean,
Speaker 3: what you're going to clean, You set a timer for
Speaker 3: thirty minutes, and that's it. Whatever you can get done
Speaker 3: in that amount of time, room by room, day by day.
Speaker 3: So however you want to break it up, you decide.
Speaker 3: But that was a really helpful way for me to
Speaker 3: kind of arrange frequency and then how am I going
Speaker 3: to get it all done?
Speaker 1: The time to sessions really work for me. I have ADHD,
Speaker 1: so like I cannot stick to one task. I will
Speaker 1: get distracted by another task and I'll still be cleaning.
Speaker 1: But like if I make a list of things I
Speaker 1: need to do, and my one thing is like I
Speaker 1: have to cross this thing off the list, it never
Speaker 1: gets crossed off because it only gets half done. But
Speaker 1: then I've also half done a couple other things on
Speaker 1: the list too, because they've distracted me so like it
Speaker 1: makes me feel sad. But if I just do a
Speaker 1: timer for like ten minutes and I'm like, okay, I
Speaker 1: get as much as I can get done in ten minutes,
Speaker 1: then that's a win. And I have I've still got
Speaker 1: guidance by a list, but I'm and it doesn't feel
Speaker 1: as like daunting.
Speaker 3: Will you choose like a room and then you set
Speaker 3: the timer? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Cool, Yeah, I'll just pick my one space that I
Speaker 1: feel like needs the most and then it is usually
Speaker 1: the kitchen. Let's be honest, it's always the kitchen, and
Speaker 1: then I will be working on that. So next we
Speaker 1: have got practice, and that's really our favorite part of
Speaker 1: any topic because it's the new info and the plan
Speaker 1: those are always the sexiest part, but it's the practice
Speaker 1: and the staying on track and the small changes you
Speaker 1: have to make to your current lifestyle to evolve into
Speaker 1: this new lifestyle of cleaning regularly that is really what
Speaker 1: brings it home. And so that's seven through nine. So
Speaker 1: we've got practice your cleaning schedule, stay on tra and
Speaker 1: reevaluate your cleaning schedule. Because the first time. Even we
Speaker 1: know this with budgeting, the first budget you make isn't
Speaker 1: going to be right, and so you shouldn't feel guilty
Speaker 1: for not sticking to it because we know in the third, fourth,
Speaker 1: fifth budget they're never going to be right. We're always
Speaker 1: reevaluating for our season. So in some seasons we are
Speaker 1: able to do a bigger chunk of cleaning, like I'm
Speaker 1: able to do like a thirty minute clean, but that
Speaker 1: in some seasons, like when my kids are sick or
Speaker 1: I'm sick, or everyone is sick, it's like we're all
Speaker 1: sick clean, right, but it's it's even more important, right,
Speaker 1: So like the seasons that limit us more, these small
Speaker 1: tasks become more important, but we do them less because
Speaker 1: there's so much more daunting. But really it's just decreasing
Speaker 1: the like the perceived size of the task to make
Speaker 1: it manageable. So that's a big secret in staying consistent
Speaker 1: with your practice and staying on track. And then of
Speaker 1: course if you are consistently like falling behind or not
Speaker 1: coming through with your plan, then at that point you
Speaker 1: may need to reevaluate it and make it more realistic.
Speaker 3: So I also want to kind of fill in the
Speaker 3: gaps then from what what you do once you have
Speaker 3: all the tasks listed out and the frequency in which
Speaker 3: you want to do them, which kind of coincides with
Speaker 3: what you're describing of practicing the schedule or fining the schedule.
Speaker 3: But for me, the next step was then to kind
Speaker 3: of put it all into a calendar. So I just
Speaker 3: wrote it out like across the top row Monday through Sunday,
Speaker 3: and then first column down like week one, week two,
Speaker 3: week three, week four, so that it could kind of
Speaker 3: work for any given month, and then thinking through my
Speaker 3: typical weeks, where do I generally have more time in
Speaker 3: the weekdays or on the weekends, and how do I
Speaker 3: want to arrange the things that are happening weekly. Even
Speaker 3: though things might only come up weekly or bi weekly
Speaker 3: or monthly or quarterly, they're still going to end up
Speaker 3: landing on a day that you have other tasks. So
Speaker 3: the way that I ended up arranging it was my
Speaker 3: typical kind of weekly tasks ended up falling falling on
Speaker 3: a Monday. I do typically do laundry on Monday, so
Speaker 3: that was easy to kind of keep with that rhythm.
Speaker 3: So I identified that I'm washing clothes and towels every Monday,
Speaker 3: and then alternate weeks washing mats and rugs or washing bedding,
Speaker 3: and then on Tuesdays figuring out, okay, what could I
Speaker 3: reasonably fit into the schedule on a Tuesday. And so
Speaker 3: every week is cleaning the toilets and the bathroom sinks.
Speaker 3: So that's not an entire deep clean of the bathroom,
Speaker 3: it's just cleaning the things that are most often utilized
Speaker 3: to just to have a degree of maintained cleanliness. And
Speaker 3: those tasks literally do only take about five to seven minutes.
Speaker 3: Once I've realized kind of how long these tasks actually take,
Speaker 3: the barrier to entry is so much lower. And when
Speaker 3: I know this is all I have to do, I
Speaker 3: don't have to come in here and do an entire
Speaker 3: deep clean. I know what my schedule is. This is
Speaker 3: all I've got to do for the day. I've added
Speaker 3: like watering my plants to Tuesday as well. Wednesdays, I
Speaker 3: decided are typically the days of the week that for us,
Speaker 3: we don't have much going on in the evenings. Usually
Speaker 3: the other days of the week we do, so Wednesdays
Speaker 3: were the day that I decided to put my bigger
Speaker 3: cleaning tasks on. So the things that fell bi weekly
Speaker 3: or quarterly would end up happening on a Wednesday. So
Speaker 3: these are things like cleaning the couch, cleaning the dishwasher,
Speaker 3: cleaning the stove hood, wiping down base boards, cleaning the
Speaker 3: stainless steel. So one of these kind of larger tasks
Speaker 3: are always going to fall on a Wednesday, but not
Speaker 3: all at once. So one Wednesday might be, you know,
Speaker 3: the deep cleaning of the stovehood, and then the next
Speaker 3: Wednesday is the deep cleaning of the oven. Thursdays are
Speaker 3: super light for me. It's just watering our outside plants. Friday.
Speaker 3: I've got nothing that was a goal to have at
Speaker 3: least one day of the week where there is no
Speaker 3: task to be done completely free for whatever spontaneous activity,
Speaker 3: fun thing that we would want to do. Saturdays, I realized,
Speaker 3: at least in the morning, there's usually a couple of
Speaker 3: hours that I can snag for mowing the lawn, weeding,
Speaker 3: leaf blowing, cleaning off the patio, washing outdoor stuff. Again,
Speaker 3: we live in Florida, so those things need to happen
Speaker 3: pretty much year round. Or this might be also where
Speaker 3: a deep cleaning item might come into play. Deep cleaning
Speaker 3: my air even I've added like changing out our filters
Speaker 3: for our heating and cooling system. So even tasks that
Speaker 3: helped to maintain the home could be put on here.
Speaker 3: Cleaning the car goes on here as well, So that's
Speaker 3: kind of then how I arranged it. I like having
Speaker 3: it all on paper, and so this is just something
Speaker 3: that I can put up as a visual for both
Speaker 3: my husband and I and it's just a cheat sheet.
Speaker 3: What week are we in? Week two? It's a Wednesday,
Speaker 3: all right, what does the schedule tell us we're doing today?
Speaker 3: Eric prefers digital reminders, so he ended up putting all
Speaker 3: of our tasks into a shared Google task list and
Speaker 3: made it so that it could refresh week over weekly.
Speaker 3: You could check it off for that week, but then
Speaker 3: based on the frequency that you desire to be doing
Speaker 3: that task, it will renew itself. There are also plenty
Speaker 3: of even free cleaning schedule apps that you could download
Speaker 3: for you and the rest of the family. We just
Speaker 3: found that it didn't align with the frequencies that we wanted.
Speaker 3: It would be like the third Monday of every month,
Speaker 3: but it's like that's not always how we want to
Speaker 3: do this frequency, So it just didn't quite fit for us.
Speaker 3: But I'm sure that if that's your preference, you could
Speaker 3: find something that works for you.
Speaker 1: So now we're going to move on to cleaning products.
Speaker 1: So these are going to be tried and true cleaning
Speaker 1: products that you can keep with you all year, that
Speaker 1: you can use regularly. You don't have to buy chemical
Speaker 1: laden at the grocery store. If lowering your grocery costs
Speaker 1: is something that you're looking to do this year, then
Speaker 1: making your own cleaning products is something you can do.
Speaker 1: Because cleaning products are getting increasingly expensive and we don't
Speaker 1: buy them that often, so we don't think about them,
Speaker 1: but especially the name brands, which is what we usually
Speaker 1: go to when we are thinking about cleaning products. They
Speaker 1: are getting increasingly expensive. But there are some household items
Speaker 1: that you can use that are more natural, they're eco
Speaker 1: friendly and safe. Dot com has a list of six
Speaker 1: of them, and we're going to go over our favorites.
Speaker 3: So an easy all purpose cleaner is just equal parts
Speaker 3: white vinegar and water. You can also add in a
Speaker 3: little bit of lemon peel and or essential oils if
Speaker 3: you desire. That'll just make it smell a little bit
Speaker 3: more appealing. Personally, I don't mind the smell of vinegar.
Speaker 3: I'm accustomed to cleaning with it, but I totally get it.
Speaker 3: But most of us have these items on hand, or
Speaker 3: buying a big old jug of vinegar isn't a problem.
Speaker 3: And there's so many different ways that we can utilize
Speaker 3: that white vinegar, So putting that into a spray bottle
Speaker 3: and using it, however, you would typically use an all
Speaker 3: purpose cleaner. This could be used to wipe down your countertops.
Speaker 3: That's mostly how I use MYND countertops, cabinets, tables, desks,
Speaker 3: kind of everywhere all purpose.
Speaker 1: So instead of using this for an all purpose cleaner,
Speaker 1: I will do just a sumidgon like less natural, and
Speaker 1: I'll do a tea spoon of Don dish detergent into
Speaker 1: I think two cups of water, just making it slightly blue.
Speaker 1: That is what I use for my all purpose cleaner
Speaker 1: because I actually hate the smell of vinegar. I'm one
Speaker 1: of those, and so this is a very neutral scent
Speaker 1: if anything, just maybe slightly a little down scented, which
Speaker 1: is something I enjoy, but I find it pretty odorless.
Speaker 1: So yeah.
Speaker 3: The next one is a window or glass cleaner. You
Speaker 3: can make again with one part white vinegar to four
Speaker 3: parts water. You can also add a little bit of
Speaker 3: rubbing alcohol to that mixture and that'll just help with
Speaker 3: dry time. But that's great on anything glass or window
Speaker 3: with just like a microfiber cloth.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I will use the vinegar in this one because
Speaker 1: I do it less frequently, so it's with my all
Speaker 1: purpose cleaner, I'm using it every day. But with the
Speaker 1: glass cleaner, yeah, the vinegar, and then definitely if I
Speaker 1: have some lemon, adding lemon just to for me. The
Speaker 1: lemon is for me, and the rubbing alcohol is actually
Speaker 1: very helpful. Next would be a wood cleaner, and so
Speaker 1: this would be olive oil and lemon juice. I've actually
Speaker 1: never tried this.
Speaker 3: I did not know this.
Speaker 1: I still just use my all purpose cleaner.
Speaker 3: I know, I don't have a lot of wood that
Speaker 3: I'm wiping down. It would just be our kitch table.
Speaker 3: But I'm curious to try it. I think I would
Speaker 3: view this more as a polish than necessarily a cleaner,
Speaker 3: so i'd probably use the all purpose and then polish
Speaker 3: it with this.
Speaker 1: So they're saying most for hardwood floors either that too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I don't have that. I guess you would have
Speaker 1: to use this on your own. But it's saying like
Speaker 1: keeps the wooden surfaces shiny and nourished, and they say
Speaker 1: combining with lemon juice gives it a you know, it's
Speaker 1: again just for sent but yeah, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: guess that would be. It is a thing that you
Speaker 1: can do.
Speaker 3: And then apple cider vinegar is a great thing to
Speaker 3: also have on hand. This is going to kill bacteria
Speaker 3: and mold. So any places that you have those items existing,
Speaker 3: you can spray some apple cider vinegar on it. You
Speaker 3: can also mix it with baking soda, which can then
Speaker 3: become a polish for your stainless steel, sings, faucets, silverware.
Speaker 3: So really you can see that there's not a lot
Speaker 3: of ingredients. We're talking a lot of vinegar and water.
Speaker 3: It's mostly what's going to solve.
Speaker 1: An honorable mention I'll add is Barkeeper's Friend. It is
Speaker 1: a brand name, but it is pretty natural. It's like
Speaker 1: one of those I'm in the middle, like I'm not
Speaker 1: going ultra process, but I'm not going like straight from
Speaker 1: the ground, like I'm somewhere in the slightly processed family.
Speaker 1: So I love Barkeeper's Friend on our stainless steel, our
Speaker 1: cast iron in our sing like, I just I use
Speaker 1: it all the time, tub yeah, all the time everywhere.
Speaker 3: What products would you say you buy over handmaking diy
Speaker 3: ing them?
Speaker 1: Oh, you know it is dish washer detergent. That's the
Speaker 1: answer you wanted me to give. It is And they
Speaker 1: don't pay me to save them this. But it is
Speaker 1: the my gosh, I forget the name. It's that Platinum
Speaker 1: plus version. It's not the platinum, it's the Platinum Plus.
Speaker 1: For some reason, they have three tiers.
Speaker 3: Is it liquid or capsules, pods, pods, pots.
Speaker 1: And it is according to all of the review sites
Speaker 1: that I have, we substructe. We subscribe. The business does
Speaker 1: to consumer reports for their their research. Also Wirecutter, you
Speaker 1: don't need to subscribe to that. Those are the two
Speaker 1: most like reputable research and testing sources. Both say that
Speaker 1: this Platinum Plus in the purple. Gosh, I'll look it up.
Speaker 1: The people are listening and they're like, it's this, it's this, Uh,
Speaker 1: it's just unbeatable. It is. Oh, here it is. It's
Speaker 1: the purple. It's the Cascade Platinum Plus. And they have
Speaker 1: three love and I don't know why they have the
Speaker 1: first two levels because they're trash. It is the platinum
Speaker 1: plus that does it? Uh huh, and it's I buy
Speaker 1: it in bulk, wow, buy it in bulk wow.
Speaker 3: I have gotten so into diy ing my things. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's almost been a challenge for me not to say that, oh,
Speaker 3: I'm going to continue this forever. I just want to
Speaker 3: see do I already have the ingredients to be able
Speaker 3: to clean the thing that I'm cleaning, because I think, honestly,
Speaker 3: I think my gateway drug here it was meal planning
Speaker 3: and meal prepping and demystifying food like condiments and salad
Speaker 3: dressings and realizing I can make my own I already
Speaker 3: have the spices, the oils, the vinegars to make my
Speaker 3: own things here, which then kind of prompted me to
Speaker 3: be like, well, what other things is? They're just mystery
Speaker 3: around that. I think some company puts special magic dustin too,
Speaker 3: and that's why it's a good cleaner, when really I
Speaker 3: already have the ingredients to be able to do this.
Speaker 3: So there's been some trial and error happening over here,
Speaker 3: but I have been making my own laundry detergent and
Speaker 3: my own dishwasher detergent. I will say I am at
Speaker 3: the stage where the laundry detergent is great. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: keep going with that. The dishwashing detergent hasn't been ideal.
Speaker 3: It does clean, everything does come out clean, but it
Speaker 3: has this kind of like milky film on it a bit,
Speaker 3: which I think might have to do with like the
Speaker 3: the water being hard. But I also didn't have that
Speaker 3: issue when I was using store bought detergent. I'm not
Speaker 3: gonna lie though, I am still very curious to see
Speaker 3: if I can find a recipe that will get me
Speaker 3: what I want and.
Speaker 1: A lot of it.
Speaker 3: You know that between the dishwashing detergent and the laundry detergent,
Speaker 3: it's a lot of baking, soda, washing soda, borax, citric acid.
Speaker 3: So these things that you know, I mean the citric
Speaker 3: acid I don't always have on hand. I get that
Speaker 3: specifically to be able to make my own stuff, but
Speaker 3: it's like, once I have it, these things are the
Speaker 3: ingredients of our cleaning products. It's been a fun challenge
Speaker 3: and I think has helped me learn more about different
Speaker 3: ingredients and what works with what where. I can then
Speaker 3: be more informed in my future buying decisions as well.
Speaker 1: I will say that some newer research from Wirecutter has
Speaker 1: tested the drops what is it, drops ultrash plus, which
Speaker 1: is a bio based dishwasher detergent pod that is more
Speaker 1: sustainable than the Cascade plus powder whatever the ones that
Speaker 1: I use, and I am interested in trying them. They
Speaker 1: said they just they tested just under the cascade their
Speaker 1: top pick, but was comparable and if they are more sustainable,
Speaker 1: it is something that I could try. But yeah, we'll see.
Speaker 1: But if anybody else is interested in a more sustainable
Speaker 1: dishwasher pod that drops Ultra wash plus.
Speaker 3: Do you know what else is sustainable? We don't even
Speaker 3: need to look to wirecutter to support this. Yeah, the
Speaker 3: bill of the week.
Speaker 2: That's right, It's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 2: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 2: is Williams.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've paid off your mortgage.
Speaker 2: Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have
Speaker 2: to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 1: Dust bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill
Speaker 1: of the week.
Speaker 2: Hitchen and jil This is Carol calling in with the
Speaker 2: Bill of the week. It's actually my bill of the year,
Speaker 2: since I've been meaning to send this in for months
Speaker 2: because my bill is a recurrent bill.
Speaker 1: My YMCA membership.
Speaker 2: Our local YMCA costs seventy eight dollars a month, which
Speaker 2: includes ten hours a week of childcare, fitness equipment, free classes,
Speaker 2: community events, all the regular why stuff, tennis courts if
Speaker 2: you're into that. But mostly it's time for me to
Speaker 2: be by myself while still taking care of my small
Speaker 2: children and not taxing my stay at home husband with
Speaker 2: extra hours in the morning or evening. He and I
Speaker 2: have actually taken YMCA dates before, where we pick up
Speaker 2: coffee at the Dunkin Donuts down the street, drop the
Speaker 2: kids off in childcare and such at a picnic table
Speaker 2: outside just for some room to breathe. You can't beat
Speaker 2: a babysitter for two dollars an hour, and we're as
Speaker 2: lovely and cheerful as the people at the why. So
Speaker 2: if you haven't looked into your why, i'd recommend it.
Speaker 2: Thank you for everything you do, all.
Speaker 1: Right, girl. You don't know how many times I have
Speaker 1: thought about doing this a bunch if I didn't have
Speaker 1: the beautiful, wonderful childcare that I do for Atlas right now.
Speaker 1: When that expires, it is very likely that I'm going
Speaker 1: to try and do that. It's just the YMCA is
Speaker 1: just like it's a little it's not too far, but
Speaker 1: like I'm spoiled with how close our gym isn't even
Speaker 1: that close to us, but it is brand new and nice,
Speaker 1: but so many thoughts.
Speaker 3: I love this haag and this isn't the first time
Speaker 3: that I've heard about this one. I love all of
Speaker 3: the different benefits that are offered at the why of
Speaker 3: it's a combination of a gym membership along with them
Speaker 3: being able to watch your kids. I mean, obviously the
Speaker 3: goal isn't to drop them off and then go elsewhere,
Speaker 3: like I think they want you to kind of stay there,
Speaker 3: which you are doing, but it doesn't it doesn't mean
Speaker 3: that you have to then be exercising, Like there are
Speaker 3: other things that you can be doing while you're there,
Speaker 3: which is so so cool, well done. We love this
Speaker 3: bill too, and I love how like like somewhat affordable
Speaker 3: they can be for an entire family compared to other
Speaker 3: gym memberships. So this is exciting. I hope that it
Speaker 3: prompts any of our listeners to want to share your bill.
Speaker 3: If you're listening and you've got a bill you don't
Speaker 3: mind paying for one that has a lot of benefits
Speaker 3: or no benefits, so you stop paying for it or
Speaker 3: your name is Bill Frugal friendspodcast dot com slash Bill.
Speaker 3: We can't wait for it. And now it's time for
Speaker 3: the lightning round.
Speaker 1: All right, So today's lightning round question is let me
Speaker 1: scroll down a cleaning product everyone should DIY. Did you
Speaker 1: make this one? Jill?
Speaker 3: No, I didn't. Golby asked this question, why are you
Speaker 3: being so peeved about it?
Speaker 1: Well? Go, well you go first. I did.
Speaker 3: I did say all of it, which is a little
Speaker 3: it's not real, I know, I am smiling next to that.
Speaker 3: I do think it's a fun challenge to see what
Speaker 3: can I how can I clean with the things that
Speaker 3: I already have. I think that this is a big
Speaker 3: area where we can procress to spend. We can buy
Speaker 3: a lot of cleaning products for the fantasized version of
Speaker 3: ourselves that is clean, when really what we needed was
Speaker 3: a good structure and strategy and plan, and it wasn't
Speaker 3: about the cleaning products to begin with. It was about
Speaker 3: the implementation and the skill set to be able to
Speaker 3: do that. So I I think all of it can
Speaker 3: be diide. However, I think one of the best ones
Speaker 3: to begin with is that all purpose cleaner. I think
Speaker 3: white vinegar and water. To just know that it doesn't
Speaker 3: have to be super complicated can also help us.
Speaker 1: Yes, I love it as a challenge absolutely, as a
Speaker 1: way to stretch your creative muscles. And I would just
Speaker 1: say I don't necessarily recommend doing the dishwasher with the
Speaker 1: natural you know, that's not me. It's not me.
Speaker 3: You know you're drinking out of a cup right now
Speaker 3: that came out of the dishwasher cleaned by my all
Speaker 3: natural DIY dish detergent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, I noticed.
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna say that would did you notice.
Speaker 1: On the inside there was a film inside? And I'm
Speaker 1: not a germ freak, so I drank out of an
Speaker 1: anyway like it doesn't. And so that's coming from a
Speaker 1: drink out of a mug that looked like was coated
Speaker 1: in coffee residue. Okay, so that is the level we're
Speaker 1: working on, Jill. Okay, Okay, Cascades should pay me.
Speaker 3: A lot of companies.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so I'm gonna we already know that I
Speaker 1: love my uh my DIY all purpose cleaner. It's don
Speaker 1: it's I think that is nobody should pay for an
Speaker 1: all purpose cleaner done. I'm actually going to talk about
Speaker 1: a thing I think everyone should buy. Oh okay, so
Speaker 1: I'm sorry in advance. I'm going to influence people. And
Speaker 1: it's because I was influenced by social media. And it
Speaker 1: is the best product.
Speaker 3: Please don't say a steamer.
Speaker 1: It's not. No, it's not, it's not.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: It is the dremal scrub ub sponge like drill. It's
Speaker 1: it's the dreml It's called Versa Power Scrubber. And I'll
Speaker 1: show you Jill. Oh, I bought it like a year ago.
Speaker 1: It's what Amazon is telling me. Look, you attached these
Speaker 1: different types of sponges to it, and you press the
Speaker 1: button and you don't have to work as hard to scrub.
Speaker 1: It does the scrubbing for you and you just move
Speaker 1: it around.
Speaker 3: And what are you scrubbing?
Speaker 1: I am scrubbing my glass. The thing I use it
Speaker 1: for most is my glass oven top, so I will
Speaker 1: put some glass oven cleaner. And this is stuff I've had.
Speaker 1: I just use a smidgeon. So I've had it for
Speaker 1: five years. I got it for free at the chemical
Speaker 1: the repository or the.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, yeah, that's cool, and so I've been using
Speaker 3: it for like five years.
Speaker 1: But I just used like a little a little doll
Speaker 1: up yea. And will you use the dremal to clean
Speaker 1: the residue that gets stuck on there to make it
Speaker 1: good as new. I can also use it in the
Speaker 1: bathroom because the tiles get like grubby and it's just
Speaker 1: so much work just grub by hand. When I use
Speaker 1: the drummal, I'm just smooth. I'm just work like I'm
Speaker 1: going back and forth like it's doing the work. Yeah
Speaker 1: I am. And it comes with five different cleaning sponges.
Speaker 3: Is it electric or battery powered?
Speaker 1: Electric? So you charge it? Okay, you can. It says
Speaker 1: you can use them pots and pans. I actually haven't
Speaker 1: used in pots and pans, but like, what a fantastic
Speaker 1: You get your barkeeper friend in there, barkeeper's friend, and
Speaker 1: you just give her a little run through with the drumml, Like.
Speaker 3: So we're going from stove to bas different sponges, okay, okay, yeah, we.
Speaker 1: Got different sponges. I haven't used it for the pots,
Speaker 1: but obviously use a different sponge good between each.
Speaker 3: Place, right right obviously?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that sounds awesome.
Speaker 3: My one critique of it is it looks like I
Speaker 3: wouldn't be able to get into corners. There's so many
Speaker 3: corners I need to get into.
Speaker 1: This would be a fact because it is circular.
Speaker 3: It's circular.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's not gonna it's not one hundred percent,
Speaker 1: but for the ninety nine percent of the rest of
Speaker 1: the space.
Speaker 3: Do you think it'd be good for cleaning grout? That's
Speaker 3: something that's on my list that I need to do soon.
Speaker 1: The the original scrub Daddy pad might be give you enough, Like, okay, So.
Speaker 3: What I do is I'll just like turn it sideway
Speaker 3: little yeah, but like but in a true corner corner yet. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's not gonna get y yeah yeah, yeah, because it's
Speaker 3: spinning around, it's got to be circular. Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 1: So the Dremall scrub Daddy scrubber, Yeah, she's not cheap,
Speaker 1: but she is worth it.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I will say there are things I will purchase,
Speaker 3: and like you said, this sparked my memory. I will
Speaker 3: get cleaning products at like yard sales and stuff too.
Speaker 3: A lot of times homes are getting rid of you know,
Speaker 3: half used or hardly used bottles of various types of cleaner,
Speaker 3: which is so convenient. I will buy stainless steel cleaner.
Speaker 3: I have a lot of stainless steel appliances or like
Speaker 3: the polish. My fridge, oven, microwave, dishwasher, air fryer is
Speaker 3: all stainless steel, so having that on hand, I actually
Speaker 3: haven't looked up what a good DIY would be. I
Speaker 3: just have so much stainless steel cleaner from thrift stored
Speaker 3: or from yard sales that that works for me. And
Speaker 3: I agree with Barkeeper's friend, and I do buy down
Speaker 3: dish soap.
Speaker 1: So that's another thing. If you have the stuff, don't
Speaker 1: stop using it to go. Like with these di wys,
Speaker 1: just before you repurchase or purchase more, look and try
Speaker 1: a little bit of the DIY do. You don't need
Speaker 1: to make like a big thing to test out if
Speaker 1: it works for you. Just try it one time, see
Speaker 1: how you feel, and then from there, you know, decide
Speaker 1: if you're going to continue.
Speaker 3: Thanks everyone for being here on our little cleaning extravaganza.
Speaker 3: We loved having you here and we also love reading
Speaker 3: all of your kind reviews that you leave for us,
Speaker 3: like this one from Akwidgets says the best five stars,
Speaker 3: Love Jen and Jill the best financial podcast ever. Thank
Speaker 3: you girls for your hard work. Love Jennifer. Jennifer short
Speaker 3: and sweet, so kind, you look.
Speaker 1: At me like it was me who wrote it, Jennifer.
Speaker 3: No, I know you go by jen I know you.
Speaker 3: I know your name.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Jennifer. And if if you are listening to
Speaker 1: the show, if you haven't left a review, we would
Speaker 1: love it if you could leave a rating and review
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or a rating and comment on Spotify
Speaker 1: if you have. We would love if you would leave
Speaker 1: a rating and review on our book by What you
Speaker 1: Love Without Going Broke anywhere that you purchase it from
Speaker 1: or on Amazon, and just help people know what they
Speaker 1: can expect from us and from the book.
Speaker 3: Thanks by Google Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. What
Speaker 3: do you need to clean this week?
Speaker 1: I always need to clean my kitchen. It's there's so
Speaker 1: much stuff, so many cups and backpacks and plates, so
Speaker 1: many things, Like why it makes me want to live
Speaker 1: off of coffee because it only creates one dish like
Speaker 1: I wish and I do drink a lot of beverages,
Speaker 1: like just as a way to not prepare food. Even
Speaker 1: if something's already like prepared, when I eat it, then
Speaker 1: it's done and the dish is dirty. I'm just I'm
Speaker 1: a weirdo about that stuff, and I wish, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: just wish I could drink I could sustain myself like
Speaker 1: on life, like on coffee and not make and just
Speaker 1: keep the mess ebby.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the food between the food planning, prep, clean up,
Speaker 3: all that that means for the entire kitchen, not just
Speaker 3: the dishes. Yeah, it's it's a lot.
Speaker 1: It's made me consider getting those. I see the ads
Speaker 1: for Factor meals and I'm like, oh, if I didn't
Speaker 1: think those were going to be disgusting, I would.
Speaker 3: Do you think? Have you read the reviews?
Speaker 1: No? Gross? They remind me of TV dinners and those
Speaker 1: kind of like gross. Yeah, so I assume. But maybe
Speaker 1: Factor wants to reach out and sponsor me because they're
Speaker 1: right now, yeah.
Speaker 3: Like you're still here.
Speaker 1: Maybe they want to pay me to find out if
Speaker 1: it's gross or not. And I would take that money gladly.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I would take anyone's money gladly.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't take anyone's money gladly.
Speaker 3: Why not. They're giving you money, you know you're going
Speaker 3: to make good decisions with it.
Speaker 1: I know, but then I obviously have to do work
Speaker 1: in or not obviously no, not necessarily, the question was
Speaker 1: would you take anyone's money, not what would you Would
Speaker 1: you be willing to do anything that the person giving
Speaker 1: you money would make you do. I'm gonna stick with
Speaker 1: my answer, but.
Speaker 3: Okay, wow, I gotta clean my floors. Yep.
Speaker 1: I see a little piece of dirt on the floor.
Speaker 3: I know, friends, high gloss tile choice. It looks so cool,
Speaker 3: it was a choice, but it shows so much. There's
Speaker 3: no there's no hiding. There's no hiding here there.
Speaker 1: I look at our like LVP and I look and
Speaker 1: I think it's dirty, but it's really just the grain
Speaker 1: and the wood. And I'm like, oh, blessings, because the
Speaker 1: two over there really are like dried milk covered in dirt,
Speaker 1: but this one is actually the dark grain of the wood.
Speaker 3: I do think these floors might drive me nutty, but
Speaker 3: we're gonna We're gonna try and stay sane. We'll see,
Speaker 3: stay tuned.