20 Day Clean-up to Thanksgiving

Do you get stressed during the Holidays? Most women have a love/hate relationship with the 5 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Mainly because we are too busy and adding huge events to our schedule is not really what we need in our crazy days. But what if we were ready for Thanksgiving. Our house was cleaned and organized and we had a shopping day set aside with a list and a plan. That's what we are going to give you in our "20 Day Countdown". You will get a daily plan to get and keep your home clean for the big family day- with days set aside for shopping and even one day to relax! Sound like a plan! That's the secret - having a plan and sticking to it. So join us every day until Thanksgiving and your home will be clean for guests and you will be stress free and ready for your family and the next holiday celebration!

Day 16 - 15 The windows and the window trim- Since it's the weekend, we have to do a few big jobs. Let's look at the "bright side"! Since it's getting darker earlier, we want to let in as much light during the day as we can, so cleaning the windows is good for us and will show off our home on Thanksgiving day. If you don't have a lot of time - at least clean the inside of the windows and the trim. Also, after Sunday you can start putting up your Holiday decorations in your windows!

Here is a recipe from my book (page 47) to remove acid rain spots on the outside of your windows: 1/2 cup white vinegar, 1/2 cup lemon juice - mix together and apply with a sparkle sponge. Then clean your windows inside and out with the blue glass E-cloth. You can have crystal clear windows with just water- NO WINDEX-NO PAPERTOWELS-NO STREAKS-NO SMEARS-NO LINT! Cleaning your windows can be easy!! Then use the green all purpose E-cloth to wipe down the wood window trim with just water. It doesn't get much easier.

If you don't have the cloths or my book go to http://www.shopgreencleaning.com And here is a $5 off gift certificate to help you through your Thanksgiving cleaning- just use 5off in the

checkout! Happy Cleaning!

Day 17 - The Small Appliances - they all need a good scrub. Your going to have people in your kitchen trying to help you, so let's make it look like everything is always really clean. Grab an old toothbrush, a big bowl of warm soapy water, a spray bottle filled with half white vinegar -half water and an all-purpose microfiber cloth. Let's start with your coffee maker. Begin by spraying it down with the vinegar mixture. (make sure it's unplugged) Put the glass pot in the water to soak while you take that toothbrush and scrub all the crevices of the machine. Go ahead and make a mess. We are just going to wipe it down with the warm soapy water and dry it with the microfiber cloth. Scrub, rince and dry the pot and put it back on the burner. Now let's clean the inside by running some diluted vinegar through it. Make sure you run plain water through after the vinegar! Now doesn't that look better! On to the next appliance that might be used at Thanksgiving. And don't forget to check that electric knife you only use once a year.

Day 18 - The Microwave - here's a green trick. So one of your guests is nice enough to bring a side dish for dinner, but they need to warm it up in your microwave. No matter how hard you try- they are going to see inside it, so we might as well make sure it's clean. Here's a green way to "steam clean" it. Put a cup of water with 3 tablespoons of lemon juice in a bowl and place it in the microwave. Set the microwave on high for 2 to 3 minutes depending on how long it takes your microwave to boil water. Let it boil and steam, When it stops - leave the door closed for another minute or two. Be very careful and remove the bowl and wipe the inside with a sponge or towel. If you have a sparkle sponge and skoy cloth, the job will be easy. Now that it's clean, wipe it out everytime you use with an e-cloth until Thanksgiving.


Day 19 - The Refrigerator - Let's green clean out that box. You want to empty out your refrigerator so we can make room for everything we will need for the big day. Let's purge all those old salad dressings, old jars of salsa and anything else that you really aren't going to need. Once you get it so you can see in there, mix up an all purpose cleaner of 1/2 white vinegar and 1/2 seltzer water. Don't add an essential oil to the vinegar because we want the vinegar to remove any smells in the frig. The vinegar smell should only last about 20 minutes and will neutralize the others. Wipe everything down with a microfiber cloth and the vinegar mixture. Now your refrigerator is ready to be opened by friends or family. Without embarrassment!

Day 20 - The Guest Bathroom - Let's get that bathroom that the guests will be using clean now- and then we can keep it clean with a wipe of a blue microfiber cloth and a quick vacuum! I just did my downstairs guest bath this morning. If you are having overnight guests, clean the shower they will be using really well now and if it's being used everyday, put a squeegee in there for everyone to help you keep the soap scum away. Depending on how dirty the guest's bathroom is, you can start cleaning today and finish it up tomorrow. Getting it clean will take a little time - but keeping it clean will be easy!