Love-Leigh Thoughts and Ideas

I have fallen in love with lemons ! I know it sounds weird but they are awesome ! I have been using lemons to help clean the house. The smell great and clean great too ! I have used the good old baking soda and lemon trick on sinks, the bathtub, kitchen counters you name it , I’ve cleaned it. Last Friday I cleaned the cutting block with a lemon sliced in half – Did you know that lemons can clean your cutting board? The acid in them sanitized the wood and even gets into all those cutting marks !  I used the other half of the lemon to clean my stove top. Did you also know that lemons are a natural degreaser? We have almost lived in our home a year , and I have never been able to get the grease off of our stove no matter how hard I try . Well guess what its GONE ! I just cut a lemon in half rubbed it on my trouble grease spots and then dried it with a clean kitchen towel !

Thursday I went to clean my kitchen sink and remembered that I was out of cleaner . I have been using comet ( This is the only non-green cleaner we use in our house ) I didn’t know what the “green” equivalent  is . So I jumped online to see if I could clean my sink with anything I already had around the house . This is what I found :

Cut a lemon in half . Dip the lemon in baking soda and scrub .

So that is what I did ! The sink smelled great , It was also very shiny,  I didn’t have to deal with stinky cleaners , and I didn’t have to run out and buy anything ! The only thing I didn’t like is I have a very old white porcelain sink and it did very little in making my sink white .   But for the most part I would use it again in a heart beat.

So  it’s that time of year again the weather is getting chilly. This  Fall/ Winter Ryan and I are committed to saving $ ,to be specific with our home  . We are working on other areas too but our home costs us the most amount of $ . By home I mean , utility bills, house up keep , grocery – that kinda stuff.  Here are a few steps we have taken to help reduce our utility bills in the last week:

1.) Installed a programmable thermostat – we now turn down our heat when no one but the dog is home ,and at night .

2.) Hot water tank blanket – this alone is supposed to help reduce the energy you use by 35 %

3.) Cleaned out the dryer vents – then ripped apart and cleaned the dryer insides. We went from 2-3 cycles to dry a load of cloths to 1 cycle ! This is going to help out a lot ! And it only took about an hour !

4.) Re-taped the air ducts in our basement .

5.) A flap style dryer vent  for the outside. This opens to vent when the dryer is on and then closes when the dryer is off. It prevents cold air from getting into your house. The one we have right now is just open to the outside.

6.) Caulk – Our home is old – built-in 1918 –  it’s drafty . I started to notice that there is a gap between the wall and window frames in some of the rooms . I started  to caulk around then and I already notice a big difference !

7.) CFL Bulbs – After talking to my Dad – he said this is the biggest impact you can make on your electric bill . Ryan and I have only switched over 2-rooms in our house those bulbs are $$$$ . But worth it !

8.) This one sounds silly – but I think it will add up . I stopped using my big coffee pot. I now use my coffee press. Now here is my logic behind it . My coffee pot was plugged in all day every day . Now I don’t use any electric. Now here’s the worst part about using the big coffee pot. Ryan does not drink coffee so all that was doing was making a cup or two for me ! Now I kept my big coffee pot for when we have people over but , my hope is that by not using it everyday it will save us some $ .

9.) Foam inserts for the light switches . A simple foam insert that goes around the light switch to keep air from leaking in from outside !

I’m on the hunt for the plug ones next !

So there you have it 9 simple things we have done in the last week to help reduce our impact on the environment and save us $ its a win win !