Make Your Stainless Sink Shine - My Natural Secret Ingredient

Since we installed our new stainless steel farmhouse sink I've been kind of obsessed with keeping it shiny.  I normally wipe all the water spots off after I use the sink, but not everyone in our house takes the time to do that.   So.....let me tell you my secret to keeping it shiny longer using a natural secret ingredient.

This of course it how it looks after I've cleaned it and used my secret ingredient to make it all shiny and pretty!

We have very hard water, so this is what happens!  If you don't wipe it down right away, it gets all ookey looking like this! Yuck!  It drives me wild when its like this!

All these water marks are just not helping me think my new sink is pretty...nope at all!  Let's get rid of them NOW!

First I scrubbed the sink really good with a mixture of Dawn dish soap and vinegar (recipe here).  I used my yellow and green scrubber (use the yellow sponge side, not the green scrubber side) and spread the mixture all over the sinks.  Let it sit for about 10 to 15 minutes, rinse thoroughly and dry the sink with a paper towel.  NOTE: Sometimes if I have stains, I used my miracle cleanser, you can read about it HERE.

This is my secret to shiny! 100% olive oil.  Can you believe it? Have you ever tried it before?  It also helps to repel the water.  Like wax on a car it beads up and rolls right off and down the drain.  I read about its use HERE.

Careful, it doesn't take much at all.  Just pour a small amount of oil on a paper towel like you see above and get to buffing.

Using a circular motion I make sure to get it spread around and rubbed in so its not collecting dust and cat fur...oh wait, that's just our house huh?  Just keep polishing until you like it!

See! Shiny!  An no more water spots!  I have to be honest with you, it doesn't stay like this long, but while its looking like this....I love it!

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:
These lovely and FUN parties!
Between Naps on the Porch
DIY Home Sweet Home 

read more

Clover House's Top 15 Posts of 2013 - A Year in Review

WOW! What a year 2013 has been! We've done so much but still have so much to do! It took a bit of gathering of information, but here's our top 15 project posts of 2013.  Just click on the link below each picture to be taken to the original post and all the good information!  Enjoy! :)

#1 HOW TO CLEAN AN HE WASHER

#2 A CLEAN SINK'S FRIEND

#3 RV FLOOR UPDATE

#4 RAISED BED GARDEN PART 2

#5 RAISED BED GARDEN PART 3

#6 RAISED BED GARDEN PART 1

#7 LAUNDRY ROOM REVEAL

#8 RV CABINET UPDATE

#9 CROCKPOT CREAM CHEESE CHICKEN CHILI

#10 FENCE PICKET A/C UNIT COVER

#11 TILING THE KITCHEN FLOOR

#12 DIY TACO SEASONING

#13 ORGANIZE AND BEAUTIFY YOUR CABINETS

#14 KITCHEN CABINET PART 3

#15 EASTER EGG WREATH

I hope you've enjoyed browsing our past year of the top 15 posts!  Did you get some good ideas?  I hope you pinned them! Thanks to all of our readers for making it such an awesome year!  Keep watching in 2014 for more great ideas, recipes, tips and tricks!  :)

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:
Sunday
Under the Table and Dreaming by Stephanie Lynn
The Self Sufficient Home Acre 
The Chicken Chick,  Sew Can Do
Monday
Craft-O-Maniac, 
Between Naps on the Porch
DIY Home Sweet Home
Keeping it  Simple 
The Dedicated House
Skip to my Lou
Home Coming
Tuesday
Not Just a Housewife
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Sugar Bee Crafts 
New Nostalgia 
It's your Life
BeBetsy
Fluster Buster   
Confessions of a Plate Addict
A Stroll Thru Life
Wednesday
Clean and Scentsible
Lady Behind the Curtain
Family Home and Life
Ducks n a Row
VMG206
Herrban Momma 
Family Home & Life
Oh My! Creative
Thursday  
Bloom
The Taylor House
52 Mantels
Domesblissity
4 You With Love
Sweet Haute
Artsy Fartsy Mama
From My Front Porch To Yours
Friday 
Lil’ Luna
Tatertots and Jello
Five Simple Things
Craftionary
Diana Rambles
I Heart Nap Time
Crafts a la mode
Saturday 
Angels Homestead
Positively Splendid,
Or So She Says
Your Homebased Mom
What's Cooking with Ruthie
Made From Pinterest

read more

RV Remodel on a Budget - Floor Update

As promised from last week's post we have our pop-up camper floor remodel to show you!  It makes such a huge difference in the look of the camper.  We love how it turned out!

We went from the 80s to 2013 in just about 5 hours.  It actually took a lot longer than we expected, but it was well worth it.

Our camper is 11' x 6' but the floor of course is much smaller than that, so we purchased 2 boxes of the peel and stick flooring just to be sure we had enough.  It's the cheapest brand at Lowe's and it cost about $30 per box.  We used one full box and a quarter of the second one.

We simply followed the package instructions to install the flooring.  First of all you need to clean the floor really well.  Vacuum first.

Using a handheld sander, remove the shine from the original flooring.  This helps the new flooring to adhere better.  Of course you'll need to vacuum again to remove the dust.

Next we used a mixture of vinegar, original dawn dish soap and water to clean the floor before we started applying the new flooring.  Mix 2 cups warm water, 1 cup vinegar and 1 teaspoon of original dawn dish soap.  Let the floor dry well before starting your installation.

First find the center of your "room" and mark it for your starting point.  We used a laser level to mark our starting line so the floor would start out straight and end up straight.

The back of your tiles will have an arrow marked on them.  Make sure you keep your arrows all going in the same direction when laying your tiles.  If they don't all go in the same direction, it will cause the flooring to have noticeable variations in the overall "look".  We used a sharpie and wrote directly on the old floor to mark the direction of our arrows to remind us.

We chose to stagger the tiles to give it a more natural look.  This caused the job to take much longer due to the fact of having to measure and cut tiles and make sure the butted lines were not all going to end up exactly the same.  Also, as I've said before, my honey is a perfectionist and it HAS to be perfect!  I love that about him!

Cutting the tiles are easy.  Simply mark your straight line in pencil and cut with your kitchen scissors.  NOTE: You will need to clean your scissors with alcohol to remove the adhesive when you're finished.

Here are a few before and after pictures showing the awesome difference a little peel and stick tile made in our tiny little pop-up camper!

We love, love, love how it turned out!  There was lots of tricky curvy parts that took some crafty planning to cut the tiles and get them laid just so, but in the end it was very rewarding to see the final look!

My honey finished off the floor by installing some trim around the floor/walls to complete our little RV floor update.  Now we are contemplating recovering the seat cushions.....what do you think?

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:

Sunday
Under the Table and Dreaming by Stephanie Lynn, The Self Sufficient Home Acre , The Chicken Chick
 
Monday
Craft-O-Maniac, Between Naps on the Porch, DIY Home Sweet Home , Keeping it  Simple , The Dedicated House, Skip to my Lou
Married Filing Jointly,  Home Coming
 
Tuesday
Not Just a Housewife, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia,  Sugar Bee Crafts,  New Nostalgia,  It's your Life

Wednesday
Lil’ Luna, Clean and Scentsible, Lady Behind the Curtain.  Family Home and Life,  Ducks n a Row

Thursday
 Bloom,  Two Yellow Birds Decor,  The Busy B's,  The Taylor House.  52 Mantels,  Domesblissity

Friday 
Tatertots and Jello,  Five Simple Things,  Craftionary,  Diana Rambles,  Rooted In Thyme
Saturday 
Angels Homestead,  Positively Splendid,  I Heart Nap Time,  Or So She Says ,  Your Homebased Mom ,  What's Cooking with Ruthie 

read more

Cleaning Your Sink's Spray Nozzle Naturally

We have very hard water where we live and it tends to cause build up pretty quickly.  Do you remember back HERE where I showed you the amazing "clean sink's friend" I found? Well, I thought why not clean the spray nozzle all at the same time? I didn't want to use the chemical cleaner to clean the nozzle for fear of it getting stuck down in the sprayer.  I used one simple ingredient.  I would imagine you'll have it it in your cupboard just like I did.

I used plain old vinegar.  Just pour enough to cover your nozzle in a bowl or cup and soak.  That's all I did and in about 30 minutes I went and checked and all the hard water build up was gone.

It didnt get all of the build up off, but it got the biggest part of it.  The nozzle looks 100% better now.  It goes with the new sparkling clean sink better than it did when I started, for sure!

I suppose if I would have let it soak even longer it may very well have dissolved the remaining build up.  I will try that next time I need to clean the nozzle again.

We may not have a nice new farm house sink just yet, but in the meantime we will have a nice looking vintage harvest gold sink with a clean spray nozzle!

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:

Sunday
Under the Table and Dreaming by Stephanie Lynn, The Self Sufficient Home Acre , The Chicken Chick
 
Monday
Craft-O-Maniac, Between Naps on the Porch, DIY Home Sweet Home , Keeping it  Simple , The Dedicated House, Skip to my Lou
Married Filing Jointly,  Home Coming
 
Tuesday
Not Just a Housewife, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia,  Sugar Bee Crafts,  New Nostalgia,  It's your Life

Wednesday
Lil’ Luna, Clean and Scentsible, Lady Behind the Curtain.  Family Home and Life,  Ducks n a Row

Thursday
 Bloom,  Two Yellow Birds Decor,  The Busy B's,  The Taylor House.  52 Mantels,  Domesblissity

Friday 
Tatertots and Jello,  Five Simple Things,  Craftionary,  Diana Rambles

Saturday 
Angels Homestead,  Positively Splendid,  I Heart Nap Time,  Or So She Says ,  Your Homebased Mom ,  What's Cooking with Ruthie

read more

A Clean Sink's Friend

Don't be jealous, but we have a lovely harvest gold 1980s porcelain sink!  Its what we have for now.....until a new farm house sink comes to live with us. I can't wait!  Do you ever look at your sink and think "Eeeew gross"? Me too, but not anymore! 

This is my pretty sink (as pretty as harvest gold sinks get) that I discovered was under all the scratches and stains.  If you're familiar with our blog, we like to use natural cleaning supplies normally, but I have tried everything! Literally!  None of them worked to my satisfaction.  When I saw this post the other day I had to find it and try it for myself.  Thanks Desiree!

WOW!  That's exactly what I said when I saw the before and after pictures.  All I did was squirt a good amount of the bar keepers friend into the sink and used my Scotch Brite green and yellow sponge scrubber to scrub away all the yuck!  It took very little effort to reach the end result.

This is my sink's new best friend.  Bar Keepers Friend.  I didn't find it at WalMart but I did find it at Lowe's so I purchased mine at our local Lowe's for $2.98. So worth it!

This is how scratched and ugly our sink was before the BKF was used.  It really looked dull too, like it didn't shine anymore.  It shines now though!

Here is the BKF sitting for a few minutes before I rinsed the scratches and stains down the drain.  There is a very slight smell while using the BKF, but nothing so bad as to burn your eyes or nose, just a slight cleanser smell.

This is how our sink will be looking until a new one arrives to take over sink duties. Aaah so much better than before.  I only wish I knew about this stuff 2 years ago!

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:

Sunday
Under the Table and Dreaming by Stephanie Lynn
The Self Sufficient Home Acre 
The Chicken Chick
 
Monday
Craft-O-Maniac
Between Naps on the Porch
DIY Home Sweet Home
Keeping it Simple
Thrifty Decor Chick
The Dedicated House

Tuesday
Not Just a Housewife
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Wednesday
Lil’ Luna
Clean and Scentsible
Green Eggs and Goats
Lady Behind the Curtain

Thursday
Bloom
Two Yellow Birds Decor
The Busy B's

Friday 
Tatertots and Jello
Joyful Stamper
Craftionary

Saturday
Positively Splendid
I Heart Nap Time
Or So She Says 
Your Homebased Mom 
What's Cooking with Ruthie 

read more

Cleaning an HE Washer with Household Products

It was time to clean our HE washer and I was out of cleaning tablets. They are expensive ($12 for three tablets), it was early one Saturday morning and I didn't want to get out in the cold to go get more tablets. I turned to Pinterest! I searched up how to clean an HE washer and there were a few different ways. This is what I chose to do.

The vinegar and baking soda method was most used in the "how-tos" that I found on Pinterest and I had both items on hand so it seemed like it was worth a try and of course way cheaper!

NOTE:  Our washer is a smarty pants, it tells me when it wants to be cleaned. We switched to homemade laundry soap back in September.  You can read about that HERE.  The machine doesn't ask to be cleaned near as often as when I used liquid soap full time.  I love the homemade soap, but I missed the smell of the softener in the liquid soap.  I decided to get another bottle and use it for a while just to experiment.  I've cleaned the machine twice in the time it took to use the bottle of  liquid soap...not good!

To clean your HE front load washer you will need 2 cups vinegar and 1 cup baking soda, any brand will do, this is just what I had handy.  This method literally costs pennies to clean the washer! That beats the heck out of  $4 a cleaning the tablets would cost us! Woohoo!

I added 1/2 cup of baking soda to the drum and another 1/2 cup in the soap dispenser drawer.

Next I added 1 cup of vinegar in the drum and 1 cup to the dispensing drawer as well. See the bubbling reaction there when I added the vinegar?  That didn't happen in the dispensing drawer because there are 2 separate compartments. Whew! I then closed up the door and drawer and set it to the cleaning cycle, our machine takes a little more than an hour to go through the whole process.

These next 3 pictures are the before and after shots I took to document my experiment.  The only thing I could tell was different from the tablets and the home mixture was the scent that the tablets left behind.  It was not there, but a fresh, clean smell was there instead! YAY!
I'm sold that vinegar and baking soda works just as well as the very expensive tablets.  I have to go to Lowes to get the tablets, they aren't sold in any of the grocery stores in my little town and I can get vinegar and baking soda at the grocery store or dollar store with no problem any time.

When I clean the washing machine I always wipe down both machines on the outside too just to make them all pretty and shiny for my nice new laundry room.  Speaking of that, I haven't shown you the final new look of our laundry room have I?  Hmmm, I better get on that soon!

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:

Sunday
Under the Table and Dreaming by Stephanie Lynn
The Chicken Chick
 
Monday
Craft-O-Maniac
Between Naps on the Porch
DIY Home Sweet Home
Keeping it Simple

Tuesday
Not Just a Housewife
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Wednesday
Lil’ Luna
Clean and Scentsible
The Pinterest Challenge Winter Edition

Thursday
Bloom
Two Yellow Birds Decor

Friday
Joyful Stamper
Craftionary

Saturday
Positively Splendid
I Heart Nap Time

read more