Stinky Towels RX

I know - it happens to the best of us! Towels can get stinky fast - whether they are thrown into a hamper damp, hung on a hook so they don't dry properly, or they are hung in a place where there is so little air flow or such high humidity that they don't dry. Smelly towels are a big YUK.

Make them smell better! Fix the smell the Lazy way: put the towels into a bucket and add just enough water to cover them then add 2 cups of inexpensive white vinegar and mix. Let them soak for 6-8 hours. Wash the towels in hot water with a little soap and the soak-water. Dry immediately.

Towels always do best in a warm to hot water wash because they accumulate body oils - the hot water removes them.


Tip ~ This works with stinky clothing too, but you do need to be wary of the fabrics and not everything is compatible with a hot water wash.

No Wining

Friends and red wine... it's all good until someone knocks over a glass or spills on your light carpet. It happened at my place with some friends. I was just a rock-star while everyone else gasped and panicked  I just headed to the kitchen for the white wine and splashed a liberal amount on top while laughing and chatting with them. I was as cool as a cucumber and felt like a goddess.

Do you really want to know the science behind it? There's an enzyme in white wine which prohibits the colour of the red wine from setting. The white wine has to be added immediately, and then blot with a towel ... and go back later and clean your carpet in the normal way if the fibers feel a bit stiff from the sugars. Lazy Housekeeper's genius!

Dangerous Liasions

Adventures in housekeeping? Here's how NOT to turn your house cleaning into a toxic experiment:

Vinegar + Bleach = Chlorine Gas
Undiluted Bleach + Ammonia = Hydrochloric Acid + Chloramine Gas
Bleach + Dish Detergent (some) = Mustard Gas 
Rubbing Alcohol + Bleach = Chloroform Gas

You can actually kill yourself while re-inventing WWI chemical warfare. I am not kidding... I have unfortunately tried  two of these in my own home and you get dizzy, your eyes burn, and your lungs start to react almost immediately. You must go somewhere safe and breathe so you don't collapse, and air out the house for a few hours.

Be aware that some cleaners may not be clearly labelled as 'bleach', 'ammonia', or some substances (such as cat pee) are ammonia but you may not be aware that they are. 

Be careful out there... I want you Lazy, not Sick!  

 

Oscar the Grout

An ounce of prevention...

Grout is the perfect example of this principle. Make sure it never gets the opportunity to mold, because once you've got mold, it will keep coming back. (Yes... the black stuff is household mold and it will create spores you breathe.) What would take you seconds in prevention will make you frustrated and take hours to clean.  Grout is a porous substance to hold the tiles in place, but it actually doesn't do well when it remains wet or damp because the water actually seeps into it. It's a great medium to grow mold. Once it begins getting mold, it gets harder and harder to get rid of as it grows and deepens.

• Keep good ventilation of grouted spaces and let it dry as completely as possible
• Clean it regularly - take the Lazy route and put undiluted white vinegar in a spray bottle and spray the whole thing weekly for a heavily used bathroom or monthly for a lightly used, well ventilated one. Let it sit for about 15-20 minutes and then rinse with water. I'd suggest doing this with open windows - it doesn't smell like roses but there are no harsh chemicals. This works because vinegar is acidic and 80% of mould cannot survive in that environment.
• Keep your grout maintained so it never molds and you will save hours and hours of cleaning time and grief

If you do see a spot of mold, use the toothbrush and vinegar. Don't even rinse after... because if a little of the vinegar seeps deep into the grout, it can kill the spores living there.Vinegar can work with most household molds and is mild.

If you get some mold and want to use a harsher chemical, fill a clean spray bottle with 50/50 bleach and water and spray the whole surface. Scrub the mold spots with bleach and the toothbrush. Rinse after 10 minutes.

Important - This solution is for tiles. If you have a porous stone (marble etc), acids such as vinegar will etch your surface. This tip will not work for you. 

Keeping Towels Fresh

Avoid putting damp towels in the hamper, and add a cup of plain white vinegar to your towel wash every time to keep your towels fresh.  

It's one of my favourite tips - I've been doing it for as long as I've owned a washing machine. I genuinely love how people react when they try it for the first time. Maybe it's because people expect towels to come out smelling like vinegar. Maybe it's the universality of towels getting stinky from staying damp too long.


I have a huge jug of vinegar beside my washing machine... and a plastic marked measuring cup on top, so using vinegar in the wash is a Lazy no-brainer. Vinegar can be used with any colour towels and the wash never comes out smelling like vinegar. They just smell fresh.  

Tip - I put the vinegar in the bleach receptacle  so that the machine will dispense it evenly in the wash. Just don't mix vinegar and bleach.

Even Lazier! The vinegar keeps the washing machine smelling fresh and clean and helps avoid buildups.

Drain Solutions

Sad or sublime, I've been using this tip for 19 years! It's Lazy Housekeepers magic - because it's effective and takes almost no time to do.

My guy and I lived in a tiny apartment in a 100-year-old house. The drains and tub were a mess and the landlord agreed to send someone by... this plumber told me about this trick and told me if I did it regularly, my drains would not clog and that it was safe for 'antique' plumbing. Doing it regularly means that not much builds up in the drains and the drains don't smell bad.

I've never had a clogged drain! Honestly, never!

I never measure how much I put... enough baking soda to fill the drain to the top and enough cheap white vinegar to flush the baking soda into the drain. I love the fizzing reaction. Wait a full 10 minutes to let it do it's work before flushing with water. Since I do about 6 drains all at once... going from one to another, the whole 'cleaning' takes me 15 minutes max. I do it about 2-3x a year - how often you do it is up to you.

Don't forget ... powder room sinks, bath tubs, laundry sinks, kitchen sink.... they can all use this!

More Reasons to Love Coffee

I've been doing this for years and it fertilizes your plants and composts too! Be Lazy - just sprinkle it on top of the earth.

There are a few tips for the advanced Lazy Housekeeper:

1. Don't always put this on the same plants since too much nitrogen will kill plants. Rotate through your garden and keep doing it in winter;
2. If you have slug problems create a ring around the affected plants with the used coffee grounds... slugs don't like crawling over this stuff;
3. You can use this as a squirrel deterrent. Let's be honest; not much deters them consistently but they don't like the strong smell of coffee grounds.

Which of these visuals do you like better? I'm trying to figure out what I'll use going forward - thanks!

Boiling Water

Never waste boiling water... you've spent the time and money (energy bill) to boil it, so put it to good use!

Here are 5 things extra boiling water is good for:

1. Pour it on weeds along the driveway or between patio stones. It kills them all;
2. Disinfect a sink with it by just pouring it on all the surfaces;
3. Pour it down a slow or stinky drain... it will help clean and flush out the drain;
4. Pour a little on your range top, give it about 5 minutes and wipe it clean;
5. If you've been boiling vegetables, let the water cool and water your houseplants with it (they will get some extra nutrients)

These tasks each take 1-3 minutes to complete and you've accomplished extra without much effort!  

Simplify!

For every regularly-used bed in your home, you need 3 sheet sets. Some may want special seasonal sheets, or keep an extra set out of nostalgia, but if you want a linen closet you never have to clean or neaten, stick with 3 sheet sets. Because you only have 3, this is license to splurge on sheets that make you happy to crawl under the covers each and every night. You spend nearly 1/3 of your life in bed (or we should!) so get the best you can afford. 

Sheets should breathe, be of excellent quality cotton, good thread-count, be a colour you love. Thread count is a good indicator but can also be misleading - how fabulous is each thread? Egyptian and Turkish cotton are good (there are many grades and types of cotton), but don't let that alone be your deciding factor. FEEL the sheets... do you love them? Do you like the super-soft feel of very high thread counts? The crisp of medium thread-counts? Do you want the added durability and wrinkle-free life of polyester-cotton blends? Do you like cotton, cotton sateen, silk, blends?

I've learned my lesson: I don't buy sheets online. I bought a set of 450tc Egyptian cottons sheets at a decent price. They are too thin, with less-than-sturdy construction, and I just don't like using them. I am giving them to my mom so they will hopefully get used.