New Towels!

If you think I'm a geek about my existing towels, I shouldn't admit that I get giddy about new ones. Only because I don't buy them often, I splurge and buy good ones and I love colour.

If you want those new towels to be beautiful for longer, treat them right! Always launder towels before using them for the first time. Here are a few great things I have learned with new towels:

• For new, coloured towels, soak and then wash them in a vinegar/ water solution to help 'set' the colours. Salt (regular table salt) also helps set colours, so if you wanted to do a second 'soak' you could do this as well with about 1/3 cup of salt. With bold, saturated or deep colours, this is particularly important;
• Deep colours may bleed for a few washes even when treated, so be careful what you wash them with for the first 10 washes!
• Fabric softeners reduce the absorption of your towels. They also reduce the 'loft' of your towels. This is because they coat the cotton. If you are starting with new towels, never use softeners on them. If you have used softeners on them in the past, wash them with a 1/2 cup of baking soda to help minimize the silicone build-up. If you use dryer sheets, these too add build-up. Use a 1/2 sheet or old sheets (ones used already) if you must use them at all;
• Always wash sets of towels together to keep them the same colour and 'fading' at the same pace;
• Use less detergent than a normal laundry load to avoid build-up... about 1/2 to 3/4 is sufficient;
• Only use bleach on white towels. A colour-safe bleach might be used on coloured towels but it won't have the same disinfecting effect. Either sunlight or regular vinegar washes will help disinfect your coloured towels;
• Wash coloured towels in warm water. Cool water keeps colours fresh but hot water gets rid of body oils, dirt or staleness;
• Using lower heat to dry towels will increase softness/ reduce shrinking. A gas dryer is more gentle on all fabrics, if you have a choice; 
• Towels do create more lint at first and it might continue for a few washes.This is normal for good towels - just clean out the lint traps and don't stress it;
• Lint from cotton towels is perfect nesting material for birds... plush and natural and biodegradable. Won't hurt baby birds. I put some out in a suet cage and let the birds take it from there. Oh - and won't they have pretty coloured nests??
• Avoid using towels on sink areas or directly on toothpastes etc; some face creams, toothpastes, and cleaner residues have lightening agents which will discolour your towels permanently. Watch for terms like 'whitening', 'brightening' or 'peroxide'.

What kind of towels do you like? Did my tips help you? 

Toothbrush Detox

Welcome to my germaphobic moment!

I will confess to being a bit strange about some things in life and my toothbrush is definitely one of them. I can count on one hand how many times I have shared a toothbrush with my spouse. I rough-traveled 5 months through Africa - camping, sleeping outside,or in abandoned huts - and my toothbrush head never touched a single surface. I am utterly icked out about the head touching anything and will juggle if I needed to ensure that my brush stays very clean.

Here's the thing: you rub a paste of plaque, saliva, and food remnants around your mouth and then do it again with the same implement day after day with barely a flush of water in between. Did I make you say 'YUK'?


There are 3 easy ways to detox your toothbrush:

1. Keep your toothbrush a good distance from the toilet (about 5 feet). A flush has microscopic mist which travels nearby to any objects lying in wait for the bacteria. Please don't make me describe it further - there are tons of articles which can substantiate it. 
2. Keep your toothbrush head from being in contact with other surfaces - especially damp ones where bacteria multiply very quickly. Allow it to dry 'head-up'. 
3. Disinfect it every few days. This is very easy to do ... a high-alcohol mouthwash will do it in about 1 minute. Just make sure all the bristles are submerged, shake it off, and let it dry. Boiling water also works - though I'd avoid the microwave because these plastics are not often safe for microwave-use. 

 That's it... fast and simple. Lazy and easy!

Towel OCD

Some of you might want to completely skip this post. Really.

What this habit gives you is a linen closet that looks organized and neat, and stays that way. It also keeps your towels folded in a way that's really easy to drape over the towel bar when guests arrive. 

I am a little OCD about folding towels. This really does come from my time working in a classy hotel. I don't like to see towel 'ends or edges' when they are folded. I do get a strange pleasure out of a linen closet which has perfectly folded towels. I unfolded and folded towels at 19years old until I was able to fold towels in thirds - which I found to be elegant, simple and quick.

See this image? It may as well as be me. I dressed like this the summer I cleaned rooms (and was very happy to wear a uniform thank you!). Except my uniform was grey... I was pony-tailed, with kitten heels and adorable if I say so myself. And yes, this image is exactly how our towels were folded... and how my towels are folded to this day.

My way: Fold a towel in thirds length-wise by folding the edges towards the middle. You get a slim long column. Fold this in thirds again. Done. And it looks great! You also just open one fold to hang it perfectly over the towel rod. Here's a pictorial version of it (you can click the photos to make them bigger if it helps).

The truth is this: no matter how you choose to fold your towels, always fold them in the same way and stack them in the same way. They look neat and un-mussed in your linen closet, the linen closet stays neat and organized, and you never have to 'clean' it.

Towel Reboot

If you find you are not loving your towels, if they feel stiffer, if they are not as absorbent as they once were, or if they feel weighed down and 'greasy', then these 3 simple 'DON'Ts' are for you:

1. Don't use too much detergent with towels, in fact use a little less than in a regular load. It's harder to wash out detergent from towels. Use a HE (high efficiency) detergent with them to minimize excess sudsing. Using vinegar in your towel wash will keep towels always smelling fresh. You can put the vinegar in the bleach dispenser (just don't ever let the two mix!) for use during the wash cycle or in the fabric softener dispenser for use during the rinse cycle. I think it's most effective in the rinse cycle.
2. Don't use fabric softener with towels: it weighs them down with buildup over time. There is a light 'coating' and there will be less loft to the towels. The scents can also aggravate some sensitivities. If you've been using fabric softener, run them in a wash with 1/2 cup of regular baking soda to help remove some of the build-up.
3. Don't use dryer sheets with towels - you don't need them and they will make your towels less absorbent. Just don't over-dry your towels - treat them with a little care and they will love you back.

Reboot and refresh them using the other towel tips I've posted - and keep them fresh with a cup of vinegar each time you wash them. 

By now you must think I'm obsessed by towels! I'm not... but I think we should all expect soft, absorbent, sweet smelling towels. That's why I'm posting the truths I've learned in these tips - because making sure your towels are wonderful takes no extra time or effort!

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.

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!