Thursday, January 31, 2019

Cleaning in Twenty Nineteen

Can you believe it, it's January 31st already and another year has officially begun! I took the month off from making, as self-care. One of the things I do is clean, crazy right, I love the freedom to not have to think about anything but the task at hand.

Recently I am finding myself drawn to using all natural handmade cleansers, such as small batches of *cleaning vinegar, I cleaned my ovens with just baking soda and my newly made cleaning vinegar, Which cleans so well I was quite amazed. Sorry I digress back to the pillows.



I decided I would make new seating for this, so off the cushions came little did I know how dirty they were.
Once I removed the covers this is what I saw, badly soiled, but perfectly good pillows.


I don't know about you but I tried once before to clean my pillows and it didn't very well. Never one to give up I thought I would give it one last try before I ditched the pillows.

In my front loading machine, I placed one pillow, I tried two at first but only one got clean, so one at a time it is. I used a small amount of seventh generation detergent and I added some of my recently made kinds of vinegar this one was lavender scented instead of bleach. I have a sanitize setting on my machine but I chose to use the towel setting instead. Changed the water setting to warm and the soil setting to high closed the door and pushed the button to start. Once it's finished you will have a clean fresh pillow. Now to dry, I used the air dry setting on my front loading dryer that already has three wool dryer balls inside or if you have the room leave them in an area to dry, or if you are lucky enough to have an outdoor space in the sun that is always is the best.


Fresh clean pillows for my guest room, and to think I almost went out to buy new pillows for my arriving guest.

*Cleaning Vinegars are simple to make. Fill a glass jar with the peels of lemon or oranges then cover with white vinegar and in this case, I add a few sprigs of lavender for the nice smell of spring. You can also add cinnamon sticks or a few sprigs of fresh rosemary or thyme. Place the jar in a dark room I put mine on my pantry shelf and leave it for at least two weeks. Remove peels and strain. Pour into a spray bottle half filled with water, the rest can go back into the pantry for refills or a variety of other uses.

Happy Cleaning
Catherine