Super Easy, Super Clean, Superwoman!!

First of all, I have yet to figure out how pictures work, so please forgive me.

Something got into me today. I haven't the faintest idea what it was, but something just POSSESSED me to clean. Disturbing, I know, but the hard work was worth it. I now have a clean (ish) kitchen and hallway floor (that's as much floor as I could handle), my bathroom is sparkling clean (except for the floor, of course) and my den is.... slightly less chaotic than it was before. As some of you may know, I took over my grandmother's house about a year ago. I'm still cleaning it up. The woman didn't do anything. Nothing. No cleaning or maintaining WHATsoever. So with that in mind, I found myself a she-devil hell bent on cleaning at least PART of this house as deeply as possible.

Now, in the past this has been difficult to accomplish due to the extremely exhausting task of living alone, working a full time job, and managing one dog. Terrible, yes. A good excuse? Anything is a good excuse when you want to be lazy and eat ice cream instead. Alright. So what did I tackle? First, the bathroom.

I'm not sure all of you have discovered this wonderful product that exists in the universe. It is called.... are you ready?... VINEGAR!! That's right! Plain old white vinegar! I filled my trusty spray bottle with distilled vinegar and sprayed the ever loving crap out of that bathroom. Shower! Sink! Tub! Toilet! Everything got doused. I was actually slightly concerned for a moment that the dogs would run away forever when I opened the door from the intense initial smell. Alas, I was wrong. Thankfully my dog, Bug, stayed, but so did my boyfriend's retarded dog. Too bad. Anyway- I left my vinegar to soak and went about the laundry and the cleaning of floors. About twenty minutes or so (give or take an hour- don't judge me!!) later, I returned with another spray bottle, this one full of water, and a scrubby sponge. I sprayed over my vinegar and commenced scouring the shower. My vinegar trick worked surprisingly well. With all that internet "research" I do, it had better well work!

But WAIT! I was still having to put a little effort into this cleaning thing and that just wasn't acceptable. If something burns more than five calories and doesn't allow me to drink wine while doing it, I refuse. What did I do? I pondered. And in my pondering, I remembered something from elementary school. Shocking that any of that would ACTUALLY be useful, but by any chance does anyone happen to remember those fizzing volcanoes from grade school? You know, the ones that are paper mache and filled with baking soda so that when you pour vinegar in the top it explodes? Yeah. Me too. And something else you may not know- I love big, explosive anything. The opportunity to relive big and explosive while enduring HOUSEWORK was almost too much for me to bear. So I dried out my shower and grabbed my baking soda (I buy this stuff in bulk. My number one rule- ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS buy baking soda when it's on sale. ALWAYS) and sprinkled it all over my grimy tub... concentrating on the really bad stuff... then I sprayed my vinegar again. Not as exciting as I would have thought. BUT it did fizz. It did pop. And it did eliminate the scouring almost completely. Dayum.

All in all, for all of you looking to drastically reduce your cleaning time or looking for a safe alternative to caustic mass-produced cleaning agents, give baking soda and vinegar a try. Separately, they work wonders, together they're magical!

Introduction

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to the Hands-On Ponderer's blog of adventures! Time to share the thoughts and curiosities of a self-sufficient crafter and cook! With so many interesting things to make and taste in the world, I've decided to share the things I find my crafty paws and adventurous spoons getting into. Join me in my mission to become a well- rounded (figuratively speaking, of course. I'm actually dead set on my pear shape) crafter and self-sufficient adventurer. I hope you enjoy the many projects, recipes and playful ponderings I find myself getting into.