Category: Do It Yourself

This is a DIY version of the ‘before you go’ bathroom spray. The idea is to spray it into the toilet before you go #2. It creates a film on the water that traps the smell from fouling up the bathroom. Please note that throughout this article I will be employing all of my willpower to not use every funny name I can think of for all things bathroom related. After all, you know my sense of humor is that of second grader.

If you purchase this product at the store it’s quite expensive. I think $6 to $10 depending on which brand and size you buy. This recipe of course will only cost pennies per bottle. I have a few friends that travel with the smaller size. It can be embarrassing if you stink up someone’s bathroom. It’s also good to have in hotel rooms. It’s basically fantastic anywhere you don’t want to smell what anyone else is doing in the bathroom. A lot of people keep a spray air freshener on the back of the toilet so you can spray afterward but sometimes that’s as obvious as just walking out and announcing it to everyone.

The recipe is really simple. I make 8oz at a time.

So just combine all the ingredients and pour them into a spray bottle. I use a combination of vegetable glycerin and Dr. Bronner’s castile soap. We always have a few scents and bottles of Dr. B’s around here and it’s organic. I used the citrus this time because it paired well with the lemon and bergamot essential oils but I also like to use the almond. I use 10 to 20 drops of fractionated coconut oil. It helps contribute to the oil slick on the water that traps the poo smell. I probably use around 50 drops of essential oil. That sounds like a lot but really isn’t. For this formula I used 25 drops of lemon and 25 drops of bergamot. The last thing to consider is the spray bottle. I found that the ones that are more like regular spray bottles (the green one in the photo below) delivered a better amount of product onto the water but leaked on my hands when I shook it before using. Which isn’t that bad as long as you have a scent you really like. The recycled body mist and perfume sprayers don’t leak as bad but you have to use 10 or more sprays to get enough product onto the water. So I guess what I’m saying is find one that has a heavy spray and doesn’t leak on your hands. You will need to shake the bottle well before each use. The oils will separate to the top of the bottle while it sits.

So when you need to do your business, just shake the bottle well and spray the water in the toilet bowl before you sit down. The number of sprays will depend on your bottle, for me it’s anywhere between 5 and 10 sprays. This type of product works pretty well. It’s definitely not bomb proof but works WAY better than nothing at all and just as well as the after use air freshener. Plus you’re not spraying a bunch of funky chemicals into the air you’re breathing. Well I hope you all are super proud of me for resisting the potty humor in this article. Truth is, my circle of friends are probably more disappointed than proud.

Hope you enjoyed the article. Leave any questions in the comments below.

Take it simple     –Stacey–

These are for the Swiffer type floor cleaners, the kind that use a wet jet to spray the floor in front of the mop. I like mine so much that when the mop head started to disintegrate, I wrapped it in duct tape and call it my Frankenmop. I think mine is made by Clorox but these reusable pads can be sized to fit any mop head.

If you are buying throwaway pads chances are you’re paying between $.50 and $1.00 a pad. Our whole house is laminate flooring or tile so that can add up pretty quickly. I use old tee shirts for the mop heads so they are basically free. I also use a homemade cleaning solution to fill the mop bottle that costs less than 20 cents to fill up.

It took me a couple of tries to get exactly what I wanted. First time around I measured a wet mop pad I had purchased and used those dimensions to cut out squares from an old tee shirt. I made them 2 ply and used the serger to sew them together. A regular straight stitch on a sewing machine also works well.

So before I had Frankenmop I had planned on using the mop heads exactly as they were intended. On this brand of mop, you bring the corners of the pad over the sides and they tuck into grippy little slots.

Frankenmop was quickly falling apart so I needed a new plan. I was able to use the same size pads I had already cut from the old tee shirts. If you are making your own to fit a mop you already have, just measure the mop head and cut the squares about 3cm larger on all sides. If you need to, cut out a little notch so you don’t cover up the spray head. I then took small strips of tee shirts and sewed one to each corner to use as ties. It doesn’t matter which side you sew the ties on (top or bottom) because these are reversible. Because they are 2 ply, you can easily untie them, flip them over, and keep on a’moppin.

Once you have the first few dialed in, it’s easy to crank out a bunch of them. I think I have about a dozen. After you use them, just throw them into the wash. Easy peasy.

I fill the cleaning resevoir with a solution I make here. It is equal parts White vinegar, water, and rubbing alcohol with 20 or so drops of essential oil. I usually use lemon or peppermint. You can find other All Natural Cleaners Made At Home On the Cheap here.

The cleaner works great on any type of hard flooring from tile to laminate. The reusable pads work great as well and I love that I never have to buy those expensive throw-aways again! I am always trying to do things as ‘simple’ as possible. In this case that means using old tee shirts that were already bound for the rag pile. I’m sure you could use other cotton material or something with a cute print if you were so inclined.

Hope you all are enjoying the summer. We have been spending time between the beach and the homestead. Trying to beat the heat while taking advantage of all the things that summer brings.

Take it simple   –Sam and Stacey–

This hand washing station was originally made to go in our teardrop camper. It has become my quick hand rinse in the garden until then. It would also be a great thing to keep in the car if you have kids. It’s just a nice portable option for things that require a little more than wet wipes can offer. I also included some info on the reusable ‘paper towels’ we use in the house.

The following is a photo of what you will need to put the hand washing station together, minus the bungee cord. It was in my original design but I quickly decided I didn’t like it and switched to zip ties.

Believe it or not, the most difficult item to acquire was the paper towel holder. Well it wasn’t that hard, once I stopped looking exclusively at the dollar stores hehehe.

• Fold down paper towel holder
• Empty laundry detergent container, rinsed clean
• 2 Plastic zip ties
• Rubber bands
• Paper towels

Now I know some of you are already chiming in with a sarcastic “I thought you made your own laundry soap?!”. Well lighten up Francis (a Stripes quote frequently used at our house). I do, and you can find all the info on how to make your own with this link; homemade laundry soap on the cheap. There has been some questions raised about the effectiveness of homemade laundry soap. I have used it for several years and love it. Granted I literally use 8x more than the suggested amount and I don’t put a bunch of other junk/chemicals in the wash ie; those scented crystals etc. Text or email me if you have any questions, it’s an older article. About twice a year I buy this style of laundry soap for ‘industrially dirty laundry’ like garden clothes, dog beds etc.

My first idea was to use a bungee cord to attach the towel rack to the soap jug. It didn’t allow the container to sit level and that bugged me so I quickly shifted gears to plastic zip ties. It also made the paper towels kind of wobbly since there was only one spot that was anchored.

I turned the soap jug upright so I would know where to attach the rack. I wanted to make sure the holder would fold down and clear the jug so I could easily store it in the car or camper. I used the bungee cord to hold it while I zip tied it.

Then I used the ties to attach the towel holder. You can then slide a rubber band onto each side of the ‘arms’ of the paper towel rack. Once the towels are put on, the rubber bands will slip over the roll and keep the wind or what ever from unrolling them.

Fill with water and POOF you’re done! In the garden the used paper towels will go into the compost bin. I still need to figure out some fancy schmancy used towel receptacle for camping. It will most likely be a grocery bag with one arm of the towel rack through the handle loop of the bag.

Inside the house we rarely use actual paper towels. We still keep them around for the nasty stuff I don’t want to put in the laundry like bacon grease, dog puke and well….you get the picture. For just your run of the mill jobs, we have reusable cloth ‘paper towels’. Originally they were the cloth napkins we made before we knew what we were doing. They were all weird shapes and fabrics.  Then I started using scraps of tee shirts from underwear sewing projects. Neither of these options worked as well as I’d wanted and they weren’t as absorbent as real paper towels. Our goal around here is to reduce waste and exposure to chemicals but we also want our replacements to work at least as good as the corporate ones. We published this article a while back, Reusable napkins and unhealthy obsessions, it gives a better explanation.

Our dish towels were getting pretty raggedy and it had been several years, like maybe 5?, since we replaced them. The last batch, as well as our new ones, I found at the dollar store. The older towels had little cupcakes on them and worked so well that I became obsessed with them. I even gave them as gifts several years back. Hey, a great dish towel is highly prized around here. So when I became equally obsessed with the new ones, I bought a bunch and decided to retire the ugly old towels. Of course you know I can never throw anything away. I decided to turn them into ‘paper towels’. What a great decision! I finally have ones that are absorbent and a consistent size. Here are my new ones.

I took the old ones and basically just cut them into quarters.

My plan is to at some point use the serger to finish the edges. Or maybe even just fold the edges under and use the sewing machine to finish them. We have been so freaking busy around here that for now, we are using them as is . I just have to trim off the strings when they come out of the dryer. Maybe this week, it’s supposed to get really hot outside, perfect time for inside projects. I put the ‘paper towels’ in this box and set the box in front of the actual roll of paper towels. You have to move the box of reusables to get to the paper ones. Makes everyone have to think about which ones to use.

Well that’s it for today. The weather here in sunny California has been gorgeous so we have been busy busy busy in the garden. We are trying to get done the majority of our chores that require sweating or use of the oven before the triple digit heat hits. Yesterday I made a triple batch of Chuckie’s scooby snacks. I have 5 quart sized bags in the freezer now to use over the next several months. Here is the link to the recipe for homemade dog treats. Wow, this article has been full of links!

Until next time, take it simple       -Sam and Stacey-

Is the question we have been asking ourselves every time we drive by the front of our house. We live a stone’s throw away from an elementary school and lots of kids pass by our house every day. Seriously, it’s creepy, true to size, proportionate, it’s just plain wrong. Which makes it perfectly right for Halloween. I’m not kidding though, more than once I said to myself, “I mean, who does that?!”. That’s also a saying that someone I know uses frequently to garnish sympathy and it cracks me up. A few times I did wonder, did we go too far?

So, every time we would add a new item to our yard, the neighbors would make a feeble noble attempt to match it. After the witches, they put out his and hers vampire mannequins (that were actually quality). I had been working this idea over in my head for a few weeks. That’s usually how I work. I mull something over in this weird brain of mine until I have a solid plan. The results are usually somewhere between brilliant and one of those ‘nailed it’ Pinterest fails. My original idea was somewhat of a spider’s cocoon. I had seen a few on our bike rides around town but there just weren’t any worthy of admiration. I decided I definitely wanted to be able to tell there was a body inside, maybe something decomposing or a monster. I also wanted at least an arm or hand sticking out, again to support the idea of what was inside. My crazy talented cousin Chip did a great job with the spider web cocoon. You could see the body inside and could tell it was none other than Spider Man, which I thought was pure genius!

I’m not sure exactly when but at some point my efforts shifted from spider web cocoon to body bag. I think I saw some stuff online and knew we could have another Sanger original. Plus it was just down right sick and twisted, my Halloween motto. We started with a full set of men’s clothes that were destined for the thrift store. We figured this would help with proportions. I had a few left over body parts from the dollar store that I planned on putting in the bag. I also picked out a really ugly mask to use. Just like the witches, I needed to make sure I only used items I didn’t mind parting with if some hoodrat  prankster decided to liberate it from my front porch.

The next step was stuffing the body. We raided the recycle bin and took out as many plastic bottles as we could. This was one time I wished we drank more store bought sodas. (Here is a link to our Homemade cola syrup  that we use for our soda stream.) Once we had enough bottles Sam started arranging them to get the right sizes and proportions. We are real sticklers for this kind of stuff. If it’s not disturbing and doesn’t look real, it’s not good enough! Once we decided where everything was going to go, Sam started taping the pieces together to give them rigidity. We used a milk jug for the head just like the witches. 

We put a black tee shirt over the ‘head’ and tucked it into the collar of the other shirt, it helped give him a neck. Then we decided where the body parts would go and started to wrap him in plastic. That was a two man job and no easy task. If you decide to do this project, it’s a real pain to turn him over and maintain all the parts.

We wanted the plastic to be thick enough to look ‘proper’ but thin enough so there was no doubt who or what was inside. I kept having Dexter type kill room flashes.

We used string to tie off where we wanted the duct tape to wrap around so we could make adjustments. Once that duct tape touches the thin plastic drop cloth there is NO turning back. Oh ya, I guess I should say, I used a cheapo dollar store drop cloth to wrap it in. So with the body parts and plastic this was a $3 project. Once we had it right we put the duct tape on.

Sam cut a piece off of an old climbing rope and we hung him from the front porch. I put on some rubber gloves, sprayed craft paint all over my hands and gave him a bloodied look. He started out on the left side of our house under the porch. He wasn’t very prominent there but that made it look a little creepier. You’d be looking at the witches and then spy this out of the corner of your eye. I still wanted him in better view so now he is hanging right on the front porch. I don’t have any final photos yet but maybe tonight as This is Halloween, this is Halloween! (you know my penchant for songs so I hope you just sang that part a la Nightmare before Christmas). I plan on putting a fast flashing, seizure inducing strobe on/behind him. The fog machine will flow into the center of the witche’s circle. It should have an awesome effect on the ‘fire’.

So now he hangs on the porch just to the left of the sidewalk. I really need to get some more photos. I am just trying my best to get this article out while it is still relevant hehehe. So once again, it’s your move neighbors…..We have seen people stop and take photos of our decorations. Which makes me smile, and wonder, if there is something wrong with those people too.

So I have to share this with you all, said neighbors invited us to their Halloween party. When we got there they told us how they were ‘competing’ with us and how every time they put something out we would do them one up. I laughed so hard. Also, in their back yard was a (weak version) of this body bag guy! She said, “Oh my gosh, I hope you don’t mind but it was so good I had to copy it for my party!”. Seriously……flattered. Not to mention their back yard, where the party was, put our front yard to shame! She had all kinds of animated figures and just top notch homemade stuff. The party was great. Made even better by Sam and I taking first place in the costume contest! I’m going to try to crank out another article today about that. Here are our costumes. I think it helped that there was a strong ‘evil clown’ theme to the party.

A special wish of disturbing horror to my cousin Wendy, sister Chris and all my other friends and family that share my delight in this holiday! Hope you all have a splendid Halloween and tonight is the night of your dreams….or nightmares, celebrate accordingly and stay safe!

Feel free to leave a comment or gory story of your own,

Take it simple spooky,

—Sam and Stacey—