Microwave mess

Is this what your microwave looks like right now? Does it always seems to look like this?

Microwaves are handy. If you don’t use yours everyday then you are either Martha Stuart or you are a liar. So, how do you keep it clean? 

Yeah, you can monitor your family like a hawk and have them use a paper towel over their food every time.  I hate using a paper towel.  Seems to stick to the food or it won't stay on the plate. Ugh! First world problems? Amiright?

The solution was just right around the corner.  My mother bought this cool plastic lid that covers the size of a plate and keeps it in her microwave.  She had two and gave me the extra! Awesome!  I was super excited...it doesn't take much.

Because of this handy contraption, I rarely have to wipe down my microwave walls. When I do, I just throw a wet scrub sponge in there, spray the walls with an all-purpose cleaner and heat it for about 20 seconds. The food will wipe away effortlessly. Yes, I said effortlessly! Put this item at the top of your Jennifer told me to buy this stuff list.

I found the cool cover on amazon recently.  I was curious.

Here's a link to the item on Amazon.

Microwave lid cover
   

The cantaloupe rule

No, this isn't a rule on how to cut a cantaloupe...
It's a rule I once heard about the size of objects on display in your home.  For some reason it makes me think of a little old lady home.  There's a lady that attends my church that loves collectibles.  It's not just one type of thing either.  She just loves to collect things! If she finds something she likes, she has to have nearly every item similar to it and then display it in some fashion.  She was living in a small apartment at one time and had to rotate her collectibles.  They bring her so much joy and she loves to show them off.
Well, maybe at 80 years old I will find collectibles a.k.a "dust collectors" something that brings me joy.  However,At 30 something, that is not the case.  My home consists of half eaten snack bars, juice cups, cookie crumbles, baby dolls, and Lego blocks.  With a two year old mess running around, it is hard to keep the house tidy.  I do not want anything else in my home that even resembles clutter.

Take a look around your living room.  Is it cleaned up? If you answered yes then assess how you feel in the space.  Is it a space that makes you feel calm? Cozy? Comfortable?  If you can't answer yes to any one of these three, you have too much stuff and the stuff you have is probably tiny trinkets.

I read this amazing article about the affects of clutter on the brain. The article has some interesting points about marketing and the affects of touching objects and how we become more attached over time and the frequency of touch.  Yeah, so when you are shopping...don't touch anything! Ha Ha!
Here's a little section from the article that just stood out to me.

Whether it be your closet or office desk, excess things in your surroundings can have a negative impact on your ability to focus and process information. That’s exactly what neuroscientists at Princeton University found when they looked at people’s task performance in an organized versus disorganized environment. The results of the study showed that physical clutter in your surroundings competes for your attention, resulting in decreased performance and increased stress.

Read the article below...you will thank me later.
How clutter affects the brain and what you can do about it

It just makes sense to keep your home decor simple and larger.  Statement pieces should be the focus. You will be one step closer to creating a Zen home and lowering your stress levels.   Now, go make some money selling those little trinkets at your next garage sale.

Thieves cleaner

I love Young Living's Thieves oil!  I use it ALL the time. The blend was inspired by the legend of four 15th-century French thieves who formulated a special aromatic combination composed of clove, rosemary, and other botanicals they used while robbing the dead and dying.(I found that info on the YL website) Crazy huh?  It is great to diffuse during the winter months because of its antibacterial properties.  It also smells like Christmas!  

Any who, Young Living has a cleaning product that, from what I understand, is pretty amazing and economical.  I just purchased it today and it should be in next week.  I will update this post with my expert research <<heavy sarcasm>>.  I just use the thieves oil for now and a few other items to make an awesome counter-top spray for my granite counter-tops.

This can be used anywhere to disinfect and clean.  I just use it right now on my granite because it makes it smell good, cleans awesome, and makes it shine!

Below are the ingredients but I'm going to be honest...I just wing it on the measurements.  Especially when I'm out and in a rush!

Ingredients:

20 drops of Thieves Oil
2 Cups of water
4 tbsp of Castile soap or Dawn dish soap
4 tbsp of rubbing alcohol

Its the rubbing alcohol that does the trick on the shine.  I made a batch once without it and noticed a huge difference.  My counter-tops had streaks!

Enjoy!

Set some standards

In order to have some peace of mind with how your home looks and feels, you need to set some standards for yourself. I had to do this because I had unrealistic ones in my head.  I actually had to mental change those standards in order to feel like I was succeeding.  Before I did that I was feeling like a constant failure.  It helped talking to my husband about it.  He helped me verbalize those standards and he helps me keep them.  We make a pretty good team.

It is inevitable that you will accumulate unnecessary items in your home.  The hard part is determining quickly which items belong in that category.

When I come across something in my home I always ask myself if it falls into one of these categories.

1. useful

2. meaningful

3. pretty.

If it is something useful but not meaningful or pretty, put it up and away. Your environment needs and should be beautiful.  I really don't like to look at my tea maker everyday when I go into my kitchen.  It is an ugly blue and white color and I don't think I have to say anything more.  It is stored above my microwave and it very easy to get to.  The tea maker is useful so it falls into one of the three categories. Useful really needs to be defined well.  If you think a chocolate fountain is useful then you have a very loose standard for what useful means.  I do not consider something I would use maybe once a year something useful.  I used to own one...we sold it.

If it is useful and pretty, then keep it out for the world to see.  I have a Keurig that I think is actually nice.  It is stainless and black.  It matches my kitchen and doesn't make me cring when I see it.  I also find my Keurig very useful on a daily basis.

Now, what do you do with something that is meaningful but isn't pretty.  I have a great example for this category.  My Aunt LeAnne past away from brain cancer in 2007.  She was such an amazing woman and I miss her so much.  One year, for Christmas, she gave me a wooden whale puzzle.  It is small and not really all that pretty.  However, every time I see it I think of her.  She loved whales and it just makes me smile when I see it.  I don't have it out displayed on some shelf though.  I believe items that are small can actually appear as clutter in the home.  That's another rule I'll discuss later.
I do have it slightly put away.  You are probably thinking that I'm heartless.  Well, not exactly.  I don't want it to become something in the fog of my daily environment.  It is on my roll top desk that I open maybe every other day to get some papers or a pen.  It's like a peek-a-boo ray of sunshine that reminds me of my Aunt Lee Lee.

Note: Something is not meaningful unless you can remember who gave it to you and why.  Otherwise, it is just a meaningless object.

It's amazing how once you start doing this to items in your house you actually become more strict.  I have found that some items I have left out or wanted to keep before I now want to kick to the curb.  It is definitely not going to happen for everyone, but I found the process very liberating.

I will save my rant on American Consumerism and my disdain for marketing for another post.  

Homemade Deodorant

For the past few months I've been on a quest to find a natural deodorant that doesn't make my armpits smell like rotten spinach or burn like the fires of Hades.

I've used every Toms stick out there. I have to re-apply constantly. And I stink by the end of the day either way. I've used Natural for Her powder. Smells okay initially but then I smell by noon and sweat like a man. Not exactly lady like. I've also used Body Bliss. My armpits felt like they were going to melt off it burned so bad!  Plus I smelled like rotten spinach. No joke. They gave me a sample of their more sensitive line. Doesn't burn near as bad but I have to re-apply all the time. The sensitive one has a more pleasant sent but my husband would tell me that I smell 'Earthy'. 

So, I've decided to go with a different approach...Homemade. This is perfect too for me because it lasts forever and it is super cheap too!
Here's the recipe I used.
1/4 cup of baking soda
1/4 cup of corn starch
6 tbsp of coconut oil
10 drops of lavender(whatever essential oil you like)
1 tsp of vitamin E oil

I put it on ONCE in the morning and didn't have to reapply ALL day! I did not smell even this morning! What?! That's right. I smelled like nothing! It was wonderful. I do want to warn you about possible burning if you cut yourself shaving. The next day, this happened to me. The burning eventually goes away. If it is too much to bare just put on some extra coconut oil with a touch of lavender. It help calm the burn for me. I've also heard that replacing baking soda with arrowroot is more sensitive on the skin. I have not tried this yet.
Happy Armpits to you and enjoy!

Making the Choice

My husband and I have been married for 7 years.  We have a 13 month old little girl and live in a small town in Missouri.  Typical American family minus the white picket fence and dog in the backyard.

Everyday for the last year has been an adventure.  I work full time as a Business Analyst for a software company.  I hate it.  My husband works full time for the City Water Department.  He is indifferent.  

One day, I just woke up and realized we needed a huge change.  I need to be home with my daughter. We need to become debt free.  We need to get back to our family in Arkansas!

Because of that, we made a decision to become minimalist. We plan to eliminate waste and find a way to become more frugal with our money. We are already paring down our budget and living like we would on my husband's salary alone. I will be leaving my job on October 31st! 

Then FINALLY, We can move back to Arkansas. It will either happen when he finds a job or we just pick up and move in January.  My husband only makes a 35K a year.  I, on the other hand, make about 67K. This is going to be a HUGE adjustment! 

I'm sure we will learn a lot with this new lifestyle.  I wanted to document this journey to prove to others that it can be done in this culture of BUY BUY BUY...it's time for a change.