Bathroom Clean

I'm planning to write a series of post about my cleaning routines.  This first is about the quickest daily routine, namely the bathroom.  I'll also add in the weekly treatment for good measure.

We have three bathrooms, the one most used is downstairs, and it gets this special daily treatment.  The others get a weekly clean, and any other attention they need during the week.

Daily Clean
I keep white vinegar in a spray bottle, plus a shaker of bicarb in the bathroom.
1.  Wipe down the basin and vanity
2.  Check the toilet, brush & flush as required
3.  If seat yucky, spray with white vinegar and wipe down, otherwise just give quick wipe with same cloth you used for vanity.
4.  If need be, wipe floor around toilet.
5.  Put out a clean hand towel.

Weekly Clean - takes about 10 minutes for 3 toilets!
Assemble the kit:
Make sure you have on hand the following things:
1.  Cleaning cloth - I use a blue chux (blue for loo, one for each toilet) and an old blue tea towel (blue for loo, only used for loo! a couple).  These are kept in a bucket in the cupboard adjacent to the bathroom, so I can easily find and grab them.
2.  Enjo bathroom maid (best described as a microfibre cloth on a stick).  The shape of my toilets doesn't suit most toilet brushes.  But if your toilet brush works for you, go for it.
3.  White vinegar in a spray bottle, lemon essential oil added (but not essential)
4.  Bi-carb in a shakeable container.
5.  A container to carry it all in, plus a smaller container for transporting the used Enjo 'brush' (I use an old empty napisan container).

The clean:
1.  Flush
2.  Sprinkle bicarb into bowl, especially sides
3.  Brush with wet enjo or toilet brush.
4.  Flush and rinse brush/enjo under flush water
5.  Spray bowl, lip, seat underside, seat top, lid and cistern with white vinegar spray.
6.  Starting with cistern and flush button, wipe this with blue chux, next wipe lid, then seat top, then seat underside, then bowl lip.  I really prefer to work in this order as it is cleanest to dirtiest.
7.  Wipe floor around toilet and any child seats etc.
8.  Wipe handle of toilet brush if you keep one next to the toilet.
9.  Chux to the wash.
10.  Use old towel to dry the top of the cistern and the seat.
DONE!

I'll talk more about cleaning the rest of the bathroom when I post about the BIG FORTNIGHTLY clean!!!

Bicarb & White Vinegar, always on hand!

Are you ready for an emergency?

Being in New Zealand, the Christchurch earthquakes were a timely reminder of the unexpected nature of natural disasters.  All countries have their own natural hazards: bush/wild fires, cyclones, tornadoes, etc.  Being ready is key to peace of mind, and should the worse happen, survival.  Today I will talk about emergency food and items and how I keep them organised and from expiring.

We keep our emergency food on shelving in the garage, it is the only single level part of our house, so we figure we will be able to get to our items in an emergency.  We use plastic crates, which contain food and other essentials.  Alongside them are blankets, stashes of warm clothes, our camping gear, and other recommended items.

Emergency Food stored in crates, with contents & dates label.

Our emergency water is in a garden shed.  We use large empty fruit juice bottles.  Each bottle is labelled with the date it was filled.  Once we had the required number of bottles in there, we continued adding a bottle per fortnight (our juice consumption rate).  As a new bottle is added, an old one is removed, emptied onto the garden and bottle recycled.

Back to the food.  In a ziplock bag on the front of one of the crates is a list of the items of food, and their purchase and expiry dates. It means I can check at a glance what is due to expire, and replace it when I do my fortnightly shopping.  Since this is mostly a 'set and forget' system (who wants to be thinking about disasters continually??) I have three monthly reminders in my phone to check and replace items.  The replaced items are either put in our pantry for use, or donated to the local foodbank.  Foodbanks are not too fussy about taking things close to or past their best before dates.

Here is a link to some information to help you be prepared for an emergency, like what kind of things to have on hand:

http://www.huttcity.govt.nz/en/Services/Emergency-management/Emergency-preparedness/

This is a useful post also:
http://www.ifonlytheytoldme.com/emergency/