How to clean your BOB stroller

I will apologize in advance for my lack of before pictures. But my BOB (the most amazing stroller ever thank you Sarah R) has really been worked for close to 3 years. It has been the only stroller I have ever used and drug on numerous road trips, the farmers market most Saturdays, various runs and  probably most grime inducing - hauled around in the bed of the pickup. No surprise that it is just a tad dirty. Okay... Embarrassingly dirty. But no mold or mildew to worry about.

The beautiful after!

I tried several times cleaning it with limited success scrubbing with soap and water. In particular, the area where toddler feet hang was just disgusting. While doing some cleaning last weekend, it occurred to me to try using laundry detergent. Hello, why had I never tried it before.

I had some empty laundry detergent containers that needed to be washed out and recycled. So I added some hot water to them and shook them up to get all the detergent off the sides. Then I poured it onto the BOB and scrubbed. Then rinsed and dried. Note that I didn't scrub for hours or soak it for days. I poured it on and scrubbed for a few minutes. Not a major workout. But holy cow the gross water that came off it.

And... It is the cleanest it has been since it came out of box! Part of my luck may be that may detergent has oxi clean in it which has produced good results for others.

So if your BOB is looking a bit dingy grab some laundry detergent, a hose and scrubber and make quick work of making it look nearly new again!

Cleaning the Blinds

I am no expert on cleaning – and I avoid cleaning the blinds.  I hate it!  It takes forever and they are never really clean. 

Isn’t that gross!  These are the blinds on the patio door in our master bedroom.

Yuck! The blinds in our room get really dirty really fast.  We have 3 dirty dogs that sleep in our room, so I blame the nastiness on them. 

I started by vacuuming each of the slats on the blinds.

That took the bulk of the dust off but there were still spots all over.

I sprayed window cleaner …

Then wiped off each slat. 

Look how clean they are!

Here is a better picture – it is pretty hard to take pictures of blinds.  Our blinds look new!  I think this is the cleanest they have ever been!

Now, this still took 20 minutes but I feel like they are really clean now. 

What is your secret to clean blinds?

Cleaning my Stovetop … the natural way

I have a confession to made – I enjoy cooking but I hate the clean up.  No matter how simple a recipe the dishes seems to multiply and the kitchen becomes a disaster.  Maybe this is a talent I have and nobody else has that problem, but it is annoying.  This is what my stove looked like for a week or three – oops. When we had our mothers over for Mothers Day lunch, I put the box the croissants came in over the burner that way they couldn’t see it.  Didn’t work … but I tried. 

Caked on nastiness is all I can think of to describe what is there.  Those grates (or whatever they are called) have always been just plain gross.  I’ve tried many different thinks to get them clean – bleach, ammonia, 409, comet, soaking then scrubbing – nothing seemed to work. 

I decided to make the switch to natural cleaners (can’t stand the smell of other cleaners) and ordered a Get Clean Kit.  This stove would be the ultimate test … 

I mixed up some degreaser from the Basic H and let it sit for about 5 minutes.

Wiped it off with a sponge and this is what it looked like – much better!

But, there was still some built on grime so I brought out the Scour Off and a scrubbing brush. 

Even in this bad lighting it looks good!  It looked so good that I pulled out an old toothbrush and used the Scour Off to get the nooks and crannies. 

Doesn’t it look great?

Meanwhile, I filled the sink with water and a drop or two of Basic H and let the grates sit while I was cleaning.  Then I scrubbed them and they look like new!

The best part … my mom was over for dinner a week or so after and she asked me when we got a new stove!!

Now that I have something that works so well and smells so good (seriously the Scour Off smells like cherry candy) I will not be putting off cleaning for weeks at a time.

Here they are – my cleaning champions!  Basic H and Scour Off – love them both!

Do you have any cleaning secrets?  I’d LOVE to hear them!