cleaning out

While Charlie was gone I did a lot of cleaning and finally got around to listing a million wedding items online. I'm so ready to get all of this clutter out of here! It's been piled in our guest bedroom closet for two months and every time I have to go in there I cringe. Now, hopefully it all sells! 

Anyway, while I was cleaning I came upon hundreds of cards. I have literally saved nearly every single card that I have received in my life. I even have cards from the day I was born! I decided that I probably can't keep doing this for the rest of my life without taking up tons of space. 

Luckily, I recently came across an idea on Pinterest to go through and decide which cards are truly important (hello, day of birth card!) and keep these. Then scan the rest onto your computer and donate them. I love that I'm getting rid of clutter and able to help someone at the same time! I thought I'd share this with you so you can make sure to keep this in mind for the upcoming holiday season!

lesson of the day

When we got this little guy I started becoming a lot more aware of the chemicals we were using in our home that could possibly hurt him, and have since been using plain white distilled vinegar to clean pretty much everything. 
Today, however, I decided to do a deep clean in our bathroom and scrubbed our bathtub with bleach spray because the bottom of our tub has some weird texture that makes it nearly impossible for anything except bleach to get white, and even that sometimes doesn't do it. Anyway, I also used some toilet cleaner with bleach and then finished cleaning the rest of the toilet with vinegar. Well... here is your lesson for the day -  do not mix vinegar and bleach!

My throat started burning and my eyes were watering so I opened the windows, let Toby out onto the balcony, and then googled mixing vinegar and bleach. Apparently, it mixes together to create chlorine gas that can be dangerous. Now it's 106 outside and Toby and I are sitting on the other side of the house with all of the windows open!

I started reading the labels on these products and sort of freaked out knowing that I've been using this stuff for so long without realizing how dangerous it is. For example, my toilet bowl cleaner recommends wearing goggles to prevent permanent eye damage. WHAT? And the spray I used in the bathtub says to wear gloves to prevent burns to your skin! I threw out that stuff and will be purchasing these natural, safer alternatives! It's better for us, the environment, and it helps that the packaging is so darn cute!
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Happy (and safe) cleaning!