Do you remember when I wrote about the housework schedule that I created for Joe and I?

It was ambitious.

It was unrealistic.

While it is true that all those things should be done, there is not enough time in the day for us to each work, take care of our children, bathe, eat, and do all of that cleaning.

If we had a housekeeper or different priorities, maybe we could make it work.

Maybe not.

For a couple of months now, Joe and I have been purging the excess crap from our house and our lives. It’s a daily struggle, and I don’t know how to end the cycle.

We create clutter every day. No matter how much cleaning I do through the course of the day, my living room is still a wreck. My dining room floor is covered with gunk. The kitchen counter is covered with dishes (at least they’re clean!), serving tools, small appliances, and cutting boards. My bathroom counter is a little better than this, but not much.

I don’t know how to get rid of it.

I’ve been trying to use the Motivated Moms planner to tread water with the cleaning. It is really simple, and it gives me a few things to do every day. Most of the time, I can handle that.

But the problem I have with the Motivated Moms planner is the constant state of clutter. I can’t mop the kitchen on a Thursday because there’s too much stuff to clear off of it first. To vacuum the living room, I’d have to spend an hour picking it up first.

It’s not that I don’t pick up and put things away. I do! I spend at least an hour every day picking up toys and books and putting them away.

I often think I have no hope of ever living in a clean, tidy house.

Just as I was beginning to believe that my cluttered, oppressive mess would plague me for the rest of my life, my friend Dana released an e-book called 28 Days to Hope for Your Home. She is the author of the popular blog A Slob Comes Clean, and she is an inspiration to me.

I downloaded the book and began to read. On page 10, I read something that knocked me off the couch. Well, not really, but almost.

Just so you know, this e-book isn’t a method. Methods don’t clean your house. You have to clean your house. This is simply a broken-down-to-the-very-basics-that-normal-people-seem-to-know-but-somehow-people-like-us-have-never-grasped instruction/encouragement book. This book is meant to guide you through the basic things that need to be done daily in your home. The things that will give you hope that real change is possible.

That! That is exactly how I feel about keeping a clean house. Other people seem to just know how to do it, and I have never understood how to do it.

I may not have fallen off the couch, but I did get teary-eyed.

I read on. By page 14, I knew that Dana was speaking directly to me, even though she didn’t know it.

Here’s something normal people wouldn’t understand, but I’m giving you permission to spend an hour or so at [sweeping the kitchen floor]. The reality for a slob is that sweeping . . . isn’t just sweeping. It’s picking up napkins that got knocked off the table (last month) and the newspapers from (the past few) Sunday(s). It’s putting away last week’s groceries and throwing away the bags that they were still sitting in. It’s gathering up the small and not-so-small toys and knocked-off-the-fridge alphabet magnets.

Didn’t I just say that above? {I wrote that above before I ever read Dana’s book. How much of a coincidence is that?!?}

I was starting to hyperventilate by page 23. Each day, there is more work to do!

You are probably reading with mouth agape, staring at your computer screen in disbelief that I could even think that. Of course there’s more work to do. But really, that was an astounding realization for me.

I want Dana’s book to give me hope for my house.

I want to host play dates.

I want to invite my mom friends to come over and have a cup of tea or a lunch.

I want to have a home I’m not ashamed of.

I want to have a home that doesn’t make me feel like I’m drowning every time I look around.

I’m going to do 28 Days to Hope for Your Home (on sale for $4 through the end of February) and follow it up with my Motivated Moms planner. I’ll let you know how it goes.

This post contains affiliate links.

© 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

I am so excited to be one of fifty Whirlpool Moms featured in featured in a test-drive program. During the next two months, I’ll be testing the Whirlpool Duet washer and dryer and sharing my experiences with you.

Did you know that your laundry could be making you sick?

This is some disgusting stuff, especially for those of us who regularly run poop from cloth diapers through our washing machines.

Even if you don’t use cloth diapers, what do you do when your family has the flu or a bad cold? What do you do if someone gets head lice or if a pet gets fleas?

You have to sanitize your laundry, that’s what.

I channeled my inner graduate school nerd so that I could give you a mini research paper on sanitizing your laundry. I’ve included sources in case you’d like to read more about any of the points.

The problem is that few people are consistently wash clothes in hot water or using bleach. We’re environmentally conscious, after all!

Unfortunately, bacteria (like salmonella and eColi), viruses (like hepatitis A), and allergens (like pet hair and dust mites) can survive a cold water wash without bleach. It turns out that they’re much more common in laundry than any of us would like to think. (source: 1999 article from the New York Times)

How to Sanitize Your Laundry

1. Get a washer with a sanitize cycle. You might have already guessed that my first suggestion would be to buy a washing machine that includes a sanitize cycle, like the Whirlpool Duet washer. In order to earn its NSF mark, the Whirlpool Duet washer reduces microorganisms (that’s the fancy term for all of the stuff I mentioned above, bacteria, viruses, and allergens) by 99.9% and prevents them from transferring from one load to another. After using the allergen cycle (or the sanitize temperature setting on other cycles), you can be sure that your laundry is free of germs. That peace of mind is worth a new washer, don’t you think? (source: NSF website)
2. Rinse twice. It’s not great for the environment, but a second rinse significantly reduces allergens. I didn’t find any research that showed an extra rinse gets rid of bacteria or viruses, though. (source: ABC News)
3. Use hot water. According to the articles above, temperatures of 140 F are required to kill allergens and germs. Setting your hot water tank at 140 F, however, is dangerous, especially if you have small children. I can tell you from personal experience that 140 F is hot, hot enough to burn you instantly, hot enough to make your skin scream out in pain on contact. You have to way the hot water danger potential against the germ potential here, unless your washing machine has an internal heater like my Whirlpool Duet does.
   Before the Duet, we had to set our hot water tank up to 140 F for a few days to get some funk out of our cloth diapers. I burned myself more than once in those few days. Fortunately, now I can use the sanitize temperature setting to get the water that hot within the washing machine.
4. Add a disinfectant. Products containing chlorine (bleach), pine oil (Pine-sol), or phenolic (Lysol) should have the word disinfectant on the label, and can be used to disinfect or sanitize laundry. The problem is that they can have unpleasant smells and cause color changes. You would need to put some of the disinfectant on a cotton swab and test it on an area of the fabric that won’t be seen to see if it’s okay to use. (source: University of Illinois Extension and Clorox Dr. Laundry blog)

I wrote this review while participating in a test-drive campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Whirlpool and received a complimentary Whirlpool Duet washer and dryer to facilitate my review.

Photo source

© 2011, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

I am so excited to be one of fifty Whirlpool Moms featured in featured in a test-drive program. During the next two months, I’ll be testing the Whirlpool Duet washer and dryer and sharing my experiences with you.

I read recently that front loading washers can develop a musty, moldy odor.

I deal with enough odors: cat pee, man sweat, formula, and mud, just to name a few. I do not need to deal with washing machine funk in addition to all of that. (Who does?)

1. Clean your front loading washing machine

I mentioned last month that my washer gave me a warning that it was time to clean it. I took that message very seriously.

Cleaning my Whirlpool Duet washer is really, really simple.

1. Buy Affresh washing machine cleaner. Open the package and place it inside the drum.
2. Close the washing machine door and turn it on the Clean Washer cycle.
3. Come back when it’s all done to clean hairballs and other gunk out of the seal.

That’s really it.

If you have a front loading machine, you should have a Clean Machine cycle. Check your owner’s manual.

If your washing machine isn’t magic or you don’t want to use Affresh (or can’t find them in the store), you might have to get a little more involved, using bleach or vinegar.

2. Keep the machine dry!

It seems strange to talk about keeping your washing machine dry, doesn’t it?

That’s exactly what you need to do.

The door on your front loading washing machine fits very tightly. It seals. Leave the door ajar, even halfway open, to allow adequate airflow in the drum. A constantly wet drum makes mold and mildew.

Along the same lines, leave the soap dispenser open to dry out, too.

3. Use less detergent

Experiment with your machine to see exactly how much detergent you need to get your clothes clean. Chances are, it’s much less than the package suggests.

Excess detergent causes build up in the drum and cause stink.

4. Use hot water

Our front loading washing machines use so little water that they may not totally rinse out excess detergent and other residues. I know it isn’t energy conscious, but hot water will help get rid of whatever is lingering in your machine.

If you do one load a week in hot water (your towels or linens, maybe?), you will reduce the gunk that’s building up in there.

5. Clean the seal

You know that big rubber thing around the door of your washer? If it’s anything like mine, it gathers all of the gross things that enter your washing machine.

I’ve found cat hairballs in there. Markers. Soggy wet dust bunnies. A pencil. Baby socks. All kinds of horrible, disgusting things.

Sometimes, I hope that Joe will clean it, but he doesn’t even know it’s there.

Anyway, you have to reach in there and clean it out. That stuff stays wet if you don’t, and that causes mold.

6. Remove your clothes promptly

Am I the only person who forgets to remove their laundry from the washer? Even with the pleasant tune my washing machine plays, I often forget to take the wet clothes out.

Guess what.

Leaving wet clothes in the washing machine causes the washer to get stinky.

My Whirlpool Duet washer has a Fan Fresh cycle that’s designed to keep odors at bay. It can even dry very small loads of 2-3 light items. If you aren’t so blessed, make sure you get the clothes out when they’re done.

What do you do to prevent odors in your front loading washing machine?

I wrote this review while participating in a test-drive campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Whirlpool and received a complimentary Whirlpool Duet washer and dryer to facilitate my review.

© 2011, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

My dishwasher is lousy. Actually, I’m not sure if it’s the dishwasher or the soap we use or our extremely hard municipal water.

One of those things makes our dishes come out with a thick, white film that grosses me out. The only way to get rid of the film is to soak the dishes in vinegar, which stinks up the house. Blah.

I’ve resorted to doing a lot of hand washing. Mostly, I wash bottles, glasses, cups, and Grace’s melamine bowls and plates in hot water and then pile them up in the dish drainer in the sink.

That leads me to another problem because the dish drainer isn’t big enough. I end up with dripping wet dishes piled all over the counter surrounding the sink.

It’s not the best plan. There are usually pools of water on the counter, surprising me the next time I set something down. I often end up with a wet shirt because I’ve forgotten about the water and leaned into the counter.

Needless to say, I was excited when I had the opportunity to review The Original Dish Drying Mat by Envision Home.

The Dish Drying Mat is really cool. It combines a thick layer of foam laminated between two layers of microfiber. It’s so absorbent that it holds four times its weight in water.

I wondered what laminated fabric was, since the whole thing is soft and not coated in plastic. Here is Envision Home’s answer:

Laminated refers to our patented process for securing the layers for the dish mat together – mircofiber side 1, foam, microfiber side 2 are all flame laminated together. This process enables the dish mat to be machine washed and dried repeatedly without the layers separating.

Our competitors glue the layers together. BUT, during washing, the glue will lose its hold to the layers, causing the microfiber to easily separate from the foam inside. Depending on the amount of glue, this could happen after only one washing.

This mat is so good at holding water that I was able to take my dish drainer out of the sink and put it on top of the Dish Drying Mat on the counter. It soaks up all the water, leaving no puddles on the counter and no drips on the floor and, most importantly, no wet spots on my shirt.

The Dish Drying Mat is not just for drying dishes.

I never had anything like the Dish Drying Mat before, but I totally love it. I’ve found more uses for it than I ever imagined:

• Under my salad spinner, to catch the inevitable dribble when I open the lid
• Under my baking stones, to prevent them from scratching my counter or glass stove top (only when the stove top is cool, of course)
• I have been preparing bottles on top of the Dish Drying Mat. In order to run our fancy uv water filter less frequently, we keep filtered water for bottles in a Mason jar on the counter. Inevitably, some water gets spilled going from the Mason jar to the bottle. It gets soaked up by the mat.
• Under the bottles and sippy cups. I know this is technically part of the dishes, but we bought only 6 bottles (to be frugal), and we wash them twice a day. (Allie likes to drink smaller amounts more frequently.) I love being able to spread all of the seals and other parts out on the Dish Drying Mat to let them dry.
• Under apples or pears when they’ve just been washed (it would work for any fruit or veggie, really)
• Under cherry tomatoes and grapes when they’ve just been washed (because the foam inside is so thick, the tomatoes didn’t roll around or fall off the counter)
• Under my cutting board – When I sold Pampered Chef, our cutting boards came with this cool foamy thing to put underneath. The problem is that mine became disgusting and I threw it out. Ever since, my plastic-y cutting board has slid a little on the counter when I used it. Set atop my Dish Drying Mat, it stays put.
• This past week, Allie pooped on Grace’s Crocs. It’s a long story full of momma missteps, but I had to wash the Crocs thoroughly before Grace could wear them again. I turned the clean shoes upside down on the Dish Drying Mat to dry before she wore them.

Dish Drying Mat Use & Care

If you haven’t figured it out, the Dish Drying Mat has about three hundred and seven different uses. It will become one of your most-used kitchen helpers.

Daily, make sure it dries in between uses. You don’t want any mold or mildew to grow inside. I hang mine on the oven door when I take whatever I put on it off.

When your Dish Drying Mat gets dirty (or after drying your kid’s shoes), you can toss it in the washing machine with cold water and in the dryer on low.

Win a Dish Drying Mat!

Envision Home is providing me with red Dish Drying Mats to give away to three lucky Feels Like Home readers. All you have to do to enter is visit the Envision Home site and choose your favorite color. Please share in a comment.

For extra entries:

• Like Feels Like Home on Facebook and leave a comment about it
• Subscribe to Feels Like Home via RSS or email and leave a comment about it
• Follow Feels Like Home on Google Friend Connect and leave a comment about it
• Tweet the following (once per day):

Win one of 33 Original Dish Drying Mats from @TaraZiegmont at @FeelsLikeHome! http://bit.ly/oWbHcP #dishmat

Good luck! I’ll choose a winner randomly from the comments after noon on October 20.

Want to win a different color?

My blog friends are doing Dish Drying Mat giveaways now, too. You can enter any or all of them. Each of us is giving away 3 mats in the color listed. Mine are red.

• A Slob Comes Clean –Coastal Blue
• Spell Outloud — Coastal Blue
• Many Little Blessings –Sage Green
• Finding Joy — Sage Green
• Jimmie’s Collage — Gray
• Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers — Gray
• Raising Arrows –Red
• Somewhat Crunchy — Black
• An Oregon Cottage — Cream
• Mama’s Learning Corner — Black

RULES:  Prizes can be shipped only to continental US addresses. You will be contacted by email and must reply within 48 hours to claim your prize. If you do not claim your prize, another winner will be chosen.

This is a compensated review. I received dish mats and a stipend. All opinions are my own.

© 2011, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

I am delighted to be one of twenty bloggers featured in Arm & Hammer’s Switch & Save Challenge. For the last five months, I’ve been testing several Arm & Hammer products and sharing my experiences with you.

All month, I’ve been talking about laundry and asking for your best tips. As always, you came up with some great ideas that I hadn’t thought of myself.

Some of the best:

• Treat stains as soon as they happen, and wash the garment as soon as possible.
• Wash like items (similar colors, similar fabrics) together to keep clothes looking new longer.
• One reader says to reuse dryer sheets. 2 used sheets work as well as one new sheet. You can only reuse them once, then throw them away.
• Another reader says to use vinegar in place of fabric softener.
• Use a little less soap that the bottle says. It works the same and saves money in the long run.
• One reader says to wash everything in cold water to save money on electricity.
• Another reader says to sash colors in cold water and whites in hot water.
• Have kids put their own laundry away.

Win a $25 Visa Gift Card

Church & Dwight Co., Inc provided me with a $25 Visa gift card to give away to one lucky Feels Like Home reader. All you have to do to enter is answer this question in a comment:

What’s your biggest laundry headache?

For extra entries:

• Like Feels Like Home on Facebook and leave a comment about it
• Subscribe to Feels Like Home via RSS or email and leave a comment about it
• Follow Feels Like Home on Google Friend Connect and leave a comment about it
• Tweet about this giveaway including @FeelsLikeHome and the link (only once)

Good luck! I’ll choose a winner randomly from the comments after noon on October 17.

This is a sponsored post for Church & Dwight Co., Inc, the maker of Arm & Hammer branded products. Church & Dwight Co., Inc is compensating me to try different products. All opinions are my own.

Save $1.00 on any 3 ARM & HAMMER Laundry Detergents then head over to The Switch & Save Challenge to keep up with all of the bloggers and enter to win $25,000.

© 2011, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

I am delighted to be one of twenty bloggers featured in Arm & Hammer’s Switch & Save Challenge. For the last four months, I’ve been testing several Arm & Hammer products and sharing my experiences with you.

I may have said it before, but I do laundry every single day. Most days, it’s more than one load, sometimes as many as four or more.

I read once that a home’s clothes washer and dryer are its biggest water and electricity users, respectively. Because I do so much laundry, it would be to my advantage to reduce the costs associated with each.

1. Switch to a More Efficient Washer and Dryer

My new washer and dryer are incredibly efficient.

Front-loading washing machines uses 10% less detergent and 60% less water than comparable top loaders. Mine adds only as much detergent and water as is required by the volume of items inside. They are also better at spinning the water out of clothing, requiring less drying time.

My dryer has an EcoBoost function that adjusts the temperature and spinning speed to dry with less electricity consumption. It also senses the moisture level of the clothes and stops itself when they are dry.

The appliances available today are much more efficient than those available even five years ago. What you’ll spend on your new ones will be made up in utility savings in a few short years.

2. Run on Full

Fill your washer and dryer. It uses the same amount of energy (and detergent, most likely) to wash 1 item or 12 items. Fill your washer’s basket to the appropriate level each time you turn it on.

Don’t overfill it. If you have to stuff the clothes in or force the door shut, you’ve got too much in there. In that case, your clothes won’t come clean and you’ll probably end up washing them again. That’s another waste of energy and money.

3. Dry Less

I don’t mean that you should hang all of your clothes all the time. I personally don’t have the space for that, and you may not, either.

Instead, consider drying your clothes for 15 minutes, then hanging them in your closet as usual. They’ll finish drying and save electricity over drying them the whole time. For the items you’d normally fold, use a drying rack in the laundry room or another out of the way spot.

4. Dry Back to Back Loads

Wash and dry several loads at once, and your dryer heats up, right? If you keep your dryer hot by removing the clothes promptly and putting another load in immediately, your dryer will use less electricity.

5. Clean Out the Lint

We all clean the lint trap, right?

But have you also cleaned the vent on the outside of your home? How about the tube that connects the dryer with the vent?  All of these trouble spots can cause your dryer to run at a less-than-peak level, lengthening drying times and increasing energy usage.

6. Wash Your Clothes Less

The last way you can save money on laundry is to wear your clothes more than once before washing them. I’m not talking about your underwear. Wash them every time you wear them, please.

You know there are some items that you can wear once or twice (or more) before they need washing. That pretty blouse that you always wear over a cami. The cardigan sweater you layer with your pink fitted t-shirt. Your favorite pair of jeans. Most of the time, these items are just a wee bit dirty and could easily be worn again.

This is a sponsored post for Church & Dwight Co., Inc, the maker of Arm & Hammer branded products. Church & Dwight Co., Inc is compensating me to try different products. All opinions are my own.

Save $1.00 on any 3 ARM & HAMMER Laundry Detergents then head over to The Switch & Save Challenge to keep up with all of the bloggers and enter to win $25,000.

Photo source

© 2011, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

This year, you are going to have Your Best Thanksgiving Ever!, right?

I believe that you can. Whether this is your first time hosting Thanksgiving or your twentieth, I believe this one can be your best Thanksgiving ever.

All you have to do is plan ahead, work ahead, and relax.

I’ll help you.

I love Thanksgiving. Over the last six years, I have spent months researching and planning for our family Thanksgiving celebrations. I have experimented with recipes, and I have perfected my process.

I’ve shared my recipes with you on Feels Like Home, but I realized that I could do better than that.

You deserve a stress-free Thanksgiving.

A handful of recipes isn’t going to make your holiday stress-free. Recipes are helpful, but a start to finish planning guide is better.

If you’re going to have Your Best Thanksgiving Ever!, you need a planning guide, shopping lists, and checklists of the tools and other items you’ll need.

There is nothing like that available today, so I created it. I spent a whole year writing and compiling and double checking this planning guide so that you really could have your best Thanksgiving ever.

I’m delighted to share my very first eBook with you, my Dear Readers. Your Best Thanksgiving Ever! is a start to finish, step by step planning guide for the perfect holiday.

Read more about Your Best Thanksgiving Ever!.

I’ve also set up an affiliate program if you’d like to sell Your Best Thanksgiving Ever! and earn 40% commission on every sale.

© 2011, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

I am so excited to be one of fifty Whirlpool Moms featured in featured in a test-drive program. During the next four months, I’ll be testing the Whirlpool Duet washer and dryer and sharing my experiences with you.

Approximately four weeks ago, I became the proud owner of a Whirlpool Duet washer and dryer. I said then that these machines are more like computers than washing machines; they still do.

I said then that I sometimes sit and watch them working; I still do. They are completely amazing.

I love my washer and dryer so much that I should add laundry to my 100 Things I Enjoy list.

I can’t help but quote Elizabeth Barrett Browning:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

10 Reasons I Love my Whirlpool Duet Washer & Dryer

1. When it’s done, it plays a little tune. My old washer had no signal at all. I had to stand at the top of the stairs, demand quiet in the room, and hold my breath to listen closely for its whoosh-whoosh-whooshing, and sometimes, it fooled me by pausing in between filling and spinning. My old dryer had a signal so loud and obnoxious that I’d rather my car’s horn sounded to signal the end of the drying. It was loud enough to wake my kids from slumber.
   My fancy new Whirlpool Duet washer and dryer play a charming and happy ditty of four notes. I love that they sing to me to tell me that they’re finished. The song is loud enough to hear in most of the house, but quiet enough not to rouse my sleeping baby.
2. It’s awesomely technical and wonderfully simple at the same time. These machines would please even the geekiest of geeks. I love all of the choices that allow me to customize the washing and drying to whatever I’ve thrown in – water temperature, spin speed, deep clean, presoak, steam or no steam, type of fabric, type of items, do you want fries with that?, how about a lemonade?.
   Okay, there are no fries and no drinks, but it has just about every other option a laundry nerd could ever want. At the same time, it’s simple to use. The on-screen menu guides you through each and every decision, and offers More Info at every step. Even someone like me who prefers to stuff the machine with whatever is dirty can get great results just by telling it what’s inside.
3. The washer and dryer match. I have a long history of being uptight when things don’t match. Of course the outside of the washer and dryer match, but even better, the cycles match. Precisely. If you use the kidswear cycle on the washer, you use the kidswear cycle on the dryer. Synthetic linens cycle on the washer? Synthetic linens cycle on the dryer. It couldn’t be easier.
4. It measures the detergent for you. I suspect Joe uses too much soap. He uses too much soap in the shower (Seriously. There’s not that much of him to wash; I don’t get the soap usage.), and I think he uses too much detergent in the laundry. My new washer has a Precision Dispense well that gets filled to the top once and then measures exactly how much liquid detergent it needs for each of the next twenty cycles. Is that amazing or what? I don’t have to worry about Joe going overboard on the bottle any more!
5. I can put a lot of stuff in there. The drum of the washer is so big that I can stuff the entire contents of my laundry chute in with room to spare. Score! I thought my old machine had a big capacity, but my new one is bigger.
6. No more air drying the diaper covers. The spin cycle on my new washer is phenomenal. It gets more water out of the clothes than I ever thought possible, and our cloth diaper covers come out of the washer dry enough to use. I just can’t get over that. I no longer have to wait for diaper covers to dry or shorten their lifespan by drying them in the dryer.
7. It sounds like an airplane. If you’ve ever flown, you probably know the sound that the engines make when they begin to spin, just as the plane is picking up speed to take flight. I like that sound. My washing machine makes it during the spin cycle. It starts slow, just like an airplane, and it gets faster and faster and I think it’s so cool. I smile every time I hear it. Being a stay-at-home-mom is thrilling.
8. They are quiet. Aside from the airplane noise that I love so much, my Whirlpool Duet washer and dryer are astonishingly quiet. There’s no bang-bang-banging noise when Joe puts too many pairs of blue jeans on one side of the drum. There’s no whoosh-banging when it spins, not even a water running noise when it fills. It’s just quiet, leaving me to listen to the cats fighting or cartoons wailing.
9. Warning: Your washing machine needs to be cleaned. Last week, my washer told me to clean it. Seriously! I never, ever cleaned my old washing machine. I didn’t know I was supposed to. It makes sense, though, because I have a kid who plays intensely, a baby who spits up, crawls on the floor, and desires to feed herself, and a husband who works with dirt. Our washing machine sees a lot of gunk, and now I know that it needs to be cleaned.
   I wonder if it can teach my refrigerator and toilet to speak up when they need a freshening.
10. They are pretty. Made from sparkly stainless steel, my new washer and dryer fancy up my otherwise icky laundry room. Using them makes me feel cool, even though that is most decidedly not true.
    {cough, cough}

Can you say that you love your washer and dryer?

I wrote this review while participating in a test-drive campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Whirlpool and received a complimentary Whirlpool Duet washer and dryer to facilitate my review.

© 2011, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

I am delighted to be one of twenty bloggers featured in Arm & Hammer’s Switch & Save Challenge. For the last four months, I’ve been testing several Arm & Hammer products and sharing my experiences with you.

When we got our fancy new washer and dryer last month, some of our laundry detergent became obsolete. The new machines require high efficiency laundry soap, and some of the Arm & Hammer Power Gel that we’d received to review was not.

Do you know what that high efficiency thing means, by the way? The HE detergents produce lower suds, appropriate for front loading, high efficiency washing machines.

The high suds formula will gunk up your washing machine, so don’t think you can just use less of your old soap in your new washing machine. It doesn’t work that way. Use some of the following suggestions instead.

I’m too frugal to just throw the detergent away, so I came up with some ways to use it around the house.

1. All purpose cleaner. Mix 1 quart of warm water (that’s 32 ounces) with 1/4 cup of detergent. Pour it into a squirt bottle and use on most surfaces. Of course, always test it in an inconspicuous place if the surface is fragile.
2. Carpet cleaner. If your detergent is scented, like Arm & Hammer’s Power Gel, you can add it to the steam cleaner when you scrub your carpets. Your carpets will smell great for weeks.
3. Mop the floor. Along the same line, mop your tile or linoleum floor using a mixture of 1 cup of detergent to one gallon of hot water. Like your carpet, the floor will smell great for a while.
4. Hand washing. Mix 1/2 cup of detergent with 1/2 cup of warm water. If you like your hand soap thicker, use less water. Pour the mixture into a pump bottle to use for hand-washing.
5. Wash and soak dishes. Put the detergent in a pump bottle (dilute it with an equal amount of water if it’s too thick). A few drops will be enough to to a dishpan full of dishes. If your dishes need soaking because the gunk is really stuck on, a squirt or two in a dishpan full of hot water should do the trick in a few hours.
6. Pretreat stains. So you don’t want to put this detergent in your washer, but why not use it to remove stains? Mix 1/2 cup or with 1/2 cup of warm water and put it in a spray bottle. Spritz stains with the mixture and launder as soon as possible.
7. Clean the porch, patio, and outside furniture. Combine equal parts of warm water and detergent. Use this solution and a scrub brush to clean your patio furniture, picnic table, even the porch floor.
8. Wash your car. As long as your detergent doesn’t contain bleach, you can use it to wash your car. Mix 1/2 cup of detergent and  1/2 cup of dish washing soap in a gallon or two of water. Use a soft cloth or chamois to clean the exterior and interior of your car. You can also use this solution to clean the floor mats and upholstery with a soft brush.
9. Make bubbles. Mix two cups of warm water (distilled works best) with about three tablespoons of detergent, and blow bubbles! For longer lasting, prettier bubbles, add two teaspoons of glycerin or corn syrup.
10. Donate it. This isn’t a use per se, but there are a lot of charities and non-profits who would love to receive your half-used bottle of detergent. Think about kennels, animal shelters, churches, even day care centers. Almost any organization that does laundry will appreciate your donation.

Win a $25 Visa Gift Card

Church & Dwight Co., Inc provided me with a $25 Visa gift card to give away to one lucky Feels Like Home reader. All you have to do to enter is answer this question in a comment:

What’s your best laundry tip?

For extra entries:

• Like Feels Like Home on Facebook and leave a comment about it
• Subscribe to Feels Like Home via RSS or email and leave a comment about it
• Follow Feels Like Home on Google Friend Connect and leave a comment about it
• Tweet about this giveaway including @FeelsLikeHome and the link (only once)

Good luck! I’ll choose a winner randomly from the comments after noon on October 4.

Have you seen the rest of my 10 Uses For… series?

This is a sponsored post for Church & Dwight Co., Inc, the maker of Arm & Hammer branded products. Church & Dwight Co., Inc is compensating me to try different products. All opinions are my own.

Save $1.00 on any 3 ARM & HAMMER Laundry Detergents then head over to The Switch & Save Challenge to keep up with all of the bloggers and enter to win $25,000.

© 2011, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

I am so excited to be one of fifty Whirlpool Moms featured in featured in a test-drive program. During the next four months, I’ll be testing the Whirlpool Duet washer and dryer and sharing my experiences with you.

Ten days ago, I got a new washer and dryer. To call them a washer and dryer is a flat understatement. I got new Jetsons-style computers that magically clean my clothes.

Seriously.

The Whirlpool Duet washer senses how full the drum is and adjusts the amount of water needed accordingly. It’s got seventy bajillion different specialty cycles, allowing me to choose allergen-friendly, heavy duty, kidswear, pillows, and more.

The dryer senses how wet the clothes are, allowing me to choose more dry, normal dry, or less dry, and it turns itself off when the clothes have reached the appropriate level. It also has specialty cycles that match those on the washer.

Using these super fancy appliances is not at all like doing laundry. It’s like throwing my clothes into a computer.

And I. love. every. minute.

The evening after our new washer and dryer were installed, Joe, Grace, Allie, and I sat on the floor of our laundry room, watching clothes tumble around and around in the washer and dryer.

I’m still perplexed and amazed.

For example, the washer doesn’t fill up. There’s no visible water pooling in the bottom of the drum. I don’t understand how how the Whirlpool Duet gets my diapers – cloth diapers, diapers smelling foul from dried ammonia, diapers still caked with baby poop – cleaner than my old top-loading washing machine that used a drum full of water. The fabric isn’t sticky or stained when the washer is finished, either; the diapers are cleaner than I’ve ever seen.

I have used some of the specialty features on my diapers, and I think that contributes to the extra cleaning power. There is a sanitize feature that heats the water to a level that kills 99.9% of the bacteria present, so I use that. I also use the deep cleaning feature on the heavy duty cycle.

Ready for another example?

A few weeks ago, one of the cats peed on Grace’s pink piggy. She was really upset, and I put pink piggy with the laundry, hoping to find a solution that did not involved throwing pink piggy away. I felt guilty every time I saw pink piggy sitting beside my ever-present pile o’ laundry in the basement (though I’m not sure why because I did not pee on the stuffed animal), but I avoided doing anything about it.

The second load of laundry that I did with my new washer and dryer involved pink piggy and her cousin, pink puppy (who also smelled of cat pee). I put them in the washer with some soap and turned it on the pillow cycle.

After washing and drying, pink piggy and pink puppy smelled great, looked clean, and were back in business, sleeping with Grace every night.

I was afraid the washing machine would rip pink piggy limb from limb.

The only drawback of my new washer is that it takes a long time to wash. Because it uses so little water, the machine needs to agitate (or whatever the magic is called). The heavy duty, deep cleaning, sanitize cycle I use for my diapers takes 2 hours and 38 minutes, according to the computerized display. It’s not a huge deal since I do only one or two loads of laundry per day, but it is something to note.

I wrote this review while participating in a test-drive campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Whirlpool and received a complimentary Whirlpool Duet washer and dryer to facilitate my review.

© 2011, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.