How to Clean Your Coffee Maker Without Using Soap

Going into marriage I knew my husband was quite the coffee fanatic. Don't get me wrong I love me my coffee but no one compares to my husband. My husband seems to think our home coffee maker is the local Starbucks! A few months after we first got married I noticed the coffee pot getting brown coffee residue on it so I washed it out with soap and water. No biggie, right? Apparently not! My husband got so upset that I had washed out "his" coffee pot with soap. He said the brown residue is where all the "flavor" is… umm EWW!!! After I kindly explained that that was absolutely disgusting to me he agreed to let me rinse the coffee pot out daily with ONLY WATER. He said the soap makes it taste funny. I figured marriage is all about compromise, right? So I agreed. A few months later, much to my husband's delight and to my horror, I noticed the brown residue returning except this time "WATER ONLY" would not wash it out. But again marriage is compromise so I let it be for a few months. That is until one day while browsing on my beloved Pinterest account, I came across a pin on how to clean a coffee maker. It required using baking soda though, so I had a feeling my husband wouldn't go for it. I was correct. No such luck. It took me about another month of daily begging for him to finally agree to let me try! SUCCESS! So I tried it! This is what I did:

Supplies:
1/4 Cup of Baking Soda
1-2 Cups of hot water (it works with cold or room temperature water too I discovered)

Mix the Baking Soda into the water. I use regular temperature water just because I didn't notice much to any difference between my results. 

Mix the Baking Soda into the water with a spoon as best you can.

Pour the Water/Baking Soda mixture into the area of the coffee maker where you usually pour the water. NOTE: Make sure you do not have a filter in the coffee maker.

I noticed after I had poured the contents into my coffee maker that there was some baking soda powder left behind in the pot. I just add about 1/2 - 1 cup more to get all that out.

Let it brew like normal and admire your yummy "coffee." Pretty icky, right?

 

Repeat this step using clean water each time, until the water brews clear. It normally takes me 4-5 times.

This really works to clean not only the coffee maker but it also got rid of all the icky brown residue in the coffee pot!!! I would recommend repeating this whole process at least once a month. Let me know how it works for you.

Sources:

http://www.food.com/recipe/drip-coffee-maker-cleaner-156833

How to Clean the Grease and Grime off of your Stove Filter

About this time last year my husband and I purchased and moved into our first home! While it was great to finally be home owners after almost 2 years of searching, the challenges of fixing up and cleaning a previously owned home were upon us oh too soon. One of the pettier cleaning jobs that was really getting under my skin was the filter for the stove hood. It was just plain GROSS!

I tried pretty much everything in the book to get this thing clean! I scrubbed it with bleach, let it soak in bleach, scrubbed it with CLR, let it soak in CLR but it still stood grimy and gross! NOTHING was working to get this thing clean! So while exploring my then, newly discovered Pinterest account I came across a DIY on how to clean these stove filters! I was skeptical to say the least. This looked WAY TOO SIMPLE to actually work when I had already tried all the tricks of the trade I could think of. But I figured it was worth a shot before I headed to the Home Improvement store to buy a new one. So I gave it a shot and what do you know!

Here's what I did:

Supplies:

• 1/2 Cup of Baking Soda
• Pot of Boiling Water
• Spoon

Bring your pot of water to an active boil

Scoop out ONE SPOONFUL AT A TIME of the baking soda!

The water will start to instantly fizz up when the baking soda is added so it needs to be added slowly to avoid this:

Then dip your filter in carefully.

My whole filter didn't fit in my pot so what I did was dipped each end in,

then poured the pots contents on the middle section (front and back) in the sink. My results (Drum-roll please!!!!!!!.....)

I was amazed!

And this is the story of how Pinterest and I became the best of friends! Hope this helps you all! Let me know if it works for you.

Sources:
http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/02/how-to-clean-that-greasy-stove-hood.html

Cleaning A Microwave DIY

Cleaning A Microwave:

Supplies:

• Vinegar
• Water
• Microwavable Bowl/Cup

Directions:
My microwave before. Please don't judge me! We had an insta-grits explosion!:

Fill a microwavable bowl/cup1/4 - 1/3 of the way with water and then pour about a cup of vinegar into the bowl/cup.

Place bowl/cup in the microwave for 5 minutes

Remove bowl/cup from microwave CAREFULLY! IT WILL BE HOT!

Wipe the microwave down with a clean, wet rag. The grime or crusted on food should come off pretty easily. I did have to put some elbow grease into my tray and scrub it off with warm water in the sink because of the crusted grits but it still came off a lot easier than normal!
My microwave after:

Ta-Dah!! Seemed to do the trick. My microwave has some staining on top that I was hoping this trick would remove that it did not. So overall I did find this DIY very helpful for getting out food splatters but not too much on stains and severe crusted on food. Give it a try and let me know how it does for you! Also, I'm very open to suggestions on how to get these stains out of my microwave!

Source:
http://practicallyfunctional.net/2012/04/how-to-clean-your-microwave-in-2/

Now Hiring: Stay-at-Home Moms Wanted!

A while ago, I had read a thought provoking statistic. It stated that stay-at-home mothers make almost the same amount of money as an hourly employee in money savings alone! I, at the time, was married, in college and working an almost full-time job. I was shocked at this statistic and couldn’t quite believe it! It was amazing to me that here I was working practically a minimum waged job and going to school to “get a career” in order to make ends meet, when I could be making the same or more just by staying home?! I’d always wanted to be a stay at home mom but never thought it was financially possible for us. I decided to figure out a list of all the things being a stay at home mom and/or wife would SAVE (therefore money in our bank account) us money on. This was my list:

-Daycare/Childcare- Even though at the time we didn’t have any children yet. I plan ahead!

-Food- By me being home to cook almost every night and not having the excuse “I’m too tired from work”, we could save a lot of money by not eating out so often. Also, not having to buy breakfast and/or lunch while at work!

-Gas- I wouldn’t have to drive to and from work every day.

Doesn’t seem like a whole lot of benefit, right? So I looked into it. This is what I found: They average cost in America for daycare/childcare a year is over $11,500! That’s about $220 a week! That was about DOUBLE my paycheck after taxes! Just for childcare alone! Still, we had no children at the time and although we were trying, I wasn’t even pregnant yet.  I continued to brainstorm and I just couldn’t justify staying home with no children. I talked to my husband about it and he LOVED the idea of me being home but I still wasn’t sure. Still, the idea of being a housewife was constantly on my mind. We began to see what God’s word said about it and through scriptures (such as Proverbs 31) we finally decided as a family that we felt it best that I be home. So I gave my job my 2 week notice. The very next week we found out I was pregnant with our first child. Amazing how God works things out, huh?

 So my work as a stay at home wife began.

Sources:

http://www.usaliveheadlines.com/1774/costs-of-childcare-in-america.htm

http://www.babycenter.com/0_how-much-youll-spend-on-childcare_1199776.bc

http://www.salary.com/stay-at-home-mom-infographic/

Introduction

Welcome to Industrious Thirty-one! Let me start by telling a little bit about myself. I don't know what on earth I was thinking when I decided to begin this blog. My life is pure INSANITY right now! I am a Stay at home wife and mom. My husband and I have two beautiful little girls and one prissy Mini Poodle. I decided to call this blog "Industrious Thirty-One" because my name (Emily) means "industrious." The "Thirty-One" comes of course from the Bible passage of Proverbs 31 (The Virtuous Woman). I have always felt that these two things are clear instructions for the LORDS plan for my life; to serve him while being an industrious wife and mother. I guess I began this site to share some tricks and tips I’ve learned along my journeys thus far that I felt might be helpful to other moms and wives. I’ll be giving some creative and practical tips on ways to save money (such as couponing, DIYs, financial tips etc.), cooking tips, recipes and more. I don’t claim to be an expert on any of these subjects but I feel the LORD has graciously taught me, through my experiences, many things that I feel would be beneficial to not only other moms and wives, but to pretty much ANYONE! Hope this site is helpful and beneficial to you. God bless and ENJOY!