cleaning – Pollywog's Place Blog

Spring Cleaning With Easy DIY Cleaners

Published on April 8, 2026 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog1 Comment

It’s that time of year when the urge to clean and declutter often hits me… it has hit me, but I’ve been too sick to really do anything about it right yet.

Over the past several years, I have been replacing a lot of the store bought cleaners with ‘cleaner’ versions that we can make here at home.

Most of our DIY cleaners involve vinegar and/or rubbing alcohol. On occasion, I do purchase some cleaner concentrates from Amazon that we dilute for all purpose cleaners around the house. I will link those at the bottom of the post.

Home Remedies, Homemade Cleaners, and Miscellaneous Tips and Stuff

We really like to make citrus vinegar to use in our DIY cleaners, as it smells AMAZING! We have found that it can also help to repel flies and other insects. Check out some easy recipes below:

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Routines for the win!

Published on November 12, 2024January 12, 2025 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

Our routines keep us organized and reduce the amount of stress we have daily… Why not give it a try?

Make sure to start small and don’t try to overhaul your whole schedule at once… just a little at a time and don’t be afraid to make changes as needed to make it work for you. Even if something seems a little unconventional it might just be the right solution for you.

Here are some great places to start:

Getting Routines Started 101

Morning Routines

Kids’ Morning Routine

Weekly Routines

Livingroom Remodel… it looks so good!

Published on July 25, 2024 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog5 Comments

In one of my last posts, I showed a quick peek of how our remodel was going and how one thing always leads to another. Well, it is finally finished and it is looking so good!

These were some of the ‘Before’ after we had just finished a major decluttering:

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Clutter scavenger hunt for kids

Published on February 7, 2023January 17, 2023 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

I’ve been trying to get the kids involved in helping to declutter the house so I have to get creative sometimes.

Lately, we’ve been playing this little game in the morning before we start our schooling. It’s pretty simple although you do need to provide a little supervision so that the little guys don’t throw away anything important.

I’ve been having each kiddo participate and I give them a number of items and a task to complete with those items. One day I might say I need 5 items to throw away, or another day might be I need 3 items to donate, or 4 items to put away, etc. I might even have them bring me one item per year of their age… I try to change it up to keep it interesting.

They bring the items to the kitchen island and deposit them. Then we complete the task of throwing them in the garbage, putting in the donation bin/bag, or putting them away in their proper places.

This doesn’t take very long to complete but it does make quite a difference… plus if the kids are complaining they are bored I can use this as a way to get them motivated to find something to keep themselves entertained.

You could even offer a ‘reward’ for the first kiddo to bring you the items… or offer them all a reward or snack when they complete their task. When we have 10-12 hands versus just my 2 hands picking up items we are able to clean/declutter a little bit faster… most of the time.

When we make the not-so-fun tasks a little bit more fun then they seem to get completed quicker. Who knows, maybe I could even come up with a Clutter Bingo?

Getting organized a little at a time … January 7, 2023

Published on January 7, 2023 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog2 Comments

Whew! It’s been a busy first week of the year but our house is finally ‘undecorated’ all except for the inflatables which are hanging over the back porch railings as they need to dry out.

Yesterday we had our first dance of the New Year at a new location. I tried not to do too much work as I didn’t want to be completely exhausted before the dance… I tried but with my arm, in the condition it is in right now, it doesn’t take much to wear me out at all. I went to one of our sheds to dig out a couple of outfits and then had to go back to find my dance shoes. While we were out in the shed I remembered that someone had mentioned they needed some little boy clothes so I found a tote of clothes our kiddos have outgrown and brought that to the house with us.