Category Archives: household managment

Smelly Pickle Jars

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I am a bit of a collector

of glass jars.

I know, kinda strange, but I love glass jars in all sorts of shapes and sizes.  I have been known to purchase a product, not for the food inside, but for the shape of the glass jar.

I use my glass jars for storing all sorts of dry goods: beans, rice, special grains, flours and herbs.  Some jars I use to store milk, yogurt, cream and butter.
Of all the jars I have collected, I think I have more pickle jars than anything else.  They are a good size for storing all sorts of things.  The only problem with pickle jars is that they retain the pickle smell.  Nothing ruins a good cup of chamomile tea faster that the smell and taste of pickles.
The smell comes from the lid of the jar.

The inside of the lids are lined with plastic and rubber, to help keep the lid from rusting and to maintain the seal on the jar.  The pickle smell gets into the plastic and is almost impossible to wash out.

But, there is a way….

All you need is the special odor fighting power of Baking Soda and a plastic bag.
Place washed lids in a plastic bag with some Baking Soda and let sit for a few days.  Then wash.  Now you have clean smelling, virtually free, storage containers!

How to Clean and Disinfect a Wood Cutting Board

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Over the past year or so I have been slowly replacing items in my kitchen with natural products and materials. Plastics being one of the major things that I am trying to get rid of. We have eliminated all plastic dishes and switched to glass or ceramic, and a few months ago I bought new wooden cutting boards. I mostly like my wood cutting boards, they are easy to keep clean and I don’t worry about stray bits of plastic ending up in my food. However there is one big draw back, I worry that I can’t properly disinfect when cutting meat, and the lingering odor when chopping onions and garlic. Washing them in hot soapy water isn’t an option I would like to us, considering I spent a good amount of money on my boards and I want them to last, well, forever. Hot water and soap dry out wood and the board will eventually become warped and crack.

So what is a girl to do?

I have a very easy solution that cover the disinfection and deodorising.

The other night we had roast chicken for dinner and I used my cutting board to carve that little bird. It was greasy and covered with chicken juice, it needed a good disinfection.

First I gave it a good all over rinse with warm water.

Once it is rinsed and wet I sprinkled the board generously with salt.

Then, taking a half of a lemon I rubbed the salt in the the board, scrubbing both surfaces and the sides.

Until the salt is completely dissolved.


The combined action of the salt and the lemon juice took care of any smell and any germs. This is a quick and simple method that doesn’t involve any harsh chemicals or soaps that would potentially ruin your nice wood cutting boards.

Keeping It Real… I am so Embarrassed!

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I have this little laundry/pantry/closet type room right off my kitchen. It has been a source of frustration for the 9 years we have lived here. All of our storage solutions have been very hodge–podge. I am forever struggling to keep everything that needs to be stored here in some type of order.
As you can see, I am not doing such a great job at that.

Well, this last weekend Dadzoo came to my rescue!
More pictures to come!

12 Reasons I Love My Clothesline

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1. Quietly hanging up clothes in the warm spring air.
2. Saving about a dollar a day in electricity

3. The smell of freshly dried clothes and sheets!
(On a nice hot day, I can get all my laundry washed and dried using my clothes line, usually by the time a new load is ready to hang the old load is dry. My line can hold about three loads of laundry)

4. The clothes are less wrinkly

5. Clothes don’t shrink.

6. My whites are very white, without Clorox.

(levis go on the line first thing in the morning, they take the longest to dry)

7. Sunshine is a natural “anti-bacterial”

8. On a warm day in the summertime my clothes dry faster on the line than in my 800$ fancy shamncy dryer. For FREE!

(Dadzoo’s new white shirt)

9. I love to look at my little girls dresses, skirts and nightgowns dancing in the wind.

10. It makes me laugh when my 3 year old boy pretends that the clothes pins are “monsters”

(Punk#5 is a winner for staining his little undershirts, an afternoon in the sun, and the stains are gone!)

11. I think it is funny when people give me odd looks when they find out I use a clothes line. It use to bug me, but I got over it.

12. It makes me feel self sufficient.

(Overlapping clothes saves on the amount of pins that are needed)

Soap For Washing Dishes and General Kitchen Cleaning….(updated)

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(see update at the bottom)

Soap For Washing Dishes and General Cleaning…Momzoo style!

A few weeks ago I did a post on how I use homemade soap. Several readers suggested that instead of shaving flakes of soap off my bar with a knife I use a cheese grater. While I think that is a great idea, found it easier to just grab my knife than get out the grater and do it that way.

Until….

I was making laundry soap and I realized (duh) that the very ingredients that were in my laundry soap were the same ones I used in my kitchen sink every day.

( My jar of laundry soap)


So instead of getting each ingredient out separate and adding it to the sink, I could just use a Tablespoon of my laundry soap.

and to make things better…..


I put some in one of my cute squatty mason jars…


and it now has a home next to the kitchen sink for even easier use.

I love using homemade cleaning products it makes things much simpler, with no dangerous chemicals lying around and there aren’t a dozen different bottles to store.

(P.S. I don’t use this in the dishwasher, it make a film on my dishes I don’t like, I use it to hand wash items that don’t go in the dishwasher ((it makes my crystal glasses sparkle!)) I also use it for basic kitchen cleaning, for example the counters or the stove)

(P.P.S. Also, this mixture won’t produce bubbles…bubbles come from a chemical added to soaps. Natural homemade soaps won’t produce thick lathers like commercial products do. You don’t need lather to clean, that is something we have been trained to expect by commercial soap companies)

More great homemaking ideas at: