Spring is officially here so it's time to get some spring cleaning into gear! I love opening my windows in the springtime, because I can really only do that twice a year in spring and fall. Opening windows to circulate the air is the easiest way to freshen the air in your home. My mother was always big about having open windows at home, I don't know if that's a European thing? It ventilates your home and gets rid of stale air.  Since we're still in a panini, its even more important now to have fresh air circulating in your home when guests come over. 

Even though I have worked from home for a year now, being home more did not equate to a more organized home. I think because I only had a few visitors and those were close people I didn't feel the need to have a perfect looking home for. This Spring I'm feeling more energized to do some home projects. At the beginning of quarantine I rearranged my living room furniture so I could do zoom zumba classes 3x a week and then my dining table became my office. I really want to tidy up those spaces. My biggest project that I've put off for years is reorganizing my closet. I'm starting with reducing the amount of clothes I own. 

The drain in my bathroom sink seems to get clogged every year and every year I'd shell out money for a plumber to come snake it for $50. The root of the cause is partly the design of my waterfall faucet I installed and then the thick face masks I use and hair which I try really hard not to go into the drain.

Well for the first time my kitchen sink got clogged and when I called around for price quotes everyone started at $200 for the first hour...umm no. So I looked for a solution to do it myself. First I used a mini plumger and worked the sink to no avail. Then I unscrewed and cleaned the P trap underneath the sink, no change. Next I tried to snaked the line into the wall, but have to admit I'm no expert on this and thought I'd better leave this to the experts. I wanted to avoid chemical drain products because they do more harm than good by eroding the pipes so I didn't go for Drano. Instead, I bought Zep Drain Care which is a biodegradable enzyme based formula made up of bacterial strains that break down the minerals in your drain. After 3 days of treatment, my clog was gone!!! Now I make sure not put much food scraps/vegetable peels down the drain and used cooking oil gets poured straight into the trash. I'm no longer using my garbage disposal as much.

For my bathtub I use a drain catch to catch hair, bath salts which don't really dissolve and the occasional handmade soap I might use that become solid and clog. In fact just using that drain catch tells me which products to stop using as I have to replace the drain catch every year due to not being able to fully clean it. That cheap investment prevents me from having to call a plumber again to have it snaked.

Another tip I learned for monthly maintenance is to put a cup of vinegar down the drain and then after a half hour of sitting time without using the sink to then follow up with a cup of boiling water. I feel good using these products so that I'm not hurting the environment or my wallet.

While we're on the topic of green cleaning products, my favorite cleaning company Mrs Meyers just released some limited time spring scents in Lilac and Peony. They already sold out once so be sure you pick yours up soon as they smell heavenly!

I've posted before about some of my favorite grapefruit scented products from lotion, to body wash, to a toner. Well, I found three more grapefruit scented body washes that I really love! It wakes me up in the morning  and makes me feel energized! I'm really in natural cleaners, so you won't catch using a bath set from Bath & Body Works or Victoria Secret. All three of these products are natural so if you love citrus scents you should give these a try!

Some of my favorite stores offered deals so here is my haul.

I got some new spring nail colors from Zoya at half price! It's a toxic free polish. Pictured below are Lauren, Rue, Brigitte, Odette, a sparkle gloss top coat, and Tomoko which is a champagne silver color that is matte, textured, and with a sparkling metal finish. I was so excited when I got these I couldn't decide which color to wear so I wore an ombre of all the colors!

While we're on the topic of Earth Day, there were teepees on the Mall a week ago to protest Keystone - the oil pipeline being built from TX to Canada, whose final phase has been put on hold by Obama a couple years ago.

I tend to get a lot of lotions as gifts and when I had to re-organize my medicine cabinet at the same time I went through all my collected products under my sink and purged a ton. One thing I came across was a now discontinued hand balm by Caldrea (the orange tube pictured on the top shelf of my medicine cabinet). OMG the lotion smelled amazed and was so luxuriously moisturizing! When I finished the tube I just had to buy more! Come to find out Caldrea is made by the same company as my favorite green cleaner Mrs. Meyers.

Their philosophy was to create green cleaning products without harsh chemicals and medicinal smells but still hard working. They use essential oils for the fragrances and plant-derived surfactants from renewable resources. Additionally all of their products are biodegradable and not tested on animals. Mrs. Meyer's is the more affordable brand for grocery stores and Target while Caldrea is marketed more like upscale cosmetics packaged in beautifully designed containers.

Right now I'm using Mrs. Meyers hand soap in Geranium, the scent it out of this world! And I bought two hand balms, one for home and one for the office in Ginger Pomelo and the Sea Salt Neroli. In the wintertime my hands tend to get dry but Caldrea hand balms not only smell lovely but are so moisturizing!

Want a calorie free way to enjoy this?




Check out the world's largest gingerbread house!

This whole month I'm just going to talk about indulgences and fun things to get you into the holiday spirit! One tradition of mine is to always have an amaryllis plant and Trader Joes chocolate avant calendar. Never too old for one! lol Everyday I open up a square and get a small piece of chocolate. I'm a cheddar cheese snob and like my cheddar white and extra sharp. Trader Joes makes a Chocolate Cheddar cheese that is delicious! 

I am not a Starbucks person since I don't drink coffee but just wanted to share their advent calendar as well, it's unique because it's reusable. You get different size mini tins that are magnetized on a framed board. You'll find a sweet caramel treat in every tin and one tin contains a $5 Starbucks gift card.  They have them every year.

Speaking of Starbucks gift cards I have a funny story to tell. If you ever happen to find one, don't use it, turn it in and here's why. In order to become a Starbucks gold card member (the elite level of all the cards that takes at least a year to earn) you have to start by using a gift card that is registered to your credit card which is also connected to the app on your phone. A friend of mine lost her card but saw on her phone that not only was someone else using her gift card, that they also refilled her gift card. lol So she decided since they spent her money, she would also drink on their dime through her phone app at the register. lol I don't know who was right or wrong here?

If you looking for a reusable mug to drink your beverages out of, Tervis Tumbler is having a sale today! I wrote about them in this post. Perfect timing for me since I dropped mine today and broke the lid.

To get into the Christmas season I switched out my hand soap and dish soap for Mrs. Meyers Pine scent which smells just like a Christmas tree! She had free shipping today with no minimum so I stocked up on some other scents I like.

I typically only drink herbal tea or green tea, but I had started drinking some rooibos tea and for the first time ever in all my daily tea drinking the inside of my mug got tea stains (see pic below). I would wash it really well with dish soap but to no avail. So I asked my mother about this and she said that baking soda does the trick! I mixed a little baking soda with water and scrubbed away, had to repeat a couple times, but it came over pretty easily!

I've  been into green cleaning products for awhile now for my home.  But then I read an article in Allure magazine last year with an interview with a hand model who said she brought her own hand soap into public bathrooms to not damage her nails, that's when I made the switch to natural hand soap as well. I use both Method  and Mrs Meyers hand soaps and household cleaners. Both are ammonia and bleach free cleaners, do not contain  petroleum distillates, made of plant based solvents and not tested on animals. I used to work at a yoga studio and the first thing I suggested to them was to switch to natural cleaners. I thought they shouldn't use windex on the mirrors because when you spray the toxic chemicals on the mirror it hits you back in the face and no one should be breathing that or risk getting it in their eyes.

This weekend Mrs Meyers is offering free shipping in honor of Earth Day!  In December I used their pine scent since its Christmasy and my other favorite is geranium scent, the essential oil is very strong but amazing! This week's Target ad is having a sale on Method cleaning products.

Method's stylish bottles are made from 100% recyclable material and you can find it at Target, Safeway & Whole Foods. I really like their bathroom cleaning products and wood floor cleaner. Many of their products come in refill pouches so you can save on plastic. And they disclose all of their ingredients which many products claiming to be "green" do not.