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Sep 17 2012

20 Days to Organise & Clean your home Challenge – Day 12

Category: Organising

It’s not too late to start!!  Subscribe to the challenge here.  Share your photos on instagram or twitter using #TOH20daychallenge.  Follow along with the discussion on facebook.

<< View the previous task

Please share your progress of the challenge below

Dishwasher - Our dishwasher is used once a day.  It usually cleans our breakfast dishes, dinner plates, cups, mugs and cutlery.  With all this there isn’t enough room for anything else.  However after time the dishwasher itself gets a little grotty and needs a good clean.  

Cleaning your dishwasher:

  • remove all dishes from dishwasher
  • using all purpose spray wipe down the inside edges of the door 
  • spray inside the dishwasher along the base of the door (this is where I find the most gunk build up), using a paper towel or old toothbrush remove gunk
  • for stubborn gunk pour over boiling water, then wipe away, no need to scrub too much as it will easily wipe away after it has gone through a cycle
  • remove any food caught in cutlery basket
  • place a jug filled with vinegar (I used 1 and a half cups) on the top rack of dishwasher
  • turn dishwasher on economy and hottest temperature, run through a cycle
  • once cycle has finished use a paper towel to ensure that all gunk is removed
  • to freshen the smell of the dishwasher, sprinkle a cup of baking soda (or bicarb) into the bottom of the dishwasher
  • run dishwasher again on economy and hottest temperature
  • Wipe down the outside of your dishwasher and any surrounding cupboards or walls that may have splatters from dirty dishes.  

Bathroom Cupboards - Todays task is to declutter your bathroom cupboards, throwing away items that are broken, you have not used in over a year or have expired.  Yes, perfumes, lotions and makeup all have an expiry date.  Find more details here about these expiry dates. 

Bathroom Cupboards - Make it easier for yourself to find something the next time you are looking in your cupboard.  Give it a tidy up today. 

Find more details here on how I have organised:

Check your calendar - Before going to bed or relaxing for the evening check your diary to see what appointments and plans you have tomorrow.  This will ensure won’t miss any appointments or events.

Grab a plastic bag and remove all the rubbish from  your car

Day 12 checklist (place in tasks divider)

  

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  • Kerrie

    Katrina… A little tip for you.
    I keep a pack of nappy sacks in the glovebox of the car and have one hanging over the gear stick for all the rubbish that may accumulate in the car. If any food wrappers, apple cores, banana skins etc are finished with they go straight into the bag & it gets thrown away on a regular basis.

    • Janine

      Kerrie, that is a great idea, I find that I end up with bits of rubbish everywhere, I think I’ll be taking this one onboard.
      Thanks so much for sharing

      • Kerrie

        Your welcome. Hope you find it easier to control the rubbish in your car :)

    • Nanna

      I too use nappy sacks as car bins – they don’t hold too much so they don’t start “growing”!

    • http://www.facebook.com/jessica.moroney.98 Jessica Moroney

      me too!! I hate rubbish in the cars! On long trips I tend to pull out a nappy sack and when its full i’ll drop it in the bin at the next stop, or if we don’t fill it i’ll still take it out at one end of the trip, and then use another on the way home :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/shabbyrose1 Sharon Moon

    yay i did my dishwasher yesterday, just the car and bathroom cupboard to do :)

  • Alli

    I think this is the first time I will say “yay I’m glad my dishwasher blew up” lol. I can’t wait to get a new one but I am amazed how much more efficient I am in the kitchen without one!
    As for the rest, all done while doing the bathrOom the other week… Couldn’t help
    Myself! First day off from cleaning in two weeks, with two sick kids good timing!

  • Sarah083

    While I’m accomplishing most of these tasks…..I’ve skipped a few that I want to go back to and not forget. Any chance of a summary dot point checklist at the end of everything we have done? Then I can check it off and do the ones I’ve missed, and will also have the list for the next time I go on a cleaning rampage! This has been great :)

    • http://www.facebook.com/maryanne.greenhill Maryanne Greenhill

      Hi Sarah083, I’ve being transfering the extra things that I skipped, onto the to do list area for a day that I think I have more time! I love lists so I’ve started my own rather large list too! It’s just on ordinary lined paper at the moment but will hopefully type it up after the 20 day challenge.

      • Tammy

        Katrina,
        maybe we just need a To-Do list printout so that we can transfer everything we don’t get done onto it?
        Also, I’d love to know how to keep my clean/tidy house looking so good afterwards… Have you got a regular cleaning routine for us? Once everything is looking so good, how often do we need to do some of these tasks to keep it looking this way?

  • http://twitter.com/BecBennett Rebecca Maher

    So we’re supposed to be running the dishwasher twice?
    I get rubbish out of my car every time I get out. However it could do with a vacuum…

  • Alexandra @ Alive and Blogging

    I keep cheating… I did my bathroom cupboards when I did the bathroom (even though you keep telling us not to!). I can’t believe how much I threw out! Once I’m on a roll, I get whatever I possibly can get done, done! And… we don’t have a dishwasher so I’ll just do a general tidy and freshen up of the house.

  • Felicity Jorgensen

    Just a tip I use for cleaning in my bathroom (I’m a bit behind in the challenge) to clean my toothbrush holders, I use mouthwash and an old toothbrush to soak and then scrub them clean then rinse with hot water and return the toothbrushes. (We use the ones that stick to the mirror) I also use mouthwash on toothbrushes after we have been sick to kill off any germs.

  • Bindi92

    I don’t have a dishwasher so this gives me a day to catch up!

  • Hannah

    Yay – I get a day off! I have no dishwasher and I did our bathroom cabinets when I cleaned last week.
    That said, I didn’t get a chance to look at the linen cupboard today, so I’ll be playing catch-up. My husband wants to know when the wardrobes will be done!

  • sara

    Another catch up day for me! I don’t have a dishwasher, my bathroom cupboard is basically a small set of drawers so shouldn’t take long and we de-rubbish the car as we go, we park next to the bin so it’s really easy to bring each journeys rubbish out with us and throw it straight away.

  • http://www.facebook.com/tinagrace Tina Grace

    Ok, today I am happy to not have a dishwasher :P

  • Kirsty

    I am wondering if the jug of vinegar will fall over? Will the vinegar come out as the cycle happens? Might be silly questions, but just checking. Thank you.

  • http://www.facebook.com/trish.montgomery.7946 Trish Montgomery

    Yay…did the washing machine when we did the laundry and the dishwasher is regularly cleaned…maybe just a vinegar rinse for them both. That leaves time to wash the carpets ready for the rental inspection tommorrow!

  • Deb

    Finally finished my fans, about to finish the oven – my house is looking so much better and I’m feeling more in control. I was recently in a car accident, and also had to have a pre-booked operation – so the house was a bit out of control! Haven’t needed to hire a cleaner thanks to the 20 Day Challenge! Thanks so much!

  • http://www.facebook.com/Caseybree Casey Dawson

    Ok, so this is the ONLY time that NOT having a dishwasher will be viewed by me as a ‘positive’ – Time tomorrow to catch up on anything I have missed over the last fortnight :)

    • Maggie

      Casey, me too!!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/rachael.wilkinson1 Rachael Wilkinson

    Enlisted my two babies this evening and we cleaned/decluttered the bathrooms and the car. Just need to do the dishwasher in the morning after I’ve emptied it. I think the kids are enjoying the challenged just as much as I am especially after enjoying jumping all over the pile of sheets, towels and blankets all over the laundry floor today.

  • Kerri

    My car is rubbish free because the kids are threatened with death if they don’t take there rubbish with them. The dishwasher is pretty clean too I use citric acid to clean it every so often.

  • http://www.facebook.com/ktlenon Katie Lenon

    I have the best looking linen cupboard now! My washing machine is sparkling too!

  • Christine

    I don’t have a dishwasher so I will just make sure my sink and cupboards are sparkling.

  • http://www.mamacomingback.blogspot.co.nz Vikki

    I did the car on Saturday and my friend and the rest doesn’t apply lol…. Free day!!!!

  • clairebear

    Hi Katrina. I have a silly question. Can I remove the date on the task printouts?

  • http://www.facebook.com/lisa.dalby1 Lisa Dalby

    So, since I am one of the no dishwasher group, I will view this as a chance to do maintence on my home cleaning.

  • Fleur

    Who knew a dishwasher could get so filthy! I am doing this twice over, just to get it really really sparkly clean. This is going to be added to my monthly cleaning list!

  • RachJ

    I’ve been following along the tasks, but finding that for a lot of them, I don’t actually need to do them, like clean out my bathroom cupboard, or under my laundry tub, or my plastics cupboard, or clean out my car… and I’ve just realised why!! My housemate moved out in April, and I had a weeks holiday from work, and I did a room a day and scrubbed, and tidied, and organised. Since then I’ve lived on my own, and as I like having things super-tidy I put everything away, and there’s no one else that I have to clean up after…
    It’s great having a list though and I’ll be using it again next time I need to do a deep clean :)

  • Sarah Jane

    I’m so glad this is an easy one I have a small bench top dishwasher & would be lost without it. Dishes are my pet hate I would rather clean a toilet than wash dishes lol. I just want to say thank you
    Katrina for offering this challenge to us. It has made a big difference to my home. Even thought I have not been able to do all of the tasks due to being so pregnant (baby being induced 4 week early this Friday) It all has been an enormous help in getting my home more clean & organised. The tasks are something that I will repeat each month to keep my home looking great & the tips from other readers have been valuable

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=514653919 Terri Baran

      I too would prefer to clean the toilet 10 times than wash dishes except I don’t have a dishwasher at all, unless you count my husband!!!

  • Sarah

    I actually sprinkle bicarb soda in the bottom of my dishwasher on every cycle. I find that it helps with the rinse cycle and keeps the dishwasher smelling fresh every day.

  • ileana marquez

    whoo hoo!! I have a third a the tasks done for today: I have no diswasher and no car :-) I know… I know… sometimes I feel sorry for myself too. I´ll make it up with something I left behind. Thank you again Katrina. Have a nice day!

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  • Karen

    Is the 20 day challenge available yet without the dates on them?

    • http://www.theorganisedhousewife.com.au Katrina

      No not yet Karen, hopefully soon.

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