Vinegar!

     As I grow older and wiser there are many changes I have decided to make in my life. These start as small as buying generic items, and can be as big as changing my diet! Some of the smaller in-between consist of trying to recycle, conserve water and energy, and even be more organic in my everyday life! When I began trying to cut out all of the harsh chemicals in my life, i began to realized how many options there really are for natural cleaners! I've learned most of them here on this blog from my fellow bloggers. :) Since gaining the interest to make these changes, you wouldn't believe the time that I spend on the computer researching new ways to clean and/or create things for my home. I not only enjoy knowing that I am handling things without the use of chemicals, but I also enjoy expanding my knowledge on the topic! One of the best universal cleaners I have discovered is: Vinegar. It's an amazing little tool that I never thought had the capabilities that it does! Here at AZUMA Leasing we all know our favorite topic is Laundry! So here's a few reasons why you should use this god sent item in your laundry room!

     First, lets talk about your clothes. We all know that wash after wash the colors become dull, and that is something we all dread! Just by adding 1/2 a cup to the rinse cycle, will keep your clothes bright and looking brand new! No more faded jeans! This, my friends, is priority number one in my book! At the same time we're not only brightening our colors, but fabric softener won't be needed!  That's right! Vinegar is a great substitute for softening your fabrics!
      Have you ever forgotten your clothes in the washer because you got busy, or even fell asleep, and when you return they smell gross?! All you need to do is throw a couple cups of vinegar into the washer and run through a rinse cycle - once completed, wash them again with detergent. Your clothes will be fresh like they never sat over night forgotten in your washer! Vinegar also works great to remove perspiration odors AND stains! Spray a little bit of vinegar on the stain or 'smelly location' before throwing the item into the normal wash and you'll be covered. :)
     Any pesky residue from walking around after it rains that sticks around and leaves your shoes looking dull, can be easily removed by wiping them down with an equal part solution of water and vinegar. Not only does it clean the stains from your garments, it is also great for cleaning the washer, itself! Run a load in the washing machine without any clothing, and add a few cups of vinegar with hot water. This will clean out your washing machine and keep it fresh for your clothing! Not only can it clean the washing machine, it is also great for your iron! We all know that starch, and all sorts of funk can build up on the iron over time. In order to clean it and keep it working well, take equal parts vinegar and water and use this mixture in your iron. Fill it up, let it heat up and steam upright for about 5 minutes, then let the iron cool. Once cool, rinse and fill back up with water. This keeps the mineral deposits from building up in the steam vent and spray nozzle! This cleans the inside of the iron, for the outer surfaces, you can use the same mixture with warm water to scrub the residue off of the heat plate itself (when cool, of course)!
     Vinegar is an amazing substitute for bleach! Add 1-2 cups of vinegar to a pot of boiling water, then add your whites to the pot (socks, dingy rags, etc), then let it soak over night, you'll be amazed at the difference! Not only can it whiten those dingy whites, but it also works great as a spot treatment! Take a spray bottle with equal parts water and vinegar and apply mixture to the stain and rub it in. Then throw it in the wash, and watch the stain disappear! Last but not lease, lets talk about our towels. Are your towels not absorbing as much as they used to? Run then through a warm wash with 2-3 cups of vinegar. This strips all of the extras that get absorbed into your towels, causing them not to do their job!

     If this didn't convince you to run out to the store and buy some vinegar for your laundry room, I don't know what will! From your friends at AZUMA Leasing - until next time, keep it clean! :)

Happy Friday!

Who doesn't love Fridays??? Fridays were made for fun. Things are more relaxed and people are upbeat in anticipation of the weekend ahead. I don't know about you but I love random fun facts and I thought that sharing a few of those would be a good way to get our weekends off to a great start. So, here are some fun little tidbits! Enjoy!

• Picasso could draw before he could walk
• Blueberry jelly beans were created for Ronald Reagan
• It takes 7 shuffles to thoroughly mix a deck of 52 cards
• Milk chocolate was invented by Daniel Peter who sold the idea to his neighbor...Henri Nestle
• The tongue of a blue whale is as long as an elephant
• The word ‘umbrella’ is derived from the Latin root word ‘umbra’, which means shade or shadow.
• As an iceberg melts, it makes a fizzing sound because of the compressed air bubbles popping in the ice.
• The U.S. has the most movie theaters, but India produces the most movies.
• The reason why your nose gets runny when you are crying is because the tears from your eyes drain into your nose.
• The first lighthouse was in Alexandria in 290 B.C.
• Domestic cats purr at about 26 cycles per second, the same frequency as an idling diesel engine.
• A storm officially becomes a hurricane when cyclone winds reach 74mph (119k/h).
• There is enough concrete in the Hoover Dam to pave a two lane highway from San Francisco to New York.
• Checkmate comes from the Persian word “shah mat”, which means ‘the king is dead’.
• La Paz, the capital city of Bolivia, is the highest capital in the world at over 17,000 feet (5,181 m)
  The Hawaiian alphabet consists of only 12 letters
  The name for Oz in "The Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence "Oz"
  There are no poisonous snakes in Maine
  In your lifetime, you'll shed over 40 pounds of skin
  Armadillos, opossums, and sloth's spend about 80% of their lives sleeping
  It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open
  One gallon of used motor oil can ruin approximately one million gallons of fresh water
  

So there ya go! Hope you were able to learn something new!! Until next time, keep it clean and enjoy your weekend!!

Bits o' Randomness

Today's blog is all about random facts. Fun little tidbits of information that you can use to impress your friends and family!

• Odontophobia is the fear of teeth.
• The average person spends 2 weeks of their life stuck at traffic lights.
• During his or her lifetime, an average person will grow 590 miles of hair.
• A group of owls is called a parliament.
• An earthquake on December 16th, 1811 caused parts of the Mississippi River to flow BACKWARDS! (how cool would it have been to see THAT!)
• The size of your foot is the distance from your elbow to your wrist.
• The only letter in the alphabet with more than one syllable is "W".
• There are more dogs than children in the city of Paris.
• The Statue of Liberty wears a size 879 sandal.
• If you bite down on a Wint-O-Green Lifesaver in the dark, you can see SPARKS!
• A hippo can open it's mouth wide enough to hold a 4 foot child inside.
• Look at your zipper. See the initials YKK? It stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world's largest zipper manufacturer.
• A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why.
• Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to slow a film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.
• Your brain is more active when sleeping than watching TV.
• "I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
• On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.
• The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year!
• Porcupines float in water!
• The most powerful electric eel is found in the rivers of Brazil, Columbia, Venezuela, and Peru, and produces a shock of 400-650 volts.
• The mask used by Michael Myers in the original 'Halloween' was actually a Captain Kirk mask painted white.
• Washing machines use about 22% of the water consumed in the average American home
• Clothes washers account for 93% of lost socks in a typical American household.
• The clothes dryer is typically the second-biggest electricity using appliance in a household after the refrigerator.

Have a fabulous weekend and as always, keep it clean!!