Not too many people put thought into their dishwasher, let alone how to “properly” load one. But if you want truly clean dishes and don’t want to work on them even after the cycle is finished, there are certain rules that one must abide. Here are seven mistakes that almost everybody – novices and experts alike – makes when loading and unloading the dishwasher.
Loading it One Piece at A Time
Nobody wants dirty dishes to pile in the sink, but it is the best strategy for an efficient load. You'll be able to use the space in the dishwasher the best if you load it all at once, starting with your largest dishes and filling in the space with the smaller pieces.
Not Sorting the Flatware First
This one isn't a major faux pas, but rather a simple tip that makes dishwasher life a little easier. As you load your flatware into the silverware caddy, keep forks with forks and spoons with spoons. It makes easy work of unloading clean pieces into the drawer.
Letting Your Spoons Spoon
Perfectly nested spoons might save space, but it means that water and detergent can't clean between them. Instead, alternative your spoons (and maybe the forks, too) between heads up and heads down.
Putting Good Knives in the Dishwasher
If you have nice knives (that you'd like to keep nice), keep them out of the dishwasher. The Kitchn tells us that "the abrasive detergent, high heat, and jostling with other dishwasher items will cause the blade to dull prematurely and give your knife nicks in the edge."
Loading Cookie Sheets in the Wrong Spot
Your big, flat trays and pans should be on the sides of the bottom rack, never the front. You don't want them to block access to the detergent dispenser.
Ignoring the Sprayer Arm
That arm in the center of the dishwasher is the source of all the magic that makes dirty dishes clean. Your job is just to make sure that every dish has a clear path to the sprayer arm. That means loading plates so that they face the center of the dishwasher (and the arm), but also taking care not to overload the dishwasher. You might need to run it more often, but it will pay off in the long run when you don't have to rinse afterwards, or ever run the cycle again.
Unloading the Top First
Like socks that go missing in the dryer, upturned cups are a given in the homekeeping world. Those cups collect gross dish water, just waiting to be spilled all over the clean dishes below. To avoid having to set the dishwasher for a repeat performance, unload the bottom rack first, then handle the cups up top.
Got a stinky gym bag? Living room need some refreshing? Already have some essential oils lying around? Perfect! Below are 3 recipes for all natural, green, odor busters that are sure to freshen up any fabric or air space. Even if you don’t already have these ingredients in your cabinet, we highly recommend purchasing them, as they can be used for multiple purposes. Essential oils have also been found to benefit the mind and body making these ingredients truly versatile.
But first: get that apartment CLEAN!
LEMON + CLOVE AIR FRESHENER SPRAY
Perfect for any time a room needs a little freshening up. The lemon and clove is great warm scent for fall, but you can use your favorite essential oils too – get creative!
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup vodka (or rubbing alcohol) – vodka is odorless and evaporates quicker
5 drops lemon essential oil
5 drops clove essential oil
spray bottle
Add ingredients to a spray bottle and shake to combine. Spray 2-3 sprays in any room that needs a little freshening.
LEMON + PEPPERMINT GARBAGE CAN FRESHENING TABLETS
This concoction works great in the bottom of garbage cans and diaper pails. Place one or two anywhere a little odor absorption is necessary. Toss when odors aren’t being absorbed any longer.
1/2cup baking soda
1/3 cup Epsom salt
About 1/4 cup water
10 drops of your favorite essential oils
Ice cube trays
Combine the ingredients and make a dry paste and spoon a tablespoon at a time in each compartment. Don’t fill to the top because the mixture will expand a bit. Allow to dry out completely overnight and/or in the sun. Once the tablets have hardened, carefully turn the tray over onto a clean surface. Place 1-2 in a garbage can – it should last at least 2 weeks. Store tablets in an airtight container for 3 months
CITRUS + TEA TREE FABRIC SANITIZER SPRAY
If you need to sanitize/freshen a pillow or a pair of shoes, this spray will become a new favorite.
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup rubbing alcohol
2 drops citrus essential oil
4 drops tea trea (melaleuca) oil
Add ingredients to a spray bottle and shake to combine. Spray on shoes and fabric to freshen – let dry completely before using. If you are concerned about water on fabric, test in an inconspicuous area first.
Noticing your electric bill creeping up in recent months? There are easy (and even free!) ways to help keep you cool in your apartment without donating arms and legs to the electric company. Take a look at these 5 tips we came up with to help you save on your electric bill this month:
Close the blinds or curtains, or both.
Natural light is important to people, especially when their living quarters sway on the small side, but shutting out the sun can help reduce the heat in your apartment by 35%. Take it a step further and purchase , they’re not too expensive and have decent styles.
Program your thermostat at a higher temperature while you’re away.
If no one’s in the apartment from 8:00am-5:00pm, why bother cooling the space? Have it programmed to drop again about half an hour before you typically arrive home and you’ll be chilling again before dinner.
Leave the temp a little higher, and buy a couple of fans.
But they don’t have to be those obnoxious, ugly box fans. Dyson makes that blow a good breeze, but if you’re not willing to shell out the dough, make products that are just a sleek and still cool you off.
Leave the temp a little higher, and wear less or lighter clothing
It’s a no-brainer to simply wear less and shorter layers in the summer months, but also consider the fabric of choice. Cotton is more breathable than polyester or nylon, so ditch the yoga pants while binging Netflix on the couch. Or go naked. We won’t judge.
Take advantage of cool nights
Keep an eye on the weather and if you see it’s supposed to drop under 70 at night, open up the windows and turn off the A/C. The fresh air will do you some good, too.
In light of Marie Kondo’s widely popular approach of purging your things to cleanse your life of clutter, it’s time we did the same with our social media experience. I’ve read several blog posts recently depicting people’s social media experience as completely overwhelming and stressful, and read about bloggers venting their frustrations over the high expectations of today’s society. In the one I read most recently, I found myself nodding my head in agreement and internally screaming “YES!”
I, too, have felt overwhelmed by social society for a while now, as if I could never keep up or be good enough for, like, anything. But then I had an epiphany. I’m partially to blame for this. Consider this: How many rich celebrities do you follow on Instagram? How many DIY crafters do you follow on Facebook? How many “be your own boss” or “make millions now” business pages do you follow in LinkedIn? The truth is we’ve actually been sabotaging ourselves by following hundreds of social accounts that constantly contradict themselves. It’s no wonder we’re so overwhelmed. But social media isn’t to blame—we are!
The good news is you can fix this, quick and easy. Ask yourself: what do you want to get out of your social media experience? For me, I want to see what my family and closest friends are up to. I want to get tips on fitness, healthy, décor, parenting, and food. And most importantly, I don’t want to feel ashamed. For anything.
Do yourself a favor and begin the purge. Do you really need to know what’s happening in the life of someone you met once 5 years ago? Do you really need to follow twelve blogs about home decorating? Twelve, though? Really?
Probably not. So let’s dive in.
Step 1 : Get rid of “friends” who make you feel worse about yourself or your life
Following friends on social media is supposed to give you warm feelings of happiness for all the milestones that person is celebrating in their life. If that “friend” makes you feel bad about your life—or worse, you suspect they’re faking their happiness just to impress others—consider unfriending or unfollowing them STAT. The same for people you rarely talk to, or haven’t talked to in years. Is surface-level friendship really worth the inner turmoil of jealousy if you can’t find it in yourself to be happy for them? Some friends only post rants or offensive memes. They need to go. Some friends only post selfies. If you like their selfies, great, like away. But if they provide little other inspiration for you, it’s time to part ways.
Step 2 : Unfollow ¾ of the news, magazine, celebrity, or brand accounts/pages that you currently follow. You and I both know it’s too much. When you first sign up for a new social account like Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, they make suggestions on people or pages to follow. This is great for first-timers, but if you’re anything like me, you picked 20 or so people and pages right off that bat that you only felt Luke warm about. As time goes by, you like and follow more and more accounts until one day you realize you follow 176 unnecessary pages, all of which are confusing and stressful.
Divide your desired account into categories, like “food”, “fitness”, “parenting”, “cars”, “news”, “fashion” etc, and pick only one or two valuable sources for each category. When you only have one source providing the content, you’re more likely to listen and—most importantly—not get overwhelmed with contradicting ideals. I narrowed my news sources down to one, because the constant reminder of death and destruction in our world was too much to bear.
Step 3 : Replace those unwanted accounts with people or celebrities who inspire you, but only if you truly think their content will be valuable. Pick 10 or 12 celebrities you truly cherish and follow only their pages; forget the C-listers.
Step 4 : Is probably the hardest one yet. Be prepared for the “why aren’t we friends on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter?” discussion with acquaintances. There are a couple of ways to approach this. One is with the simple truth, “I’ve recently started limiting my network to family and close friends only,” with no other explanation. Then try your best to change the subject. If they persist, you could elaborate with “I’m doing my best to not get overwhelmed by hundreds of posts from friends I only see sparingly. While I genuinely hope everything in your life is going great, I simply don’t want to be overwhelmed by my newsfeed.” If they ask why you don’t consider them a close friend….well, you’re on your own there.
Another approach is to white-lie your way out of it, although you might get yourself caught once in a while, so I don’t recommend it (but let’s be honest, we’ve all done this anyway). Go with the classic “Oh, I didn’t see your request come through….that’s weird” *begins to fake-frantically scroll on phone for said request*
And then there are times when they don’t deserve an explanation at all. Screw ‘em. It’s your social feed, your life, your mood. Stop feeling pressured to invite every person you’ve ever met into your life. Just smile and blink at them. Then walk away.
Clearing your life of clutter isn’t limited to physical things or space, you also need a clear head to live life fully. So pick up your phone and start eliminating unnecessary people and pages NOW.
Keep you up to date
With a smart assistant, you not only can stop reading the news every morning, you can stop reading your own emails and texts! Once you have a smart assistant, especially if you’ve upgraded to have one in multiple rooms of your home, you can ask it to read the news, the weather, or anything else that you need to know for the rest of your day.
Set important reminders and alarms anywhere
If your smart assistant can hear you from where you are in the house, you can set a reminder or alarm whenever you need one. On the phone and making plans? Forget about awkwardly fumbling with speakerphone; just tell your smart assistant to make an appointment on your calendar. Forgot to set an alarm to wake up, but you can’t find your phone? Tell your smart assistant when to wake you up. Smart assistants make it easy to keep your life in checkboxes in the best way.
Control your entertainment life
For those who are willing to go an extra step and incorporate their smart assistant into their televisions and radios, your entire entertainment web is at your fingertips. Setting up smart assistants like Alexa and Google Home in different rooms of your house means you can stream radio and music playlists from anywhere, and even rent movies and stream shows directly onto your television. All it takes is a voice command; you don’t even have to use your remote!
Keep your house safe
One of the greatest things about smart assistants is that they let you keep an eye on things, no matter how far away they are. Lots of home security systems are extremely high-tech nowadays, with features such as facial recognition technology and artificial intelligence that make sure your place stays secure, even when you’re not in it. Most of the time, these security systems let you connect your smart assistant, so you can check in at any point, and they can send you an alert if there’s any suspicious activity. With the combination of smart power and your ability to look things over with a human eye, your security system can be nearly foolproof. It adds an extra layer to your home security, which is great if you frequently have to leave your home standing empty.
Connect you in any room
Of course, the main draw of having an apartment that’s completely connected to a smart assistant is your ability to stay connected, no matter where you are. Most smart assistants connect to your phone in one way or another, which may mean the ability to answer your phone even if it’s in the next room, have music playing through your whole home, or create important reminders while you’re making dinner that your phone can bring up at a later date.
Smart assistants are an amazing advancement in technology, and they’re a great way to improve your life a little bit. No matter what you’re trying to do, it’s likely that a smart assistant can walk you through it, from making your house a little safer to just enhancing your everyday living experience.
