Best Cleaning Supplies - Old School

Modern Americans really are pretty obsessed with cleaning. People don't want things clean - they want them sterile. I do not think most people are interested in relaxing their standards, but for those who are, I have created this post.

Most people would be appalled by my cleaning standards, because I suspect that the human immune system probably functions better when presented with a broad spectrum of mild challenges. I'm not saying that I let the dogs lick my dishes clean or I wipe my counters with raw chicken, but
(for example) I no longer have a dishwasher to heat-sterilize my dishes - in fact, I often have to use cold water to wash my dishes, as the water heater is only on a few hours a day. I also only use Ivory or handmade soap - no modern detergents. This means I have to wash my dishes very carefully, and it takes longer, but they are old-school clean. I don't clean any part of my kitchen or bathroom with any chemical other than soap or pine cleaner water, though the toilet gets a bit of a scrub with a pumice stone from time to time.

Baking Day

I know this post isn't going to be relevant to too many people, but I'm putting it out there because I couldn't find much of anything about it when I Googled "How to Plan a Baking Day."

My kitchen on Baking Day.

I was a professional cook for a number of years, though my only baking job was making bagels, and that doesn't provide a skill set relevant to home baking. So, though I cook all of our meals at home, I only started making all of our baked goods at home this year. Doing all of the baking in one day assures that it gets done - trying to make these things over the course of a week requires doing set-up, warm-up, and clean-up every time, and that is a sure recipe for failure. Baking Day is not flexible. Things can't "come up." So best to reserve a day solely for the job (and it's a job) of baking.

Here are the steps and tips that get me through a Baking Day:

Prepping: Power Outage

We live in an area that suffers periodically from week-long power outage related to ice and snow storms. For this reason, we planned our house to survive winter power outages off-the-grid, but summer emergencies like tornadoes also make outages possible. Rural areas are usually less of a priority for the power company, and it's already happened to us a few times. Here are some ideas:

"The Privy" - the Indoor Outhouse

I have decided to talk about my privy. I usually avoid talking about this subject with others because I know most people think it's just completely disgusting.

How To Do Laundry Without Heat

We use an energy efficient washer that does not have hot water connected to it, and no dryer at all. I decided not to connect the hot water because I felt that if the hot water was connected, I would eventually find a reason to use it. There are good reasons to use hot water, for instance, when someone gets poison ivy. Hot water could also be good for greasy/oily clothes, but my washer says not to put that stuff in it anyway. That reasoning also applies to the dryer. If I had one I would definitely use it - cold weather, rain, pressed for time.