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ldyptch · 5 years

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HDB - Homemade Delicious Brew (also made in an HDB)

Id like to share with you an apartment style beer adapted for local weather(singapore) and minimal specialist equipment

I used to not drink much beer until I met J and we got into beer brewing. And I think a huge part of appreciation is understanding, and I grew to enjoy hoppy beers. We started with some ales, progressed to American styled IPAs and experimented with Guiness and delirium tremens clones before the interest eventually fizzled out.

It was partly because we couldn’t quite drink as quickly as we were brewing, but also handing 36 litres of hot, sticky fluid, sterilizing 40 bottles, figuring out how to store and chill giant vats of fluid, wasn’t entirely my idea of a relaxing weekend. Also the aquarium chiller we had borrowed to chill our brews had been reclaimed for the setup of a salt water tank.

Fast forward to my kombucha -brewing phase, it seemed silly that beer brewing couldn’t occur in warm summer months (when cold beers are even more crutial) since kombucha is simply left out in a shaded area with nothing more than a breathable cloth to keep out bugs. I resented that brewing instructions seem to necessite extreme sterility, specialized equipment and was fussier and required unifunctional gear that my small apartment had no spare space for.

This led to the discovery of farmhouse brews.

We settled on the saison yeast primarily because it was easily available at our local brew shop and chose the simplest recipe online and scaled it down to a 5L brew. 5L because my stockpot had a 6 L capacity and I did not need to purchase a special cauldron from siahuat just to get my brewing on.

For the first batch, we experimented with fermenting in a 20 deg fridge and at room temperature –

The room temperature brew finished bubbling after a week, whilst the fridge control took 12 days. Personally, J and I preferred the room temperature ferment which was perfect for the purposes of a fuss free brew.

Equipment:

1. 6L stockpot

2. Sous Vide stick

3. Noodle sieve

4. Meshbag

5. Dilute iodine solution (we added 2 drops of providone iodine to a full spray bottle of water) in a spray bottle

· We just got some povidone iodine from the pharmacy and got a cheap and cheerful squirt bottle from IKEA

6. Fermentation vessel

· We chose wide mouthed glass IKEA jars and simply removed the rubber gaskets to prevent a complete seal.

· Left alone, the beer fermented in the IKEA jars seemed to not have any off notes as compared to that brewed in a jar with a one way valve, hence we did not bother exploring the installation of more one way valves in our other ferment jars.

7. Something to measure specific gravity

· Hygrometer – we used to use this, but in a 5L brew, sacrificing 100ml of fluid just to calculate this seems like such a waste! Also we broke our container

· Brix measure – waaay smaller than a hygrometer,and only needs a small drop of liquid for measurements. It was also relatively affordable off certain local online shopping sites.

Apartment style saison for sunny singapore:

* the temperature in my kitchen stays a comfortable 27-30 degrees Celsius most of the time, and very occasionally hits a high of 32 degrees (usually when there’s some massive cookout or baking going on)

*earworm – Joey, Torn, sweet child of mine

1200g pilsner malt

200g Vienna malt

7g cascade

7g hallertau

Saison yeast

Total boil time 90min

- Add in hallertau at 30 mins (boil for 60mins)

- Add in cascade at 85min (boil for 5mins)

How do we know the mashing process is complete?

Mashing is an enzymatic process that converts the starches present in grain (wheat/barley/oats/etc) to sugars. A quick way is to take some of this mashing liquid and add in a few drops of iodine – if there still are starches present, the yellow iodine will turn blue. If the process is complete and there are no starches left, the iodine remains yellow

Observe sterility for all processes after the 90min boil!

- Sterilize all sieves /spoons/thermometers used with our trusty iodine squirt bottle

Plug a sink and fill with ice/water for chilling our wort

Cool wort to 33deg

Add saison yeast to some cooled wort and check that its alive and bubbling

If using washed yeast, remember to let it come to room temperature

If its handy aerate the yeast mixture we use a (sterilized!) milk frother

Add yeast mixture to cooled wort and decant into fermentation vessel/s

Leave to ferment at 27-32 degrees

Points to note:

Don’t fill the fermentation vessel too full or you may have a blowout! Beer is formed with live yeasts which breath and bubble, so expect the formation of a foam head and some exuberant activity. We like to leave a 2inch gap between the fluid level and the lid of the fermentation vessel, because cleanups aren’t fun (I had a blowout with some kimchi liquid once …) also, if the bubbling reaches the lid, the risk of contamination is higher.

Within the next 12hours, you should see the beer babies dance around exuberantly. Our brews usually take 8 hours before the dancing starts. How long this takes depends on the temperature of your kitchen, the activity of your yeast, and may take longer or shorter. No rush! All is well J

��Leave to ferment until the dancing stops and start bottling!!

· Technically speaking, we wait for the krausen to fall, which is where the foam head which has formed and then has gone away, indicating that your fermentation is complete and the beer is ready for kegging/bottling.

Bottling

1. Skim krausen off

· We use a (sterilized oil skimmer from my kitchen)

2. decant into your secondary fermentation bottles!

· We decant using a siphon with a 300 micron filter (its relatively cheap off certain online websites

· Before we got our siphon, we simply gently poured out the beer and left the residue behind

3. Carbonation – add in some sugar syrup to each bottle to help with carbonation

· We mix up a simple sugar syrup and add a squirt (maybe 10mls?) into each bottle

· Classically saison beers are left to bottle carbonate (no need to fuss with forced carbonation!)

· We usually leave the bottles out at room temperature for 24-36h hours before migrating the bottles to the fridge to chill and further carbonate

· We typically leave the beer in the fridge for a secondary ferment for at least 1-2 weeks

Optional: if you wish to harvest the yeast for reusing in a future brew (washed yeast = free yeast!)

Washing yeast

After decanting the beer, you’re left with the trub and some beer

Add some boiled and cooled water to the left over trub, shake it

Leave it to sit for at least 20 mins and your fluid should settle into 2 layers – the top milky fluid which contains your yeast and some beer, and a bottom darker brown layer containing your trub, a mixture of hop debris, coagulated proteins, heavy fats and inactive yeast.

Carefully pour the top milky fluid into a sterilized container and store in the fridge for later use.

so...Can I just pour wort onto the unwashed yeast and start fermentation?

Technically yes, but the mixture of other things in the trub can give rise in off flavours in the next batch of beer that you brew. DONT BE LAZY

Let’s tweak this!

As always, just leaving things be is never enough. Apparently apart from having flavours specific to a brew location, saison brewers also add in other aromatics to make their brews their own either with spices/herbs.

Ideas for changing flavours:

- Testing out what forced carbonation could do to the flavours

- Changing up the aromatic/bittering hops to mimic an IPA

- Adding in other grains for mashing

· Apparently people used to chuck whatever was available after their harvest into their mash and turn that into beer

· Perhaps some oatmeal for a creamier mouthfeel?

· Perhaps some toasted grains for an amber saison?

- Adding herbs/spices when boiling the wort

· Ginger/coriander seeds

· Orange peel paired with American hops

Happy brewing! And I’ll keep you updated!

#ndnd homebrew saison newdaynewdiscovery hdbbrew

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mktravellingcurator-blog · 7 years

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Day one.

It all starts with day one. Well infact, it all started long before day one, but I’ll get to that at some point. I came to visit friends that I’d met in Guatemala on my long travels. They’ve been living here for a few months, one on and off for years already. I hadn’t really planned the trip, I just knew that after such a harsh winter I needed to do something fresh in the Spring. I came via Prague after visiting a dear friend in Hungry (whom I’d felt so uplifted by!), and arrived on a Friday afternoon. The sun was shining and as I looked around my new surroundings, getting lost in the train station and understanding little to no German, I just felt exhausted. I found my friends flat where I’d be staying for a few days, after which I’d planned to keep travelling down to Italy. After some time to unpack my bag and breath, we went to Tempelhof, a place with an inspiring story. It’s an old airport which has now become a beautiful public space after the people of Berlin refused to let it get turned into the hundreds of boring new builds it could have become, they actively squatted on the site until the government were forced to listen and turn it into a public space, I was already impressed. It’s also the sunset spot of Berlin and it feels like you’re in a tropical paradise, needless to say I was happy, sunset is my favourite thing in the world and to find a spot where you can watch it go down already felt good. While chilling in the sun and seeing all the happy, trendy (but not try hard) people I simply felt a real sense of ease. It was so good to see my friend and have a heart to heart catch up with her, so often I feel like it’s hard to connect with people, but with her conversations can dance, spiral and flow and I was so grateful to be communicating in this way again. I realise that this communication issue is something that I’ve been feeling for a long time and which I blamed myself for. Why can’t I connect, what am I doing wrong?! But of course, connections cannot be forced and when the stars align it just happens. Luckily (flashing forward 11days), I think it goes beyond that and if you’re willing to be totally open and honest about how and why you wish to connect then it’s likely to happen more often. Since arriving I feel like I’ve already made many genuine, heart felt friendships, which is a testiment to people’s vibes in Berlin and why I’m meant to be here. But, back to day one. After Johanna and I had had a good catch up, another friend I’d made in Guatemala arrived, Dave! He’s only lived here for a few months and is from England originally too, but he really lives and breaths the city. I was immediately swirled into his awesome world of bouncing in the flow, from going out all weekend to going to a gallery opening or live show every night of the week. He has boundless energy and I already felt grateful to see him. He bounded over on his bike, tackled me to the ground with a hug and then proceeded to pop open a bottle of Prosecco while producing strawberries from his bag. A man of many wonders!

For sunset we went to sit in the slightly more sheltered allotment part of the park- can you imagine people chilling in allotments in England peacefully? I can’t, there’d be carnage, but here it just works and things are respected. It was beautiful and as the sun set we could see the new moons shining sliver, things were just feeling right. Of course Dave knew what was happening that night and we ended up at the most incredible place, Artistania, an arts collective collaborating their amazing work. You had to become a member to enter, a clever way of getting around licensing laws. The work inside was incredible, and the best was yet to come. Puppetry that looked like art work and told the story of the future- of people working as if they were machines, stuck in a loop of never ending boredom in which their day dreams were their only freedom… I just connected instantly with this concept, until just recently I’d felt that I should have been in the ‘system’ to achieve what I wanted, but it’s always seemed and felt wrong to me. I don’t want to be part of anyone else’s machine, I want to create my own dream machine thank you very much. I’ve always felt that essentially the ‘system’ is a never ending trap, designed by those more fortunate to keep the less fortunate exactly where they are, and the society I see out selves currently living in, is just that. Again, I was impressed and my mind was working and seeing things in ways it hadn’t in months. The puppet show was followed by a one man circus, accompanied by a pianist. It was one of the best live performances I’ve seen in my life! It was soooo creative, inventive and ingenious- told silently through drawing, gestures, circus skills and impeccable piano playing, which was perfectly synced with the circus performers actions. The audience was in absolute awe. After this a live band with trumpets, saxophone, accordion and a host of other instruments played and the space became a music venue in the blink of an eye, the good times kept rolling!.. Until I got too tired and tapped out at 2am. I knew this was just the beginning and I had to acclimatise to the awesome pace of life in Berlin. The whole night Dave had joked about convincing me to move to Berlin in less than 24hours, turns out I didn’t need much convincing and I’d made my decision to live here for the foreseeable future in even less than 12hours. Everything felt right.. Berlin, I am home.

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healthboostingtips · 4 years

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A FOOD LOVERS GUIDE FOR LONG TERM WEIGHT LOSS-PART 3

Introducing Intermittent Fasting (IF)

So over the past several years I have researched and tried out several methods of keeping the balance between having a lifestyle where I do not have to feel guilty when eating yummy food and staying in good shape all year around, and feel great. One of the best method I found that will allow me to do all of this is intermittent fasting. This method has helped so many of my clients get great results. What Is Intermittent Fasting? Intermittent fasting is simply the practice of going an extended period of time taking in zero calories— basically drinking only plain water and either black coffee or tea. There are many variations of intermittent fasting, but my personal preferred method to build lean muscle tissue and change body composition effectively is the 16/8 which allows to also build lean muscle while losing fat. This simple method involves fasting for 16 hours, then eating all of my food during an eight-hour ‘feeding window’. The reason why I would highly recommend intermittent fasting is because it is something that you can easily adopt into your busy lifestyle, and it gives you that flexibility to go enjoy a night out with friends, not feel guilty at a birthday party that you may had to go on the weekend, or over indulged during holidays, you can incorporate intermittent fasting to help you get back in the shape you were before and maintain that shape. WIN WIN! Our weight is always going to fluctuate due to the reasons stated above or the fact that your body is going through different hormonal activities, so by utilising this simple method of intermittent fasting you can quite easily stick around your desired body shape without having to live the life of a miserable bodybuilder (been there). Questions you may have on Intermittent Fasting Do I have to fast for 16hours right from the beginning? No you don’t. You can start out with which every fasting period that you are comfortable and then increase the hours as your body gets used to it. For example, start out with 10hours of fasting, then after a few days to 12hours and then eventually until you can keep a fasting period of about 16hours. Can the hours that I sleep at night count as hours toward the fast? Yes, it can. So, for example, if you have a protein shake right before bed, then wake up seven hours later, you’re already seven hours into your fast with only nine more to reach your goal of 16. Is there anything that I can eat or drink while Intermittent Fasting? Clearly, you cannot eat anything or consume any calories during your fasting hours. Water is perfectly fine to have. Apart from that, choose zero-calorie, unsweetened drinks. My personal favourite is black coffee—with no milk, cream sugar, or anything else in it. Plain, unsweetened teas such as green tea or black tea are also fine. I would recommend to have about 3-5 tall glasses of water throughout this fasting window after waking up. Do I have to cram a Day’s Worth Of Meals within the Eight Hours? During the 8 hours of eating or the ‘feeding window’ you want to reach your daily calorific allowance. Examples of how to fit your food into your feeding window is give later in this section. You shouldn’t be undereating whilst on your feeding window, or you will affect your performance in the gym and your body is going to struggle to build or maintain muscle mass. Make sure you get plenty in all your nutrients, particularly protein. Checkyourfood.com is a great source to track all your vital nutrition’s. I will list out a few other tracking apps later in this book with more details. To simplify things, you will be eating the same number of food calories and macro nutrients per day, just with an altered meal schedule than a typical breakfast lunch and dinner hour nutrition plan. By all means you can always tweak calories and macro nutrients if and when your body and training goals change. Are there any benefits of Intermittent Fasting? Yes, there is research that shows that fasting for relatively long periods may result in better fat burning, even when your total daily caloric intake stays the same. Most clients find that they are able to enjoy a few more of their favourite “cheat” snacks during the feeding window and still see results. This is why intermittent fasting is such an attractive diet for many people. One of the other reasons why I would like to recommend intermittent fasting is because it is reasonably easy to follow and get used to. It is also a lifestyle diet that you can carry out for the longterm with no adverse effects on your health. What you will notice is health benefits in the long term. How Exactly Does Intermittent Fasting Increase Fat Burning relative to a standard Diet? The Yale/Copenhagen group issued several papers presenting that one of the main reasons why fasting-induced fat loss is effective is because there is a growth in the activity of genes that increases the number of calories the body consumes and the amount of fat it burns. Here are some examples of what an IF day might look like 1.Avoid eating for 5-6 hours after waking up. You do not have to break your fast every day at the same time, but simply pushing your first meal a few hours back. 2. Drink a few glasses of water during your fasting window. (you can also have a coffee or tea) Most of the time when you feel hungry, you are thirsty. Drink plenty of water during this fasting period to keep your body happy. Worst case scenario has some sparkling water as this makes you feel full up. 3. Eat 2-3 meals during your feeding window. Depending on your lifestyle anything between 2-3 meals spread throughout the feeding window will keep your hunger satisfied. Feeding window example 12-1pm -First meal of the day 4-5pm second meal of the day 8-9- last meal of the day You can use this example as a guideline, but change it according to your lifestyle. I would suggest for you to experiment with it and see how you get on with it. See which time of the day you are most hungry. Which time of the day you need most energy. I personally have smaller meals as meal 1 and 2 and then have a large diner for my last meal, which also helps me to go to sleep. On my first two meals I will have a high protein sources such as tuna and a high fat source such as nuts or olive oil along with some green vegetables such as broccoli and spinach. Then for my final meal I will have a high protein source again such as mackerel or eggs, and then a high carbohydrates sources such as rice, or even an ice cream if I need to treat myself. 4. do your workout either just before your first meal or just after your first meal. TASK start implementing IF into your lifestyle… The first week or two might be challenging, but your body will adopt fast and then you will start to feel great and notice the inches drop off the waistline faster than ever.. -Coach Sunny

from Health Boosting Tips https://www.healthboostingtips.com/a-food-lovers-guide-for-long-term-weight-loss-part-3/

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keepitcartesian · 5 years

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How to Clean Your Home Like a Pro

As the days finally get brighter, and the evenings get longer, you'll start to notice just how dusty and unclean certain areas of your home can appear which you were blinded to in the dark winters months. And I understand, at first, it can seem other whelming to tackle your entire home alone, all in the matter of a couple of days.

I have collaborated many tips and tricks that will give you infromative infromation so that you know how to clean your home like a pro.

Top 10 Spring Cleaning Tips

Now I'm no pro, I'm just a woman with a certain set of skills, skills that can make this whole spring clean season a whole lot easier for you. Although I have watched my fair share of cleaning programmes so I'm equipped with all the professional cleaning tips from Kim and Aggie which they have handed down to their viewers through the years.

Just below are my top 10 spring cleaning tips which I have personally tried and had to share them with you today to make your life a whole lot easier because trust me, cleaning turned into a delight once I started using these specific ways to get over certain house maintenance problems

When to Start Spring Cleaning

Typically, the practice of spring cleaning can be done all year round since the phrase is now widely used as a means of thoroughly cleaning a house or home. Although, if you couldn't guess it used to mean, and technically still does, to clean one's home in the springtime.

But to answer 'when to start spring cleaning', it's up to you! If you have some time spare, perhaps on a bank holiday or if you've taken some time off work, there is no better time to crack on with some housework. Since cleaning out your entire home can be a chore, it's useful to make a start whenever you can to minimise tasks in the near future.

Cleaning is also a great way to get a new look in your home without too much effort since you're just making the best of what you already feature within your interior.

House Clean Routine - Make One!

For good results, you need a good plan, and with a good plan, you need to make sure it works for you, so no copying from the internet! Seriously, your house clean routine needs to be something that is personal to you and your goals, so that you are able to work towards it more efficiently and you are more likely too if its something you drafted up yourself.

Disorganized cleaning will give you a lot of missed spots. An effective cleaner will go from room to room, top to bottom ensuring they’ve tackled all those unreachable corners.

If you've got a smart device and would much rather keep your cleaning calendar on your device, then you should probably go download Clean My House from the App Store or Google Play store.

If you're still stuck, he's an idea of how I went about drafting up mine;

How to Organize House Cleaning Schedule

I wrote down all the task I had had to do, listed them in the order from most enjoyable to least enjoyable; now I know what you're thinking "how can there really be a different" but trust me there is.

Cleaning my glass table top was far more stressful than hovering the lounge area.

Once you've created this list, you're going to want to get all the annoying things out of the way, while you are at the start of your cleaning mission where you will most likely put up with the gruelling and boring tasks at hand than if you were to leave it till last.

Then go ahead and fit everything into a daily house cleaning schedule, I'd recommend putting the easy stuff at the end of the week, again since its the end of your time cleaning you want to putt the easiest stuff off so you are able to relax more.

At this point you should be ready to start cleaning…that is until you've read all of my other spring cleaning tips further down the page!

Use Vodka for Cleaning a Mattress

Now I know what you're immediately thinking, Kerry has gone crazy.

And yes, I understand vodka is for drinking but trust me on this one, don't knock it till you've tried it.

So yes, you really can use vodka for cleaning a mattress (if you have any leftover from that party on Saturday night) along with a dash of your favourite essential oil to give it that 'clean' smell we all seek for any piece of furnishing in our homes.

Heres how you clean up your mattress;

Use a damp cloth to remove any excess debris or liquids that are still within the affected area.

Fill an empty spray bottle with your Vodka, regardless of the quality, around about 2/3 to not overflow the bottle.

Add your favourite essential oil to give your mattress a refreshing smell. (Mint is my personal favourite)

Make sure to shake the bottle well to mix the two liquids together well; ensure the lid is tight or you'll be cleaning the vodka up too!

Spray the affected areas with your new favourite cleaning solution. Make sure not to the soak the area, spray with care.

Now leave it to dry completely, don't bother making the bed just yet, be sure to double check that the mattress is dry before you dress it back up in its usual fashion.

Other Household uses for Vodka

While we're on the topic of using vodka as a cleaning product, I thought It would be worth mentioning the many other household uses for vodka I have found that doesnt include drinking.

Cleaning Windows and Fixtures: Just like with your mattress, you are able to clean your windows and lighting fixtures with a vodka-soaked cloth, which will allow you to add extra sparkle and get a streak-free shine.

Soak your feet: If you're looking to get a natural clean on your feet, perhaps after a long walk with your kids, then soaking them when you're home will give you back a natural clean.

Remove sticky glue: Every bought something with a price sticker on it? well of course you have and I bet you've tried to scratch it off too, without it inevitability breaking up on you and leaving the goo behind. Scrubbing the leftover sticker with vodka will completely remove it from the surface.

These are just to name a few of the posobilitties with vodka, I have found plenty more household uses for vodka on List25.

Cleaning with Vodka vs Vinegar

If you're interested in cleaning your home the eco-friendly way, turning your home into a 'green-clean home' then you will have no doubt also heard that people their furniture with vinegar as well as vodka as we have just established just above.

But, what actually Is the difference between cleaning with vodka vs vinegar? If there is even one, to begin with.

After some research and many cleaning sessions of tested, I've found out the difference between both cleaning your home with vodka and vinegar is that, well there is none in terms of cleaning. Both work well as solutions when mixed with there respective formulas (essential oils for vodka and water for vinegar).

Although personally, Vodka has to take the crown when it comes to being the best household cleaning simply because the smell that the vinegar cleaner emits is something you don't want to be around just after cleaning making vodka a far more ideal option…if you're cleaning something it might as well smell nice too!

Use Proper Surface Cleaning Techniques

This is one hack you could try when cleaning any surface in your house. Don’t just wipe off that dirt haphazardly, as at the end you will waste time since you may fail to hit all the dirty spots while you are cleaning.

Instead, move in a consistent direction and it will be more appropriate if you wipe the surface from left to right or top to bottom than as appose to other surface cleaning techniques.

A dull looking surface makes the surfaces look less appealing and even if you just finished cleaning it, someone else may not notice the difference. To avoid using so much energy and end up disappointed, take hold of a cloth which has a microfiber material, then dampen one half of it.

Leave the other half completely dry and then use the dampened part to wipe off the dirt. Use the dry part to clear the wetness and you will have yourself a sparkling clean home with this technique.

Another trick is using olive oil to buffer your surfaces. Other than using olive oil to cook, get a piece of cloth and grab that pan, or pot or appliance than in a circular motion, rub it to get rid off any dirty spots. Allowing you to achieve a polished look once you finish smoothening out the surfaces.

Easiest Way to Clean an Oven

Many ovens go untouched for months without a proper clean, and when people do eventually use their elbow grease they never usually do a good enough job to make a difference.

For the lazy people who can't be bothered to clean their oven on their own will instead use the self-cleaning function many ovens seem to come with these days. You'll realize just how terrible this particular function is since the smell that it produces is revolting and totally not worth it.

However, the easiest way to clean an Oven and certainly the most effective is to use a mixture of household goods. Heres how the pro's do it;

Remove everything: Whether that's the oven racks or oven thermometer, make sure to set it aside before beginning.

Create the paste: Grab a small bowl and mix 1/2 a cup of baking soda with a few tablespoons of water. Keep adding each till the ratio is as stated, it should form together like a paste.

Apply some elbow grease: Spread the paste all over the inside of your oven, BUT make sure you do not apply any to the heating elements. The paste should turn brown once set in the oven and in some cases also goes chunky, which is perfectly fine. The general rule of thumb is to make sure every inch of the oven is cleared and you should pay attention to the greasiest of spots.

Go relax: Let it sit for about 12 hours so the mixture can do its work.

Apply some more elbow grease: Now, after 12hours, take a damp cloth - anything will do - and wipe away as much of the dried baking soda paste you possibly can, this is where the real effort comes into play but its worth it. Using something like a spatula to help scrape off the bits you can't quite get off yourself may be a good idea.

Clean up: Take some vinegar and put it into an old spray bottle, this will help you get rid of the baking soda residue as this mixture reacts and the baking soda because bubbled and foam like.

Rinse and repeat: Repeat the last step until all the residue has completely gone, and you should be left with a shiny and clean oven.

Best way to clean an oven door

Similar to what I explained on the easiest way to clean an oven, the best way to clean an oven door is to use the same paste you used for inside the oven; no doubt you have a leftover mixture. You want to apply it the inner door side, allover as much as you can.

Let it sit for about half an hour and then come back and wipe it down with a damp cloth to clear off all of the baking soda, again use some vinegar to make sure you are getting rid of all the residue.

Easiest way to clean oven racks

The easiest way I've found to do them is cleaning them in a bath, and I know what you're thinking, that must be unhygienic! Well cleaning the bath before and after cleansing your oven is something you're going to want to do if that puts your mind at ease.

Simply place your oven racks in the bathtub with enough water so that the racks are covered and then add your favourite dishwashing soap to the bath, around about 1/2 a cup full. And let it sit overnight.

After about 12hours, just like last time, you're going to want to scrub away any grease that still remains as well as grime and leftover baked bits…

...And you're done!

Use coffee grounds to eliminate odors from your fridge

If you're like me, you love coffee and sometimes, yo although you try your hardest you can't get through it all. But by utilizing what you have and with your leftover beans, use coffee grounds to eliminate odors from your fridge if you're looking for an easy, eco-friendly way to emit natural orders.

This is seriously effective since coffee is a smell you are already familiar with and it is a smell that is able to effortlessly cover up the overpowering odor the collection of food from your fridge lets off.

Wash Towels with Vinegar

Eventually, whether you like it or not, your towels will begin to have a mildew smell to them, this usually comes about because of a poor drying process as well as the general age of the towels as they collectively gain bacteria that sticks to them over time causing the horrible smell.

That's why, even when they don't smell, we recommend you wash towels with vinegar to get rid of that horrible smell.

How to Wash Towels with Vinegar

Don't worry, there are no endless amounts of supplies you need to get your towels back to their fresh smell, you can sit back and let your washer to do all the work.

Heres how to wash towels with vinegar; the professional way:

Simply wash your load on the hot cycle and add 1 cup of vinegar to the load. Do not bother to use detergent or anything else, just hot water and vinegar. And that's it, you're all done, your towels should be smelling fresh and clean as if they were bought yesterday.

Although in some cases, this is not the case, if that is you and you can still smell a faint but noticeable odor, then do the same thing again without the vinegar and this time add baking soda and then you will be able to smell the freshness of your towels.

Best Dusting Techniques

Dusting might seem simple but like any tasks there are set tools and techniques that are perfect for the job, making your whole life a whole lot easier and in addition making your home even more beautiful than it was before.

There are several of the best dusting techniques further down the page, I will let you what to use and how you should be using the specific duster to help you do a professional job.

Types of Dusting Brushes

Microfiber Cloth: Best for dusting and polishing dry or slightly damp surfaces - make sure never to drench your cloth in your particular solution to ensure that you don't leave solution behind. Use the correct one for the job, fluffy cloths are absorbent and do best to hold the dust while minimising the chance to scratch a surface. Flatweave Microfiber cloths are best for glass and other hard surfaces.

Extendable Microfiber Duster: Similar to that of its cloth counterpart, the extendable microfiber duster should be used for collecting dust and other dirty stains that are up high, in places where you wouldn't normally be able to reach. Since your dusting from above, you'll most likely have dust falling on the floor, be sure to hoover this up afterwards.

Lambswool Duster: Best used when dusting large surfaces or hard to get places such as lighting or behind radiators. Ideal too if you're looking for a duster to use on your surface, since its so gentle you won't risk marking or tearing the fabric.

Disposable Electrostatic Cloth: Perfect for polishing and cleaning dust prone tablets and TV or even computer screens. It picks up pet hair great too, which always handy if you're a cat lover like I am.

Homemade Carpet Freshener with Cinnamon

Using cinnamon to freshen up your carpet is a great and cheap way of getting that disgusting smell out of your living space and replacing it with a smell that is much more welcoming.

However don't be fooled, of course, we aren't going to go to our spice rack and sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon on our carpet, we have to mix up a solution first so the carpet can properly take in the fragrance and bring a delicious smell to our nose.

Place baking soda into a jar, any jar will do and puncture holes in the top of the jar lid, so it looks like a large salt or pepper shaker. Once you've done that, you can add a few drops of cinnamon to the concoction, the amount you want in there is up to you to experiment with it for a few weeks till you find an amount that is right for you and your home.

Once your mixture is ready, spread it about the house approximately one hour before vacuuming to ensure that you give the mixture enough time to do the trick.

Clean Windows with Vinegar and Newspaper

Wayback, we used to clean windows with our daily newspaper, then soon got lost in the times since more accessible window cleaning solutions were widely available as well as the tools needed to use them. However, if you're reminiscing of how you used to clean windows with vinegar and newspaper or you just prefer to do things on a budget, you are still able to clean your windows with a trusty newspaper with this particular solution.

What you need:

1 or more dirty windows

Newspaper (preferably already read)

Vinegar Window Spray

To create the vinegar solution you need to clean your windows, try a recipe of 2 cups of water, 1/4 cup of vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of liquid soap. Mix that in well enough so that the ingredients are properly together and you have your window spray all ready to use.

Dip your newspaper into the jar/cup or whatever it is you have used to contain your solution in.

Use a circular motion to wipe all of the spots on the window off. Then once, all marks are off, switch your pattern to a vertical then horizontal stroke until the liquid has fully dried and spread across the surface area and you should be left with shiny and streak free windows.

If you still wish to clean your windows with newspaper, to be a greener home, but don't want to use your own vinegar window spray, Zoro has some great products that are an alternative to windex.

How to Clean Glass Windows Without Streaks

A common mistake my friends and I used to make was that we used to clean our windows when the sun was blazing hot because it makes sense right? What other time would you ever be outside cleaning your windows?

Well every window I touched when doing this at this time of day would streak and it used to drive me crazy that was unit after I found out how to clean glass windows without streaks thanks to a recommendation from another friend.

The thing is, blaring hot sun is great for drying things, but during the day when cleaning my windows it would dry out whatever solution I was using to fast therefore the windows would be streaked ridden.

Now, I always wash my windows when there are clouds in the sky, still, I have to pray it doesn't rain but at least they come out all shiny and clean once I've finished them without the assistance of the sun.

Wash Blinds in a Bathtub

Blinds are notoriously annoying in terms of being able to wash them;

You can't leave them hung up to clean because you're wont to be able to get all parts of the blinds due to how raised they are and sometimes scrubbing isn't enough on each blind.

And in addition, you can't take them down and clean them inside due to the amount of solution you may get everywhere and even if you take them outside they may even just get dirtier than before.

However, there is a more efficient way you can get them clean, you can wash blinds in a bathtub easily with a simple soap solution, I've given informative instruction of how to wash blinds in bathtub below

How to wash blinds in a bathtub

Simply lay your blinds flat in the tub that is a few inches deep with warm water., and add a mixture of some, you favourite dishwasher soap will do the trick, along with a little vinegar.

Let them soak for about an hour after this time rinse them off with some fresh water and hang them outside to give them a chance to dry, then put them back to wherever they were in the home.

How to Clean Your Home Like a Pro was originally published to keepitcartesian

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ffadedgrey-blog · 6 years

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13/ 271117/

HAHA the challenge omg. shall write errrrr 6 posts tonight? although i shld be studying hm

02 - Your First Love

interesting, never really a contender of the concept. have believed and maybe still believe that theres no such thing as what we see and feel are motivated by physical attraction and its hard to see past that. but i guess maybe it does exist?

i would consider my “first love” to have been at the start of secondary school life. well in spite of me feeling that it was still more of physical attraction it felt the strongest ive remembered and the longest lasting one. hmm this is a weird topic to discuss it makes me feel weird to just discuss it. i guess honestly i believe that it exists and maybe am a bit annoyed that it hasnt happened to me yet and this lack of feeling it makes me honestly quite resentful towards events and maybe some negative emotions towards my being. but hey i’m awesome! i love myself for who i am. maybe a small percentage i feel i could do better/a small part of me may feel that i’m a ridiculously unrealistic and insufferable human being (at times of course) but i love me for who i am and am still very convinced that im on the right track and should just go on living life as i have been (:

03 - Your Parents

I love my parents, absolutely no doubt about that. I can go on and on about what lovely human beings they are. totally selfless and loving and warm and sweet and every diabetes-triggering objective that u can seek to name. but they can be such pains in the ass sometimes, it sends me on such emotional roller coaster rides sometimes. incredibly whiny and stubborn sometimes haha it really can get me into a bad physical and mental state at those times and i absolutely despise it esp if i have no capacity and energy or whatsoever to deal with that when i already cant handle my own shit. i can proudly claim to be an exact replica of my dad, hes extremely tolerant of me and my various emotional swings and idek he gets me! the 0/100 mentality, how we bond over mutual hatred of stupid/no iq or eq ppl/idiots from work/passion and outlook of life/standing up for what we believe in (although he goes overboard). We are both extremely idealistic looking ppl and thats both our strongest and weakest points, weakest coz it gets both of us into trouble in our respective fields. thats why the brat in me, although i can see his point of view and how much he loathes his job, i cant help but get annoyed that he wont suck it up coz unemployment is equivalent to a sign of weakness to us and weakness is not good. my mumu is another really interesting human being HAHA i love her extroverted but warm personality. shes so whiny when she gets upset (which is 90% of the time talking to me, and 100% of the time when she is forced to give me rides and will immediately be reduced to none whenever i text her a long chain of hearts and love youuuuuuu - and this is how u can tell that she is lovable) hehe i love how i can joke with them incessantly and they will get over it after a while. its really like making friends with your parents, and really literally life support during archi sems. literally life support. like they cry when they see me cry. ok they make me stronger (:

04- What you ate today

Seriously? what kind of response did u expect to hear? hm

i ate sushi express, the usual, sashimi on rice and shrimp sushi too. lathered in wasabi hehe.

05- your definition of love

not this again. omg i will get back to this when i have the patience to talk about this in greater detail and emotion.

06- Your Day

hm. this can be an interesting one.

for starters if u considered my day to start from 24hours before, i can say that i started the day off by furiously swiping on tinder. lol. funnier coz i spent so much time swiping left and swiping right was such a rare occurence and yet i used up enough rights to make tinder reject my last swipe right and ban me from swiping right more till 12hours later. and the guy who i wanted to swipe was actually cute. so what happened? i swiped up. lol i never intentionally swipe up HAHAHAHA.

so i told doro and she asked me to hit him up after seeing his profile: quote “HIT HIM UP” “HIT HIT HIT”

“How long are you gonna keith me waiting?”

what followed was a regrettable move on my part. absolutely embarassed to say that i actually did that. and im still awaiting a response from the text i sent out around an hour ago WHYS HE KEITHING ME WAITING. ok stop.

so doro and i just went on sending each other keith puns the whole night, ok exaggeration the whole hour. anyway yes besides this incident i also got to say that i should not have expected much brain on these apps. and yeah i met too many of these ppl since mad swiping last night. but ok i might still be keeping myself entertained which was my reason for doing that in the first place.

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mlephoebe · 7 years

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Slam Dunk Part 1: Volunteering

Before I delve into this blog post I think it highlights very strongly how I need to stop starting posts and then moving on to others. What I have done for the past 5 posts is start them then move onto the other to then later come back to. Which is stupid as it messes with the flow of things. As you will find here it has been nearly 3 weeks since Slam Dunk not 4 days lol. Anyways enjoy…

Some cool things happened in the month of May and some more sick adventures are to be had in the coming months, so I felt it was only right to blog about it. I’m not going to blog in chronological order of events as what’s the fun in that, aye? Plus the past weekend is still very much lodged in my mind and 4 days on my mind is now settling and coming to terms that Slam Dunk 2017 is overrr, :’(

As soon as Slam Dunk 2017 tickets went on sale back in November I purchased my south date ticket at 9am on the dot. And until February thought I was attending only as a fan of the festival, but I was wrong. The midlands date, held in Birmingham would be where I volunteered, and would also be one of the best/worst days of my life, let’s just say travel is not my forte.

Now where would the fun be if we were to plan our trip to Birmingham in plenty of time? Nowhere! We would have been relaxed and calm as a clam, but in reality not even 12hours before we had to be at the venue did we decide to sort out travel. Now I will outline here that Tom is a genius and had his head in the game when it came to travel but that was something the rest of us lacked. I’ll point out here that I went to Slam Dunk with fellow students Tom and Michael and our friend Beth, just so you have some idea who ‘they’ are. The thought of paying for a train up to Birmingham international then paying for a coach home worth another £28 sounded too pricey for the rest us all, bar Tom. But in hindsight was a very smart idea and something we all should have done, as it would have prevented Michael, Beth and myself being stuck in Birmingham with nowhere to stay until 9:10am the next day. But we survived, just, and I am here to tell the tale.

So at 6:30am we just about caught the train to Oxford. When I say just I mean they let me on the train with a card with ‘pay at Oxford’ scribbled on it. This was due to the fact the train was just pulling in and there was not enough time to buy my tickets due to the hassle Michael had. Now you may be thinking you should have gotten to the station earlier Phoebe. But Michael for one had been there since half 5 due to his hiccup in purchasing the wrong ticket.

So once we had settled on the train we could relax, we were actually on our way for a very long day ahead.

Once arriving at Birmingham International at around 8:30am we headed to the entrance outside hall 1, which was where we were told to meet Michelle, the lady in charge. (Who by the way was lovely, and I will definitely be helping out again, major shout out[ps1] to Michelle) Once exiting the train I had my first fan girl moment of the weekend, I’d say the calmest and shyest, actually still bummed I didn’t say hi. Like we were on the same carriage, how?, I could have spent the ride chatting cool shit with her. By her I mean Hannah from the fantastic band Creeper, who btw are insane live, really cool band I would highly recommend checking out. Any ways, once I noticed her she looked like she was in a rush and I was slightly confused because I knew Creeper weren’t playing Slam Dunk, any how it turns out it was her, as little did I know until seeing Frank Iero’s Instagram the next day that she was selling his merch at Slam Dunk, so that’s a pointless cool story of my stupidity, but shout out to Creeper lol.

Right time to get into actual volunteering role as this blog is typically for the purpose of outlining work experiences over the summer, and some of you viewing this may be here solely for that purpose only, so I do apologise about the rambling, but Slam Dunk is always a beautiful time and so I need to blog about it all, probably going to split this into 2 parts, volunteering and enjoying the event because boy did I have a wonderful time, painful time, but wonderful none the less. (I ended the weekend broken, physically broken).

9:15am was our meeting time, along with 8 other people who were here for the same reason as us we headed into the main hall to get our hi-vis jackets and be taught the ropes of the role. The role being wrist-banding and scanning on entrance. I know what you may be thinking, how boring but I kid you not it was actually really fun and the time flew by. Plus the Fireball stage was in the same hall, hid from us by a curtain but the sound was very much still there, YAYYY, which meant I could hear Zebrahead even if I could not see them. Also my 15minute break lined beautifully with the Ataris’s set, which made my day. If you did not know they are one of my faves and seeing them live was something I thought I would never get to do, so my dreams have been made.

I keep getting side tracked but we started our role at 10:30 and carried on through till 5pm. At 3pm the queue was starting to die off, after scanning in a total of 12,000 people it was starting to take its toll, especially on our legs. We were told by Michelle that half of us could leave but who was the question. Pizza and drink vouchers were at offer for those who stayed, honestly not really making much of a difference to most and to us either but we pulled the small straw and had to stay later which in the end wasn’t too bad as it saved us £7 on a pizza each and we got to help break down the set up of the lines, take down signage and the barriers, which was different and quite fun. Plus getting to wear the hi-vis longer made us all feel like part of the crew, haha.

What I enjoyed most about wrist banding was getting to talk to so many different people. The lines were divided, 2 for women over 18, 2 for over 18 males and 2 for under 18s, one for females and one for males. The reason for the divide was due to the Manchester bombing the week prior to the event, bag and body checks were vigilant plus women were checked by women, men by men. I paired up with Beth and we were in the over 18’s Male queue, which was great fun. The amount of middle aged men dressed like 2002 Deryck Whibley made my absolute day, also was hilarious for later when we got to enjoy the festival as everyone remembered us, and we moshed out little hearts out to Enter Shikari with people we had wristbanded. When I say moshed out little hearts out I quite literally mean it, for the last 2 songs I could not even clap along I was a broken being, emotionally and physically. Take this picture of my arm, this picture was taken not even 30 seconds after I left the floor from watching Seaway, one of the best shows of the weekend. I swear Seaway just get better and better everytime, they always put on an incredible show. Singing into the mic made me feel very special.

The funniest thing about Seaways set was me walking onto the floor before they began and telling Michael and Beth how I wanted to crowd surf during their show but was slightly bummed as the crowd was not big enough, however once Seaway began the crowd turned absolutely nuts, honestly the crowd despite its size was better than the crowd for Bury Tomorrow on Monday, something I will touch on in a bit, the difference between venues, which was very real. However, I was battered during their set, Beth had to take a 5minute breather and I was in the mist of it all, an experience I never thought I was experience during Seaway.

Crazy small world story time during their set though was how I bumped into a girl I went to secondary school with. I’m from Dorset so a fair bit away from Birmingham, this girl still lives their and I bumped into her during Seaway, how crazy is that? It had been about 3 years since I had seen her and was nuts that I noticed by getting her dreadlock caught on me lol.

Well for a post that was simply started to outline my amazing time volunteering at Slam Dunk has become quite lengthy so I will leave it here and start part 2, a post about the rest of my time at Slam Dunk 2017 and the adventures that were to come later in the evening at Birmingham. Let’s just say train stations are quite comfortable and there is something warm and comforting about them.

[ps1]

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