Baking soda has done it again! Thanks to a tip from my friends (thank you, D & D!), I have learned of yet another miracle that baking soda can perform. This time it’s on sterling silver.

Year after year, my silverware and few silver tableware items dress my dining table and bring me and my family much pleasure, especially at regular shabbat meals and around holiday time. They undergo almost monthly silver polishing as I like to keep them bright and shiny. The polishing process is usually time consuming and somewhat messy. So, when my friends shared their recipe for cleaning silver, I was intrigued and, needless to say, had to try it!

The method requires baking soda, an aluminum pan, and boiling water.  First, I tried it out on a glass plate with some sterling silver elements.  I placed it into a large aluminum pan and generously covered the silver parts with baking soda.

Then, I poured boiling water over the plate.  The plate had to be covered with at least about one inch of water.

Sure enough, within about a couple of minutes, the silver was sparkling clean. The transformation was remarkable.

I could not stop there.  Our silver forks got a good baking soda treatment too. They now look as good as new.

I am so happy to have learned about this new way of maintaining silver.  It is fast, so much more effective and cheaper than using a silver polishing cream.  And even better is that I am not washing any unknown chemicals down my drain, which has to be better for my plumbing and the environment.  Love it!

To this day, I am grateful to my mother for not only modeling, but also teaching me organization and cleanliness.  My mother ran one of the most organized and clean homes I have ever seen. She did so without any hired help and with a lot of discipline.  From a very young age, my brother and I were trained to take on responsibilities in the house.  I put the stress on “trained” because it is crucial to explain and demonstrate to our kids how to do something and not just lecture on the subject.

The other day, I decided it was time to teach my oldest how to clean a bathroom.  So, I did!  I prepared a caddy with basic cleaning supplies for him.  That caddy now lives in his bathroom.

I completed each cleaning task with my son watching exactly how it is expected to be done.  I also made up a little cheat sheet of tasks he should remember to perform.  The little list has been laminated and attached to the caddy with a binder clip.

Next Sunday, my boy and I will do bathroom duty together once again.  Everyone needs additional practice and some extra coaching, right? Otherwise, it won’t be much of a training.

Hopefully, my training will lead to my son developing a life-long commitment to keeping clean and organized surroundings.  What do you all think about training kids to do certain tasks around the house?  Do you?  Do you think it will make a difference in the kids’ future predisposition to cleanliness and order?

Why am I sharing this topic with you?  Well, first of all, I do not think many people even think of washing their chandeliers. Or, perhaps, one might be overwhelmed just by the thought of it.  Secondly, I believe that one of the benefits of being organized is being able to tackle projects that are somewhat complex or intimidating.  Thirdly, scheduling a time to perform deep cleaning in various parts of your home is important and should be a part of regular home maintenance.  I clean my chandelier annually.

In my kitchen, I have a small crystal chandelier.  Whether you like it or not, grime settles on the light fixtures, especially in the kitchen area.

If you are in the market for new light fixtures for your kitchen, consider carefully whether it will be relatively simple to clean the ones you have chosen as options.  I intentionally chose a chandelier on which the individual crystals can be removed; in a way, the whole unit can be almost disassembled to make deep cleaning possible.  If your crystals are not easily removable, then skip steps 1-3 below and begin with step 4.  Here is the process that I follow:

1.  I turned off the light fixture (VERY IMPORTANT!!), removed all of the crystals, and placed them in a bowl lined with a towel for extra protection for the fragile pieces.  I removed the light bulbs as well; they too have collected some grease and needed to be cleaned.

2.  I filled up the bowl with hot water in which I dissolved a teaspoon of dish washing liquid and then let the crystals soak for about 30 minutes.

3. I covered the sockets with sandwich ziplock bags and clipped them closed with small binder clips.  It is critical that you ensure that there are no live wires anywhere around.

4. I laid down a towel underneath the chandelier and generously sprayed the fixed elements of the light fixture with a mixture of Shaklee Basic H2 All-Purpose Cleaner and a tablespoon of vodka.  You can use Windex and a bit of rubbing alcohol (I did not have any around, so I used Vodka).  Why rubbing alcohol or Vodka?  They are  great for removing oily deposits. Respray the fixture in 15 minutes and let the cleaning solution do its work for another 15 minutes.

5.  Gently hand-wash the crystal pieces and rinse them in warm water.  Lay to dry on a towel.

6.  Using paper towel, wipe off the chandelier.  You might need to respray the stubborn areas and wipe them again.

7.  Gently wipe the grime and dust off the light bulbs.

8.  Remove the ziplock bags from the chandelier and rehang the clean crystals.  Screw in the bulbs.   You are done!

You should see a great difference in the appearance of the light fixture.  I love the way my clean chandelier looks!

Best of all, the whole room literally lights up when the clean chandelier is switched on.

Oh, no, I didn’t!  Recently, my lovely Ascasa Dream Espresso machine, which has been a loyal friend for over a year started misbehaving.  Little espresso was being brewed.  The machine was making unhealthy sounds.  This morning it got worse!  Barely any espresso was produced and I was left without my badly needed fix of caffeine.

In desperation, I turned to the Internet and the Ascasa manual.  What I have discovered is that my machine is probably suffering from limescale build-up, yikes!  Why?  Well, because I have failed to perform regular maintenance on the machine, which should have been done at least once every three months.  Easy enough, but I have been NEGLECTFUL.

Some professional organizers, like me follow the Julie Morgenstern organizing action plan called “SPACE,” which stands for:

Sort

Purge

Assign a home

Containerize

Equalize

In addition to a raging caffeine withdrawal this morning, I was reminded that maintenance is a part of equalizing.   As my espresso machine requires regular maintenance, so do our space, filing systems, calendars, etc.   I have to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.   Descaling is about to begin and my calendar is about to be marked to perform the same routine 3 months from now.

What area of your life, space, schedule, or relationship are you neglecting?

Happy equalizing,

Oksana