mr. clean

Try These 5 Surprising Cleaning Tips Using a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser #15MinuteReno

October 19, 2015 by Kathryn 22 Comments

Recently I shared some fabulous tips and ideas for getting a home sparking clean and ready for Thanksgiving fun. But as every family knows, there’s more to holiday cleaning than just tidying up before the big day! After the turkey is finished and the pie has been devoured, a house can often need even more tender loving care than it did to be ready for Thanksgiving!

Thankfully (get it?), Mr. Clean was ready and willing to help me out with the post-Thanksgiving cleanup too. With plenty of Mr. Clean Magic Erasers and a bit of time, these five tips are how I gave our little apartment and our favourite things a thorough cleaning when the fun was over and the food was finished. [Read more…]

Give Your House a #15MinReno for Thanksgiving with Mr. Clean-Giveaway

October 8, 2015 by Kathryn 293 Comments

Having just sold a house for the first time, I’ve experienced firsthand the work that goes into preparing a home for sale and closing. The minor repairs were something that I expected, especially in a house as old as mine. But something I hadn’t realized was how much of a difference a good, thorough cleaning could make to the look and feel of my house. In fact, a few minutes of cleaning can sometimes be like a mini renovation all on its own!

Now, with Thanksgiving fast approaching, the timing is perfect for giving our current home a fresh look with a good cleaning. And Mr. Clean has five great tips to help you give your home a 15 minute reno that will have you ready to welcome your guests!

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The New Swiffer Bissell SteamBoost Lets You Clean with the Power of Steam-Giveaway

September 20, 2013 by Kathryn 180 Comments

Since I bought the century-old house that I was raised in, life has been one long renovation. And one of my absolute favourite updates has been replacing the broken kitchen tiles and grungy 35-year-old living room carpet with beautiful new laminate flooring and white tile. Cleaning the floors on the main level used to be one of the jobs I dreaded and now it’s a delight! The Swiffer WetJet is my cleaning tool of choice since it’s lightweight, quick and locks dirt away. But now, a new Swiffer product may just give my WetJet a run for its money!

The Swiffer Bissell SteamBoost is a handy steam mop that powers away dirt using only water to clean! For those that are sensitive about scents in cleaning products or react to chemicals, it’s the perfect solution for sparkling clean floors the natural way. Just fill it with water, attach a disposable steam pad, plug it in and get cleaning! I loved how simple the Swiffer Bissell SteamBoost was to use and the fact that it was still very lightweight and easy to maneuver. And to add a delicious scent to your home, I highly recommend adding a drop or two of your favourite essential oil to the water reservoir. It makes the house smell so clean and fresh!

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Say Yes Today With Proctor & Gamble!-Giveaway

February 27, 2012 by Kathryn 131 Comments

We’ve all been there. Our children say, “Mom, can we _____?” Play a game, paint a picture, bake cookies, go to the park…you can fill in the blank however you like. And we turn to our little bundles of energy and say, “Maybe tomorrow, not right now, I’m afraid I’m busy…or any one of a hundred other answers that really just add up to, “No.”

It’s hard being a parent! There aren’t enough hours in the day sometimes and I think pretty much every mom and dad wishes that they had more time to enjoy fun activities with their children. In fact, a survey on behalf of Proctor & Gamble found that 64% of parents find themselves saying “No” to their kids’ requests for family time one to four times per week – and 98% of Canadian moms would like to spend more fun time together as a family!

it all starts with yes graphic

That’s why I was so excited when I learned about the It All Starts With Yes Challenge from Proctor and Gamble. This fun-filled campaign encourages parents across Canada to embrace family togetherness by turning those “No” moments into “Yes” moments! My son recently had week off from school so it was the perfect opportunity to enjoy some “Yes” adventures with my boys!

I received a fabulous Yes Kit from Proctor & Gamble to help make that extra playtime a little easier to handle. Packed full of handy cleaning supplies from Tide, Bounty, Charmin and Mr. Clean, I could tell it would be a busy mom’s dream come true for clean-up time. There were even aprons for both of the boys and me!

I started planning our “Yes” moments right away and made plans to kick off the fun with a craft/science experiment that I always loved as a child. Gak, also sometimes called Flubber, is that slimy, runny, rubbery substance that kids and adults both seem to just love. I decided the next time my boys wanted to make a craft or enjoy an activity, I would suggest that we make Gak!

The recipe is super simple. White glue, Borax, food colouring and warm water are all you need! We started by squeezing the white glue into the boys’ bowls in equal amounts. Then I filled the bottle with warm water, shook it well and divided the contents between the two bowls. The boys had a great time stirring the glue and water together! Next they added their colouring; Zackary chose blue and Benjamin decided on purple. When the glue had been stirred up well, I slowly added warm water to which a tablespoon of Borax had been added while the boys continued to stir.

This part really is like magic. The Borax binds with the other ingredients to form a polymer, a substance consisting of long, stringy molecules. The way you can actually feel the mixture start to become stringy is just so cool! Because Borax is not for eating, I took over at this point for Benjamin and used my hands to squoosh his Gak into a large, fun-filled blob.

boys making gak — Zackary and Benjamin had so much fun mixing up their Gak!

Zackary managed to mix his Gak pretty well by himself and only needed me to squeeze the last bit of water out of it. The best part of the project, though, was that once the boys were done the craft, they still had hours of playtime with the Gak itself too! In fact, even Dad got involved in the play when he saw how much fun the rubbery stuff was!

While the boys played, I cleaned up the mess with a little help from my new Proctor & Gamble essentials. It was wonderful to share something from my own childhood with my boys and I was so glad we’d spent the extra time together!

boys playing with gak — The boys playing with their new favourite toy!

If you want to have more of your own “Yes” moments with your family, visit Facebook.com/itallstartswithyes to take the pledge and share your own “Yes” experiences. You can even enter to win $10,000 towards your dream family adventures! And to help you enjoy those fun moments even more, one lucky Mommy Kat and Kids reader is going to win their very own Yes Kit filled with Tide laundry detergent, a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, a box of Puffs facial tissue, Charmin Freshmates, Bounty paper towel and adult and child-size aprons, along with ideas to create more fun-filled family moments, a $50 value, from Proctor & Gamble!

So grab the kids and let loose by enjoying your own “Yes” moments with your family! After all, the day will come when our kids would much rather spend time with friends than with Mom and Dad, so it makes sense to enjoy every moment of togetherness that you can! Not only will your kids have a blast, you’ll have so many wonderful memories to look back on!

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