Oranges, Lemons, and Limes Oh My!

Okay, dorky title, I know. I couldn't come up with anything cute and clever.

I love citrus. I enjoy the smell, the taste, even the look of a bowl of citrus fruits. We consume a lot of oranges, limes, and lemons around here. They are great to cook with (Orange glazed chicken anyone? Maybe a Lemon Herb Shrimp toss? How about a Key Lime Pie?) They are perfect for making mixed drinks (Screwdrivers, Margaritas, Tequila Sunrise, Moscow Mule). Citrus is great alone as a snack, as an addition, or even as a garnish. Seriously, who hasn't squeezed a little lemon juice on some seafood, or dropped a slice of lemon in a glass of iced Sweet Tea?

 Now I am not what you would call an Earth Biscuit, or Treehugger, but I do love natural cleaning. I have 3 children and a dog running around, as well as a very sensitive sniffer. I do not like the stench of many cleaning products. My favorite things to use for cleaning are white vinegar and citrus. So I thought I would share a couple of my favorite citrus cleaning tips, and perhaps some of you out there would be willing to share some of your natural cleaning methods.
Here are three things you can clean using just ONE piece of fruit. In this example, I used an orange, but pretty much any citrus will do the same thing. Take that one orange and slice it in half, and then let's get busy!
Start with the microwave. Place half the orange in a microwave safe bowl about half full of water. Microwave for 1-2 minutes. Let stand for a bit to let the citrus and steam do their magic. Then you can take a simple paper towel and wipe down all the nasties off interior of the microwave. If you are feeling really industrious you could also squeeze the remainder of the juice from the orange into the warm water,  dip that paper towel in it, and use it to wipe down the shelves in the fridge, stove top, etc.

Now if you did not squeeze out that half of orange, you can continue to the next part with it, or grab the other half. Have a stainless steel sink? Have you ever noticed how it gets kind of weird looking and stinky (especially if you have kids that are not so good at rinsing their dishes)? Take that half of orange and slice into wedges or chunks. Rub down the sides and bottom of the sink with them. The citric acid will cut through any gunk/grim and leave it shiny, and the smell will do you some good as well!

Finally, take all those pieces of citrus (or perhaps by this point, globs) and make sure none of them are huge pieces. If you have a garbage disposal, you know that no matter how careful you are, sometimes that thing just reeks! Stuff a couple of pieces of ice and a few of the chunks of orange in the disposal, remember to run a bit of water, and turn it on. The ice and orange peel will clean the gunk off the blades of the disposal, and again, the citrus smell is much better than whatever other funk might have been wafting out of that thing!

While I am on the subject of citrus, I just have to share these adorable shorts I bought. A while back, a sweet little boutique called Lady Bird was having a massive clearance sale, and I called to see what they had in my size. Somehow I got talked into these (well, they were REALLY cheap!). They are called the Callahan short in Just Add Lemon Patch by Lilly Pulitzer. Aren't they adorable? I just love them. I pulled them out and just looked at them every so often all winter, daydreaming about wearing them to the beach, the lake, or for a backyard shrimp boil. Now that it is officially Spring and nice and warm here in Texas (80+ this week!) I am trying to convince myself to wear them. You see, I love to wear bright colors, and Lilly Pulitzer is one of my favorite brands to wear. However, I am having trouble convincing myself that a 30+ year old mother to three can pull these off. I did grab a nice solid blue scoop neck tee to wear with them this weekend. I am getting there. Notice the adorable lemon/lime/orange patch on there?

 

 

Thanks for stopping by! I wish you all a wonderful week! Please do feel free to comment if you have any cleaning tips for me!