Prepped Living Blog

When my husband and I first got married, we bought a very inexpensive set of china (think much less expensive than a regular set of dishes) so we could have enough dishes to host our families during the holidays. One of the first times we used it, our guests made fun of us for serving them on such nice dinnerware. They insinuated that we were showing off by using nice dishes. I was hurt and became reluctant to use the dishes again. This was the only set of dishes big enough for larger family gatherings, however, so we used them on occasion. I found myself feeling the need each time to explain why we were using our china set – we weren't trying to show off, they were just the only dishes we had enough of to serve everyone, and even though they looked expensive, they were really in expensive, etc. There was no reason we shouldn’t use our dishes, but that early experience made me wary of the criticism that would come with simply enjoying the use of something beautiful in our home. W...

We have had a few questions about how we deep clean our kitchen linens since posting about it in the newsletter a few weeks ago, so we thought it worthwhile to make a blog post for all of you. I don't know if this is the best method out there, it is just what we have tried that works well for us. How to Deep Clean Linens : Heat water in a large stockpot. (We do not measure an exact amount, we just put in how much water we need for what we are going to clean - approximately half of the stockpot.) Add approximately 1/2 c. of baking soda. Add linens when the water nears boiling temperature. (It works best if there is room for the linens to move in the pot. Too many linens at a time will decrease the efficacy a bit.) Use a spoon to move the linens around to make sure they are completely wet. Keep water on high or med-high for at least ten minutes, stirring frequently, to make sure the fabric is agitated and can release the oils. (The water needs to be hot, but does not have to boil dur...