Yes, I humbly come before you now to share a little piece of my back yard bedlam.
Living on acreage, in the country, creates a dream life in some respects, but when it comes to the every day upkeep of any kind of outdoor work, it’s really hard for me to keep my head above water.
When I hear others complain about their neighborhood associations, somewhere deep down inside my Type Z personality, I think it would be kind of nice to have that accountability. It means we’d have beautiful landscaping and the weeds would have to be pulled. Ok, I will be really frank (who is Frank anyhow?). It means we’d actually be forced to have a nicely manicured lawn, which right now is non existent, but we’re working hard to achieve that this year.
Fortunately for us, nature’s beauty glosses over some of the areas we lack in, and our woods are beautiful.
So for the next few weeks, you are going to be my neighborhood association. Can you do that for me? I need the accountability to tackle some of the momentous outdoor tasks that have been on my “Forever To Do List.”
I finally got my Little House on the Prairie garden planted, with over 120 plants, and now I must turn to tackling our outdoor furniture and siding (thank you, three muddy, yellow labs and nature.)
Since we love to have people over to gather outside and enjoy our beautiful surrounding, I think it might be best to get rid of the dirt and grossness that collected over the winter. (Imagine what that table looks like and multiply it towards ten outdoor chairs.) Somehow as wonderful as I desire our hospitality to be, that would kind of cancel out any feelings about that “Welcome Home” mentality I try to create.
Fortunately, I know that this challenge only needs some muscle power and my favorite all purpose household love – Arm & Hammer Baking Soda. I buy this in bulk at my warehouse store because I use it for EVERYTHING, and yes, I use it every single day. Most people only think of it for small uses in the home, but as a young girl, I quickly learned from watching my mom, that this magic powder can tackle even the trickiest of outdoor projects.
One doesn’t need to head to the store to buy expensive industrial cleaners because this can do it all. Now, I admit, my husband went and purchased some special siding cleaner last year, but I told him about my Arm & Hammer Switch & Save Challenge, and how I really believed this would work just as well.
He is all about saving money, not to mention, we already have pounds of it in our mudroom, so I will tackle this over the next two weeks. Well, as a smart mother of teen age boys, I will delegate the siding cleaning and we will tackle some of the outdoor furniture as a family. 🙂
Water + Arm & Hammer Baking Soda = a great solution
So now, I must get out there and work. I’ll come back to you in a few weeks to let you know how it went.
Remember, I need you to be my neighborhood association. I can’t just talk big and not do anything about it. I would get written up for it if that happened, wouldn’t I? Is that how they work?
Why don’t you join me with this Tackle It Challenge.
We can hold each other accountable.
What is one outdoor project that is on your list that needs to get tackled?
The maker of ARM & HAMMER® products challenged me to switch to ARM & HAMMER Baking Soda and this summer, they are giving away $12,000 in the ARM & HAMMER Switch & Save Challenge Sweepstakes. To be entered to win one (1) of twelve (12) $1,000 prizes, simply reply to the question below!
Remember to join other ARM & HAMMER Switch & Save conversations for even more chances to win!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Arm & Hammer. The opinions and text are all mine. Official Sweepstakes Rules.
My list is long this year.
We already trimmed the front landscaping, tore out the rock and put in mulch (looks much better).
Now we need to put up a fence to keep the dogs in the back (don’t feel bad for them, we have 2 acres, they have lots of space) so we can get the front grass looking more healthy. Then we want to build a deck off of the house, put in a pool and surrounding deck.
But, first I am going to start with just power washing the driveway and front steps.
Biggest challenge: The outside patio door and surrounding walls. The dogs are always jumping and tracking mud. I think they have won!
Oh Kimberly – if there is ANYONE who can relate to that, it’s me. 🙂
We’ve got to tackle the siding too! Does Baking Soda really work on that?
Right now, the outside looks pretty good. We spent all last week working on it before we hosted my son’s graduation party. I borrowed a pressure washer and washed everything (we have a brick house). I thougth it would take about 2 hours and instead it took over 7! I wanted it done “right” so I told my teenage boys that I would do it so I wouldn’t have to be frustrated. About half way through I asked them for help and they said, “Now, mom we wouldn’t want you to get frustrated because we didn’t do it right.” While I was doing that they spring cleaned the inside of the house.
On my list is the garage and attic. We moved last fall and the garage if FULL of boxes that need to still be unpacked and organized. Then the day before the graduation party I had my children “hide” some clutter in the attic…but I really don’t want it to stay there so I need to take care of it.
Yep, it’s called LAUNDRY!!
HA – oh girl. I am there with you. If you could only see my bedroom sofa right now. 😉 (but at least it’s clean)
Mine is more like a MOUNTAIN 🙂
I cleaned out all of my excess homeschool stuff and took it to the curriculum sale – been putting that off for 2 years! Yikes! It feels good to be able to see progress – even though I brought two full bins home again …
Our siding really needs cleaning as it got missed last year. I am going to use baking soda for sure. I have a big box. Might even do this tomorrow. Thanks.