Hydrogen peroxide + baking soda for removing stains on cookie sheets

When I took these cookie sheets from my father's house, they were in pristine condition. My mother had likely never used them. I knew he would never use them either, so with his permission, I took them home. My old cookie sheets were stained and gross. I was determined to take good care of these.

After a few months, my shiny and pretty cookie sheets started getting these weird oily, yellowish-brown stains that just kept getting worse. Plain old blue Dawn, which cures so many other ills, couldn't touch the stains at all. I was considering buying new ones when I found and re-pinned this post this morning. The original blog post is at "One Good Thing" by Jillee. I swear Jillee is a genius--check out her other cleaning tips.

So I had baking soda and peroxide on hand. Both are cheap, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I (liberally) sprinkled baking soda on the worst sheet. Then I squirted some hydrogen peroxide on it. I expected it to fizz, but it didn't. Then I scrubbed. I admit that it took a while to scrub, but I began seeing results immediately, so I continued to scrub. At first I used a dish scrubber I picked up at Target or Walmart or somewhere. Then I used a washcloth. Then I used a scouring pad.

See the results for yourself. These are the photos I took before, during and after the process, so they're in order.

The verdict: Baking soda and hydrogen peroxide to remove oily brown stains from cookie sheets is WINNING!

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting: WINNING!

Oh my goodness. I just had a big piece of a very banana-y cake, and it was SO good! I'm in love. I found the recipe today pinned on Pinterest, so of course I re-pinned it. I didn't realize I'd be making it today, but I was looking for raisins and found a bunch of bananas that had been forgotten and needed something to make with the over-ripe bananas pronto. I made banana bread for my father last week, so I was over the banana bread, and this cake sounded like a great idea.

I followed Bake or Break's recipe exactly, except I doubled the frosting amount. I didn't want to use just four ounces of cream cheese while the other half sat in the fridge until well past its expiration date. The icing is so good, though. I am glad I doubled it.

Even my husband, who hates bananas, loves it! He thinks it's not very banana-y. I think it is.

Verdict: Banana cake with cream cheese frosting is WINNING!

Vinegar for cat urine odor: WINNING!

Aurora is a 13-year-old cat with a bad attitude and an even worse habit of urinating on anything soft left on the floor, or sometimes even on the rug. She isn't sick, the veterinarian said. She's just mad or the cat box isn't clean enough for her royal highness' taste. Having two small children, things get left out...a lot.

My husband says he always smells cat urine. He smells it more than I do because I rarely leave the house and am probably used to the odor. It really bothers him to the point he wants to have Aurora euthanized. I love the cat and don't want her put down, so I have been desperately searching for ways to fix the problem. I turned to Pinterest, and found that vinegar helps neutralize the odor of cat urine.

I set to work on the rug in my daughter's room, where Aurora had urinated at least once on the corner. I dumped the Febreze out of its spray bottle into a couple of glasses, poured vinegar into the bottle, and emptied the bottle on the rug. That was yesterday. Today it is a bit damp and smells like a pickle, but I can't detect the faintest hint of cat urine, and my husband can't either.

To wash the jacket and doll clothes she urinated on, I followed another pinner's recommendation to add apple cider vinegar to the wash and launder as usual. This worked like a charm. Nothing else has ever worked, and we have had this cat for a long time, so I've tried a lot. I'm impressed!

Read the original pinned post at Apartment Therapy.

The verdict: Vinegar for cat urine is a pinning win!

Hello!

Hello! I'm Kristen, and I am obsessed with Pinterest. Not being the creative type, I need inspiration from others to enhance my homemaking skills. I will detail my pinning wins (and fails!) here.