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Ok, how many of you have been arguing with your little ones over picking up that wrapper or throwing away those scraps of paper they left all over the kitchen after their latest craft creation? Most of the time, I hear the excuse “I didn’t see it!”. I’m always amazed at how kids can turn a blind eye to clutter that seems to leap out at us parents. But no more! Enter “Mystery Trash”!…

What is “Mystery Trash” you ask? Now before I begin, I have to give proper credit to my kids wonderful teachers who instituted this practice in their classrooms as a way to encourage kids to pick up after themselves. It worked so well for them that I thought I’d give it a try this summer at home. First, I walk through the house in the morning and find some piece of trash that needs picking up. I then designate this piece of trash as the “Mystery Trash” for the day. Now for the fun part! I announce to my kiddos that the “Mystery Trash” has been selected and whoever finds it will win a special prize at the end of the day! And the race to clean begins! They race around the house trying to find every piece of trash and throw it away in hopes that they will be the winner for the day…I don’t know if I’ve ever seen my house this spotless! And the kids had a wonderful time doing it!

Give it a try and see if you don’t have some very happy cleaners in your house!

Tags: chores, cleaning tips, Family and Home, housekeeping
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This is a small spot area in my car before I attacked it with Dash Away. You can see where my floor mat had been.

Ok, you busy parents of little mess makers, hold onto to your carseats because we’ve got a product that will absolutely make your “must haves” list!

I was contacted by Surf City Garage out of Huntington Beach, CA with a cleaning product they said couldn’t be beat. Having five children of my own and the various messes that accompany them, i have tried innumerable products and none seem to completely live up to their claims of “miraculous” cleaning power. So I was naturally quite skeptical of Surf City Garages claims for their Dash Away all purpose cleaning product. It arrived on my doorstep with the guarantee from its founder, Tim Miller, that “when used as directed, if this product isn’t the best you’ve ever tried, give me a call and I’ll buy it back.” As you will see from the pictures, I have no intention of calling Mr. Miller!

This is the picture I took of the same area about 2 minutes after I applied Dash Away. You can barely see the earlier line of grime defining where the floor mat had been!

I decided to test it out on some of the toughest, most resilient stains I have at my disposal… my car. I have had the carpet professionally cleaned several times and was told to resign myself to the fact that certain stains are just impossible to remove. I very skeptically followed the directions for Dash Away…shaking the bottle, spraying a light mist over the stain, and then wiping it clean with a rag. Way too simple, I thought, until I began to actually “see” the stain begin to disappear! And as if thats not enough, it actually smells good too!

I turned my good friend Jodie onto the product to help her with a 3 year old, sun baked koolaid stain. She has had the stain professionally treated several times with no visible results. After showing her the product, she promptly went out and bought not only the Dash Away product but also the window and leather cleaners! Here’s her take on the Surf City Garage products…

“It lightened the koolaid…it worked on all the dark spots on carpet and got the smudge off the sides of the car and doors. I liked the cleaner because its not sticky or oily. I usually like aerosol window stuff but this stuff didn’t streak or leave smears.”

Needless to say, I am now a devoted fan! The product is non toxic and safe to use on a number of materials like vinyl, leather, carpet, fabrics like car seats, strollers and the like. Although it was designed for car cleaning, the applications seem limitless. I have no problem endorsing this product and highly recommend it to anyone looking for quick, easy and thorough cleaning results (and it’s only $9.99!). I was able to clean the entire interior of my Denali in less than 15 minutes with results that were better than the $60 professional interior detail I not only paid for but also waited over two hours to have completed several months ago!

Check out more info on Dash Away and other Surf City Garage cleaning products at www.surfcitygarage.com. Happy cleaning!

Tags: chores, cleaning tips, Family and Home, housekeeping, product reviews
Posted in General, product reviews | No Comments »