There was an old commercial that I remember seeing when I was little; I'm pretty sure it was for Rice Krispies. It had a young girl showing her younger sister/brother how their mother made Rice Krispy Treats, and when the task was done, she wiped her brow in mock frustration and said, in the sweetest little high-pitched voice, "They're finally done!"
That's about how I felt today: a scant (?) two months after starting this great project, I've finally finished...and it's a really fantastic feeling. I think I've grown a great deal as a homemaker; I've learned a lot about how to clean, how often to clean, and when cleaning can wait. Yes, I ended up with a cleaner house, but I also feel like I ended up stronger, wiser, and more patient. I think that's a pretty good set of results, considering I was armed with cleaning supplies and a broom for the past eight weeks and I STILL managed to keep my family fed, clothed, and entertained.
I think my next step is to come up with some sort of schedule for consistent cleaning, so that I don't end up with this kind of overwhelming and drawn-out task before me again (or at least, not in the near future), so I guess that means one more post. Otherwise, friends, thanks for your attention and support for the past few weeks; it's been really fun!
Showing posts with label Lysol wipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lysol wipes. Show all posts
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Baby Boy's Room
I put off cleaning Baby Boy's room until almost the very end of my great endeavor. I really did have a logical reason: it's easiest for me to clean while kids are sleeping, and he sleeps the most often, but I can't clean while he's asleep in his room. Basically, today I took advantage of a rare opportunity: he was awake, but content to play alone in his infant bouncer; the girls were both asleep. Also, it was pretty incredible to see that, once I finally got started, this may have been the lightest cleaning job I've had yet!
Action Plan:
1. Clean light fixture and fan
2. Clean windows and blinds
3. Clean door frames
4. Dust furniture
5. Clean baseboards
6. Vacuum floor
As I started at the top, I realized that Baby Boy's room was probably the cleanest in the house. Why? We painted it right before we moved him in there, which was a short six months ago (only I would call six months "short" in regards to cleaning). Before we painted, we cleaned the entire room, so it was in pretty good shape. I started, as I always do, by washing the light fixture globes and wiping down the fan blades (which I cleaned with ACV).
I moved from there to Windexing the only window in the room and cleaning out the window tracks. Again, it was reasonably clean, which surprised me; I'm not an expert here, but it seems to me that the east/west facing windows have been significantly less dirty than the north/south facing ones. Also, the windows that face the neighbors' house are cleaner, and this particular window fit both criteria. There were no dog nose-prints, no dead spiders or frogs in the tracks, and even minimal outside dirt. Another happy surprise was that the blinds didn't need cleaning at all; Mini-me used to be in that room, and had pulled down her blinds a few months before. We bought new ones (more specifically, she did), and they have been closed and hidden behind light-blocking curtains ever since then.
The dirtiest place in the room ended up being the outside lower surface of the bedroom door. Years' worth of grimy fingerprints had definitely taken their toll, and it took a cloth with ACV, followed by a Lysol wipe, followed by a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, to clean the door to my satisfaction. After that chore, the dust that I wiped off the surface of the frame seemed like nothing.
Again, the furniture was relatively dust-free, and I am seeing a pattern in Baby Boy's room and the girls' room: they have less surface area and less clutter ON the surface area, so there's less dust. It was really quick to clean all his furniture -- like, less than five minutes. Hmm...maybe I should reduce display items in other areas of the house as well, if it's this easy to clean. On second thought, that would mean doing yet another purge of my books, and I don't think I've got the stomach for it...
I finished up by quickly wiping down the baseboards, which, again, were much cleaner than other baseboards in the house have been. I moved all the furniture to do a thorough vacuuming, used the hose attachment to get a few stubborn bugs in a corner, and was done with the entire project in less than an hour (about the time, incidentally, that Baby Boy decided he was tired of being alone and was ready for dinner).
Action Plan:
1. Clean light fixture and fan
2. Clean windows and blinds
3. Clean door frames
4. Dust furniture
5. Clean baseboards
6. Vacuum floor
As I started at the top, I realized that Baby Boy's room was probably the cleanest in the house. Why? We painted it right before we moved him in there, which was a short six months ago (only I would call six months "short" in regards to cleaning). Before we painted, we cleaned the entire room, so it was in pretty good shape. I started, as I always do, by washing the light fixture globes and wiping down the fan blades (which I cleaned with ACV).
I moved from there to Windexing the only window in the room and cleaning out the window tracks. Again, it was reasonably clean, which surprised me; I'm not an expert here, but it seems to me that the east/west facing windows have been significantly less dirty than the north/south facing ones. Also, the windows that face the neighbors' house are cleaner, and this particular window fit both criteria. There were no dog nose-prints, no dead spiders or frogs in the tracks, and even minimal outside dirt. Another happy surprise was that the blinds didn't need cleaning at all; Mini-me used to be in that room, and had pulled down her blinds a few months before. We bought new ones (more specifically, she did), and they have been closed and hidden behind light-blocking curtains ever since then.
The dirtiest place in the room ended up being the outside lower surface of the bedroom door. Years' worth of grimy fingerprints had definitely taken their toll, and it took a cloth with ACV, followed by a Lysol wipe, followed by a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, to clean the door to my satisfaction. After that chore, the dust that I wiped off the surface of the frame seemed like nothing.
Again, the furniture was relatively dust-free, and I am seeing a pattern in Baby Boy's room and the girls' room: they have less surface area and less clutter ON the surface area, so there's less dust. It was really quick to clean all his furniture -- like, less than five minutes. Hmm...maybe I should reduce display items in other areas of the house as well, if it's this easy to clean. On second thought, that would mean doing yet another purge of my books, and I don't think I've got the stomach for it...
I finished up by quickly wiping down the baseboards, which, again, were much cleaner than other baseboards in the house have been. I moved all the furniture to do a thorough vacuuming, used the hose attachment to get a few stubborn bugs in a corner, and was done with the entire project in less than an hour (about the time, incidentally, that Baby Boy decided he was tired of being alone and was ready for dinner).
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Our Nest
Weeks after I cleaned out my closet and scoured our bathroom, I was finally ready to return to finished cleaning the master bedroom. I mentioned before that this would probably be the case; I was much more likely to make the rest of the house presentable. After all, no one sees our little nest but My Love and I.
Action Plan:
1. Clean light fixture and fan blades
2. Clean doors and door frames
3. Clean windows
4. Dust furniture
5. Wipe down baseboards
6. Vacuum floor
I had been a bit reluctant to clean the fan blades because our fan is directly over the bed; I assumed that when I cleaned the blades, showers of dust were going to fall on our comforter and be impossible to remove. When I finally started the job, however, I was again pleasantly surprised at how reasonable the accumulated dust was. I certainly hadn't cleaned it in the past month, but definitely within the past year. A quick wipe with ACV and a trip through some soapy water for the bulbs, and the fixture was done.
When I started to clean the high areas of the room, like the tops of the door frames, Mini-me wandered in and asked to help. Since I was cleaning with ACV, I let her get a washcloth and start wiping down the baseboards for me. It wasn't a very thorough job, but it was certainly a start, and I appreciated that she wanted to be involved!
The door frames were no more or less dusty than I expected, but I again encountered dirty door surfaces. At toddler-level I found crayon marks, fingerprints, scuffs, and discolored flecks. After scrubbing at the particularly stubborn spots for a while, I reached for my Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. Apparently, though, part of the way it works is to actually remove a tiny layer of the paint...or something. Because I stopped scrubbing to discover several places where the stain was gone, but where I could also see the raw wood of the door peeking through the white paint. Oops. I put the scrubber away and hoped for the best when My Love came home; repainting is his department.
There was nothing more shocking in the windows than I found in any other part of the house; it's a little sad that it no longer surprises me to find a dead frog trapped between the panes of glass. The blinds were particularly dusty, but my current cleaning technique seems to be to buy a new set, so there was nothing to do about them at the moment.
Mini-me had done an admirable job with the baseboards, but her commitment to the job lasted about ten minutes (pretty good for a four-year-old), and I had to finish up for her.
Why is it that I vacuum the bedroom less than any other room in the house? Again, I suppose it's that no one knows except My Love and I. But every time I DO vacuum, I an so enamored of the results that I vow to do it more often. Maybe this time it will stick!
This room also had a special project, which has been in the works for over a week. I wanted to do a thorough cleaning of our queen-sized bed. I removed all the sheets, turned the mattress, sprayed it with a disinfectant (I still haven't tried the baking soda idea I found), washed all the sheets and the dust ruffle, and re-assembled. I was stumped on our down comforter, though. Apparently, they can be washed, but my washing machine was too small, and it seems like an all-day job that would take lots of quarters at a laundry mat. So I decided to splurge and have the thing professionally cleaned...until I discovered it would cost $40! At that point My Love assured me that the comforter was clean enough for his taste, so (after having no blanket on the bed for a week) I caved in and put it back on the bed. Today, my mother brought me a comforter that she and my dad no longer use, and I'm looking forward to updating our bedroom with it.
I'm really enjoying how pleasant it is to have a clean, sweet-smelling bedroom (not that it usually stinks; it just SMELLS clean now!); I wonder how I can make it a priority for the future?
Action Plan:
1. Clean light fixture and fan blades
2. Clean doors and door frames
3. Clean windows
4. Dust furniture
5. Wipe down baseboards
6. Vacuum floor
I had been a bit reluctant to clean the fan blades because our fan is directly over the bed; I assumed that when I cleaned the blades, showers of dust were going to fall on our comforter and be impossible to remove. When I finally started the job, however, I was again pleasantly surprised at how reasonable the accumulated dust was. I certainly hadn't cleaned it in the past month, but definitely within the past year. A quick wipe with ACV and a trip through some soapy water for the bulbs, and the fixture was done.
When I started to clean the high areas of the room, like the tops of the door frames, Mini-me wandered in and asked to help. Since I was cleaning with ACV, I let her get a washcloth and start wiping down the baseboards for me. It wasn't a very thorough job, but it was certainly a start, and I appreciated that she wanted to be involved!
The door frames were no more or less dusty than I expected, but I again encountered dirty door surfaces. At toddler-level I found crayon marks, fingerprints, scuffs, and discolored flecks. After scrubbing at the particularly stubborn spots for a while, I reached for my Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. Apparently, though, part of the way it works is to actually remove a tiny layer of the paint...or something. Because I stopped scrubbing to discover several places where the stain was gone, but where I could also see the raw wood of the door peeking through the white paint. Oops. I put the scrubber away and hoped for the best when My Love came home; repainting is his department.
There was nothing more shocking in the windows than I found in any other part of the house; it's a little sad that it no longer surprises me to find a dead frog trapped between the panes of glass. The blinds were particularly dusty, but my current cleaning technique seems to be to buy a new set, so there was nothing to do about them at the moment.
Mini-me had done an admirable job with the baseboards, but her commitment to the job lasted about ten minutes (pretty good for a four-year-old), and I had to finish up for her.
Why is it that I vacuum the bedroom less than any other room in the house? Again, I suppose it's that no one knows except My Love and I. But every time I DO vacuum, I an so enamored of the results that I vow to do it more often. Maybe this time it will stick!
This room also had a special project, which has been in the works for over a week. I wanted to do a thorough cleaning of our queen-sized bed. I removed all the sheets, turned the mattress, sprayed it with a disinfectant (I still haven't tried the baking soda idea I found), washed all the sheets and the dust ruffle, and re-assembled. I was stumped on our down comforter, though. Apparently, they can be washed, but my washing machine was too small, and it seems like an all-day job that would take lots of quarters at a laundry mat. So I decided to splurge and have the thing professionally cleaned...until I discovered it would cost $40! At that point My Love assured me that the comforter was clean enough for his taste, so (after having no blanket on the bed for a week) I caved in and put it back on the bed. Today, my mother brought me a comforter that she and my dad no longer use, and I'm looking forward to updating our bedroom with it.
I'm really enjoying how pleasant it is to have a clean, sweet-smelling bedroom (not that it usually stinks; it just SMELLS clean now!); I wonder how I can make it a priority for the future?
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
My apologies
If anyone other than immediate family has used our "guest" (front) bathroom within the past month...I owe you a sincere apology.
I had no idea there was a spider living behind the door, subsisting quite comfortably on the fat crop of bugs in his web. (We're working on getting Mini-me to close the door when she uses the bathroom, so he'd had complete privacy for a while.)
It's news to me that, if you don't wash the storage bag for the bath toys, it will leave a soap scum silhouette on the bathtub wall. (Duly noted; this is a new monthly chore!)
Who'd have guessed that Cuddles enjoys chewing on toothbrushes, and that there were three half-digested toothbrushes stored under the sink on top of the stack of fresh towels? (In the future, they will be stored in a secure location.)
In short...this bathroom needed a lot of attention, and it finally got it tonight after the kiddos went to sleep.
Action Plan:
1. Clean light fixture
2. Clean mirror
3. Clean sink
4. Clean toilet
5. Clean tub
6. Wash all bath toys, rugs, and towels
7. Wipe down baseboards and mop floor
The light fixture was the same kind as the one in the master bath, but smaller, so I made short work of that. After cleaning and re-installing the bulbs and shining the mirror behind them, the light in the bathroom was almost blinding. The bathroom is painted bright orange -- the kids love it! -- and it was sort of like working in a giant highlighter.
Cleaning the sink was no special chore, but I did take a moment to marvel at the amount of pink toothpaste two small girls can manage to affix to a bathroom sink.
It was when I started tackling the toilet that I noticed the full extent of the bathroom's need for attention. The toilet itself wasn't bad; I take pride in cleaning out the bowl and the surface about once a week. However, the floor around it was in rough shape. Here's the thing: the wasted space in the master bath seems to have appeared at the cost of space in the front bath, and it's a tight little room. There's not really room to mop or sweep, so...I just let it go. I'll be brutally honest when I say I can't remember the last time I mopped this bathroom. On the floor and in the corners around the toilet were dust, dog hair, toothpaste drops, dead bugs, tiny rubber bands, toddler hair, sand...the list goes on. Honestly, I was so appalled at my lack of effort in keeping the floor at least moderately clean that I scrubbed it with renewed vigor on my hands and knees. I made three passes: once with ammonia while cleaning the toilet, once with apple cider vinegar, and once with a Lysol wipe for good measure. By golly, that floor sparkled when I was done with it!
I took a break from the floor to address the bathtub. It wasn't horrendously dirty, but it's easy to skip cleaning the tub: if company's coming, I just pull the curtain and save it for later. That said, the scrubbing bubbles did their job well, and after a quick wipe-down (and removal of all toys for a run through the dishwasher) I felt content with my results.
On that note, though, I have a verdict on the scrubbing bubbles: they work, and I'll finish using the can, but I doubt I'll buy any more. After yet another evening enduring a headache caused by the fumes from cleaning, I don't think it's worth it, and I do feel a bit "safer" breathing in vinegar rather than unidentified chemical fumes.
My last task was to wipe out the crevices above and on the door, just as I have in the rest of the house. It was while I was doing that, though, that I happened to glance down and notice the fingerprints and smudges at the three-foot mark. Thinking back to yesterday's experience in the laundry room, I guess I've learned yet another lesson: to get the house really, really clean I need to examine it from the level of a four-year-old. When I knelt down to clean the smudges, I noticed a pretty consistent ring of them around the hallway, which also happens to be one of very few unpainted areas in the house. Another item to add to My Love's to-do list? Or maybe a "vacation" while the kids stay with their grandparents and we spent the weekend painting. It sounds romantic...
I had no idea there was a spider living behind the door, subsisting quite comfortably on the fat crop of bugs in his web. (We're working on getting Mini-me to close the door when she uses the bathroom, so he'd had complete privacy for a while.)
It's news to me that, if you don't wash the storage bag for the bath toys, it will leave a soap scum silhouette on the bathtub wall. (Duly noted; this is a new monthly chore!)
Who'd have guessed that Cuddles enjoys chewing on toothbrushes, and that there were three half-digested toothbrushes stored under the sink on top of the stack of fresh towels? (In the future, they will be stored in a secure location.)
In short...this bathroom needed a lot of attention, and it finally got it tonight after the kiddos went to sleep.
Action Plan:
1. Clean light fixture
2. Clean mirror
3. Clean sink
4. Clean toilet
5. Clean tub
6. Wash all bath toys, rugs, and towels
7. Wipe down baseboards and mop floor
The light fixture was the same kind as the one in the master bath, but smaller, so I made short work of that. After cleaning and re-installing the bulbs and shining the mirror behind them, the light in the bathroom was almost blinding. The bathroom is painted bright orange -- the kids love it! -- and it was sort of like working in a giant highlighter.
Cleaning the sink was no special chore, but I did take a moment to marvel at the amount of pink toothpaste two small girls can manage to affix to a bathroom sink.
It was when I started tackling the toilet that I noticed the full extent of the bathroom's need for attention. The toilet itself wasn't bad; I take pride in cleaning out the bowl and the surface about once a week. However, the floor around it was in rough shape. Here's the thing: the wasted space in the master bath seems to have appeared at the cost of space in the front bath, and it's a tight little room. There's not really room to mop or sweep, so...I just let it go. I'll be brutally honest when I say I can't remember the last time I mopped this bathroom. On the floor and in the corners around the toilet were dust, dog hair, toothpaste drops, dead bugs, tiny rubber bands, toddler hair, sand...the list goes on. Honestly, I was so appalled at my lack of effort in keeping the floor at least moderately clean that I scrubbed it with renewed vigor on my hands and knees. I made three passes: once with ammonia while cleaning the toilet, once with apple cider vinegar, and once with a Lysol wipe for good measure. By golly, that floor sparkled when I was done with it!
I took a break from the floor to address the bathtub. It wasn't horrendously dirty, but it's easy to skip cleaning the tub: if company's coming, I just pull the curtain and save it for later. That said, the scrubbing bubbles did their job well, and after a quick wipe-down (and removal of all toys for a run through the dishwasher) I felt content with my results.
On that note, though, I have a verdict on the scrubbing bubbles: they work, and I'll finish using the can, but I doubt I'll buy any more. After yet another evening enduring a headache caused by the fumes from cleaning, I don't think it's worth it, and I do feel a bit "safer" breathing in vinegar rather than unidentified chemical fumes.
My last task was to wipe out the crevices above and on the door, just as I have in the rest of the house. It was while I was doing that, though, that I happened to glance down and notice the fingerprints and smudges at the three-foot mark. Thinking back to yesterday's experience in the laundry room, I guess I've learned yet another lesson: to get the house really, really clean I need to examine it from the level of a four-year-old. When I knelt down to clean the smudges, I noticed a pretty consistent ring of them around the hallway, which also happens to be one of very few unpainted areas in the house. Another item to add to My Love's to-do list? Or maybe a "vacation" while the kids stay with their grandparents and we spent the weekend painting. It sounds romantic...
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Dust in the laundry room
At first I was a bit reluctant to call the laundry room a "room" in the house. It's tiny, and so I was positive that it couldn't be too dirty or take too long to clean. I fully intended to lump my cleaning of it in with something else, like the hall closet. If I'm learning anything about myself during this cleaning frenzy, it's that I'm wrong...a whole lot. (Isn't it healthy to admit that every now and then?)
Our laundry room is small and doubles as a mud room; we have our access to the garage through it. We have a side-by-side washer and dryer (not the fancy front-loading kind) with a wire shelf above it. There's a laundry hamper against the wall, we store our mop and broom behind the door, and there's also a high door opening to our A/C unit.
Action Plan:
1. Clean light fixture
2. Rearrange/purge cleaning supplies
3. Wipe down washer and dryer
4. Wipe down all doors
5. Clean baseboards and floor
It's becoming a trend, but...I did not, in fact, clean the light fixture. I actually had a talk with My Love about this one. Basically, I'm uncomfortable scaling a ladder when he's not home, especially with the kids running around at the base of it. I'm all for cleaning the light fixtures that I can easily reach, but I petitioned him to take down all the high ones for me, and...he said yes (because he's fantastic like that). So at some point in the near future he's going to get all the lights I've missed -- the office, hallway, and laundry room -- and I'm going to give them a good scrub.
I honestly think that rearranging and ordering household items is my single favorite household chore. Some people like vacuum lines in their carpet; I like seeing neat, orderly rows of "whatever", be it books toys, clothes, or household chemicals. I removed everything from the shelves and placed it in a logical order; the supplies needed to clean similar rooms went together (i.e., the ammonia, toilet bowl cleaner, and Lysol spray); the things we don't use very often (carpet cleaning solution) went toward the back. Nearly-empty bottles were used and tossed. Voila, we magically have space on the "cluttered, too-small" shelving!
Wiping down the washer and dryer proved to be the most difficult and tedious task of the day. For appliances whose entire job is to clean things, they certainly were a mess. They were mostly coated with an admirable layer of dust, but there was also a significant amount of lint and dog hair in the mix, as well as some drops of laundry detergent from all those times Mini-me has "helped" me do the laundry. True to form, I started at the top, with a Lysol wipe, and started cleaning. It's amazing how many nooks and crannies there are in those things, and it's also shocking how many Lysol wipes it took to get them clean. After cleaning the lint screen (which I do, regularly) and wiping down the outer area, it also occurred to me that I should ask My Love to clean the dryer vent outside. His to-do list is growing...
When I turned to the garage door, I made good progress until I came to the spot about three feet from the floor where small hands and big, wet noses (from the children and The Beast, respectively) regularly come into contact with it. There, I encountered smudges, colored spots of all varieties -- likely made by an assortment of unidentifiable food items -- and a few streaks made by eager fingers attempting to open the door to great Daddy as he returns from work. Again, it was much more trouble than I anticipated, and I ended up scrubbing the door quite vigorously; in fact, I had broken a sweat when I was done with that small area and I needed to take a water break.
My "dirtiest spot in the room" moment happened when I addressed the door leading to the A/C unit. As I wiped down the surface, I noticed some dust clinging to the top seams; when I opened the door, I found what looked like caterpillars made of dust lining the door and the door frame. Now, I DO change my air filter, and I wipe down the opening in front of it periodically; I know it's one area of the house that is frequently getting dirty. However, I obviously don't know much about how an air conditioning system works, and I therefore had no idea that, for some reason, the unit itself sucks in dust and cakes it around all nearby surfaces. In hindsight, I probably would have done well to clean the door and frame with apple cider vinegar, but the kids were all asleep and I just wanted to have the laundry room DONE, so I made do with my Lysol wipes.
Finally, I swept and was rewarded with a pile of dust, lint, and dog hair. Next on the agenda should have been to mop and wipe down the base boards, but Baby Boy started to cry about the time I put the broom away. As I finished changing his diaper, Cuddles started knocking on her door (she can't turn the knob yet) and calling for a "nack" (snack). While I was holding Baby Boy with one hand and pouring animal crackers with another, Mini-me appeared and asked if it was time to get up. Sigh. Yes, everyone can get up. I'm glad you had a good nap. I'll finish cleaning the floor after you go to bed...and then I can sleep, too!
Our laundry room is small and doubles as a mud room; we have our access to the garage through it. We have a side-by-side washer and dryer (not the fancy front-loading kind) with a wire shelf above it. There's a laundry hamper against the wall, we store our mop and broom behind the door, and there's also a high door opening to our A/C unit.
Action Plan:
1. Clean light fixture
2. Rearrange/purge cleaning supplies
3. Wipe down washer and dryer
4. Wipe down all doors
5. Clean baseboards and floor
It's becoming a trend, but...I did not, in fact, clean the light fixture. I actually had a talk with My Love about this one. Basically, I'm uncomfortable scaling a ladder when he's not home, especially with the kids running around at the base of it. I'm all for cleaning the light fixtures that I can easily reach, but I petitioned him to take down all the high ones for me, and...he said yes (because he's fantastic like that). So at some point in the near future he's going to get all the lights I've missed -- the office, hallway, and laundry room -- and I'm going to give them a good scrub.
I honestly think that rearranging and ordering household items is my single favorite household chore. Some people like vacuum lines in their carpet; I like seeing neat, orderly rows of "whatever", be it books toys, clothes, or household chemicals. I removed everything from the shelves and placed it in a logical order; the supplies needed to clean similar rooms went together (i.e., the ammonia, toilet bowl cleaner, and Lysol spray); the things we don't use very often (carpet cleaning solution) went toward the back. Nearly-empty bottles were used and tossed. Voila, we magically have space on the "cluttered, too-small" shelving!
Wiping down the washer and dryer proved to be the most difficult and tedious task of the day. For appliances whose entire job is to clean things, they certainly were a mess. They were mostly coated with an admirable layer of dust, but there was also a significant amount of lint and dog hair in the mix, as well as some drops of laundry detergent from all those times Mini-me has "helped" me do the laundry. True to form, I started at the top, with a Lysol wipe, and started cleaning. It's amazing how many nooks and crannies there are in those things, and it's also shocking how many Lysol wipes it took to get them clean. After cleaning the lint screen (which I do, regularly) and wiping down the outer area, it also occurred to me that I should ask My Love to clean the dryer vent outside. His to-do list is growing...
When I turned to the garage door, I made good progress until I came to the spot about three feet from the floor where small hands and big, wet noses (from the children and The Beast, respectively) regularly come into contact with it. There, I encountered smudges, colored spots of all varieties -- likely made by an assortment of unidentifiable food items -- and a few streaks made by eager fingers attempting to open the door to great Daddy as he returns from work. Again, it was much more trouble than I anticipated, and I ended up scrubbing the door quite vigorously; in fact, I had broken a sweat when I was done with that small area and I needed to take a water break.
My "dirtiest spot in the room" moment happened when I addressed the door leading to the A/C unit. As I wiped down the surface, I noticed some dust clinging to the top seams; when I opened the door, I found what looked like caterpillars made of dust lining the door and the door frame. Now, I DO change my air filter, and I wipe down the opening in front of it periodically; I know it's one area of the house that is frequently getting dirty. However, I obviously don't know much about how an air conditioning system works, and I therefore had no idea that, for some reason, the unit itself sucks in dust and cakes it around all nearby surfaces. In hindsight, I probably would have done well to clean the door and frame with apple cider vinegar, but the kids were all asleep and I just wanted to have the laundry room DONE, so I made do with my Lysol wipes.
Finally, I swept and was rewarded with a pile of dust, lint, and dog hair. Next on the agenda should have been to mop and wipe down the base boards, but Baby Boy started to cry about the time I put the broom away. As I finished changing his diaper, Cuddles started knocking on her door (she can't turn the knob yet) and calling for a "nack" (snack). While I was holding Baby Boy with one hand and pouring animal crackers with another, Mini-me appeared and asked if it was time to get up. Sigh. Yes, everyone can get up. I'm glad you had a good nap. I'll finish cleaning the floor after you go to bed...and then I can sleep, too!
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Master Bath: Part B
In addition to having a particularly large bathroom and being exposed to heavy chemical smells, I recognized another reason cleaning this room is taking so long: since it's in a far-removed part of the house, I can't clean and watch/entertain my kids at the same time. Yesterday (and today) I spent lots of time cleaning part of something, then checking on the kids, then running back to finish. I also did the bulk of my cleaning while Baby Boy was sleeping, since I don't like to leave him in a room alone with his well-meaning but rough-loving sisters for more than a moment at a time.
Day 2 Action Plan:
1. Clean shower
2. Clean garden tub
3. Clean door
4. File loose papers
5. Sweep and mop and clean baseboards
Our shower has been a source of frustration for me ever since we moved into this house. Seriously...when we first looked at it a few years ago, I told My Love that I hated the back yard (which has a steep incline and is therefore nearly unusable as a back yard) and that I hated the stand-up shower. The price was right, though, so we figured that the two areas I disliked could be amended later. As it turns out, those fixes are costly and time-consuming, and it's been much easier to simply live with things the way they are. But I digress.
This shower...it's small. It's not a luxury stand-up shower, with a seat. It barely leaves room for me to shave my legs. It's just the right size for ONE person. There is no shelf space for shampoos, shaving creams, soaps, gels, and all the other things women store in their shower. And on top of that, it's very difficult to clean. You basically have to assume that you WILL get wet while leaning across the water stream to reach the far wall, so I've found that a sound technique is to clean the shower immediately before I plan to get in it. Today, this meant cleaning it at 6:00 in the morning after returning from my a.m. run. I doused it with the scrubbing bubble spray and left to have a glass of water. When I returned ten minutes later, I was able to simply wipe down the majority of the unsightly gunk that had accumulated. Really, I am consistently amazed by how dirty a shower can get when its entire purpose is to clean someone. Between the dirt that washes off after My Love mows the lawn (which sticks to the floor), my hair clogging the drain (it's coming out in wads postpartum), soap scum (which is strange in and of itself), and dust along the top edges, our shower always seems dirty. After I scrub it, I always want to scrub myself! Today, though, the scrubbing bubbles did the job quickly, except that I had to go over some particularly tough soap scum a second time. I also heard that you can use a dryer sheet to get soap scum off of shower doors, but I forgot to try it this time until after the cleaning was done. Next time I'll give it a shot.
Next came the huge garden tub. It's nice for a bubble bath, but I don't have the time for that very often. I cleaned this with my scrubbing bubble cleaner too, and I learned a hard lesson: it has bleach in it. In order to reach the back side of the tub, I had to sit on the front side...and, apparently, the scrubbing bubbles hadn't been completely removed when I did. I ended up with a few little white polka dots on my lavender (yep, you read that right) shorts. (I think I can salvage them; apparently you can paint with bleach and make it look like you meant for that to happen. I may try it in all my spare time.) The biggest issue I had with cleaning the tub, though, is that when My Love painted the bathroom a few years ago, he left lots of tiny (pin-head-sized) flecks of paint on the tub. It always looks dirty now, but I can't figure out a way to get them off. Then again, I haven't tried mineral spirits...that is sort of out of my league, and we don't have any in the house.
We store our file cabinet in this random corner of our oversized bathroom that's not good for anything else. It's a closet-sized nook in the bathroom behind the door, and it's got a small window in it. Basically, that means that it's always either ten degrees hotter or colder than the rest of the room. Because it's out of the way, it has been a convenient place to store my Sam's Club purchases (36-roll package of toilet paper, anyone?) and the file cabinet. But...since no one sees the file cabinet, it's been easy to just pile papers on top of it until I feel like filing. And the last time I felt like it was back before David was born. So I took a break from the heady fragrance of the bathroom and sorted all my papers to file on the bed, then found them a permanent home. Again, the visible lack of clutter and sense of order gave me a big boost that allowed me to keep on with my cleaning.
And finally...the floor. One more set of baseboards gone over with a Lysol wipe; one more application of my fantastic Libman broom and mop, paired with ACV. (I've got this down to an art.) After two days of effort, the master bathroom smelled, looked, and felt cleaner than it has in months!
Our shower has been a source of frustration for me ever since we moved into this house. Seriously...when we first looked at it a few years ago, I told My Love that I hated the back yard (which has a steep incline and is therefore nearly unusable as a back yard) and that I hated the stand-up shower. The price was right, though, so we figured that the two areas I disliked could be amended later. As it turns out, those fixes are costly and time-consuming, and it's been much easier to simply live with things the way they are. But I digress.
This shower...it's small. It's not a luxury stand-up shower, with a seat. It barely leaves room for me to shave my legs. It's just the right size for ONE person. There is no shelf space for shampoos, shaving creams, soaps, gels, and all the other things women store in their shower. And on top of that, it's very difficult to clean. You basically have to assume that you WILL get wet while leaning across the water stream to reach the far wall, so I've found that a sound technique is to clean the shower immediately before I plan to get in it. Today, this meant cleaning it at 6:00 in the morning after returning from my a.m. run. I doused it with the scrubbing bubble spray and left to have a glass of water. When I returned ten minutes later, I was able to simply wipe down the majority of the unsightly gunk that had accumulated. Really, I am consistently amazed by how dirty a shower can get when its entire purpose is to clean someone. Between the dirt that washes off after My Love mows the lawn (which sticks to the floor), my hair clogging the drain (it's coming out in wads postpartum), soap scum (which is strange in and of itself), and dust along the top edges, our shower always seems dirty. After I scrub it, I always want to scrub myself! Today, though, the scrubbing bubbles did the job quickly, except that I had to go over some particularly tough soap scum a second time. I also heard that you can use a dryer sheet to get soap scum off of shower doors, but I forgot to try it this time until after the cleaning was done. Next time I'll give it a shot.
Next came the huge garden tub. It's nice for a bubble bath, but I don't have the time for that very often. I cleaned this with my scrubbing bubble cleaner too, and I learned a hard lesson: it has bleach in it. In order to reach the back side of the tub, I had to sit on the front side...and, apparently, the scrubbing bubbles hadn't been completely removed when I did. I ended up with a few little white polka dots on my lavender (yep, you read that right) shorts. (I think I can salvage them; apparently you can paint with bleach and make it look like you meant for that to happen. I may try it in all my spare time.) The biggest issue I had with cleaning the tub, though, is that when My Love painted the bathroom a few years ago, he left lots of tiny (pin-head-sized) flecks of paint on the tub. It always looks dirty now, but I can't figure out a way to get them off. Then again, I haven't tried mineral spirits...that is sort of out of my league, and we don't have any in the house.
We store our file cabinet in this random corner of our oversized bathroom that's not good for anything else. It's a closet-sized nook in the bathroom behind the door, and it's got a small window in it. Basically, that means that it's always either ten degrees hotter or colder than the rest of the room. Because it's out of the way, it has been a convenient place to store my Sam's Club purchases (36-roll package of toilet paper, anyone?) and the file cabinet. But...since no one sees the file cabinet, it's been easy to just pile papers on top of it until I feel like filing. And the last time I felt like it was back before David was born. So I took a break from the heady fragrance of the bathroom and sorted all my papers to file on the bed, then found them a permanent home. Again, the visible lack of clutter and sense of order gave me a big boost that allowed me to keep on with my cleaning.
And finally...the floor. One more set of baseboards gone over with a Lysol wipe; one more application of my fantastic Libman broom and mop, paired with ACV. (I've got this down to an art.) After two days of effort, the master bathroom smelled, looked, and felt cleaner than it has in months!
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Master Bath: Part A
Our master bathroom is much bigger than is really necessary. Don't take that as a complaint; it just seems to sort of spread in all directions, meaning both that there is plenty of elbow room when My Love and I are both trying to get ready in the morning AND that it took me two days of work to clean it.
We have a double sink, a stand-up shower and large garden tub, a small area that we use like a closet (with no door), and, of course, the toilet. Basically, I divided the bathroom in half and cleaned the east-facing wall on day one and the west-facing wall on day two.
Day 1 Action Plan:
1. Clean light fixture
2. Clean sinks, mirror, and counter tops
3. Clean out under sinks and in drawers and wipe down cabinet and drawer fronts
4. Clean toilet
5. Wipe down all exposed surfaces (toilet paper holder, towel rack)
I don't think I ever noticed the wide assortment of light fixtures in our house until I started on my cleaning spree. Really, it's kind of entertaining to examine each one and figure out how to remove each piece of it. The one in the master bath was particularly engaging. It was a long, think mirror with eight exposed light bulbs on it. Each had to be removed, wiped with ACV, and then replaced. The mirror itself needed cleaning with Windex, but it was difficult to clean around the light sockets. The process took a while, because I had to wait until the bulbs were cool to start; then, I had to wait until they were dry again to re-install them. (I had visions of electrocuting myself with a damp lightbulb...yet another occupational hazard that might pop up during housekeeping.) Also, the edges of the mirror were sharp; My Love had cut his finger once while installing a light bulb a few years ago. Despite the trouble, I got the instant gratification I needed to feel like it was a job well done. The bulbs seemed to have black, burnt spots on them; as it turned out, it was just flambeed dust. Once the dust was removed and the mirror was shined, the bathroom was noticeably brighter.
Cleaning the mirror over our sink is nothing exceptional, except that it's huge. I remember an old Windex commercial; the woman in it said something like, "The more you need to clean, the faster you have to clean." I think she was trying to demonstrate how runny the off-brand was as opposed to the Windex brand, which actually coated the glass surface and didn't run. Well, I AM using generic Windex, and it DOES run all over the mirror as soon as I spray it on. The top of the mirror ends up dry, while liquid puddles along the bottom edge. It eventually gets cleaned, though, and I'm not using any techniques that are different than what my mama taught me, so it's not much to complain about.
Funny story: My Love and I have been married six years this month. For a (very creative) wedding gift, some friends of ours gave us a little plastic tote full of cleaning products. In hindsight, it was inexpensive and useful; I also think it's interesting that I remember exactly who gave it to us, while I have no idea who gave us our toaster or bath towels. Anyway, in that plastic box was an aerosol can of scrubbing-bubbles-type cleaning product. I've never used this type of thing before; I've always been a Comet girl, followed by the spray version after it came out, so this scrubbing bubble can has sat in our laundry room (and the laundry room of our previous home) for years. When I inventoried my cleaning supplies before beginning this endeavor, I found it again, and I figured it really needed to be put to use. The bathroom sinks and countertop were the first thing I used it on, and I was really impressed. This stuff is POWERFUL. I sprayed it on, and literally just had to wipe away the bubbles after a few minutes to reveal a sparkling clean surface. Spoiler: I also used it on our shower, and it worked like a charm there as well. The only drawback I discovered is that it also had a nearly overwhelming smell. Our bathroom is a closed-in space, and the countertops take up a large part of it. I found that I had to spray, then leave the room for a few minutes, then come back to wipe down the surfaces, then leave again while the smell dissipated. I also ended up with a headache, so I had to take another break at the halfway point of Day 1.
I got a great deal of satisfaction out of organizing and purging the drawers and cabinets under the sink. As I mentioned when I cleaned my closet, I'm a very structured, order-loving person, and it was edifying to see neat rows of makeup, hair products, and eyeglass cases. I also threw away a lot of things that were expired. The two biggest culprits for hanging around indefinitely were makeup and sunscreen, both of which, I learned, should technically be replaced every 12 months or so.
About the time I moved to clean the toilet, Mini-me showed up and asked to help. She really has perfect timing; I gave her a Lysol wipe and let her wipe off the fronts of the drawers and cabinets for me.
The last step in today's process was to clean our toilet. Cleaning toilets is one of those tasks that doesn't really bother me. Truth be told, I'd rather clean a toilet than fold laundry any day. Also, when a toilet starts to look visibly dirty, I feel like it's a decent thermometer to indicate that the rest of the bathroom is likely dirty too, so I clean the toilet more often than the rest of the house. I'm a pretty faithful user of Clorox cling or Lysol toilet bowl cleaner, whichever happens to be cheaper; they both do the job.
A quick dusting of the toilet paper roller, the toilet paper holder, and the towel rack, and 50% of my bathroom sparkled; it also smelled clean enough to make up for the other half!
We have a double sink, a stand-up shower and large garden tub, a small area that we use like a closet (with no door), and, of course, the toilet. Basically, I divided the bathroom in half and cleaned the east-facing wall on day one and the west-facing wall on day two.
Day 1 Action Plan:
1. Clean light fixture
2. Clean sinks, mirror, and counter tops
3. Clean out under sinks and in drawers and wipe down cabinet and drawer fronts
4. Clean toilet
5. Wipe down all exposed surfaces (toilet paper holder, towel rack)
I don't think I ever noticed the wide assortment of light fixtures in our house until I started on my cleaning spree. Really, it's kind of entertaining to examine each one and figure out how to remove each piece of it. The one in the master bath was particularly engaging. It was a long, think mirror with eight exposed light bulbs on it. Each had to be removed, wiped with ACV, and then replaced. The mirror itself needed cleaning with Windex, but it was difficult to clean around the light sockets. The process took a while, because I had to wait until the bulbs were cool to start; then, I had to wait until they were dry again to re-install them. (I had visions of electrocuting myself with a damp lightbulb...yet another occupational hazard that might pop up during housekeeping.) Also, the edges of the mirror were sharp; My Love had cut his finger once while installing a light bulb a few years ago. Despite the trouble, I got the instant gratification I needed to feel like it was a job well done. The bulbs seemed to have black, burnt spots on them; as it turned out, it was just flambeed dust. Once the dust was removed and the mirror was shined, the bathroom was noticeably brighter.
Cleaning the mirror over our sink is nothing exceptional, except that it's huge. I remember an old Windex commercial; the woman in it said something like, "The more you need to clean, the faster you have to clean." I think she was trying to demonstrate how runny the off-brand was as opposed to the Windex brand, which actually coated the glass surface and didn't run. Well, I AM using generic Windex, and it DOES run all over the mirror as soon as I spray it on. The top of the mirror ends up dry, while liquid puddles along the bottom edge. It eventually gets cleaned, though, and I'm not using any techniques that are different than what my mama taught me, so it's not much to complain about.
Funny story: My Love and I have been married six years this month. For a (very creative) wedding gift, some friends of ours gave us a little plastic tote full of cleaning products. In hindsight, it was inexpensive and useful; I also think it's interesting that I remember exactly who gave it to us, while I have no idea who gave us our toaster or bath towels. Anyway, in that plastic box was an aerosol can of scrubbing-bubbles-type cleaning product. I've never used this type of thing before; I've always been a Comet girl, followed by the spray version after it came out, so this scrubbing bubble can has sat in our laundry room (and the laundry room of our previous home) for years. When I inventoried my cleaning supplies before beginning this endeavor, I found it again, and I figured it really needed to be put to use. The bathroom sinks and countertop were the first thing I used it on, and I was really impressed. This stuff is POWERFUL. I sprayed it on, and literally just had to wipe away the bubbles after a few minutes to reveal a sparkling clean surface. Spoiler: I also used it on our shower, and it worked like a charm there as well. The only drawback I discovered is that it also had a nearly overwhelming smell. Our bathroom is a closed-in space, and the countertops take up a large part of it. I found that I had to spray, then leave the room for a few minutes, then come back to wipe down the surfaces, then leave again while the smell dissipated. I also ended up with a headache, so I had to take another break at the halfway point of Day 1.
I got a great deal of satisfaction out of organizing and purging the drawers and cabinets under the sink. As I mentioned when I cleaned my closet, I'm a very structured, order-loving person, and it was edifying to see neat rows of makeup, hair products, and eyeglass cases. I also threw away a lot of things that were expired. The two biggest culprits for hanging around indefinitely were makeup and sunscreen, both of which, I learned, should technically be replaced every 12 months or so.
About the time I moved to clean the toilet, Mini-me showed up and asked to help. She really has perfect timing; I gave her a Lysol wipe and let her wipe off the fronts of the drawers and cabinets for me.
The last step in today's process was to clean our toilet. Cleaning toilets is one of those tasks that doesn't really bother me. Truth be told, I'd rather clean a toilet than fold laundry any day. Also, when a toilet starts to look visibly dirty, I feel like it's a decent thermometer to indicate that the rest of the bathroom is likely dirty too, so I clean the toilet more often than the rest of the house. I'm a pretty faithful user of Clorox cling or Lysol toilet bowl cleaner, whichever happens to be cheaper; they both do the job.
A quick dusting of the toilet paper roller, the toilet paper holder, and the towel rack, and 50% of my bathroom sparkled; it also smelled clean enough to make up for the other half!
Monday, April 30, 2012
My Favorite Things
Remember when I said I was excited to go and buy a new broom? I'm definitely one of those people who eagerly anticipates a change or upgrade to my daily routine, and a better broom fits into that category. When I first started cleaning, I surveyed my cache of cleaning products with a bit of dissatisfaction. I had a mop and broom that I had bought as cheaply as possible when we moved into the house, as well as a shelf full of mostly-empty bottles of cleaning products. After a quick trip through Target, I am armed with an assortment of goodies that have helped me in my project these past few weeks. Some of them are particularly great and warrant my valuable endorsement.
Libman Wonder Mop: For years, I've used one of those large sponges on the end of a stick. It didn't really fit into my mop bucket, was messy to wring, and always seemed to just smear the dirt around the floor. My new version is fantastic; it has a handle that allows me to wring it without getting wet hands (and it was simple enough for Mini-me to use, actually). It looks like an orange octopus that spreads out when it hits the floor, rather than simply rubbing in a single spot. Also, the head is detachable and washable...genuis! Cost: about $10
Libman Large Precision Angle Broom: My old broom was in sad shape and sported a family of dust bunnies living in its bent and stretched bristles. The handle had also broken, and left me bending to reach the floor as I swept because I was too cheap to buy a new one. Since I was buying a Libman mop, I figured I'd go all out and buy a Libman broom too. I love it (as much as one can love a broom). The bristles are stiff enough to sweep even tiny dirt particles off the floor, and the dust pan is angled so that they actually sweep into it, rather than getting trapped in a line as I sweep. One side is angled, so I've been able to sweep easily under my cabinets and between the cabinets and refrigerator. Cost: about $10
Pledge: I know that there are other dusting products, but this was a mainstay in my house when I was growing up, and I love the lemony scent and the way it makes my furniture shine. Also, Pledge actually traps dust that I wipe, rather than simply allowing it to float around in the air. Cost: about $3
Lysol Wipes: Is there anything that these wipes can't do? I like that they are simple, portable, and not messy. Since they are smaller than a cleaning cloth, they can also easily get into small nooks and crannies, like the corner of my vanity or the tiny ledges of cabinet doors. Pair with a toothpick, and there's nowhere for dirt to hide! Cost: about $4
Apple cider vinegar: I was iffy about using vinegar as a cleaning product, because I wasn't sure if it did any more than make surfaces look clean. After some research, it appears that a 5% vinegar solution does, in fact, kill bacteria and mold. That said, I prefer the smell of apple cider vinegar to basic white vinegar. I have diluted it with water, then used it to clean anything that Pledge, Windex, or a Lysol wipe won't work for: floors, door frames, window sills. Cost: about $3
Scott kitchen sponges: My favorite sponges for washing dishes and cleaning countertops are the kind that are yellow and absorbent on one side and green and abrasive on the other. They work well for caked-on food, and the same can be said for sticky spots on the floor or grime atop a kitchen cabinet. Cost: about $3 for 2
Paper Towels: I think I've used an entire roll since I started my endeavor on cleaning alone (not including standard kitchen messes). Though I prefer to use a washable cloth when I can, these seem to work well for cleaning glass and windows. That said, I have absolutely zero brand loyalty to paper towels. Do some brands work better than other? Absolutely; I especially like Bounty Select-a-Size. However, paper towels are one of those items that can break a week's grocery budget, so I have set the rule that I will not pay more than $1 per roll for them. There are times I can get Bounty for that much, with a sale and a coupon; if not, the Wal-Mart store brand is good enough for me. Cost: $1
Gerber flat cloth diapers: I had several of these laying around from when Mini-me was an infant and I was experimenting with using them as burp cloths. As it turns out, they are soft and absorbent and perfect for cleaning. I've used them for even delicate surfaces, including our TV screen and the exposed light bulbs over our bathroom counter. I have some old washcloths and towels too, but the diapers are hands-down my favorite cleaning rag. Cost: about $8 for a dozen
I definitely have used an assortment of other products as well; however, they aren't as consistently used and don't exactly wow me. I'd say that this is the list I can't live without!
Libman Wonder Mop: For years, I've used one of those large sponges on the end of a stick. It didn't really fit into my mop bucket, was messy to wring, and always seemed to just smear the dirt around the floor. My new version is fantastic; it has a handle that allows me to wring it without getting wet hands (and it was simple enough for Mini-me to use, actually). It looks like an orange octopus that spreads out when it hits the floor, rather than simply rubbing in a single spot. Also, the head is detachable and washable...genuis! Cost: about $10
Libman Large Precision Angle Broom: My old broom was in sad shape and sported a family of dust bunnies living in its bent and stretched bristles. The handle had also broken, and left me bending to reach the floor as I swept because I was too cheap to buy a new one. Since I was buying a Libman mop, I figured I'd go all out and buy a Libman broom too. I love it (as much as one can love a broom). The bristles are stiff enough to sweep even tiny dirt particles off the floor, and the dust pan is angled so that they actually sweep into it, rather than getting trapped in a line as I sweep. One side is angled, so I've been able to sweep easily under my cabinets and between the cabinets and refrigerator. Cost: about $10
Pledge: I know that there are other dusting products, but this was a mainstay in my house when I was growing up, and I love the lemony scent and the way it makes my furniture shine. Also, Pledge actually traps dust that I wipe, rather than simply allowing it to float around in the air. Cost: about $3
Lysol Wipes: Is there anything that these wipes can't do? I like that they are simple, portable, and not messy. Since they are smaller than a cleaning cloth, they can also easily get into small nooks and crannies, like the corner of my vanity or the tiny ledges of cabinet doors. Pair with a toothpick, and there's nowhere for dirt to hide! Cost: about $4
Apple cider vinegar: I was iffy about using vinegar as a cleaning product, because I wasn't sure if it did any more than make surfaces look clean. After some research, it appears that a 5% vinegar solution does, in fact, kill bacteria and mold. That said, I prefer the smell of apple cider vinegar to basic white vinegar. I have diluted it with water, then used it to clean anything that Pledge, Windex, or a Lysol wipe won't work for: floors, door frames, window sills. Cost: about $3
Scott kitchen sponges: My favorite sponges for washing dishes and cleaning countertops are the kind that are yellow and absorbent on one side and green and abrasive on the other. They work well for caked-on food, and the same can be said for sticky spots on the floor or grime atop a kitchen cabinet. Cost: about $3 for 2
Paper Towels: I think I've used an entire roll since I started my endeavor on cleaning alone (not including standard kitchen messes). Though I prefer to use a washable cloth when I can, these seem to work well for cleaning glass and windows. That said, I have absolutely zero brand loyalty to paper towels. Do some brands work better than other? Absolutely; I especially like Bounty Select-a-Size. However, paper towels are one of those items that can break a week's grocery budget, so I have set the rule that I will not pay more than $1 per roll for them. There are times I can get Bounty for that much, with a sale and a coupon; if not, the Wal-Mart store brand is good enough for me. Cost: $1
Gerber flat cloth diapers: I had several of these laying around from when Mini-me was an infant and I was experimenting with using them as burp cloths. As it turns out, they are soft and absorbent and perfect for cleaning. I've used them for even delicate surfaces, including our TV screen and the exposed light bulbs over our bathroom counter. I have some old washcloths and towels too, but the diapers are hands-down my favorite cleaning rag. Cost: about $8 for a dozen
I definitely have used an assortment of other products as well; however, they aren't as consistently used and don't exactly wow me. I'd say that this is the list I can't live without!
Thursday, April 26, 2012
(Not so Grand) Foyer
It's literally been almost an entire week since I began cleaning a new area of the house, for myriad reasons. In short, though, I felt an itch to clean something, and I settled on the entryway of our house. It's small, and it's the last of the areas that a guest might pass through on a visit that I haven't already cleaned.
Action plan:
1. Clean light fixture
2. Dust picture frames and entry table
3. Wipe down doors and door frames
4. Wipe base boards and mop
How can I put this? I completely forgot about the light fixture. As in, I didn't even recognize that it was part of the project until I sat down to write this post, looked over my shoulder, and noticed that it had not been touched. I'm losing my organizational prowess! Three light fixtures missed in the last three rooms cleaned! I need to finish this post and then get on the ball.
I used Pledge and a cloth to clean the picture frames and table in the foyer. Again, whether it's an area that we see consistently or there were few decorations to collect dust in the first place, it wasn't too dusty. As I brushed off the surfaces, however, Mini-me came wandering over and asked to help. She was too short to reach the picture frames, of course, so I gave her a damp rag and sent her to wipe down the base boards. She happily obliged and was engaged for the next ten minutes or so.
The door faces reminded me of the cabinet doors in our kitchen; they aren't flat, but have indentions of about an eighth of an inch that collect dust. I found that the easiest way to clean these tiny lips was with a Lysol wipe and a toothpick.
I actively looked for a "surprisingly dirty place" in this room, and was initially (proudly) convinced that there was nothing there that merited consideration. Then I wiped my apple-cider-vinegar-dipped rag across the top of the door frame and was rewarded with a layer of thick dust. I was shocked, but at least the area was small and easy to clean. Again...if it's out of sight, it's almost certainly more dirty than you'd believe.
Finally, I mopped. Not on my hands and knees this time; I didn't have the energy. At this point it was 11:30, all three kids were whining for lunch, and I was tired. I just used my standard mop and assumed that, if nothing else, the foyer had achieved a higher level of cleanliness than it had when I started.
Action plan:
1. Clean light fixture
2. Dust picture frames and entry table
3. Wipe down doors and door frames
4. Wipe base boards and mop
How can I put this? I completely forgot about the light fixture. As in, I didn't even recognize that it was part of the project until I sat down to write this post, looked over my shoulder, and noticed that it had not been touched. I'm losing my organizational prowess! Three light fixtures missed in the last three rooms cleaned! I need to finish this post and then get on the ball.
I used Pledge and a cloth to clean the picture frames and table in the foyer. Again, whether it's an area that we see consistently or there were few decorations to collect dust in the first place, it wasn't too dusty. As I brushed off the surfaces, however, Mini-me came wandering over and asked to help. She was too short to reach the picture frames, of course, so I gave her a damp rag and sent her to wipe down the base boards. She happily obliged and was engaged for the next ten minutes or so.
The door faces reminded me of the cabinet doors in our kitchen; they aren't flat, but have indentions of about an eighth of an inch that collect dust. I found that the easiest way to clean these tiny lips was with a Lysol wipe and a toothpick.
I actively looked for a "surprisingly dirty place" in this room, and was initially (proudly) convinced that there was nothing there that merited consideration. Then I wiped my apple-cider-vinegar-dipped rag across the top of the door frame and was rewarded with a layer of thick dust. I was shocked, but at least the area was small and easy to clean. Again...if it's out of sight, it's almost certainly more dirty than you'd believe.
Finally, I mopped. Not on my hands and knees this time; I didn't have the energy. At this point it was 11:30, all three kids were whining for lunch, and I was tired. I just used my standard mop and assumed that, if nothing else, the foyer had achieved a higher level of cleanliness than it had when I started.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Less clutter=less dust
Today I tackled the second half of our large, open "living room", the part which officially is the office/play room/dining room area. I had a few things going for me: first, since this part of the house is used consistently, it's also consistently cleaned. Second, the girls are largely responsible for keeping their portion clean, so I had very little clutter to deal with. Going into it, I assumed that this part of the house would be much cleaner than the rest has been so far. At the very least, I assumed I wouldn't have any significantly dirty parts to deal with.
Action Plan:
1. Clean light fixture
2. Remove items from each shelf of eight-foot bookcase and dust
3. Clean window, valance, and blinds
4. Dust computer desk and office shelves
5. Dust china cabinet and buffet server
6. Wipe down floor boards and vacuum
Right away, I ran into a pretty major road block. In every room I've approached so far, I've moved from the highest point down. In this case, the highest point was a light fixture in our vaulted ceiling that I estimate to be about 12 feet off the ground. We have a step ladder, but it's only eight feet tall, and I was (understandably) afraid to climb that high without another adult to spot me or call 911 if I fell and fractured something. So I skipped the light fixture outright and moved on to the book case.
Our book shelf is one of my favorite pieces of furniture, largely because My Love built it himself. It's eight feet tall and eight feet wide, and it's been crammed with books, Bibles, office supplies, and toys in alternating proportions for the duration of our residence in the house. When I considered removing everything from it to dust, it was a daunting task, but I began it with my trusty can of Pledge and a cleaning rag. The lower shelves, as it turned out, were the cleanest. I suppose I'm more aware of dust and debris in the areas which the children can reach, though I did have to scrub away a few dingy fingerprints along the floor. My surprise came as I dusted the top of the bookcase, which has not been cleaned or seen since I first arranged a row of knick-knacks up there the day the book case was finished. Though nowhere as disgusting as the grime atop the kitchen cabinets, I was shocked at the amount of dust that could accumulate on a surface over time. It took -- wait for it -- FOUR cleaning rags to remove all the dust; each of them turned grey with use before I pulled another from the closet. Essentially, I notice that surfaces that no one sees on a daily basis are consistently the dirtiest. Also, I revisited a lesson from my kitchen cleaning experience: the fewer things there are to collect dust, the easier they are to clean. However, the book case doesn't boast dusty wine bottles that I can nonchalantly toss into the garbage. Instead, every whatchamacallit on the shelves has some sort of sentimental value: the alpaca will teddy bear from Ecuador; the samurai swords my father bought on a trip to Japan; the Winnie the Pooh figurine hand-painted by an old friend. I simply resigned myself to wipe down every surface more often and accept that it will repeatedly get dirty (kind of like my kitchen floor).
Cleaning the single window seemed like a breeze; I've done five now, and this one was small. However, I still haven't figured out how to clean the blinds or remove the screens from outside. I think I'm going to need to devote a Saturday afternoon to scrubbing windows and screens from the outside. (Right now, the windows don't look clean because of the outdoor smudges.)
I have heard that you're supposed to use a particular kind of cleaning product and cleaning wipe for electronics, but I don't have one around the house, and I assumed that a tiny amount of water on a slightly-damp soft cloth couldn't hurt anything. I wiped off our computer tower, monitor, and keyboard. The dust between individual keys was giving me fits; I think I've seen some kind of telemarketing commercial for a product that blows dust off a keyboard, and it must be the only thing that works, because a cloth just didn't cut it. I hated to do it, but I left the computer and computer desk only about 99% clean and added "computer keyboard" to my mental list of failed projects that I'll need to re-evaluate at a later date.
All the furniture in our dining room is wood, though it doesn't match; this is also the least-decorated room in the house. There's one photo of the girls in a large frame, and we also have an antique plate from my grandfather on a stand atop the china cabinet. That's literally it. Any guesses on how long it took to clean this quadrant of the room? Only about 15 minutes, but I do need to go back and clean the light fixture. It's a hanging one, so I can reach it, but it had been on all morning and was too hot to touch. I turned it off after dusting the rest of the room, assuming I'd let it cool and then come back to it, but it completely slipped my mind until I sat down to write this post.
I approached the base boards with Lysol wipes (I had to buy a new can over the weekend!), which seems to be the most effective way. Unlike in the kitchen, I didn't go back over them with a dryer sheet. I'm going to assume that there is less dust and dog hair blowing around the carpeted area than on the tile. And...a quick run with the vacuum cleaner, and I was done!
This portion of the house seemed to go by really quickly. Honestly, it was simple, to, but I didn't "feel" like it was clean when I was done. I'm not sure whether it was because I skipped a few areas, such as the light fixtures, or because it wasn't as dirty in the first place (which means there wasn't a huge change to notice). Regardless, I can now say that the common areas in the house are acceptably clean, and that makes me feel like I've accomplished a great deal.
Action Plan:
1. Clean light fixture
2. Remove items from each shelf of eight-foot bookcase and dust
3. Clean window, valance, and blinds
4. Dust computer desk and office shelves
5. Dust china cabinet and buffet server
6. Wipe down floor boards and vacuum
Right away, I ran into a pretty major road block. In every room I've approached so far, I've moved from the highest point down. In this case, the highest point was a light fixture in our vaulted ceiling that I estimate to be about 12 feet off the ground. We have a step ladder, but it's only eight feet tall, and I was (understandably) afraid to climb that high without another adult to spot me or call 911 if I fell and fractured something. So I skipped the light fixture outright and moved on to the book case.
Our book shelf is one of my favorite pieces of furniture, largely because My Love built it himself. It's eight feet tall and eight feet wide, and it's been crammed with books, Bibles, office supplies, and toys in alternating proportions for the duration of our residence in the house. When I considered removing everything from it to dust, it was a daunting task, but I began it with my trusty can of Pledge and a cleaning rag. The lower shelves, as it turned out, were the cleanest. I suppose I'm more aware of dust and debris in the areas which the children can reach, though I did have to scrub away a few dingy fingerprints along the floor. My surprise came as I dusted the top of the bookcase, which has not been cleaned or seen since I first arranged a row of knick-knacks up there the day the book case was finished. Though nowhere as disgusting as the grime atop the kitchen cabinets, I was shocked at the amount of dust that could accumulate on a surface over time. It took -- wait for it -- FOUR cleaning rags to remove all the dust; each of them turned grey with use before I pulled another from the closet. Essentially, I notice that surfaces that no one sees on a daily basis are consistently the dirtiest. Also, I revisited a lesson from my kitchen cleaning experience: the fewer things there are to collect dust, the easier they are to clean. However, the book case doesn't boast dusty wine bottles that I can nonchalantly toss into the garbage. Instead, every whatchamacallit on the shelves has some sort of sentimental value: the alpaca will teddy bear from Ecuador; the samurai swords my father bought on a trip to Japan; the Winnie the Pooh figurine hand-painted by an old friend. I simply resigned myself to wipe down every surface more often and accept that it will repeatedly get dirty (kind of like my kitchen floor).
Cleaning the single window seemed like a breeze; I've done five now, and this one was small. However, I still haven't figured out how to clean the blinds or remove the screens from outside. I think I'm going to need to devote a Saturday afternoon to scrubbing windows and screens from the outside. (Right now, the windows don't look clean because of the outdoor smudges.)
I have heard that you're supposed to use a particular kind of cleaning product and cleaning wipe for electronics, but I don't have one around the house, and I assumed that a tiny amount of water on a slightly-damp soft cloth couldn't hurt anything. I wiped off our computer tower, monitor, and keyboard. The dust between individual keys was giving me fits; I think I've seen some kind of telemarketing commercial for a product that blows dust off a keyboard, and it must be the only thing that works, because a cloth just didn't cut it. I hated to do it, but I left the computer and computer desk only about 99% clean and added "computer keyboard" to my mental list of failed projects that I'll need to re-evaluate at a later date.
All the furniture in our dining room is wood, though it doesn't match; this is also the least-decorated room in the house. There's one photo of the girls in a large frame, and we also have an antique plate from my grandfather on a stand atop the china cabinet. That's literally it. Any guesses on how long it took to clean this quadrant of the room? Only about 15 minutes, but I do need to go back and clean the light fixture. It's a hanging one, so I can reach it, but it had been on all morning and was too hot to touch. I turned it off after dusting the rest of the room, assuming I'd let it cool and then come back to it, but it completely slipped my mind until I sat down to write this post.
I approached the base boards with Lysol wipes (I had to buy a new can over the weekend!), which seems to be the most effective way. Unlike in the kitchen, I didn't go back over them with a dryer sheet. I'm going to assume that there is less dust and dog hair blowing around the carpeted area than on the tile. And...a quick run with the vacuum cleaner, and I was done!
This portion of the house seemed to go by really quickly. Honestly, it was simple, to, but I didn't "feel" like it was clean when I was done. I'm not sure whether it was because I skipped a few areas, such as the light fixtures, or because it wasn't as dirty in the first place (which means there wasn't a huge change to notice). Regardless, I can now say that the common areas in the house are acceptably clean, and that makes me feel like I've accomplished a great deal.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Can you get carpal tunnel syndrome from overuse of a sponge?
Day 1: Eat-in kitchen
To say that our house has a "breakfast nook" makes it seem much larger and more sophisticated than it really is. When I think of a breakfast nook, I imagine a gazebo-like outcropping of a fifty-year-old home, likely with a window seat, looking out into an immaculate backyard flower garden. Our home is not fifty years old and has no gazebo, window seat, or flower garden. What we DO have is a large kitchen with a bar across the middle of it. On the far side of the bar we have our everyday table and chairs (for my husband, my girls, and myself) and a well-used high chair (for Baby Boy).
I hope I'm not alone in saying that this particular portion of our home is always dirty. Always. Almost without exception. I could sweep it every day (at times I have, actually) and still find unidentifiable crumbs on the floor a short hour later. The sides of the table where the girls sit are sort of permanently encrusted with a combination of peanut butter, pancake syrup, and goldfish crumbs. The Beast does her part at cleaning up large table scraps, but her attentions can't begin to make up for a thorough cleaning.
The Action Plan:
- Take down and wash curtains.
- Clean blinds.
- Wash windows.
- Remove and wash window screens.
- Dust wall art and wine rack.
- Scour clean booster seat and high chair (washing covers as appropriate).
- Clean chairs and table, then polish.
- Empty baker's rack, thoroughly wipe surfaces and drawers, and reorganize contents.
- Wipe floorboards.
- Sweep and mop.
That process took about five hours, with appropriate breaks in the middle for feeding the baby, changing diapers (on Cuddles AND Baby Boy), and fixing snacks and lunches. It wasn't as easy as I expected, and I was unpleasantly surprised at the amount of dirt I removed.
I performed the bulk of my cleaning with apple cider vinegar. A friend had told me that it was a good cleaning agent without the toxicity of ammonia, so I went with it. I had an enormous bottle that would have been appropriate for doing bicep curls; by the end of the morning, it was empty. As I wiped down an area and the water got too dirty, which was often, I'd dump it out and start fresh.
The tracks of the windows may have been the nastiest part of the entire room. Granted, they are sort of on the outside of the house, so what I was wiping up was literally dirt blown in from the back yard. Oh, and a few dead spiders and a small, desiccated frog. I was able to clean the window tracks easily enough, but I ran into a snag when I couldn't figure out how to remove the window screens. This site explained how to clean them, and it sounded pretty straightforward, but I will need to wait until I can get My Love to remove them later. I also cleaned the windows themselves the "traditional" way, with Windex (the generic brand, anyway). I found some advice about cleaning windows with a squeegee here. It sounded smart, but like a lot of work, so I skipped it. As it turns out, Windex really just seems to rearrange the streaks, so I may have to return to the squeegee method anyway.
I washed the curtains, and was appalled at the dust that came off. We hung the curtains (homemade by my mother-in-law) when we moved into the house four years ago. And they haven't come down since. Though they were dusty, it came off easily in the wash.
I also removed the window blinds and tried to give them a good cleaning, using several different methods which I'll detail in another post. Let's just say that it was a complete and utter failure.
Dusting of the light fixtures, wall art, and baker's rack were uneventful, quick, and easy. It's really amazing how much cleaner the room looked after cleaning just those items!
Cuddles's booster seat is perpetually dirty, and I had resigned myself to the face that it would always be that way. However, with diligent effort (and no instruction manual) I figured out how to remove and machine-wash the straps, then scrub the surface with apple cider vinegar followed by a Lysol wipe. It now looks brand-new!
The breakfast room table is significantly older than I am. We got the table when my grandfather passed away, and he's had it as long as I can remember. It's solid wood, but a bit rickety, and the stain has definitely seen better days. One of the most difficult aspects of the table is the drop leafs on each end. Unbeknownst to me, every spill and crumb that could manage it had worked its way into the crevices. When I dropped the leaves, I encountered "gunk" that I had to scrub off with the textured side of my well-used kitchen sponge.
Sweeping the floor didn't turn up anything more interesting than what a mom would find on her kitchen floor on a daily basis. After the sweeping, though, I bit the bullet. After hearing a friend tell me that she used to scrub her kitchen floor on her hands and knees every day (before she had kids, she admitted), I decided I needed to try it at least once in my life. I wiped down the baseboards with my trusty apple cider vinegar; according to this website it's something that should be done weekly. I'm not sure it's every been done. I understandably came up with a lot of dirt. Afterwards I scrubbed the floor with a sponge, hitting the sticky spots that I would normally miss with a mop. And I have to say, the kitchen floor almost sparkled.
I moved all the furniture and curtains back into their places and was proud. The house had that "clean" smell that I craved, and one room was as spic-and-span as I could hope to make it. Today went so well that I have the motivation to continue!
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