Desperate Housewives of ILX

Dear housewives,

The time has come. Frenzied cleaning purges, fits of temper and closet-space emergencies: all welcome here. Yes, there are moments in our lives when we are defined by our housework. Times when our husbands aren't home, and we are left to our own devices. If these walls could talk....

Coffee, anyone?

i just got a new vacuum named Regina.

well it's actually a new old vacuum. she's from like the 60s. but she works great!

so much to do. not sure when i'm going to do it. i need a housework day.

tbh i'm considering calling a cleaning service for a one-time super clean.

omg ryan and i just made the same decision. i know, feels like such a cop. but we need to paint the bathroom and i think a super clean first would be beneficial.

we got the house super cleaned for my mom on her birthday

that is a very awesome present

i was just writing a friend an email because once when she was at my house, she said that my living room was nice, but that my bathroom and bedroom were "shitty." at the time i was angry, but i also made a laundry list of all the things i needed to do around the house, and i did them. so i just wrote her an email thanking her for her honesty. sometimes the truth hurts.

Yeah I think a one time super clean could take a bit of stress out of my relationship!

Maybe I am weak for not summoning the energy to 'do it all' or maybe I am just an empowered woman for saying, 'hey, I don't have to do this if I don't want to!!'

honey, there's really only so much we can do in a day

i spent an entire day cleaning our house before we went on vacation, and within two days of getting back, the whole place looks like a bomb site :/

i can think of many an ardent housekeeper i could never love as well as i love thee, justin3.

my house is also currently dreadful.

Why do people never clean their kitchen cupboards why why why. How can they stand that the layers of grease make the doors actually STICK to their fingers? I'm dreading all the work of cleaning yet another person's kitchen so I can not feel kind of gross about using it, and I just wonder whyyyyyy.

Also I washed the floors of my new place today and whoever mopped/swept left kitty litter scattered around part of the living room. Maybe this hiring a cleaning person idea would give me some breathing room while I put normal life back together?

i think sometimes people go to clean their kitchen cupboards but just as they are about to start they realise it's going to be a very boring way to spend the next hour or so and so they do something else instead.

i remember when i realized i had to clean the outside of my kitchen cupboards. it was a real lightbulb moment.

It's not that it's fun, it's that the stickiness and grease nag me and take the enjoyment out of other things until I do it. I know it's only going to get that way again, but I have a compulsion to at least START OUT clean.

yes, i always have to start out clean in a new place because other people's layers of grease is completely gross, but i do have some tolerance of my own. only up to a point though. my main housekeeping problem is clutter, books and papers.

the thing about moving into our current place was that it was completely, spotlessly clean - that lasted all of a couple weeks.

i would really like to hire someone to clean my bathroom and the kitchen floor.

I think even once a year would be FINE for cupboards! I'm hoping ammonia will be enough to do the trick, because I bought a large bottle of it today.

estela, I do know a trick for the books that always (always) pile up, that might help: I just don't consider them clutter. Once your eyes adjust, you'll be amazed how much better the room looks!

i've noticed that when writers and academics get interviewed in their own studies, many of them have loony piles of books and jutting papers and folders in apparently uncategorised stacks on their desks and floors so the room looks sort of tidy, but you can tell the stacks were hastily formed that morning before the interview, and that now they won't be able to find anything they need for weeks.

I once briefly worked for an editor whose motto was "piles, not files." I hated him for it.

that's a sorry looking bunch of commas up there. xp

Mostly because he wanted me to sit with him and hold up one piece of paper at a time, describe it to him, and note where he said it should go...and then amass piles relating to certain projects and keep them straight and separate. It was the whole "holding up sheets of his own correspondence and reading lines off to him until he recognized it" that killed me.

i would hate him too.

i'm moving in about a month and a half. i need to go on a mad cleaning spree so we can get all or most of our security deposit back!

I am a terrible housecleaner because (1) I hate cleaning and (2) I just don't know how to do it on a regular basis, I only only do it when it gets so gross that I can't stand it anymore and cleaning is somewhat satisfying because it looks visibly different. I totally hate cleaning. I don't even really know how to do it right tbh.

i clean the kitchen more than any other room, because i cook a lot and food bits end up on the counter, the floor, the stove, etc. my fear of bugs and varmints outweighs my dislike of cleaning.

Oh, that's when I do it, too, A. I'm not one of those people who dusts weekly or something, heaven forfend. I wash the floors when I can't stand the amount of sand/hair/schmutz sticking to my feet, I do laundry when I've handwashed all my bras at least twice already, and I wash out the fridge when...it looks like the fridge I'm going to be sharing as of tomorrow.

Also I'm with JBR about the fear of bugs.

o_O

Don't get me wrong -- I also cook a lot and I do regularly clean the kitchen. My threshold for not being able to stand it is fairly low in the kitchen. In the other rooms, not as much.

same, where i live is sub-tropical so i don't dare leave food and dirty dishes lying around, there would be bugs everywhere.

I secretly LOVE to leave dirty dishes in the sink, that's my chosen decadence: cooking and eating and saying "Fuck it, those plates will still be there in the morning and I'm okay with that."

another thing is i cannot stand to have my bare feet on a sticky or crumby floor, feeling things sticking to my feet sends me through the roof, so i tend to keep the floors very clean as well.

Yes, that's what I meant about what forces me to clean, any schmutz being tracked around on my feet. Also I'm anti-mop. It's a rag and a bucket and accept no substitutes.

I guess one of those squeegee mops would be fine for the middle of large open floors, but for the edges and the baseboards and the kick-plates under the counter, you're not going to get the debris except by hand.

I look forward to having fewer opinions about cleaning when I can relegate it to the 37th place spot in my life that it deserves. Between one thing and another I've been cleaning in hyper-mode for over a year, and I'll be happy to put that behind me.

i finally just got a dustbuster for the first time in years. i really don't know what i was doing without one.

i'm fairly neat, i think (though things might not always be in their proper places, they at least have proper places). but i find that kitty's ability to make things furry outstrips my motivation to clean.

Someone Lauren and ian and I know threw up her hands and had both her cats shaved about 3 mos ago. They looked funny for a while but it kept cat hair at bay.

my dog never sheds hair, i'm so glad.

lucky. i buy a ton of those lint roller things.

(and they are not very cheap. i just discovered they sell refills for cheaper)

it's actually not as bad as i would have anticipated (or i'm less militant/more lazy about it). but there are some things like throw blankets or shirts of a certain fabric that just cannot be de-furred.

it's a good thing he's so fucking cute

<3 he certainly is.

ha - we don't have a problem with pet hair; we have a problem with MY hair! i recently complained to ytth that our vacuum was a useless piece of shit, so he sat done for half an hour and removed the equivalent of a decent head's worth of hair from the little bristle things. it made a difference!

Hair wrapped around the axles will strain those little rubber belts that run the beaters until they burn out and snap. I remember the smell of burning hair and rubber quite well from my childhood spend using one of several vintage vacuums that my dad could always repair.

i actually hate clutter even more than i hate dirtiness. dealing with dirt is straightforward, if somewhat time-consuming and back-breaking, but clutter drives me crazy. finding places for things, sorting through and figuring out what to dump... ugh. and i just hate piles of stuff. it makes feel irrationally stressed out. when i moved to the US i was sad to let go of so many of my possessions, but goddamn it was freeing to only own 2 suitcases of stuff, instead of an entire household.

and laurel: i'm totally with you re mops. what is even the point of them, unless you use them literally every day, before the grime can get trampled into the floor.

yesterday, my bf looked at the bathroom ceiling and said 'is that your hair up there?' lol blow drying!

I secretly LOVE to leave dirty dishes in the sink, that's my chosen decadence: cooking and eating and saying "Fuck it, those plates will still be there in the morning and I'm okay with that."

this drives me crazy more than ANYTHING. i actually do not sleep well/have trouble falling asleep if there are dishes in the sink!

i saw a woman at bj's do a demo of the "MR STICKY" lint roller. cleans in water! never stops being sticky! it was kinda neat. but i probably wouldn't use it regularly.

i saw a woman at bj's

wut

i think i have a substandard sense of smell? so some things (like mildewy shower curtains) don't register with me until rather later, and i have no issues cleaning the litterbox.

but yeah clutter in general bothers me -- particularly when i visit my hoarder mom. like it really depresses me to be there.

it is a wholesale club like costco
xpost

I dunno if mildew smells that much unless the room has been completely shut for days or weeks? I think of it as more of a visual thing.

And if mildew is the smell of "basement", then I actually LIKE it, so that's no help.

i need to buy a new hamper. i have a 20% off one item coupon for bb&b that expires today! help me choose!

i had one from ikea that had metal frame and a plastic-ish bag, but the metal frame bent, and the plastic bag started ripping because of the weight of clothing. i think it was like $5 so i'm not heartbroken. but i'm wary of using another hamper like that.

Personally I love the hardcore canvas and steel rolling ones that are cutsified institutional-like.

yeah those are pretty awesome. might as well make it cute.

i was thinking something like this, though with a lid?

Bloodbath doesn't seem to carry them, though. Maybe...this?

http://images.bedbathandbeyond.com/assets/product_images/230/1416812265328P.JPG

this is what i have. it just can't stand up to the weight of a lot of a laundry being stuffed in it. maybe this just means we should do laundry more frequently?

Yr link doesn't work, T.

ok try this
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/images/products/jall-laundry-bag-with-stand-white__71279_PE186610_S4.jpg

No, the first link. In earlier post.

haha ok
http://images.bedbathandbeyond.com/assets/product_images/380/10742316470686P.JPG

i would like it to fit in the bathroom closet if poss. maybe 1 for bath closet and 1 for bedroom closet? fancy!

I looked at that but I dislike ones that taper because thanks a lot for making it HOLD LESS.

I have just sat down after cleaning/hoovering/dusting for the last three hours. And where is my cup of tea? Nowhere!

And now the kids have got back from school so that's that.

currently putting off housework.

I will cop to having a housecleaner come in 2x/month, I fought it for a long time but we have the money and it is cheaper than marriage counseling. I am an awful housekeeper and having two kids who are not yet school-age in the house all the time doesn't help. It is awesome to start fresh twice a month even if it gets crudded up fast.

xp re tapering, seriously! also way to make it tippy when it's full!

i think w/ those you can pull the bag out to take it downstairs though... so less cumbersome?

yeah i think the cleaning thing is def gonna happen. although *someone* still needs to put their stuff away before cleaners could even come!

I have a straight-sided stripey one from Hold Everything before they went out of business. It's Paul Smith-y in colorway and about two feet tall and has cut-out carrying handles. Prob similar to these:

http://images.bedbathandbeyond.com/assets/product_images/230/120060120307C.JPG

I love having a laundry chute. at the end of the hallway it's bedroom x3 right next to the closet with the chute, I just chuck kids' clothes out into the hallway if nothing else, then it goes down the chute! Also fun to teach kids to take care of their clothes by chanting DOWN THE CHUTE DOWN THE CHUTE

omg a chute. so jealous.

i think 2 of those could work, theresa - and it is very handsome

ned, i wish i could make you a cup of tea!

I was so jealous of people who lived in modern houses and had laundry chutes.

Tapered baskets: They take up JUST AS MUCH ROOM as the top measurement, but hold less than you think AND tip over. Stupid stupid stupid.

god i LOVE chutes! so jealous, teeny!

l, my cousin's house was built in 1935 and has a chute!

WHOAH! If I had a laundry chute and a dumbwaiter, my 5 to 10-yr-old self would be so happy.

the laundry chute was one of my favorite things about staying at my cousin's house when i was a kid!

remarkably no kids have gone down the chute either!

Pets?

my technique for getting dog hair out of the carpet is to put leather gloves on and scrape it into batches which can be hoovered up, not pleasant at all.

I used to do that for my roommate's cat's hair, when I had a black rug in college, but instead of leather, I used a bowl of water and wet my hand every few passes. Works AMAZINGLY but fuck is it annoying.

Damp tea towel or hand wrapped in masking tape (sticky side out) is good for Kenny Whippet hair removal. My own dog will be a poodle, to avoid moulting issues.

Our chute in my family home was built into the bottom shelf of the bathroom cabinet in such a way that it makes more sense for my mom to jam 1000 bottles of shampoo and bubblebath onto that surface.

yup, we have a housekeeper come twice a month too...just never have time to keep up.

oh and hey let me spam you with a recommendation for green cleaners--the company is called Better Life and you can find them in many whole foods or they also have a directory of outlets on their site cleanhappens.com--the cleaners are really truly green and really effective. I don't have environmental sensitivity issues but I know people who do and they like these for not having volatile scents or whatever. They're on FB too and they're always doing contests for free product. They're local to me here in st louis and their owners' kids go to preschool with mine.

i love mrs meyers. i've had a bottle of all purpose solution concentrate that's lasted forever. it smells amazing and works really well.

good morning, ladies.

what a beautiful day.

i'm going to make some coffee.

ryan just told me some shorts were too tiny for me. so i put them on with a white belt. i don't think they're too tiny.

Tiny shorts on men make the wearer look like a cockney 9-year-old from all those b/w 'look at these interwar smallfry with rickets playing stickball in the gutter' photo essays. Beware.

I have fulfilled today's 'make some calls and set up features' allocation and due to issues with my hair, which has never been longer in my life, I look forward to spending the rest of my day chasing around the hair equivalent of rodent-sized dust bunnies. But first I need to go and get the best coffee in London.

don't dust bunnies always mystify you? it's like how did they get it together to get it together like that

i know - but these shorts aren't that SHORT, per se, they are just small in the waist

have fun at the coffee shop!

suzy, i am going to be thrilled when you get a poodle, there is a tiny black one who lives in the next street and harry (my dog) and i adore her, she is swift and a genius.

London is insane for household dust and I have a big studio that's filled with it. I HATE IT.

I know that rescue dogs are supposed to be the adoption option for all right-thinking people, but I prefer the whole bonding-with-a-puppy thing. That said, poodle rescue sites do exist and I look at them, because I might consider a rescue less than a year old. Unfortunately, I doubt they'd accept me because they're run out in the provinces and expect dogs to go to flats and houses with gardens, so *shrug*.

how do we feel about painting? i am scared of it. i need to do my bathroom and my bedroom. i guess the most annoying part is like having to move everything.

You could buy some cheap plastic shower curtains at the dollar store to use as dropcloths and to cover furniture? I've done that. Worked pretty well.

not a bad idea. i guess i could get the bathroom done in one day.

Have you painted before?

no :| ryan has, though - he's good at it

it's just that he hasn't gotten it started and it's been a while, so i'm feeling antsy

ned, i wish i could make you a cup of tea!

― j lol (surm), Monday, June 6, 2011 2:50 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

I never did get to make myself one. Usual drama once the kids were home - "I don't want to go to Brownies!" "I am BORED!" "Life is crap!"...

If it wasn't for kids my house would be super spotless though. I love it when it's all done. And hate it when I see Trifle Jnr. eating a pastry WITHOUT A PLATE five minutes later. Will they never learn!?

We are about to paint the hallway. That will be traumatic.

"and laurel: i'm totally with you re mops. what is even the point of them, unless you use them literally every day, before the grime can get trampled into the floor."
get swiffer wet

I DID! that thing was useless. i still had to go back over it with a scrubbing brush or my damn fingernail to scratch off the stuck-on bits of food (i make a goddamn mess when i cook).

I got the kind of mop that spray cleaner forward and then you mop - its ok but my daughter always demands to use it whenever I get it out so I don tbother - true you need a swiffer supplementer to get the gnarlybits but still use two items and get the job done- i just use the wrong end of the swiffer

the only way to get floors really clean is to scrub them on h+k but then again i probably have... unreasonable... standards when it comes to cleanliness. i wash our walls/cupboard doors a couple of times a month

I hate the swiffer wet -- it doesn't pick anything up, it just smears the dirt around.

update!

bb&b's hamper selection was dismal and full of wicker (ew), so i got this amazing bath mat: http://genuinemicrodry.com/bath_mats.html

this morning, it was as if i stepped out of the shower onto a cloud! i want to see if they have something like this for the kitchen, to stand on while i wash dishes for ever and ever :(

re swiffer: you need to vacuum regularly, and use swiffer to get dust/hair on occasion. scrub your floors once in a while and use a swiffer wet for touch ups.

swiffers are a complete waste. Hands and knees and pinesol.

see, tza, i don't think you understood just how much food i get all over the kitchen floor when i cook... it's A LOT.

jesus, lamp - twice a month?!? you win this thread.

swiffers are useful for touching up. just don't think they can replace a broom/mop/vacuum forever.

If I get angry enough to do the full clean I start from the top of the cupboards and work my way down until all the dust and schmutz from countertops and sills hits the floor. Next, I wipe those clean. Then I go behind the fridge and oven for the full floor sweep and still need to do the scrubbing of the floor on h&k to get rid of stepped-in bits of garlic (the worst) or whatever. DREADING THIS.

I like wicker. It reminds me of my grandma's house.
Then again, I dream of living in a house that looks like this someday, with someone who periodically comes in to clean it for me.

http://i2.bookcdn.com/data/Photos/LargePhoto2/64/6498/6498851/The-Greenbrier-photos-Room.JPEG

(that is the Greenbrier, resort for rich people/secret govt nuclear fallout shelter)

swiffers are a complete waste. Hands and knees and pinesol.

^^ this dude knows whats up

i will sometimes use the swiper wet wipes for things like our kitchen cupboards and countertops when im feeling lazy. theyre also p good when you have tile floors that are sorta sticky/grimy, but i dont bother with the mop i just use the wipes on h+k

haha j- as a present for finishing my master's i got a dyson... although our place is kinda a mess atm we had ppl over last night and theres a bunch of champagne flutes & glasses sitting on the counter atm...

lysol has these dual wipes now - one side smooth, the other is scratchy. it is a dream for getting stuck on things off my stove! and then the smooth side for a final wipe. they also work really well for when you drop something (say a green leaf) on the floor and don't notice and then later it's stuck.

lol this thread is sorta terrible for me i have a strange love of talking abt cleaning/how clean my apt is/cleaning products...

i use pinesol for everything...grease on my hands...pinesol.

this is really inspiring me to get clean. tonight is going to be CRAZY laundry night. we have SO much to do. maybe after that's tackled, the rest of the place won't seem so intimidating?

I stand by the swiffer - you are not using it right! you are cursed!

The ammonia worked miracles yesterday, btw. I used to love 409 for degreasing but I think I've converted. Ammonia is cheaper and plentiful and the fumes, while still present, feel less...corrosive.

It might even replace Pinesol/Lestoil for me.

just dont mix it with certain things or you die.

it seems my floor never shines when cleaned, just look more dull but there are not dirty marks - mop and glo time?

I am waiting eagerly for this

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FFUQZO

Mop and Glo is great. Anyone try those new Kitchen Magic Erasers? Heavenly for stove top stains.

love those

yeah they are amazing. i also love the Kaboom products...who else uses the bleach tablets in their toilets?

I always thought mops are dud - you just moisten and move around the yuk - we need a fully rinsable floor

i just got a boner.
http://www.kaboomkaboom.com/products-scrub-free.shtml

what about 2,000 flushes!

I am a fan of Kaboom's cleaning powers, but I think it gave me a rash on my face! That shit is so toxic and strong smelling.

magic erasers are a+++

yeah i had a kaboom cleaner that made my lungs really hurt

this one: http://www.kaboomkaboom.com/products-foam-tastic.shtml

YES. I thought it was punishment for hating to scrub slime off of the shower :-/

I LOVE the swifer wet jet!!

T I almost bought that bath mat last week but didn't and now I wish I had! :(

I like things clean but I'm the laziest housekeeper ever. I send the Roomba to clean the crap off the kitchen floors and then Swifer them.

does the roomba work?

fancy pants.

I love the damn thing.

lavender scented bleach is good.

The Roomba was cheaper than most regular vacuums and I haven't actually had to vacuum in like 2 years. It's pretty awesome!

how is it on carpets though?

whats funny is i pay for a cleaning service, yet i still clean...

Good! I mean Benson sheds tons (TONS - it's riculous how much pugs shed) and it gets almost all of it.

hmm i may have to invest in one.

i also question some peoples sanity...a couple i know have the filthiest house ever, i mean who invites people over and then leaves speckles of shit plastered on the toilet? seriously?

does the pug ever ride on it?

DJ Roomba erica?

I tried to get him to ride on it but he was scared. Mostly he ignores it or eyes it very suspiciously. Sometimes he barks at it. He goes nuts if I use the dust buster though which I do often just to play with him. It's ridiculously cute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dweVBqei9LA&feature=pyv&ad=6207512902&kw=roomba

what do pugs do when they are scared?

When he's scared he just sort of backs away and looks very nervous/sad while it's going.

The best thing about the Roomba is that you put it on when you leave and when you come back - clean floors!

Like magic I tell you.

I want one but they cost too much - (backing up backing up backin up - cause my daddy taught me good)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDYgOaO8gRw

Justine, you need a dog! Max ensures there's never ANY stuck on food on our floor! I am so reliant that recently he was not home and I dropped something & it did not occur to me to pick it up for hours. ;)

do dogs eat tissues?

YES

then who needs the roomba

omg this thread is bringing such much needed lolz to my terrible day!!!

lamp!!! a fucking DYSON!?!?!? never thought the day would come that i would express envy over such a thing

i think we have a lease inspection coming up in the next couple weeks, so i'm really gonna have to go all out :/

and also: rinse-able floors would be amazing - i would love to just get out a stiff-bristled broom, scrub that shit and hose it off. pretty sure h+k scrubbing the floor is what fucked my back a couple weeks ago.

"it never loses suction"

ryan is going out tonight, so i will have the house to myself. it's nice - i think i will have some whiskey and open all the windows, and record.

we haven't had an actual date in a while - i think we're going to do dinner on fri.

you're the cutest

no you :)

we are going on a date on thursday! i picked out the lounge at a local fancypants restaurant where we will relax with cocktails and small plates in air conditioning since ours is broken and it's supposed to be 98 that day. also i figured it would be nice to take the boy out for his birthday :)

i think dates are important. we are broke and don't have them nearly enough. but just getting out of the normal environment/routine is so u&k.

no doubt. that sounds lovely!

xp yesss otm!

speaking of: i should be sick of ytth after 17 days without much more than a bathroom break from him, but daaang... we're back at work today and i really miss him :(

aww, that is sweet :)

my friend got a hoover today. she is really excited about it. she used to live in little rock, where she says full home carpeting is like a big selling point. i kind of like the idea, but i can't imagine. i just got rid of my rugs and it is so nice not to have to vacuum every day.

I have a Eureka, hotel style, that so far works great. I have wood floors here but old ones with cracks between boards, so the vac is going to be a lifesaver even without rugs down.

Speaking of rugs, I have to get my 5 x 8 wool rug cleaned soon or at least by the fall. (It's in storage for about two more days.)

how do you get it cleaned?

my recommendation for floors: MysticMaid mop, and cloud duster.

mop: not like those ropey mops, its a short microfiber nap pad that picks up everything with just a little bit of water. I add a bit of white vinegar for extra cleaning. Gets great traction and will clean scuff marks, whatever, And then you just throw it in the washing machine and air dry it, We have nastyass old vinyl linoleum that only ever gets vaguely clean even with hands and knees...this cloud mop thing has been a life changer.

The cloud duster I got last year for our hardwood - attaches to the mop handle with a Velcro pad same as the mop, and holy fucking shit. A broom and a duster, greatest ever. Nothing has ever picked up as much dust and hair as this floor duster, it's gross and awesome. Keeps the floor nice and shiny too.

I sound like an infomercial ...sorry for TL;dr

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Mystic+maid&x=0&y=0

doesnt your house smell of vinager then

nope! I just use a spash of it, and a little water. Not enough to overwhelm.

surm: I'm going to get it cleaned by sending it out for someone else to do. :) Don't know what this generally costs in the city but steam-cleaning an area rug is not something I'm prepared to do at home.

I like vinegar. It makes me think of Easter.

My sister keeps a spray bottle of water/vinegar for wiping counters, etc. No smell at all! But sometimes you just want more of a cleaner/solvent.

ever wipe the corners of yo mouth and then sniff it? it can smell of vinager becuase the bacteria that live there make acetic acid or a similar molecule - fin fact!!

pro-tip: if you have gunk and grease stuck to a stainless steel pot or pan, let it soak with dish soap, baking soda and hot water. those bits will all come off.

I baking soda-ed my lawn furniture and it has never lost the pasty finsih :(

i love lavender bleach

I use baking soda to scrub out the sink sometimes, too!

preparation H can be used to clean stubborn decks!

Wha?!? Oh, wait, you said decks.

you have to use allot - buy the "Emperor Size " tube

Oh, and baking soda and vinegar are great for keeping drains clear. As a bonus, the bubbling and crackling will keep any cats in the house entertained for some time.

ho w can I clean my brown stained coffee thermos

xp And if your decks are still burning and itching after the treatment, use witch hazel.

i just got that windex multi-surface with vinegar - i like it!

also vinegar once helped me get a red wine stain out of a rug

I take it you are impllying that I drink vinager and spit it into my thermos

Denture cleaning or natural descaling products work well on coffee and tea stains on Thermoses and mugs, FYI.

I use a couple of drops of thick bleach in very hot soapy water to ensure my dishes are clean - I noticed a bit of bleach in the mix when loading/unloading commercial dishwashers as a teenaged bus-person and extrapolated from there. Rinse with hot water, obviously.

excellent observation Chavatar - I WAS THAT BUSBOY!
so put super poligrip in the thermos

Protip: a iron on medium to high heat applied through a cotton t-shirt will remove water and heat marks on a waxed wood finish. Just tried today and am chuffed that I won't have to refinish my sister's table after a drunken revelry.

thanks for that tip - how can I clean these - http://www.greatmats.com/products/home-sport-play.php

power washer.

You can also get wax off carpet with an iron through a shirt/washcloth

vinegar also works great to polish stainless steel stove-tops.

also makes a great (cheap) fabric softener...

It seem svinager is the answer to everything.
I know you can spray it on weeds to kill em.
I hope my new vaccum cleaner came today
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/5161/g60018g6865.gif

Vinegar and ammonia are becoming my secret weapons of everything.

And I don't care how corrosive/bad for the environment it is, but I am in love with the mighty BLEACH PEN.

And I'm gonna need it for the mildew around the sink in my bathroom.

sometimes I try just mashing an orange peel into the sink as supposedly orange oil can clean. Its also slightly explosive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OLliGO9clI

Dried orange peels are excellent firelighters.

you can kill weeds instantly with boiling water.

Ooh that's a good one.

oh man last time i tried to buy a bleach pen i couldn't find one! sometimes i use toilet cleaner bleach gel to treat my grout since it's less risky than spraying cleaner and bleaching clothing.

i can attest to the boiling water - but they always come back

vinegar, ammonia, baking soda...so much awesomeness

also re: wax on carpet, apply ice to it (bag of ice works well) then chip off the wax bits with a spoon or putty knife. That will get rid of the chunks.
Then take a piece of brown paper, set an iron on low/warm, and apply the iron to the paper over the wax spot...it will draw the wax residue into the paper. Move to a fresh spot on the paper and repeat a few times.
Works good on tablecloths and clothes too. And with clothes/tablecloth you can even just bung the item in a bag in the freezer, instead of applying ice.

my elderly italian neighbors mix (I think) bleach and salt and pour it in between the sidewalk cracks to kill weeds!

my grandma used to leave flat beer out for snails, goddamn that works a treat...snails be boozin

When the weather gets warm and slugs start getting into the bowl of food for our outdoor cat, I put the bowl in the middle of a plate full of salt.

My wife used boiling salt water on weeds coming up in the brick walkway I laid down last year. I was curious how fast the weeds would come back from that 1-2 punch — one month and they're as thick as ever.

pro-tip: Fruit Flys, pour some apple cider vinegar into a plastic/paper cup, cover with plastic wrap and poke toothpick size holes in it...next morning wonder at the amazement of your fruit fly trap.

im also a lawn maniac, greenest on the block and done organically. i dont mess with the chemicals.

My new apt seems plagued with little dull brown-grey house moths. I'm understandably concerned for my woolen goods. WHAT ATTRACTS/DESTROYS MOTHS?

We also have a palmetto bug living in the kitchen and coming out at night, so I have to get on a campaign of washing floor, screening window, and putting boric acid powder and sticky traps everywhere. My bedroom door leads off the kit and I don't want any unannounced visits.

pro-tip: Fruit Flys, pour some apple cider vinegar into a plastic/paper cup, cover with plastic wrap and poke toothpick size holes in it...next morning wonder at the amazement of your fruit fly trap.

― Bert Macklin, F.B.I. (thebingo), Thursday, June 9, 2011 8:23 AM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

I've done this and it totally works! It was like magic. Disgusting magic.

laurel, try some lavender oil or cedar....

this morning my wife woke me to tell me that my sons room had all these strange insects around his window. they look like triangular shaped flies...weird things. and they hopped.

Diatomaceous earth works wonders on insects too.

I had a moth infestation once that I eventually tracked down to a package of bird seed in the back of a cabinet.

I once learned that boric acid kills roaches, so I bought some Borax like 10 years ago and I still have it. Same with my giant box of diatomaceous earth. (that is one of my favorite useful household item names of all time, i mean, seriously)

UGH UGH UGH have just been behind the refrigerator with all the bleaches. For the first time in six months. MOUSE TURDS.

Excuse me while I go and pick up some glue traps. Yes, they are cruel but srsly NO SPHINCTER, NO ENTRY.

I have a giant squeeze bottle of boric acid, but I haven't washed the kitchen floor yet and some recycling has piled up in inconvenient places, so I have to do a clean sweep and then put powders and poisons down.

suzy, peppermint oil on cotton balls...put behind fridge.

Also loving the idea of glue traps for the water bugs -- they get in by accident so it's not an infestation, really, just the isolated crawlies. Have bottle of eucalyptus oil left over from war on roaches at other place, might do the cotton ball trick w that too. (Thanks!)

Brad, I've been wondering if the moths are COMING FROM somewhere but I just moved in and I cleaned out all my spaces first! Could be hidden somewhere in the kitchen cupboards, I guess -- roommate not exactly circumspect with his cabinets.

Noted, Chris, although my rage at discovering Turd Mountain demands a blood sacrifice to the Hygiene Goddess.

we tried the peppermint oil trick and it didn't work - suzy, can i suggest electro-shock traps as an alternative to glue traps? it's marginally more humane and easy to clean up.

those moths really love grains. make sure everything grain-related in the kitchen is sealed/in tupperware. we had pretty good success putting out fly paper and making sure everything was sealed up when the moths came in bk.

alternatively get a cat. yeah glue traps are cruel...although this is coming from someone who shoots his chipmunk infestation with a pellet gun. dont listen to me.

My tip-off was moths flying out whenever I opened a particular kitchen cabinet ... it took a while to figure out the source. In addition to ditching the bird seed, I ended up trashing a lot of previously-opened containers of pasta, crackers, flour, etc. that had been compromised by moth larvae (ew).

xp Yes, sealed containers are a must.

I don't have any food there at all yet but presumably the roomie does. Will look through all his stuff this weekend if I get motivated.

Moths also love munching stained bits on woolens or laying eggs so the larvae can take advantage of that bit of spaghetti sauce dropped on your sweater three months ago. My seasonal storage tip:

Buy a big box of two-litre Ziploc bags.
Buy some cedar oil and cotton balls.
Have your woolens bulk dry-cleaned and check the place is not just shoving your stuff in the fluid with others' things.
Each clean wool sweater or silk item goes into a Ziploc bag.
A couple of drops of cedar oil go on each cotton ball.
One cotton ball per bag.
Seal the bag with as little air in the bag as possible.
Stop worrying.

Yeah I have like $200 worth of dry cleaning to get done. I like your idea, though, and I have TONS of out-of-the-way storage space to put that out-of-season stuff in.

I normally use those plastic zip-up bags that come on pillows or linens/bedding, so they seal reasonably well, but ziplocs with repellent oil would be even better. I know "they" say that your clothes need to breathe but fuck that.

I always kill mice with the cartoon -style trap - its kind of sad but nto as sad as turds and filth in my pantries

I use glue traps because they've taken as little as 15 minutes to work, but if they are in a kitchen for more than about a week, they don't work because they get a veneer of oil on top if you fry onions etc. even once in that week. The last mouse I caught managed to get trapped in an upright shopping bag with handles. As I have a balcony overlooking a grass verge, mousey walked the plank. I am not a fan of animal cruelty but where vermin are concerned, PETA can suck my left one.

I am ridiculously grateful that my current flat seems to be moth-free, because my previous flat contained a boyfriend who shrugged whenever the moths he brought home from camping trips made a meal of something irreplaceably vintage that I'd owned for years. I still GRRRRRRRR when I think of some of the items eaten.

When I moved in here it was pretty much a shell and I've been pretty lucky in being able to find and plug most potential mouse entry points. Plan white toothpaste can fill any hole wider than a McDonald's straw aperture as if it were caulk or plaster filler.

Breathing room, to me, means there is scope for moth action; since I went on the Ziploc plan I haven't experienced losses. Bulk cleaning is cheaper - the cleaner won't be pressing your stuff, for starters - so have a chat to the person in charge and see if you can't do a deal on the sweaters at least.

the mice ate a hole behind me stove but I fear pluggin g it because its right near the 220volt outlet - I swear one ran into my toaster once too

the solution is clearly a pellet gun. i prefer...
http://www.airarmsports.com/images/cat1200.jpg

i snipe those chipmunks from my screen porch...lots of fun.

and before you all get "thats so cruel"...they are burrowing into my foundation of my house. I've trapped, smoke bombed, and everything else....this is the only way.

some ground hog s do sublet beneath my front sunroom - I havent the heart to poison them but I do harass them by throwing things like grassclippings down their hole

There's TONS of wildlife where I grew up: raccoons, gophers, woodchucks, beavers, waterfowl, herons, snapping turtles - even the occasional deer. My mom had woodchucks under our 'summer house' (a one-room cottage in her back yard that's 100+ years old, was the guest cottage for the former farmhouse two doors up) and was OK with them, but they were poisoned by the neighbours. She also didn't want to kill the squirrels who occasionally broke into the attic because they were 'industrious'. There have been mice, but the three dogs never, ever seem to notice them or do anything.

the groundhogs never seem to do much damage - just make holes - eating teh grass is encouraged by me anyways. "G oahead" I say . Then they just make a chuck chuck sound and run away

I'm convinced the solution to furry vermin is to go to a farm and ask them for a barncat kitten. You're not guaranteed a good mouser, but your chances are better than if you got a sheltered house ornament from the Human Society; if you specifically want a mouser, you're gonna have to be specific in your search.

Of course then you have to be okay with having a cat, which...ymmv.

Not OK with having a cat. Apparently the whippet I watch twice a week for my friend is a catcher of mice, but he's pushing 15 (we thought 13 but my friend did some math) and so far has caught SFA.

i had to put down some squirrels too who were nesting in my attic. i feel bad, but id rather not pay for an exterminator.

what do squirrels hate?

by the way - I gto my ne w eureka dust buster - on -steroids and the sucker worked great. Sucked up the floors reel nice and very lightweight.

i'm good at cleaning the bathroom and the kitchen because after so many years of my mom saying how necessary it is for staying healthy and bug-free, it actually sunk year a few years ago. also good at cleaning the cat litter because srsly you gotta clean the cat litter.

the problem that won't go away is how good i am at piling up books and how i'm even better at piling up clothes! and then it takes me forever to find things! or i don't find them at all! i feel like a terrible housewife even tho i have no husband. i did make myself dinner tonight but i haven't done the dishes yet. i have too much work and stuff to do!

i think i need a shelving unit for my clothes?

Okay I think I found the moth hellmouth. A ruthless cabinet cleaning is in order, because in addn to wherever the moths are spawning, I'm pretty sure that's sugar I found spilled all over.

ewwwwww

o no

Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I'll do it / tomorrow....

robyn i hear you. you are not a bad housewive, you just don't have enough time! i am holding off on contacting the cleaning service in hopes of mustering up the energy to do a thorough bathroom and kitchen cleaning, but i don't think it's gonna happen.

verily moths eat the sugar grans and are happy - rob their bliss

i just swept and cleaned up a little bit. the apartment looks pretty good. besides the painting, i think the windows need to be cleaned, and the cupboards. i have a red kitchen so the only color that we could really paint the cupboards would be off white or gray. i think gray might be nice if it is just the right hue. would kill for wooden cupboards.

cleaned the fans today.

i hate cleaning u pfor an open house - every little nook seems FLITHLILY!

me? but I don't want to be cleaned

but I am filthy, yes

Turn stinkhole to drinkhole with clorox wipes!They clean even the bloodiest socks

ladies

i don't even know how to talk to you about the cleaning i did last night. it was 11pm, and Ryan happened to mention that he noticed a bunch of mold above the bathtub. and it sent me into a spiral of inspection. for a hot minute i just sat back and became very depressed about the disarray of the house (everything seemed to be in disorder - all of a sudden). then, i grabbed the scour brush. 2 and a half hours later, i ran out to the 24 hour deli, bought some cat litter as the final touch, came back home and lit some incense, happy.

ok so can someone please settle a debate:

in our bathroom, on the ceiling/higher parts of the walls, is a rusty colored substance that i believe to be mold/growth. bf believes it is just condensation droplets that have accumulated dirt/dust from the air and become rust colored. who is right? i sprayed some of it with a bleachy cleaner and it disappeared/turned white (not sure because it's on the ceiling). tbh i would need a step ladder to clean it and i just haven't gotten there yet, but i am very worried that we are breathing toxicity. my bathroom has terrible/no ventilation :(

like could this possibly be the result of smoke from a blown-out candle drifting up into the water droplets of condensation? or is it nastiness that needs to go, now.

that is exactly what i just took care of. it is really not that hard to remove. i think it is a combination of mold and condensation -- either way, when ryan pointed it out, i just couldn't. i was like i cannot shower in that bathroom tonight.

the smoke thing DOES happen - but i typically notice it only right above where the candle is.

yeah it is seriously grossing me out. i am not tall enough to wipe it clean. argh.

ohhh -- well you know what might help? i bought a separate toilet brush that i use for all things shower. it is actually really helpful. just a thought.

I think its mold or mildew - its rusty right? I get that too but its easy to destroy with bleach

soo, my boyfriend is not the best at housework. he's in charge of getting the laundry done and food shopping, which he does (even tho he lets the laundry pile up and sometimes we have no food) -- but sometimes i feel like i want to encourage him to do more. but there is no good way to do it! he just doesn't think that way, and we end up arguing about it. but he is very generous in other ways so ... i think i just need to let it go.

just promise "rewards"

i have huge issues w/ a similar situation and i still haven't figured out the solution :(

10% bleach works

For Surmounter's boyfriend problem? Seems a bit harsh, but, hey, whatever works....

the colon can never be clean enough you know

Anything that's not yours, out and messy, put on the bed and tell the slob: 'I do not know where these things go, could you put them away?'

yeah - put your enema kit away!

then they just end up on the bedroom floor
xpost

I hope its xpost

honestly the things i do to make sure the house doesn't fall apart . . . . sometimes i clean when i get home from going out on the weekends at like 4am, and listen to lady gaga. ryan will be like passed out, and i'm delinting the couch.

i love you, surm.

:) right back atcha

I need love too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEUX-HYRtUA

For the rust-colored stuff, a spray-bottle of water and vinegar should kill it if it's mildew or mold? Safer and more friendly than bleach or w/e but hey, bleach if you wanna.

Sometimes I think also that cheap paint and humidity just don't mix, because I've scrubbed that orange-y stain off of walls that've never seen a drop of water in their life (like in the living room or something) and it just appears out of nowhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF42K2OuOqs

I get the same moldy stuff in my bathroom, and I'll go at it with a bucket of water with 1 part bleach & 1 part laundry detergent. Ladder & Scrubbing brush is necessary, but it'll keep the mold away for a good 9-12 months usually.

that is why you must scrub everyday

fuck that noise

i do love to do things in small installments like that. like dishes. always doing a dish.

I can't belive how goo dmy new vacuum works - INTO THE MUD OLD SHITTERVAC!

amazing!

i have a problem with bleach stains.

you can get them out with ink

stop, u know i'm very gullible

i can just picture me now

how often do you replace bath towels? this reminds me - i got bleach on my bath towels about a month after purchasing them... 11 years ago? eek. it's probably time for new ones, right?

i need a friggin registry is what i need.

housewiving w/out being a wife is hard.

bleach on the bath towels is like my number one pet peeve. ok not number one but it's up there. how does it get there?? and on bedsheets??

replace as in buy new ones? maybe every couple of years

in terms of daily usage, i am very stringent about replacing the towels i use though. nothing worse than an old towel.

i need a friggin registry is what i need.

ugh i feel u

yeah also they are black so the bleach is like, orange spots!
i think it was a hair dye thing.

i also bleached a pillow case (purple --> orange streak) from a benzoyl peroxide face cream (i think).

that's what i have been thinking too! the benzoyl peroxide! but then i talked to a friend who has had the same problem with pillowcases and she does not use benzoyl. seems to make sense though.

but it really helps my skin so it's like what am i gonna do, not move in my sleep

Um how about using white sheets & towels?

it had to be that.
i stopped using it.

ugh no, i love my purple sheets!

xp Is that a silly question?

Oh, purple.

Tza, you've had those sheets for AT LEAST three years, because I used them when I stayed at your house in BROOKLYN and I was worried that *I* got the peroxide stain on them!

they are good sheets! but they may have been a different set or maybe i just gave you a diff pillow case because these are queen size and that was a full (i did have a set of purple sheets for that, too). what is wrong with having sheets for three years? i wash them! i got these sheets when i first moved to nyc in 2006 because then i had a queen... and that's when the bleaching happened. but then i didn't use them for years because i had a full bed.

i mean, i've been rocking purple and red sheets since about 2000 or so. i've been through many sets.

what skin cream do u use now? salicylic?

how do you get blood out of sheets

yeah salicylic. sometimes sulfur-ish things (mario badescu drying cream, for example).

throw them away? xp

(skin is also a lot diff now than it was back then!)

you know what - the sulfur products are actually pretty good.

i think somebody told me hydrogen peroxide works on blood? am i making that up?

i want to try this one - it's always in the impulse buy lane at sephora: http://www.murad.com/treatments/acne-spot-treatment.jsp

interesting - sulfur AND salicylic acid.

I m serious about the blood

my mother in law once removed a deep blood stain from a shirt of mine with hydrogen peroxide. i was shocked at how completely she removed it.

wait you just said peroxide causes a stain

benzoyl peroxide seems to, and i'm sure other peroxides do, do i did a quick google search on hydrogen peroxide, and it seems to be a stain-fighting agent

*but i did

so how do I get the peroxide stain out after the blood is gone

Water.

how do I get the water out

Put it in the oven and bake it out.

you know everything

what do we have on our weekend agendas, ladies?

i really need to wash my floors

I'm trying to find the right light bulbs for a ceiling fixture, big round globe ones. Bought some from lighting store the oth day but they're too dim. :( Might be trial-and-error going back and forth to the store in Chinatown until I figure it out.

This weekend, though, I'm leaving the apartment and any mess there behind and going away.

When I get back, the kitchen floor will get washed LIKE WO.

I bought two beach-themed throw pillows for my living room: one has a blue octopus embroidered on it, and the other one will have red coral (when it arrives).

oh how fun! i love throw pillows. i am in need of some new ones, myself. where did you find yours?

overstock.com!

i totally need throw pillows! and fun ones like laurel's (which i saw in real life and it is Awesome)

oh dudes, i mean, housewives: when i got home last night at 4 o'clock in the morning after a long bus ride from NYC, after not being home for almost a week, I was sooo tired yet couldn't let the semi-disaster of my place go untouched... my friend had been feeding my cats but didn't do a great job of the cat litter scooping (hey, i understand), plus my bathroom had some construction things done to it and so was grimy from that. ended up cleaning cat litter, washing floor, cleaning kitchen sink and entire bathroom (including scrubbing tub/shower), just so i could wake up this morning and not have to deal with it!

Holy crap, that's a lot to do after a BUS RIDE. Robyn!

I don't know what came over me w/r/t the pillows, normally I hate throw pillows like on beds for a photo shoot, what the hell are you going to do w those when you want to actually SLEEP in the bed?? But I was just sitting at my desk thinking about my living room and something...snapped.

lol. like on that show, Snapped. except u resorted to throw pillows instead of a gun.

robyn, that sounds like a terror!

haha i know, eh? one of those things where i only fell asleep on the bus in the last 45-min of the trip but spent the previous 8 hours talking to my seat-mate (who ended up being awesome! a rarity!) and watching The Green Hornet (hilaire/ridic/kinda half-assed tbh?). so when i arrived home i was both discombobulated and buzzy-awake. also, i've just really been wanting to get my house in order in all ways...

throw pillows are pretty and fun and occasionally useful! i also think that their name should be taken literally, so thinking of them as a gun alternative is good! throw pillows not shoot guns!
wait.

i only have a couple throw pillows, acquired recently from the thrift store, with some pretty rad hand-embroidered tree-of-life floral embellishment on them. and they came with BIG BRIGHT TAGS certifying that they were FREE OF BEDBUGS, thank goodness for that.

thank goodness!

all my windows are open, it is lighly raining out right now, and it's friday

it is nice

i organized ryan's clothes yesterday - he had a bunch laid out in the bedroom that he cleared out of the closets. they are bagged and ready to give away. i also changed the linens and swept, so the bedroom is in order now.

I mowed the sump pump tube into pieces

that does not sound good

haven't played with this yet, but it looks totally fun!

http://urbanbarn.com/the-make-room

oooh!

also: i have decided to paint all our furniture varying shades of distressed pales, bc all this medium-to-dark wood is just too gloomy.

i believe that is a sign that teh west-coast assimilation is in its final stages

ha!

idk why i said 'pales' - i meant 'pastels'

we spent 2h45min washing and polishing the cars this afternoon. even scrubbed wheels and used tire cleaner. they are so pretty now! but i am exhausted!!! and omg i am so suburban :-\

ha! that sounds so good, tho. congratulation.

and then it rained overnight! boo

I should wash my truck one of these years.

tip for washing shower floor - put soap on the floor during your shower and do a crazy dance!

...and fall on your ass, breaking half of the bones on your body.

In your body, I mean.

I don't shower with erect men

OK, more for me then.

so i got the bucket out for cleaning. baby steps.

you shoul dget the bucket out for cleaning this thread which has quickly gone into the sexual gutter!!

my bff from new york is coming to visit july 1. now i have real motivation. this week/weekend: it's ON.

!! terrific

ryan will be out of town this weekend. i am planning on having some sort of surprise waiting for him when he gets back, but i'm not sure what it will be yet. something of the home improvement variety.

last night, i found a fucking cockroach in my cabinet! ONE cockroach. I am panicked, how can this happen? My house is so clean...WTF!

could it have come in from somewhere else?

yes - it does not necessarily mean you have an infestation. it is possible to only see one cockroach in your apartment, contrary to what people will tell you.

usually if you see one it was bred alrady and there are millions of eggs in your silverware drawer

I would die.

you would eat them

so we painted the bathroom, it looks really lovely - i feel a little more calm about the house now that this has happened, but there are still so many loose ends

we are doing a big salvation army pick up which should help, getting rid of clothes, books, and bags

I'm on hiatus from caring about this shit until fall. It's too hot and TOO DAMP to live in my apartment, I'm not dealing with the bathroom at the height of mildew season. I do look longingly at nicer apartments on the internets, but then I get home, drop off my office clothes, and leave on my bike for some other place, probably the beach. So fuck it.

i am the opposite in the summer. i hole up in the shade of my apartment, and keeping things clean is even more important to me. i feel like i am doing my spring cleaning only now.

Yeah, this is unusual for me, probably, but there are other reasons also. Anyway, I'm just saving up my nesting for fall, planning what colors to paint room and etc etc. Leaning toward Dutch Boy's "Empire State" grey, because it's not expensive paint and I don't need it to last a decade.

beautiful color. i tend to lean toward the same family of colors.

I was thinking of a softer grey with a tiny bit of lavender hint to it so it would make the evening light nicer, but honestly I need a neutral cool grey that makes no statements and goes with more things. So that was that.

I've got enough to worry about right now keeping the bugs at bay -- not cockroaches, just BUGS that are getting in from outside! Beetles, a water bug, some flies, lots of moths still, and, increasingly...THESE THINGS

http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/images/hsepede.jpg

terrifying.

The good newa: I got a groupon for a maid cleaning!
The bad news: I used lysol to wipe that rust shit off the ceiling just a few weeks ago and IT'S BACK :(

the orange stuff? now, what is the deal with "shower spray" - u know the stuff u just spray on and leave after u shower

does it work?

it is a waste of $ ime

xp ha, i was just thinking about posting the same question!! i read somewhere recently that rubbing car wax on your stove top makes it easier to clean up mess.

i am pretty sure i just heard bf tell his dad, 'you can crash on my couch, no problem' when i was 100% expecting him to stay at a hotel. tomorrow. WTF.

btw laurel, it is hard to tell on a computer screen but i like vineyard point!

oh no. unexpected house guest!!

i am so livid atm.

oy, i know how you feel. are you going to give him a piece of your mind?

holy shit wtf is that bug monster? Do you live in the amazon or something?

beetles are nice

It's a HOUSE CENTIPEDE, apparently. And they kill other bugs but are too small to really bite humans, so I should probably let them stay...but SO FREAKY AND GROSS, and they always come out in the DARK, UUHGHGHGHHGHH

Don't think I could share a house with that.
whatever
Other bugs > House centipedes

^ i am also familiar and skeeved of those giant house centipedes, get away from meeeee

ime they aren't super fast or agile so they are p easy to hunt and destroy with a crushing blow, however they tend to break into a million tiny bug pieces when you do ugh ugh noooooooo

anyway. my house is a mess. it is too hot to clean.

Yes, and then the detached bug legs KEEP TWITCHING it gives me the horrors just thinking about it.

Smother them in Kleenex! I never allow myself to look at them post-smushing.

Fruit fly trick, since 'tis the season: put balsamic or red wine vinegar in a small bowl, an inch or so high, then a few drops of dish soap. Cover this bowl with saran wrap and poke many tiny holes in it. The flies will fly in, get trapped, and the broken tension on the surface of the vinegar means they'll drown! I leave mine out for a day or two and it takes care of all of them.

Yeah, I've been meaning to do that but I'm all out of cider vinegar. As soon as I grocery shop, tho, those little bastards are going DOWN.

you can do the same trick with a piece of fruit. the fruit flies are too stupid to find their way back out through the tiny holes.

i am surprised i have not seen more bugs this summer - my apartment can get kind of muggy. but we've had good air flow, so maybe that helps. having a big lasko box fan in the window has helped the air circulation well.

My groupon was cancelled! :( upon review it's probably a good thing bc reviews were scathing but I'm still sad.

Booo-urns :(

those house centipedes love running in your snoring mouth at night to lay eggs

My housewifery for the weekend will include painting a bedroom with lolRalphLauren paint and unpacking shit in the bathroom.

Hmmm that last part did not sound right.

it is definitely like bedroom painting season or something, i have noticed this is happening with a lot of friends. what color are you going with?

are u doing it by yourself?

We're doing the guest room ourself, since it is pretty straightforward. Our bedroom (I guess you'd call it the master) has this ceiling with a dormer/cathedral part (I don't know how to describe it really; basically a part of the regular ceiling was extended up to the roof at some point) that is really high and would be hard to deal with, so we may call in pros for that.

Guest room is Benjamin Moore's Bronzed Beige. Mr. was initially grabbing lavender/mauve chips until I put my foot down about not wanting the space to look like a dentist's office waiting room.

lol. i love beige. our bathroom is "malted milk"

I love beige too! In my last place the living room/dining room I used a paint that can best be described as "putty," and I totally loved it.

Main bedroom will be some sort of brown--I'll have to check out this Malted Milk (what brand?). My only fear of brown is that if it starts to lean to the red or yellow side, it makes me think of baby poop.

it is the home depot brand. it is really pretty - very subtle. i guess some people don't think the home depot brand is the best, but whatever it looks fine.

yeah - i agree w/r/t brown for sure. you have to be very picky.

omg, coming back from long long vacation and all I want to do is stay in my house and do housework. Am seriously considering not going to music street fest tonight so I can dust/vacuum/scrub bathroom/do laundry. Though I might also venture outside and deadhead some rosebushes?

omg i totally understand. i am supposed to go to the beach with friends this weekend and all i can think about is my house, and how nice it would be to clean it, make a nice meal and sit in a nice clean house with good air circulation

Surm I'm now really inspired to find a brown that will blend with the tree bark outside and make our room look like a treehouse!!!

LOVE it. are you gonna do the trim/door/ceiling in white?

the girl who lives downstairs from us is doing some kind of prolonged spring cleaning where every couple of weeks she leaves a pile of junk (this week its a box of assorted junk, a broken lamp (lol) and some stuffed animals) out on our porch until garbage day. in addition we dont have a lawn mower and our shitty landlord wont come mow so the grass is like a foot high and choked w/ weeds. this is killing me every time i come home

also kinda #sloblife that i dont know anyone w/ a lawnmower

xpost to Surm:

Trim is already in a white gloss that I don't want to re-paint. I think maybe keep the ceiling and the cathedral cut out part white, but find some sort of big cool twig-looking mobile thing to hang from the cathedral bit? Like a big NEST hanging from up there???

Hmmmm how do I shot HUGE NEST MOBILE?

Despite the heat, I did get fed up with our gross bathroom enough to scrub and bleach the sink and tile surround; previously mildewed areas looking loads better.

OMG WANT:

http://www.moonlilymobiles.com/images/Tree-Branch-Mobile/Sunset_Ginko-MD.jpg

Sorry, I should take this to the Department of the Interior.

Which do you like best from these?

don't be sorry! the yellow would look amayzing with your brown room

Despite the heat, I did get fed up with our gross bathroom enough to scrub and bleach the sink and tile surround; previously mildewed areas looking loads better.

― it's not that print journalists don't have a sense of humour, it's just (Laurel), Friday, July 22, 2011 6:58 PM (9 minutes ago)

awesome, SUCH a relief to get this done

Lamp I have been dealing with garbage stuff on my stoop lately. not a pleasant thing to come home to at all. this girl must have a lot of crap!

those are so cool!

we have a/c, but there's no vent in the bathroom (lol old apt w/ retrofitted ac so it only hits living room and bedroom). which is to say, i will not be doing any bathroom or kitchen scrubbing this weekend, regardless of its nastiness.

those house centipedes love running in your snoring mouth at night to lay eggs

― Hot Tub Timelord (Latham Green), Thursday, July 21, 2011 7:06 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

why

we got in a fight about recycling last night

Anyone have any ideas on how to get rid of earwigs?

Boric acid seems to work, if you are able to put it in their path. Not scary toxic either, which is good.

get some home defense spray at lowe's/home depot.

Home Defense Spray sounds so menacing!

boric acid + diatomaceous earth seems to take care of most bugs. But not nearly fast enough. If you want to see them immediately curl up and die, you need 1 can of Raid.

Sick cat = really ruined carpet in my rental house. Argh. And now I have to contact the landlord cos we've busted the cenrtal heating controller, BUT THE HOUSE IS A MESS.

I AM PANICKING ARH.

NOT ONLY does this product fail at keeping my toilet bowl clean -- like, it is totally ineffectual
but it looks like a giant blue tampon

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6007/6018875445_5dafb0e2c0.jpg

i hate it

What it actually looks like is a personal massage device that I will not link to because I'm at work.

I'll join with you in hating. It's probably also bad for the water supply, so we can probably get something going there, too.

yeah it's more the size of a personal message device, but i had to put it together with the "applicator" just like a tampon

i don't even know why i bought it aside from the fact that i am lazy and hate cleaning the toilet (guess that's what they're banking on) but it just sucks in every direction.

its designed for giant blue vaginas

My kitchen faucet is spraying at a weird angle, which means that I have to wear a water proof coast to do the dishes. How do I fix this?

Coat, even

New faucet?

I have been cooking and cleaning and washing dishes and organizing rooms and planning my home makeover LIKE A CRAZY PERSON. All that's stopping me from living in a palace now are a) my lack of time, and b) my lack of money.

Boo.

Srsly, Justine, a faucet that sprays OUTSIDE THE SINK is a broken faucet. Get someone in to fix it. You don't have to work around that.

can you unscrew the spout thingie of the faucet to see if there are rocks/other debris causing the spray? that's what i usually do. unscrew, clean, replace, all done.

La Lechera otm - I have to soak ours in vinegar every 6 months or so to loosen up the scale and get it to spray DOWN not OUT.

All the windows and exterior doors on our house are getting replaced starting tomorrow. Also blown in attic insulation (where there currently is none) - very exciting stuff.

Whoah, that's going to be a total game-changer for this winter, isn't it?

I hope so! Quadruple panes! All this is being done to all the houses in our neighborhood paid for by the airport, for sound insulation and as payment for their use of our airspace. But damn it will be great to use less heating oil, that stuff is $$$$ right now.

That seems like a payment that will pay off for you IN PERPETUITY because MAN the heating advantage has to be ENORMOUS.

As long as you don't move in 9 months. ;)

don't worry, no one is going to be able to sell property in 9 mo. anyway :(

Believe it or not, we are NOT MOVING. For awhile. Actually, if our lovely landlord would ever consider selling this house, I would buy it and stay forever.

Justine, def see if there's a screw-in attachment on the end of the faucet, and either try tightening it, or unscrewing & rescrewing it in. It may have been jogged loose.

<3 yr house, jaq! glad you are getting an upgrade.

i cleaned the ceiling again last night and this morning the little dots of water were already collecting and looking icky again. sigh.

we had a show where i work this season called "water stains on the wall"

i have been rattling around the house. i have been feeling kind of nutty. it's kind of unnerving.

i am getting a new litter box! recommended me to me by some ILX peeps. supposedly much tidier.

I BLEACHED MY BATHROOM FLOOR LAST NIGHT. It looks divine. Or at least cleaner than I have ever seen it. In fact there are parts of it I've never seen at all before last night.

damnnn girl that's awesome

What litter box, surm? I got two of the Tidycat Breeze, which have been completely awesome and almost stink-free.

that one looks similar to the one i got! "smartcatbox" also has the pull out tray thing

I just texted my roommate an instruction not to drop any black clothes on the bathroom floor for a while. I sponged it all up multiple times with hot water but it still smelled awfully bleachy in there this morning, so I wouldn't bet on it being gone.

my house is such a gd mess. we had someone to stay for a week two weeks ago now and its still not tidy or together again

http://www.smartcatbox.com xxp

Jaq what kind of litter do you use for the tidy breeze? and where do you get it?

nm got my answer.

Oh! I used the smart cat boxes for a few years before switching! Don't let the seeds go down the drain! I had sunflowers sprouting up through the shower drain. If you don't want to buy the safflower seeds, I successfully used extra large sunflower seeds (with the shells on).

The Breeze uses these clay pellets that we change out once or twice a year - I get them from Amazon because with Prime the shipping is free (and the pellets are heavy!). I used them with the smartbox for a few months, but our cats are so heavy they eventually started breaking the grid, so I switched completely over to the Breeze.

xp because I had typed it up anyway :)

yeah i see they're on amazon and i have prime! the thing about the smartcatbox is that the shipping for the litter is exorbitant. i am trying to cancel my order now so i can get the breeze.

once a year?? really? do your cats like the pellets?

I had sunflowers sprouting up through the shower drain.
OMG

L, your bathroom will reek for a few days... i usually spend at least 3 after i bleach trying to recover from the brain damage :(

once a year?? really? do your cats like the pellets?

yep they are fine with them, but then they were happy with the sunflower seeds too (which I also got from Amazon). The cool thing with the pellets - if you have an outdoor area with a water supply, you can hose them off in the box. Just take out the tray that holds the absorbant pad.

btw, one time to be extra frugal, I tried washing the sunflower seeds from the smartbox. In a loft apartment. Then I realized they weren't drying. so I stupidly put them in a low oven. The smell was absolutely horrendous - DON'T DO IT!!!

omg.

soo would you recommend one over the other? seems like the breeze is a little more cost effective? and do you always have to be getting new pads i guess?

sorry for all the questions.

ps if you play a brass instrument, those absorbant pads are fabulous for dumping out the accumulated spit on.

Also! If you go ahead with the smartcatbox, get some of the large puppy piddle pads to go underneath because sometimes the reservoir sloshes a little bit when you remove it - protip.

The smartbox seemed "greener" due to using seeds, but much more maintenance. The reservoir had to be replaced once a year with our two cats using it - got errrmmm crusty. Changing out the seeds and washing out the whole box was a production (had to be done every 2 months or so).

I'm subscribed and saved on Amazon to the pads - each one lasts 5-7 days with the 2 cats/2 box setup. Happier with the Breeze, mostly because there is less hassle.

Laurel, was this a hands-n-knees scrubbing sort of bleaching? Mine needs that so bad, the microfiber mop is just not cutting it anymore.

yeah i am all lazy w the swiffer shit but every once in a while i do a proper hands-n-knees thing (in the kitchen, too) because it just really needs it.
btw y'al, enbb recommended a method floor cleaner that is almond scented and i love it. i first accidentally bought a different almond method cleaner so now i have a wood cleaner AND a floor cleaner. almonds for everyone! it's not overpowering, though!

I use that almond wood floor cleaner - didn't know they had another one! The lemon ginger floor one isn't bad either.

Laurel, what's your bleach:water ratio for the floor scrub?

the other one is a spray in a smaller bottle that i bought w/out reading the label. so now i am using it to clean the coffee table, tv stand, etc.

awesome thx jaq

I need new curtains for the window over the sink. What do we think of 2x of these on a simple cafe rod: http://www.etsy.com/listing/81719054/butcher-diagram-of-a-cow-floursack-towel?ref=pr_faveitems ?

love

This Tidy Cats Breeze looks kind of amazing. The Smart Cat Box always was a little off putting to me because I don't want to carry around or wash out a container of cat pee.

How is the litter tracking with this thing? We have to sweep cat litter nearly every day (or, well, we should sweep every day) and it makes me crazy.

Also, how many cats do you have and how many boxes do you have? We really only have room for one box, but I would be perfectly happy to change the pee pad twice/week. We already clean the litter box twice/day every day.

The clay pellets are bigger than a normal piece of litter and heavier, so I think they don't stick in between paw pads and they are harder to scrape out of the raised edge of the box. A couple do make their way out though, and they are tubular so one of ours sees them as a fun toy and bats them around. Had a similar problem with the round litter crystals except those were more like little glass BBs.

We have 2 cats and 2 boxes now, because we moved to a place with more room and we are lazy about scooping and changing the pad. When we started with the breeze we only had one box - it has a smaller footprint than the Smartbox which was also a plus at the time.

omg so scary with the smartbox woman on the phone this morning.

i was like i'm returning it and she goes "are you switching to the breeze"

she's like "you'll be sorry later"

We took a look at the Breeze at PetCo and decided against it for now. It didn't seem that cost effective, given that a giant jug of litter is like $13 and lasts about a month. I'm still intrigued and may revisit this later.

Sooooo much laundry to fold and put away :(

If anyone likes folding laundry please come over; I will feed you tacos.

i just picked up my dry cleaning; i can't tell you how nice it feels to have my button down shirts back. i had really let them pile up.

guys i found a miracle cleaning product that i have to share with you: X-14 mildew stain remover.

i was freaking out about the impenetrable black stains around the grout/caulk of our bathtub, bc our landlord is super fuckin strict about that stuff. we are kind of lazy cleaners, so it had gotten pretty bad and nothing was shifting it, not even making a dent. i was convinced we were gonna have to pay for the whole thing to be re-caulked. but this stuff is amazing: i sprayed it on twice a day for 2 or 3 days and the caulk is now perfectly white! without scrubbing!

i'm not sure what it says about me that i am posting about cleaning products on a saturday night.

Amazing! Where did you get it?

I might have a bottle of that? Most mildew-killing bathroom cleaners are bleach-based, I think, and those bleach gel pens are also useful for spot-treating stained areas...leave on overnight, even. Very very hard on the grout, though.

I have a spray-bottle of vinegar water in the bathroom that I keep meaning to use on a regular basis so the mildew doesn't form, but once it does, the only way forward is bleach.

xps amazon!

OMG Thanks for this J, I suddenly needed something like this and saw it in Walgreens and got it! It's good but OH GOD THE FUMES
I used it in a shower cubicle and I usually don't even notice ~vapors~ but these were pretty strog.

tilex mold/mildew is pretty kickass for this
but open all yr windows and wear gloves, shit is hardcore

woah X-14

Xps see, I didn't find it v toxic at all - it smelled like diluted bleach, I was convinced it couldn't possibly work if it couldn't even make my eyes water!

I guess I don't mess with much hardcore cleaners so that was about the strongest I'd come across, lol I r a babby

i sort of have a cleaning lady now

Feel like my house is too messy to get a cleaning lady. If it were about 50% tidier I would consider it.

i mainly need for her to do the bathroom and floors every few weeks

otherwise it's all me

i am resisting a larger apt in part because i dont want to have to clean it

although yesterday i scrubbed my kitchen and bathroom till the sparkled well except the tub i have to do that tomorrow

also i made so much food but i fucked up the barley risotto and its not v good

the last time i cleaned the tub i felt like it saved my life

soo my boyfriend has a hoarding problem. with canvas bags. he just gets them from places, collects them, and lets them accumulate dust. i don't understand it, and it drives me crazy.

omg don't get me started...

omg i knew you'd understand

<3

he's on a conference call right now to help design a new tote bag for work. i'm liiike ...

ok so i'm in the market for some new linens. lately everywhere i go i buy a pillowcase. but i need a couple more comforter covers too.

I love tote bags. Love them! I keep all of mine stuffed in the largest bag, in a closet corner, but they're there when you need them!

Surm, I've been obsessed w the Dwell linen patterns for a while, but they're prohibitively expensive to say the least. Otherwise I buy all my sheets and down bedding items on overstock.com. (Formerly smartbargains.com but I think they've gotten out of the housewares market...?)

And really Target has some great sheet sets for the price.

I'm annoyed that their duvet cover sizing starts at full/queen, though--I need a new cover for my twin duvet, which I'm going to use in the summer because it's less heavy and drapey.

you know, i should look on overstock. i love them. i have actually found some good items at target but i've had to be careful with their cheap cheap stuff bc the thread count is basically like sleeping on paper.

Well yeah. You always have to look at that!

i know. i'm bad at shopping. i've only realized things like this recently.

i bought some CK 300 thrd count sheets in a dusty powder blue

i think they are nice

Enjoy them. I love a made bed with fluffy things and good sheets. Like, a significant portion of my quality of domestic life comes from this one thing. You have arrived!

totally. i have been slowly building up my linen collection. (very slowly). but it does make me happy.

Someday I will have to break down and buy an actual bed frame and mattress, though. Mine is old and sooooo sad. I just cover it up with nice bedding but that won't work forever.

i would really like a headboard. we have one of those wooden frames that has drawers underneath, which i really like, but there's something about a headboard that really finishes a room.

I was just thinking about that, too. No footboard, though. Makes it too uncomfy for tall people plus it's harder to watch tv over it.

My bed is an unfinished pine platform with storage underneath, too, but I'm at least the 3rd owner and it's starting to come apart.

I have a hoarding problem with everything. Except I always throw out the old Village Voice when the new one comes out.

I'm trying to get over my hoarding problem at the moment, mainly by thinking of myself as a philanthropist when I give away books that I haven't read for 10 years.

I've been getting rid of stuff out of my apartment for the last month or so and it feels GOOD

I am going to make a headboard soon!

haha out of what? we have a spare door (yeah...) and my bf is convinced we can construct a headboard out of it but i am p skeptical

I have ruined ny ceramic kitchen sink because I had no idea you're not supposed to use straight bleach on it. Now it's peeling and discolored. Is it fixable?

Probably not, alas. If it's peeling, it might be enamel over metal instead of ceramic. Not that it matters, but you can get bathtubs re-enamelled. It's cheaper and easier to just replace a damaged sink than go through that process. And, if you get a tiny chip or crack in a ceramic sink, there are some spot fix kits but the repair is usually very conspicuous.

Ugh my landlord's gonna kill me

I found this: http://www.ehow.com/how_5896211_repair-porcelain-sink-finish.html

Seems very labor intensive and maybe could make things worse?

i'm sorry justine :(

oh well! worst case scenario is she makes us pay for a replacement. i'm sure it couldn't be more than a few hundred bucks, which sucks but is not the end of the world.

i could also really use some pro tips on maintaining a blockage-free shower - what is a good weekly treatment to prevent hair/soap scum buildup so i don't have to use draino?

A little mesh filter over the drain tbh. Once that stuff goes into the pipes there's only so much you can do.

i have one of those but some hair still gets through (i clean it out regularly).

Ryan actually plunges the shower drain when this starts to happen - it has definitely worked, and it is more environmentally and cost efficient than draino. a quick google should show you how to do it.

These Zip-It things work great. We have a tub with a pop-up drain, so I use the largest of these sink strainers turned upside down on it. An even squirt of caulking around the rim helps seal it better.

I clean out the drain by digging around in the muck with two skewers held like chopsticks. It's super gross, but gets to the cloggy stuff without having to touch it.

In fact, it's REALLY REALLY gross. Works though.

Also -- regularly flush with super hot water, then plunge.

yeah i'm thinking about doing a vinegar/baking soda flush once a week - it doesn't seem do shit for any actual blockages, but it might be a good natural maintainer?

Try HOT HOT HOT water -- it works pretty well!

yeah that works for my sink too

The zip it things did nothing for my terrible drain. After the last time the maintenance dude came to unclog, he said pour some bleach once a week. We also have a mesh thing and I think hot water helps.

btw I love the baking soda/vinegar idea as opposed to bleach but it did nothing :(

I have a siliconey/rubbery ice cube tray from Ikea (star shapes!) and I took it out of the freezer to wash it and it really smells of... freezer :( Any ideas how to get rid of the smell or should I just chuck it?

Try soaking in a solution of baking soda and water?

what is the best way to treat a stain on clothing? (oil, blood, food or drink)

Oil needs detergents to get it out. Try a little ammonia--you can start with a dilute solution and see if it works, if not, dab a little straight from the bottle onto a cloth and PRESS (don't rub) on the oil stain.

Blood: cold water or cold water and OxyClean, seriously. Don't bleach blood.

Food: Detergent for the oil, and OxyClean for tomato, grape, etc stains.

Drink: There might be a panacea for red wine stains but I'm not sure what it is. Cold water IMMEDIATELY if not sooner, but that won't get it all, and after that I'm lost.

Laurel have you considered writing a Heloise style book/column/?? If not, why not? I would rather have you tell me how to do things around the house than, say, this lady

(although lol at ladies home journal cover topics in 1983)

http://www.entermyworld.com/cat/articles/lhj/hjsept831x1.jpg

thanks so much for those tips!

in terms of red wine, i have definitely had luck with club soda and salt

I took my blankets to the drycleaners today.

Oh I really need to do that for my quilt

Yeah Ive dumped a pile of salt on a red wine spill (as soon as its occurred) and that's actually made it about 99% removable.

Tell you the worst stain to clean - cat spew, especially as by the time you notice its there its usually been sitting there, acidly staining the carpet, for hours.

that's why i have no carpets (even tho i love them)

soo ... i need a new iron. i've had it. any ideas?

Rowenta was all the rage a while back, but I've been iron-free and loving it for about a decade now.

i have half a mind to call this hotel i was staying at recently and ask what irons they use. bc i swear it was a magical experience.

Rowenta is the only answer. Hefty & awesome. Lightweight irons are bullshit.

yeah this is what i've heard recently! did not know that before. thanks girls.

just came in to say hi to surm tbh

Having worked in a commercial laundry I can say w authority that heat/steam **plus weight** gets out wrinkles. Man can not iron with steam alone.

I want a proper steam press. But that
will never happen.

Fyi: if you get the Rowenta iron & you can afford it, front for the ironing board too. Don't skimp on the board, cheap ironing boards are the worst

ugh i know. i will forever hold a grudge against target for the irons and boards they pawn.

yeah I made that mistake once. NEVER AGAIN.

Do be selective with the Rowenta model--I think they do a whole range of cheaper Target models and more hefty, higher-end models. I think something in the middle should do you up just fine.

I can't remember which model I have, I'll check tonight & post it.

thanks. i mean -- i damn near burned myself because the target ironing board was so wobbly! it was awful.

we must have both got the same one.

Wobbly sucks something awful, but I also HATE when the padding sucks, too--either too thin, or shifts around, or doesn't let you move your fabric smoothly and easily. . .

This is making me sound like I actually iron. I honestly can't remember the last time I did--

Well, yeah I don't really iron a ton either.

otm re crappy padding. Nothing worse than getting a lovely criss-cross metal pattern in your nicely ironed shirt.

Ha, I was going to post that on the IA thread after ironing my interview shirt in a hotel!

it's the worst

I iron about twice a year, bf irons every morning and loves the rowenta but still curses having to iron!

this will sound super nerdy but I always wanted one of those steam-cabinet things, that go on top of your dryer and you can put your folded shirts etc in

my parents had one. so cool.

I would spring for a hard-core steamer if it meant I didn't have to store my winter woolens with mothballs.

My copy of "Home Comforts" (which is a thread in and of itself" is still packed because obviously I am a failure at housekeeping, but otherwise I would pull it to read the sections on ironing/steaming/moth-proofing/etc.

i think i need to buy that book.

ultimate dream would be a Singer Steam Press. I had to work the press at the laundry and once I learned how to do that, it's like...pressing a shirt vs ironing was no contest. Doing a shirt in what, 4 passes, vs fiddling around with an iron? pfft.

my mother worked at a drycleaner for many years. i've been meaning to ask her about that.

I still get weird flashbacks just from the smell of a drycleaners

ask her about the magic chemicals that make blood/rust/stains disappear
that was my favorite thing ever

worst = ppl who would send in their laundry for fluff/fold and would include their *underwear*
skeev attack x 1000

Ew ew ew!

Home Comforts is a great book

ppl who would send in their laundry for fluff/fold

Wait, wha? As in, already clean laundry, they just want someone to FOLD it for them, WTF?

nah sorry I just meant domestic laundry

so any drycleaner can both wash or dryclean, right?

is it acceptable to ask for specific garments to be hand-ironed?

Totally, assuming they offer it. We had an iron handy for delicate items.

I cant think of the last time I ironed anything, I am a savage.

(tbf because of this I basically never wear cotton or linen items, just stretch materials and woolens.)

hilarious/awesome

but i couldn't imagine my life without cotton

i really like, depend on it

so there was this odor in my office at home. i swear it had been there for like 2.5 years. i finally found the source, and scrubbed and scrubbed -- and walking into my office this morning in the sunlight was so lovely. i could finally breathe again!

Don't keep us in suspense: WHAT WAS IT?

Right when I walk into my bedroom there's this tiny whiff of the sickly sweetness that is decomposing flesh. I just started noticing it a couple of days ago, but can't find the source. I fear a mouse death under the floor or in a wall or something. It's not getting any WORSE, so hopefully it just mummifies away quickly.

it's kind of embarrassing, but i think my cat relieved herself in a corner of the office once when we accidentally trapped her in there. i'm pretty sure that's what it was. and i just kept thinking to myself "it's probably one of those plants" (because my office window overlooks the neighbors' deck). took a whole lot of lysol to make things better.

anyhow, you can imagine my relief.

so what is with these rust stains on my fridge? never had much of a problem w/r/t my fridge door before but i got a cleaning lady to clean the apt and after she left, the white fridge door gradually became covered with rust stains. cleaned it once (took everything out of me, i have to tell you -- they were some stubborn stains!), and they came back. did it again with comet and it seems better, but i think it is slowly reappearing. wtf?

Something in the cleaning or scrubbing ate through the paint, is my guess, and the humidity in the air is causing rust around the little pin-hole holes in the finish. Mine is doing the same thing. I'm not sure what to do about it yet.

ugh yeah i think you're right. very annoying.

also i'm getting a new fridge for my parents

is frigidaire OK? they will seldom use it

I'm cleaning so hard in anticipation of a guest who is coming over tomorrow that I appear to have broken a sweat. This is unacceptable.

grrrrrl you should see me in the state when i'm cleaning

btw i got a enamel spray paint finish for my fridge doors, i read reviews said it works very well

i always seem to having trouble with my clothes

me too

mostly re hanging them up

that's really funny that you say that!! because my current problem is that the wire hangers the dry cleaners use left marks on some of my garments :/

like actual marks or indentations? erg

this reboot inspired me to hang up some clothes btw!

just like a slight discoloration from being on that cardboard part for too long? (i went a really long time without picking up my drycleaning)

you think it'll come out in the wash?

the washer at my new place has stripped the black from my shirts/jeans. so grey. :(

This is my big clean cleaning up / getting rid of stuff weekend

What do y'all think of those o-cell-o sponges with the k-ra-zy patterns? I've been getting the fabric encapsulated sponges with a scrubby side and a soft side recently.

like these guys:

http://i48.tinypic.com/npqefb.jpg

they are a little too futsy for me

tbh i like a good old plain blue sponge

i mean those are very cute but i feel like i want to eat them

jordan i feel you

it should come out in the wash? maybe put some oxyclean or something on it before washing

i don't really know what kind of sponges those are but i'm for 'em

yeah maybe some oxy you're right

ugh sometimes i just get myself in a tizzie

know that your tizzie got me to put *all* my clothes away and do some further reorg of my office/media room! so thx :)

Our flat is on the market so we permanently have to have it looking completely neat and tidy - it's killing me. Our kitchen bin is shut away in a cupboard along with loads of other junk, and all the stuff I'd normally have out on the kitchen countertop has been put in random cupboards by my o/h so I can never find anything. Bed made and no clothes out and keep on top of the laundry pile.

Hate doing laundry, especially cotton shirts. Supposedly they iron themselves in the dryer but I have yet to find a dryer hot enough to do that. Giving up on that.

omg i meant to respond to this days ago, my internet at home has been fucked

i am glad i helped you out robyn!

yeah and the thing about dryers is that they get out the wrinkles but too hot makes stuff shrink! and i look TERRIBLE in tight tshirts

kinder my sister in law is dealing with the same thing right now and she is going batty

I just fixed ALL the leaking faucets in this house (replacing seat washers and stem washers in 6 old compression faucets) and am having a damn proud plumbing moment!

Watching Hoarders in hopes of motivating myself to clean.

I have found that particular motivational tactic to be successful on several occasions.

how do i get my tub clean, like CLEAN. it's not too bad, but i feel as if no amount of bleach/oxyclean/scrubbing gets it white.

Have you tried the magic eraser? I don't know how the damn thing works but it's f'ing magical.

hmmm no, maybe i will!

If the magic eraser doesn't do the trick, you could try Barkeeper's Friend or CLR - it depends what the stains are (rust/mineral scale/etc) and if the enamel is crazed or not (if it's porcelain/enamel over cast iron). If you've got a fiberglass tub (like a shower surround set up), I'm not sure if either BF or CLR would be safe for it.

i think it's just soap scum, no rust. the tub seems newish, pretty sure it's not porcelain/enamel. it just seems like nothing will dissolve this v faint layer of grime.

Magic erasers ftw then. They come in 2 strengths; you might try the super heavy duty one first - it has like double the magic element.

the magic eraser is a p funny phenomenon lol

I use them at work on the white boards - they work so much better than the standard erasers and take off every last bit of diagrams that have been left to age for years because no one could remember what they were for and if they were important. Plus, all the "dust" from the ink stays in the sponge somehow. magic!

I gave up. I'm watching Battlestar Galactica and painting my nails black. Fuck washing a floor.

lol amen

I misread that as painting yr floors black

damn that would be a cool look. black wood floors with like white furniture? sign me up

hi! any good cleaning advice for getting crusty blackened sugar out of your oven that DOESN'T the glass-dish-of-ammonia trick? i tried that tack last night but our kitchen isn't well ventilated and the fumes started making me a bit dizzy after an hour. otoh just using hot paper towels isn't really getting me anywhere either...

boiling water & furious scrubbing with steel wool if you've got the patience.

would steel wool scratch? i have scouring pads

steel wool dude, it won't harm any. scouring pads would work too but less effectively. maybe a little baking soda

Or Bon Ami maybe.

We have a porcelain kitchen sink that the gloss has worn off from, and food stains had kind of taken it over. I've scrubbed it with hot water and dish soap many times, and I reassured myself that I knew it was clean, it was just that color permanently.

My mom took one look at it and got out the bathroom bleach cleanser and my sink is now rawther blindingly white.