Yesterday I cleaned the oven. It could still probably use overnight baking soda-ing, but it’s cleaner.
I’m going to go on another donate-to-Goodwill hunt this week. I’m going to closely scrutinise the kitchen drawer with… stuff in it. You know. THe weird-shaped ice cube tray salad tongs melon baller drawer.
Time to wash dishes.
Rilchiam, have you tried the Swiffer duster things? As easy to use as a feather duster, imho, and they do hold onto most of the dust (vs. really none of it) so that’s good.
If you disapprove of disposables on principle, my sister tells me you can simply throw the paper part of them in with a load of laundry and they can be reused several times before dying.
On this side: I came down with a stomach bug on Friday, so my only cleaning since then has been wiping up unmentionable messes on the bathroom floors.
I’m starting to feel human again, so it’s time to see what havoc has been wrought downstairs while I huddled in bed.
I was quite happy with what I did Saturday–got everything tidied, dusted and vacuumed, and cleaned up the worst part of the garage–but after taking yesterday off, the front part of the house is a mess. I made a large dinner last night and it’s not all cleaned up yet.
My latest life milestone: our oldest daughter, age 6, spent her first night away from home last night! OK, it was only at my parents’ house; this was her first ‘try-out’ so that she can go over to friends’ houses. She wants to go spend the night with a good friend who lives 12 miles out of town, down a mile of dirt road–which I’m not willing to drive at midnight. Also, my parents want to take her to LA for Easter vacation, which would be great, only we get really nervous about these sorts of things because of her allergies. My folks are great, but they are often a bit careless about the food thing–they just forget parts of the long list of things that are verboten.
So, today, sheets and towels and a general tidy-up of the front of the house.
My landlord just remodeled my bathroom.
The good news is, the floors and counters now no longer have 40+ years of ground-in, rental-house dirt. This is awesome. I can clean and actually see results.
The bad news is, everything else in my house is covered in plaster dust.
I spent yesterday afternoon on hands and knees, trying to scrub it off of the hard surfaces. The vacuum, scarily, did not extract anything from the carpets and upholstery. Dusting, on the other hand, sweeps it into piles that can then be vacuumed up.
Sigh.
No, no principle. I just hate the time consumption of constantly having to tear off fresh towels and spray them, and I cringe at the scratching sound. Do Swiffers make a sound?
Nope. At least none that my aging ears can detect. 
Oh, congratulations! How did you do? I’m sure she did fine, but did you get any sleep? 
Y’all will never guess what happened. We had the birthday party for the two year old on Saturday. I had a pretty bad cold, but no real way to cancel, so I just kept slamming the Robitussin and charged through it. Sunday morning, I woke up with the stomach flu on top of the cold. And no voice.
Not only did my husband take baby duty all day long, but HE CLEANED THE KITCHEN FROM THE PARTY! Took out all the trash and recycling, loaded the dishwasher, even wiped down the countertops and sink!
And then he did two loads of laundry! All his, granted, but still - I thought I must surely be hallucinating!
Yes, we slept fine, though of course we kept the phone next to the bed. Now the little one wants to sleep over too, and grandma has promised a double event soon. This is good, since we’ve been planning to take a weekend trip as a couple for…well, over a year now. Oops.
I am truly impressed by Mr. WhyNot! Now that is good husband material right there. Post birthday pictures, and feel better soon!
My floor is clean. Yay my floor.
Now I have to keep it that way. I’ve been pretty good about dishes and order.
Being a cleaning lady must be tiresome. I don’t mean while you’re at work, but because the ones I know seem to go through life looking into every single room’s dark corners. Lilbro’s hired the same cleaning lady Mom uses; she went to his house for “regular cleaning” for the first time last week and proceeded to inform Mom that “well, you know them single guys! Filthy, I tell you, and messy!”
Then after Mom said “messy? That would be a first with that boy, he was orderly when he was 5,” the cleaning lady admitted that well, actually, everything was neat and orderly and it was easy to understand what went where and there were no dishes in the sink and the shower didn’t have any grim monsters hiding under a black crust or anything, she just gave it a wipe. But, there was dust! And the windows needed doing!
Yeeeeees. That’s why he hired you. Because he hates dusting and glass panes. Duh.
You have a cleaning lady who will do windows??
If she can be persuaded to emigrate to America, I assure her an endless pool of clients await.
I caught up the back-dated laundry last night, and everything that came out of the Room of Doom is gone now except the desk. My floors need cleaning badly, though. No cleaning at all got done this weekend, due to a combination of fun (went to the state fair) and yuck (didn’t feel good Sunday) so I’m not where I’d usually be this early in the week.
I think today I should probably vacuum and mop. The floor’s not too clean-feeling. And I should clear the sewing stuff off the table. I’ll get out a bag for my next round of decluttering, too.
I am having a very, very clean and tidy person over for tea this morning (in four minutes!) I’d just like a moment of thankful silence in honor of the merciful genius who invented Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. My kitchen is almost presentable.
I have never tried those Mr. Clean things. I should.
Today I really, really, need to mop. That is my job for the day. Of course, we are also starting school back up today–our school district took last week off, so we did too so we could play with our friends who were more available than usual–so I’m not sure how I’ll do it.
I do windows… maybe I should move to America and start an agency specializing in “windows, glass and metalware. Sorry, no floors.”?
They are simply amazing. I have these dining room chairs (but not the table) from Cost Plus World Market. They were called “Water Hyacinth” or something. Anyway, they’re braided in soft plant material of some sort (I don’t know if it’s actual water hyacinth or not). It’s not hard like wicker, but more like softened corn husks. The Mr. Clean gets crayon off of it! It also gets 2 month old yogurt handprints, sneaker scuffs, those mysterious gray smudges and red jello stains off of flat apartment-white paint over 80 year old plaster walls. They will make life as a mom and teacher so much easier, I guarantee it.
I’d hire you in a minute! Unfortunately, you wouldn’t be able to get insurance, so no one *else *would hire you. The insurance companies are the ones that exclude windows, because they got too many claims both for breakage and health claims for hurt cleaning ladies falling off ladders and putting hands through windows. It’s still possible to find specialty window cleaners, but they’re very expensive because their insurance is so high.
I’m working on eliminating hot spots. The top of the stairs and the corner of the desk are the worst offenders. Also, I’m going to have to get a new toothbrush holder, a plastic one. The ceramic one is adorable, but it’s nothing but a scum catcher, with too many crevices to scrub all the time.
And I cleaned the plastic mat under the computer desk. That should have been one of the twelve (seven?) labors of Hercules.
Adding that to my list of “reasons why Seguridad Social doesn’t suck anywhere near as much as us pampered Spaniards insist in saying it sucks…”
Most cleaning ladies I know don’t climb on ladders (that one has vertigo, she doesn’t even climb on stools), but now that I think about it, I’ve never seen the kind of tools they use Over There.
My dining table is in a bad place. It’s right where, when I come in through the garage with my bags and stuff, I dump everything on the way to shut off the alarm system (only one panel, and it’s in the hall, past the front door.) And then I never go back and put away all the stuff I’m carrying, like jackets and stuff. I gotta work on that.
Today is kitchen day, and the Counter of Clutter is bad again. I’ve done some, but we’re also setting up a bookstore in the dining room (learning to add up three two-digit numbers by playing store) so it’s a bit busy.
A friend of mine found some miracle window stuff on eBay; I need to find out the name and get some. My windows need a good cleaning!
