Home Ec 101

Entries Tagged as 'Cleaning that mess'

From Spotlessly Clean To Comfortably Lived In To Call The Health Department

June 30th, 2009 14 Comments

retrochick.JPGIvy says:

About 80% of the people I know would describe their house as “comfortably lived in.” That title is not always accurate. I remember some people Mr. Ivy knew that described their house that way and a couple of years later, Child Protective Services came in (this woman also described herself as a great mom, heh) and what they found was a house so filthy that it made the news. Complete fabrications notwithstanding, I think most people who call their house “comfortably lived in” are really describing the level of clean that they are comfortable with.

Take my grandma on my mom’s side. Before her hoarding (child of the Depression) got ahold of her, she described her house as comfortably lived in. Now, my cousin and I put a quarter on top of one of her shelves to see how long it would be before she dusted them and it stayed there 2 years before he and I came up a quarter short at the candy store and I raced back to grandma’s to get it. 10 years later I helped her pack to move to Tennessee and that shelf was still not dusted.

But grandma’s not dusting didn’t mean she ran a dirty household, really. You could always count on her bathrooms being spotlessly clean and smelling nice and she never left a dish dirty her entire life. See, her comfort level included having a clean bathroom and kitchen, but not having her shelves dusted.

My other grandma, on the other hand, not only wasn’t a fan of dusting, but she wasn’t a huge fan of dishes either. You could come into her house at any time and pretty much guarantee that there’d be at least one or two dishes in her sink. Not that she’d let them pile up and her kitchen would get call-the-health-department dirty, but unlike my other grandmother, she didn’t get things right away.

I am not a natural housekeeper, but I grew up in a spotlessly clean house and I strive every day to be more like my mother, who is an excellent housekeeper. My problem is, I’m random. You could come into my house at any time and never know what you’ll find. It might be spotlessly clean (less likely, unless I know you’re coming, haha), it might be comfortably lived in (most likely) or it might be call-the-health-department dirty. (only likely if I’m depressed or sick)

So, Home Eccers, this begs the question: how would you classify your house? What’s important to you that it’s clean and what can you leave for awhile and not get too worried about? What could you try to be better at? One thing I’m working on is being like my one grandma and not letting dirty dishes sit.

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Getting Started: Beating The Laundry Monster

June 16th, 2009 17 Comments

retrochick.JPGIvy says:

For many, keeping up with laundry is their Achilles’ heel when it comes to housekeeping. I know that it sure is mine. It seems that whenever I manage to get caught up, there’s a new giant pile lurking somewhere 5 seconds afterwards. So I share with you some of the strategies I’ve picked up over the years to keep the laundry monster at bay. And I know some of our lovely home eccers who don’t have trouble with the laundry will jump in with their own helpful hints.

Make it easy on yourself- limit the amount of clothes you have. This is a hint Heather’s shared with me at least 40 million times. “But I’m a clothes horse,” I tell her. “I can’t help it!” She tells me I’ll always have trouble with the laundry, then. I can dig that. Now, I do take that somewhat to heart- all the ill-fitting, permanently stained, ugly clothing is removed as soon as possible. It’s especially important to deal with kid clothes, since they grow out of things so quickly. If you’re saving clothes for another kid, box them up and put them away somewhere.

Put off season clothes away. Speaking of boxing things up and putting them away, it’s summer. Put your winter clothes away. In the winter, do the opposite. This might not be necessary if you’re living in a house with only adults, but I can tell you, if you have kids, this saves piles of time. It’s June 16th and I live in Tennessee. I just washed a pair of winter gloves. Why? They didn’t get put away and I’m sure one of my kids was playing with them and tossed them in the laundry pile. Arrrgh.

Get a system going for your laundry. Some people like to wash once a week. Some people like to wash every day. Decide what sort of person you are, and stick to the schedule. Right now, I’m a fan of washing once a week. Monday is my laundry day, and that’s what I do all day on Mondays. Come heck or high water. If you’re an every day sort of launderer, then make sure you do at least one load every single day. (More or less, depending on how much laundry you need to do.)

Fold and put away immediately when the dryer buzzer goes off. Don’t mess around. Not only will you end up with wrinkly clothes, but also clothes are more likely to sit in your washer if you have a load behind it. Ewww. Smelly clothes. It wastes time and water and energy and, and, and. Just suck it up and deal with the dryer right away.

Go ahead and spend a little more for a laundry detergent scent you love. Of course, if someone in your house is allergic, forget that idea. But if you can, get a scent that you find absolutely wonderful. It makes laundry just that much better to do. Plus, your clothes will smell fabulous. Bonus!

If you’re behind, make laundry your priority. Whenever I get behind on my laundry, I just plow in and do laundry until it’s all finished. Sure, that new pile will spring up in no time, but being caught up feels soooo good. And by “plow in and do it til it’s all finished,” I mean DAY AND NIGHT. This is a little harder in the summer when it’s miserably hot, but you let it get behind, pay the price, ha!

Sorting got you down? Shout Color Catcher to the rescue! Man, I hate sorting laundry, so I really just don’t anymore. Instead, I put clothes in (excepting towels, which have to be washed seperately due to fabric softener issues and delicates, for obvious reasons) until the washer’s full enough and then toss in a Shout Color Catcher. I’ve not had a single pink sock since starting to use these. I think that’s totally worth the extra cost.

Keep your laundry area clean. Nothing makes you want to do laundry less than a dirty laundry room. My laundry room also happens to be the best place for cat boxes. So before I go in to do laundry, I clean the area well. I keep a push broom in the laundry room to push stray cat litter out of the way throughout laundry day.

OK, now it’s your turn: Tell me, Home Eccers, what are your laundry strategies?

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Getting Started: The Great Bathroom Cleansing Ritual

June 13th, 2009 12 Comments

retrochick.JPGIvy says:

Getting your house back in shape absolutely requires that you clean the bathroom. Let me tell you, you could have mounds of laundry piled everywhere and a spotless bathroom and I totally wouldn’t think you’re gross. But make me use a dirty bathroom and I’ll take pictures and post them here on Home Ec 101 with the Home Ec 101 Seal of Disapproval. Just kidding.

Mostly.

But seriously, cleaning your bathroom is a must. Where to get started with this disaster area?

First, remove all clothes, towels, and washcloths that are strewn about. Perhaps you’re the sort of person who never, ever lets dirty clothes go anywhere but the hamper. Or perhaps you’re like all my family members who like to drop their clothing right next to the hamper. Either way, if there is clothing in your bathroom, remove it.

Next, discard all trash in the bathroom. I normally empty the bathroom trash every week come trash day, but somehow little bits of trash tend to end up in odd places, like underneath cabinets and behind the toilet. I don’t always get those on trash day, so I gather up all that flotsam plus all the trash in the trashcan, and take it out.

Now, clear off your sink area. Yes, even the stuff that normally goes there. Just set it in the cabinet for now.

Then vacuum or sweep the floor and the bottom of your tub/shower. And dust anything that needs dusting. This concludes the “dry” portion of your bathroom cleaning experience. Let’s move on to the “wet” part.

Put your toilet bowl cleaner stuff around the rim of your toilet bowl and close up the toilet to let it soak in. I particularly like the extra caustic, super-chemical kinds of toilet cleaners. Your mileage may vary, depending on how green you are. I’m pretty green, but when it comes to toilet cleaning, gimme chemicals.

Then do your shower. For this, I like a vinegar and water 50/50 mix. Nothing removes soap scum quite as well as plain ol’ white vinegar and water. Just spray and wipe. Don’t forget your shower curtain, spray and wipe that bad boy, too.

Next, move on to your sink, mirror, and other things that need to be sprayed and wiped. Not your toilet, not yet. That comes last. I have a flat plastic scraper (like the ones Pampered Chef gives you to clean off your stoneware) that I use to scrape off toothpaste yuck. Don’t forget to clean behind and under your faucet!

On to the toilet! A little scrubbing here, a little scrubbing there, and voila! Clean toilet.

Finally, mop. And then you’re done with the bathroom and can move on to more fun tasks, like laundry.

And that concludes the bathroom cleaning. Whew! Wasn’t that fun?!

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Getting Started: The Pile Of Dishes From H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks

June 11th, 2009 18 Comments

retrochick.JPGIvy says:

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from people wondering, “Where do you start when your house is a mess?” Yes, sometimes it is very overwhelming when pretty much everywhere is a disaster. I ask people: “What bothers you the most? Start there.” Now, the answer does differ some, but largely people answer that the worst part is their messy kitchen OR their messy bathroom.

The worst part of a messy kitchen?

Dishes.

We’ve all had an evening where we’ve looked at the pile of dishes and thought, “I’ll get that in the morning.” Sometimes in periods of high stress, sickness, or just plain laziness (hey! I’ve been there! laziness is a perfectly valid excuse! as my grandmother said, “A poor excuse is better than none.”) we neglect the dishes longer than just overnight and the next thing you know, there’s no clean dishes in the house and you’re wondering if it would just be easier to trash all those dishes and just eat off paper plates from now on.

Sure, it would be easier, but it’s hardly good for the Earth and it’s hard on your pocketbook as well. I have a theory- I try to do a lot of “green” stuff so I can take extra-long showers. (Sorry about that, Mother Earth.) So, let’s skip throwing away all your dishes and let’s just wash them, shall we?

Start by emptying your sink. Pile all the dishes up on the counter, in a dish pan, wherever, but get them out of your sink entirely. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, you need the sink, even if you’re just going to rinse (or not rinse) them and put them in the dishwasher. Secondly, it’s a kind of mental trick. You already have one thing clean. Now you’ll be a bit more motivated to clean everything else.

Now that you have your sink cleaned out, rinse it nicely and shine it up. (alternate sink shining method right here) Now that you have your sink shining, get to work on the dishes. If you have a dishwasher, load up a load of dishes and run it. If not, go straight to the hand washing.

Whether you have a dishwasher or not, you’re probably going to have to do some hand washing. Anything that you couldn’t fit into the dishwasher, hand wash it. Wash until all your dishes are done AND put away. That includes any in the dishwasher. Let me reiterate.

Wash until all your dishes are done AND put away.

This also means going all through your house and finding any dishes hiding out in places they normally shouldn’t, like your teenager’s bedroom. Now, naturally you might miss a dish or two, but do your best. Once you have accomplished that, it will be easy to move on to something else that needs to be cleaned.

Tell me, Home Eccers….I know YOUR house never, ever gets out of control, but let’s just pretend for a minute that it did. What would bother you the most?

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Dirty Drip Pan Blues

April 29th, 2009 11 Comments

Dear Home Ec 101,

How in the WORLD do you clean off the reflectors on the stove top after you’ve successfully made them the most horribly dirty items in your house?  I am down to one burner that I can use without setting my fire alarms off!

Signed,

~Smells Like Smoke in Smallville

Heather says:
Oh, how I love my ceramic top stove. You, my friend, have just reminded me just how much I hated that chore. I have several methods, but your electric range’s drip pans  are as dirty as you say, I’d pull out the big guns.

The nearly fool proof way to get greasy and grimy drip pans clean is to spray each pan thoroughly with oven cleaner. Then, place the pieces in a garbage back or a pail with a lid and close tightly. Place the bag or bucket outside over night, then wash with regular detergent.

For not quite so dirty electric range reflectors Barkeeper’s Friend comes in handy. The oxalic acid, a safe and non toxic chemical, will help remove grease. 

Another option I have heard repeatedly, but not tested, is to soak the drip pans in a dishpan with a dryer sheet. If you try this version, email your results, I’d love to read a testimonial.

Lastly, if the oven cleaner method does not work, drip pans are reasonably priced between $1 and $6 each. Don’t beat yourself up if they don’t come clean. File it under live and learn, just don’t let them get quite so filthy next time.

Send your household questions to helpme@home-ec101.com.

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