Entries Tagged as 'Bedroom'

I’m All Alone with my Musty Drawers

February 6th, 2009 2 Comments

Dear Home Ec 101,

An old roommate of mine borrowed a dresser from me and used it while we lived together. After she gave it back the drawers had a musty smell that I couldn’t get rid of. If I put any clothes in the drawers they come out smelling funky and musty too. What should I do??

Signed,
Funky in Fults

Heather Says:

Would you mind opening a window? Thanks. Now that the air has cleared a little, let’s get down to fixing your little problem and get your social life back on track.

Mold and mildew love nothing more than damp and still environments. Pull all of the drawers out of the dresser and give them a good wipe down with denatured alcohol. Typically you can find denatured alcohol at hardware stores, but I have seen it at WalMart in the past. Thanks to the meth dealers the quantity you can buy is limited and I wouldn’t purchase Sudafed on the same shopping trip. (Have I ever mentioned how much I hate people who make me feel like a criminal?)Wipe all the interior surfaces with the alcohol to kill any mold or mildew spores. If your drawers are painted a mild bleach solution may do the trick.

If you don’t live in a swamp, like me, set the drawers and dresser outside in the sun for a few hours to dry thoroughly. Otherwise leave it disassembled in a dry room (not the basement) for a few days.

Give it a good sniff. Still funky?

Pick up cedar chips, the same kind used for pet bedding. Fill the drawers partway and shut them tightly. Again, give it a few days.

If your friend raised a powerful stink, you may have to resort to drastic measures. Yes, I’m afraid it’s time to break out the sandpaper and lightly sand all of the interior surfaces. After sanding, apply a thin coat of varnish to all of the sanded surfaces to seal in any remaining odor.

If you need help getting the funk out of your pants, we’ve talked about that before.

Send your domestic quandries to helpme@home-ec101.com

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Deciding what to keep

April 3rd, 2008 11 Comments

Dear Home Ec 101,

I need a strong person to help me resolve to get rid of old shoes, belts, purses and scarves, even though I don’t use any of them. Some of the scarves and bags are really nice ones (if a little bit old lady-ish) inherited from my m-i-l. Some I bought in England and have happy memories attached. Some are Euro comfort shoes from when I had plantar fasciitis from running on pavement. They weren’t cheap, and what if I develop it again?

See my problem? What can I do to get my closet back?

Signed,

Stumped

Ivy says:

That can be hard to decide sometimes. I think you have to ask yourself questions when you’re determining whether to keep stuff or not. I have 3 main questions:

1. Does it have to be stored in my closet?

Often you can store things you might need later, or only once or twice a year, somewhere else. But your closet may be the best place. It’s just something you need to consider. If it would be better stored in the garage, basement, or attic, put it there.

2. Is it something I have some kind of emotional attachment to?

This one you have to be really careful with because you could probably form an emotional attachment with just about everything in your closet. I try to keep 5 items of emotional attachment or less in my closet. I have stuff like my high school letterman’s jacket and my grandma’s awesome purple dress that I’ll never fit into again, but love like crazy. Just keep a set amount of what you can keep depending on your closet size and you’ll be fine.

3. Which is worse, this item taking up space in my closet or the idea of never seeing it again?

It’s interesting, the same thing this year that you can’t bear to part with you may have no trouble at all getting rid of next year. I keep a box that are questionable items. Sometimes when I get really froggy I’ll toss the box out entirely without even looking in there. I’ve never lost anything that I truly regretted.

My Aunt Marjorie always said she only wanted to own enough stuff that she could put it all in a suitcase and just pick up and go whenever she wanted to. She consequently had one of the most uncluttered houses ever. Naturally, she owned more than a suitcase full of items, but thinking of that kept her uncluttery. I try to think of that, too.

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

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Spring Cleaning: bedrooms

March 27th, 2008 9 Comments

retrochick.JPGIvy says:

 Thanks to commenter Sandy, I am getting back on track with the spring cleaning posts. I totally have blogging ADD. I’ll be chugging along with something and then suddenly- “Look! A puppy!”

So, today we’ll talk about spring cleaning your bedrooms. Here we go, wheee!

  • I like to start with the closets. I toss everything except the clothes out of the closet and try to get rid of about half the stuff that’s in there, if possible. Eventually, you’ll get your clutter level down so low that there is mostly essential items in there, but you’ll still find stuff you don’t need, guaranteed.
  • Then take all the clothes out of the closet and get rid of anything that doesn’t fit, you hate, or is stained or torn.
  • Once you have everything out of the closet, dust the walls, ceiling and light fixtures, wash the baseboards, and vacuum. Then put everything back in there.
  • Take your comforter off the bed and then dust the fan and/or light fixtures. The reason I say take the comforter off is because funky dust is easily washed off sheets, but depending on the laundry instructions for your comforter, it may not easily be washed off. If you do have a washable comforter, take your comforter off and wash it, store it, or whatever you do with it in the spring.
  • Take the sheets, dust ruffle, and any other extraneous stuff you have on your bed and wash them. Put pillows out in the sun to air out.
  • Pull all the furniture away from the walls and wash the baseboards and use your edging tool on your vacuum cleaner to clean where the wall and carpet meet.
  • If your curtains can be washed, take them down and wash them. If not, do a thorough vacuuming of your curtains. Wash the windows, too!
  • Thoroughly dust the walls and furniture. Remember: top to bottom!
  • Empty the trash in your room.
  • Move all the furniture back and vacuum the entire room.
  • Clean out your nightstands. Get rid of anything you don’t need.
  • Put clean sheets on your bed.

Enjoy your fresh, clean bedroom!

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Avoiding the shoe drama: cubes to clean that messy closet

March 10th, 2008 5 Comments

retrochick.JPGIvy says:

Every single morning there is drama in my household. See, we keep our shoes in the hall closet but apparently the closet monster comes to my house every night and either mixes the shoes up and makes them hard to find, or if we’re really lucky the shoe monster comes and hides the shoes in various hard-to-find places throughout my house. It’s a load of fun searching for shoes at 6 AM when you need to leave at 5:59 AM.

I’ve been saying for years that I need to do something about the shoe closet, and I have done a lot of things like make everyone only keep one pair of shoes in the closet (that worked for about 5 minutes) and make people line their shoes up at the door the night before. (works great, if you remember to do it, and I don’t.)

What I’ve always wanted to do was get a shoe rack, but I really didn’t want to spend a bundle on one. I kept an eye out at thrift stores, but never found one. Finally, at the new Super Target grand opening in my town this weekend, I saw shoe cubes for $11. So now my closet is a bastion of organization:

shoe-closet.jpg

I checked Target’s ad to see if the shoe cube sale is just for the new store or if it’s for everyone, and the ad says $12.99. So, not as cheap as in the grand opening store* but still a good price. Happy organizing!
*Unless you’re in Smyrna, TN. If you are, check out the $11 storage cubes before I come in and buy the rest of them- I have ideas, muahaha

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How About Some Pillow Talk

January 18th, 2008 1 Comment

Dear Home Ec 101,

I have two boys and a husband, and their pillows usually only last a year. I get the heebie-jeebies when I start noticing stains. I think they occasionally drool in their sleep, have sweaty heads, and the preschooler is prone to midnight nose bleeds….ew. (My pillow is pristine, of course.) When the pillows get nasty I just throw them out and buy new ones. It seems so wateful! Is this what I’m supposed to do, or is there some secret method for washing pillows? I hate spending money on new pillows, and often put off buying new ones longer than I’d like because of the expense. Yet, every time I’ve tried to wash one I’ve ended up with a sodden, lumpy mess that takes days to dry and never really re-forms into a pillow anyone is willing to sleep on. I’ve tried using tennis balls in the dryer, but it’s never seemed to work for me. Maybe I’m doing it wrong.

(By the way, we use Primaloft pillows.)

Thanks,

Our landfill is filled with pillows.
girlHeather says:

But of course your pillow is pristine, it’s certainly not full of oils from your head, drool, sweat or dust mites. OK, I’m full of it, pillows are veritable sponges for all the icky stuff that is part of being human.

Prevention:

To help keep pillows from becoming dirty in the first place, invest in zippered pillow protectors. There are ones specifically marketed as allergy barriers and can be a real blessing for those with allergies. Additionally, changing pillowcases every few days will help prevent the pillow from absorbing oil and moisture. People with oily skin, hello teens, I’m talking to you, may find this helps with breakouts.

Washing:

Always follow label directions,but typically, foam pillows should be hand washed in the tub or a large sink, with a mild detergent. Take care to rinse thoroughly.

Down and synthetic down pillows can be machine washed on the gentle cycle, but only allow them to be agitated for a minute or two, and add an extra rinse.

Pillows typically are never quite the same after washing, as you have noticed. They also take a long time to dry. Foam pillows should air dry, while down and synthetic down pillows should be fluffed in the dryer, with the tennis ball trick you mentioned.

Calling it quits:

Pillows should be replaced when they are lumpy, have to be fluffed for support, or when they no longer spring back after being folded in half. Typically this is somewhere between 6 months and 2 years depending on the quality. Old pillows make great pet bedding, give your local animal shelter a call to see if they can use some.

Good luck!

Submit your question by sending an email to helpme@home-ec101.com 

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