Clean House

Today our poor house got a good cleaning. Both inside and out. Inside involved the usual washing, vacuuming, and dusting but for some reason this week there was an overwhelming amount of dog hair everywhere. I am quite thankful for my super Dyson vacuum cleaner (highly recommended to all who have dogs, or allergies, or just want to invest on a super awesome, powerful vacuum).

While I was inside doing all that, Norm was outside cleaning the porch railing... the wrap.around.porch railing. 

Step 1: Spray wood with diluted bleach

Step 2: Scrub with brush

Step 3: Rinse

Step 4: Repeat until completed

For obvious reasons, the dogs were barricaded in the back yard. Although they hung out by the barricade so they could watch Norm work. Here's Pellet hanging out:

Then there is Cali. She can't do normal things, always has to be the obnoxious one:

Here is a "before", "during" and "after" the cleaning. Amazing! 

Our railing is super white and shiny now. It's borderline painful to the eyes...

Dyson Wonders

For a long time, Norm and I had been eying the Dyson vacuum cleaners. We had heard nothing but awesome and wonderful things about them. Our only hold back was the price (so super expensive) and the fact that our current vacuum cleaner worked just fine (relatively speaking).

Finally our vacuum died in December. So we hesitantly ventured out to shop for a Dyson. We lucked out and they were on ridiculous discount, so we put our Christmas money (and Norm's birthday money) and made the big leap and purchased a Dyson.

It is hard to describe how amazing this vacuum cleaner is. It not only picks up dog hair from the carpet (along with strings, leaves, whatever) but it also picks up unbelievable (and disgusting) amounts of dirt, dust and whatever else happens to be living in our carpets at the moment.

I thought about taking a picture to upload... but it's actually quite gross and I wasn't 100% comfortable sharing the grossness of our carpets online.

Besides the house and the cars, I think this purchase has been the wisest investment of our funds.

Cleaning

This weekend I cleaned my house. Not cleaning like dusting and vacuuming (I do that every weekend) but cleaning like dusting, vacuuming, ironing, taking apart the fan in the living room and running the glass globes through the dishwasher, along with the glass globes from the dining room light fixture and all the glass globes throughout the house that I could reach (with help of the ladder of course).

Cleaned every nook that had a spider web. Cleaned the oven and the drawer at the bottom of the drawer (which was quite gross... I don't think I've ever cleaned that). Another thing that was quite gross was the cover over the fluorescent light in the kitchen - talk about greasy! Not to mention laundry, mopping and sweeping outside.

I guess because seeing the nice clean floors and shiny surfaces throughout the house (brighter house, may I add) wasn't enough, I spent this afternoon cleaning out the cabinets underneath the bathrooms (why do we collect so many bottles? I found an empty rubbing alcohol bottle at one point).

Just like pulling weeds, I find cleaning almost therapeutic. Back-hurting, labor intensive cleaning. Yesterday I cleaned with music blaring and I sang along. Today I cleaned in silence. Call me strange - I'm OK with that.

The Garage

I remember growing up my mom had this thing about the garage that she always wanted it to be clean and in order. Although I never saw the point of it growing up, I find myself cleaning my garage now (yes, because I actually take time to organize and clean the garage). As a matter of fact my mom is about the only person that notices, and actually comments "wow, your garage looks so nice!" One of her most common phrases when it comes to garage cleanliness is "you should always shut the garage door right away to keep bugs, dirt, leaves, etc. away"

So I just spent the last two hours cleaning one half of the garage. I consolidated boxes, swept, put items back where they belong (like the ladder on the ladder hook, which actually fell off the wall, but at now least the ladder is over by where it belongs). Then I started coming across items to be donated and found lots! I also came across items that should be donated, but won't, like:

The white plastic trash can:

I can't get rid of it... I never know when I'll need a white plastic trash can.

The Christmas tin cans:

They come in so handy to put cookies in (because we keep cookies in the house 24/7... NOT)

The Igloo coolers:

That haven't been used since 1993 when we used to go out on the lake when we lived in Augusta. But they are so handy, can't get rid of them.

Now these following items are just plain trash that should be thrown out, but we all know that the minute we throw them out, we get stuck in a situation that goes something like this:

I really need a _______. (shoe box, big box, etc.)
I know! I have some in the garage (as you walk out to the garage to get the item needed)
Oh no! I threw them away two days ago!!! I had forgotten...
Now you are stuck looking for the exact box that you once had and now need.


Or glass jars... they always come in handy for old grease, diluting things, etc. (but do we really need this many of all shapes and sizes?).


Although I sometimes wish I had no space to store items such as the above and I would have to force myself to donate them or throw them away (right away), I truly am thankful for my garage (especially during the cold winter when I don't have to worry about defrosting my car and for whenever we get those random hail storms in March).