a clean kitchen.
Jacques Torres hot chocolate with two scoops of ice cream.
some creative time.
What you don't see:
our messy bedroom.
the toddler that just won't nap.
my "I'm cleaning our home" look.
Over the past week or so I have been reorganizing and thoroughly cleaning a little bit each day. It feels like a huge project, when actually we live in a small space and only have so many rooms and closets and cabinets to overhaul. Each day I have tackled an area and let something else I normally do, go. Yesterday I gave the living room the cleaning of a lifetime (I washed the couch. Can I blame this on the nesting instincts of pregnancy or my intermitent bouts of OCD?). And, so there was no time for crafting. Today, I emptied and cleaned our kitchen cabinets (trying to rid of urban house pests...no, not mice this time...something else...). But when reviewing my work-work for the week, I realized it was an unusually light load. So, I took the day 'off' and spent time crafting instead.
It's funny because I feel like I am in a similar mindset as the messy days of December. Hold on. It will soon be clean. But I have cleaning for over a week and the mess seems to shift to another room.
Cleaning is so messy.
12 comments:
no kidding!
Kitchen looks great. I don't want to imagine what urban house pest you have now.
Washing the couch? With soap and water? In your new washer and dryer? What do you mean?
yes, what do you mean? with Resolve or something like that?
I'm doing a much lighter version of your schedule. I cleaned the junk drawer out over the weekend...you know the drawer where things go that have no other home? well, I organized it and cleaned it right up. It is now a thing of beauty. When I look into it, I forget how messy the rest of the kitchen is.
I, too, live in a tiny place --especially for Los Angeles where bigger is better. I call it the "Treehouse." Tiny, little home up in the trees...which I love, but it does bring other challenges.
This might sound odd. Prepare yourselves. I clean the couch with vinegar. I read in a housekeeping book called "Organic Housekeeping". It's all about non-toxic alternatives to cleaning. So I have a spray bottle filled with 1/2 water, 1/2 vinegar for cleaning all kinds of things...including the couch. I spray an area and wipe it down. This removes dust and stuff, but has also removed juice and milk that Andrew has spilled on the couch. And the smell of vinegar is gone as soon as the vinegar evaporates. So, our place does not smell like a pickle factory! It usually smells like a cookie factory. I also clean my rugs this way...and my counters and windows.
I know, I know...a little weird.
Oh! and for the new friends in our cabinets (yucky bugs...I don't even want to say their names...so gross), I used a spray of water, dish detergent and borax. Those guys hate borax and it is not toxic, so you don't feel weird spraying your kitchen cabinets with it. Again, this tip was from that same book. It really is a good read. If you have no trace of OCD.
I've got to get (or read) that book. Often your solutions intrigue me, and I'm bothered by the strong chemicals in most cleaners.
So it was borax afterall...I'm glad you found a solution. That's what the missionaries always talked about using in Africa.
I use vinegar too! I have that book, but I've never applied it to my couches! I really like it, too.
Yay for vinegar! I buy it in bulk and use it for EVERYTHING. Grapefruit Seed Extract is a good natural disinfectant, too (can also be used for viruses and infections).
I went through the same kind of thing when I was pregnant- I wasn't sure if it was nesting or knowledge of the fact that it would be a long time before I'd have a chance to do it again. Either way- it feels good to get it done, doesn't it?
Will you please teach me how to italicize?
When you are typing your post, there should be a toolbar above the empty space for blogging with an italicized 'i'. Click to italicize, unlick to unitalicize. Click. Unclick. See?
For Dance of the Gates: :)
Safari doesn't show that button. Just spell-check, picture-load and preview. And it doesn't recognize keyboard commands like ctrl+i (or at least, doesn't recognize it as a command to italicize.) What browsers are you guys using that give you buttons?
(Assuming the button comment wasn't a tease . . . There really are buttons . . . right?)
Hi Robyn!
I have that book too and I love it. It has some really helpful advice and great ways to get things you don't think about much (like the couch) clean without using toxic cleaning products. Vinegar certainly is the magic product. That and baking soda! I use the book as much as I can but I also use Seventh Generation Kitchen/Bathroom cleaner. Sometimes, using vinegar, water and baking soda just doesn't make me feel satisified enough-so I go for the "big guns". In reality, it's probably not needed!
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