Our New Toy

Our vacuum was very very old.  My grandma bought it probably 12 years ago.  It finally kicked the bucket last week.  We knew it was fairly sick and had already talked about what its replacement would be.  So we grabbed one of those handy-dandy Bed Bath & Beyond coupons and headed to the store.

I spent a few moments chatting with one of the sales associates about the features of the different vacuums they had.  With her recommendations we went with the same vacuum that we had initially wanted.  And I'm glad she didn't try to up-sell us.  This is what we came home with:

Please ignore my blindingly white legs ;-)

We got it home, snapped it together and immediately put it to use.  And I immediately fell in love.  This thing is awesome!!!  Vacuuming may be my new favorite chore!  I can totally see Husband and I arguing over who gets to vacuum.  We're two happy campers!

P.S.  Bed Bath & Beyond and Dyson both have no idea that I exist or blogged about either of them, but if they do discover this and would like to give me free things I wouldn't be opposed.

Closet Organizing

A couple weeks ago, I was tired of the disarray in my closet.  More specifically my side of the closet.  I wish I'd taken more pictures (I really have to get better at that!).  

Here is my side after I'd taken the mess off the top shelf.

Here's my mess on the floor...of course it's mostly shoes.

Scarves and shoes that need to be organized and put away.

Shirts that didn't make the cut for outfits laying on top of the shoes.

Purses and scarves neatly put in to homes.

Clothes nicely put away on hangers rather than on top of shoes.

No more piles on the floor.  Plus it's nicely vacuumed.

And one big bag of clothes delivered to Goodwill.  Ahh organization.  Have you been organizing anything lately?

January Challenge Complete!

Our challenge for the last month was to get rid of 111 things in 1/11.  We started on New Year's Day and it seemed so easy.  We got rid of about 60 things in about 30 minutes.  And then it stopped being easy.  Here was my first post on the project.  Around 10:30pm on January 31, Husband and I went through the closets in the house looking for the last few items to help us meet our goal.  I was quite pleased!

I was gonna catch you up on the remaining items we took to Goodwill, but I can't find our list.  It's quite possible that Husband threw it away as item number 112.  But I was a little better about taking pictures, so I'll share those with you.

It was definitely a challenge but also definitely worth it.  What a great way to start the year by getting rid of stuff we were holding on to for no apparent reason.

Clean Sweep

Once the weather cooled down enough that we were able to do some work outside, we got out butts in gear to clean out the garage.  It had been a little over a year since we had given the garage any TLC and it was in desperate need.  See...

Our first step was to take EVERYTHING out of the garage and put it on the driveway.  We had about seven different people stop to ask us if we were having a garage sale.  Too bad we didn't have a better idea of what we were getting rid of beforehand, or we might have been able to make a buck or two.  But instead we had to break the news that we were just cleaning.

We swept and swept and swept some more.  That's one of the awesome things about living the desert is the massive quantities of dirt that infiltrates our house (please note sarcasm).  We were both pleased with the fact we only two or three scorpions, all of which were dead!  News good enough to make us wanna do a happy dance.  We spent about two hours going through everything in our garage.  What we didn't want was sorted in to two piles: trash and Goodwill.  What we wanted to keep was organized better.  And then it was time to load everything back in the garage.  This was the fun part, because I got to dictate where everything was going to go.  I like playing general!  In the end our garage looked like this...

We were soooooo pleased with the results.  I would like to be able to tell you a month later it still looks this good.  But then I'd be lying.  But in all honesty, it still looks loads better than it did initially.  We're trying to keep it nice, especially since temperatures are rising and it'll be another ten months before we'll be able to bear working in the garage that long again.

Lesson 57- What I Do on My Day Off

A few weeks ago I had a random Friday off from work for no real reason. We can call it a mental health day. Now a normal person would have spent the day reading, shopping, and doing other 'fun' things. But not me. I chose to spend the day cleaning the house. Catching up on laundry and doing this fun chore: cleaning the fridge.

After taking everything out of the fridge I realized that perhaps this wasn't the brightest thing I could have done in the middle of the day, in the middle of summer, in the middle of the Sonoran desert. Oops! Luckily, there were no casualties.

I sprayed all the shelves with Clorox Green Works (love that stuff!) and wiped them till they were nice and pretty. Then I wiped them again! When they were satisfactorily clean I loaded everything back in to the fridge. Pretty sure we had the best looking fridge on the block that week!

See all those condiments on the door. More proof that making over this former bachelor pad still needs a lot of work!

Lesson 54-Cleaning the Laundry Room

The next step is making the laundry room one of the best looking rooms in the house was a good ol' fashioned cleaning. Have I mentioned that this was once a bachelor pad? Would you like to imagine what it looked like? Or you can just look at this picture:

Yuck, right?!

So aside from the obvious floor cleaning that needed to be done. I figured this would be a good time to clean the washer and dryer as well. I first took the vacuum and cleaned the dryer vent in the wall. Apparently this also helps the efficiency of the dryer and we're all for being energy efficient and 'green'. To get the dust from under the lid of the washer I took a paper towel and Vaseline. The dust sticks to the Vaseline like no other. Genius, really. Next up, vinegar. I ran a cup of vinegar through the washer to clean that out. I also took the lint trap out of the dryer and ran 1/2 vinegar 1/2 water through it to completely free it of any lint.

So now not only did our laundry room get a cosmetic face-lift, but the washer and dryer got some much needed TLC as well. Do you have any cleaning tips for laundry rooms?

Lesson 47-What is your definition of clean?

Source

A few weeks ago my 'rents were coming to visit. I had gotten their room ready as well as the hall bathroom that they would use. I was talking to Husband on my lunch break to ensure the house would be presentable when my parents arrived shortly after my return from work. Husband assured me that he had straightened up the house and there was nothing to worry about.

That afternoon I returned home to a sink full of dishes, dog toys all over the living room, kitchen counters full of crud, and bits and bobs all over the carpet.

'This is his idea of clean?!' I thought to myself. What exactly did he do to 'straighten up'? Luckily for me, my parents were running late and I was able to get the living room and kitchen up to my standards for being clean.

Source

But it got me wondering (even on Facebook): why do men and women have different definitions of clean? Why would God do that to us?

Husband isn't as bad as man portrayed in pic--just using it for some comedic hyperbole.

Lesson 38- Spring Cleaning III

It's time for part three of my Spring Cleaning series. This time we tackled the closets. For some odd reason all of our closets have our clothes in them. And for another odd reason, we have way too many winter clothes considering we live in a city that doesn't have seasons.

We both went through all the closets and took out all clothes we weren't wearing anymore. They were put in garbage bags and will very soon be taken to Goodwill to be passed on to a new, good home. Clean closets and a good deed!

Lesson 37- Spring Cleaning II

I'm back for part two to my very exciting series on Spring Cleaning. This time I tackled the junk drawer. Again this was a part of the house I did not touch when I moved in after we got married. I think Husband had some kind of strange pride in the junk drawer. I was ok with it, until it got to the point of not being able to open or close easily. Then I got frustrated and annoyed by it. Action had to be taken.



I took everything out. Then I made Husband go through everything. A lot was thrown in the trash. Some stuff put in the garage. And other stuff found new homes in the house. It looks a lot better, but I'm not convinced I'm finished with it yet.

Lesson 36- Spring Cleaning I

This week I'll be doing a little series on Spring Cleaning, cause it's that exciting time of the year! Oh joy!

While cleaning our bathroom the other day, I realized that our medicine cabinet was crammed full of stuff. And when I started looking at all that stuff I started wondering if it all really needed to be crammed in there. It was one of those spaces in the house that I organized when I moved in, but didn't actually pay too much attention to. Oops.

So I pulled everything out of the cabinet and started reading expiration dates. Husband had some stuff in there from 2001!!! Holy good grief! Needless to say close to half of the stuff that was crammed in the medicine cabinet ended up in the trash can. And now there's even room for me to store some stuff! Who'd've thunk it?!

Most toiletries and cosmetics have a shelf life of 12-24 months. Prescription medications will last 12 months; over-the-counter will last about 24 months. Make sure to watch your expiration dates! Aside from the fact it frees up shelf space, it could be harmful using past-dated stuff!!!

And here ends part one of my Spring Cleaning Series!

Lesson 31- Saving My Marriage

Ok, so maybe the title of this post is a bit on the drastic side. My marriage is definitely not on the rocks. But that does bring me to the rocks on my ring finger. I have a beautiful wedding ring--not that I'm bragging. But it's really pretty. Unfortunately, it is turning my finger really ugly. Not in a Husband bought a cheap-o ring and my finger's turning green ugly, but in a red, irritated skin ugly. Either way, it's no good. I wanna wear my wedding ring, but not if it's going to make me feel like my finger might come off.

So I needed to come up with a solution to clean my ring and disinfect it. So I came up with this quick and easy solution.
* 1/2 cup water
* 1/2 cup Windex
* soft bristled toothbrush

I put the water in a Pyrex bowl in the microwave for 1 minute 30 seconds, till nice and hot. Then I added the Windex to the bowl. I let the ring sit in the water for our 4 minutes. Next I scrubbed and rubbed the ring to get all the gunk off of it. Finally, I left it on the counter to air dry. And it looks so pretty and shiny!

As for my finger, I've been putting Rosebud salve on it. I love that stuff. My grandma introduced me to it and I feel in love instantly. So my finger looks and feels a lot better. And I know Husband will be relieved that I can still wear the beautiful ring he gave me.

Got any other jewelery cleaning tricks? Or remedies passed down from grandma's? Has anybody else suffered from wedding-ring-gunk-itis?