Cleaning

i need to be cleaning right now but im feeling too lazy.

serious question: how much does it cost to get someone to clean your house once or twice a week? I have no idea.

Here the regular price is seven euros per hour. We pay a bit more, but then I really like her. Not sure how it works in other countries.

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

http://www.shespeaks.com/pages/img/review/mr-clean-magic-eraser_05102010131819.jpg

This thing is pretty fucking amazing. I was very dubious when I bought it, being skeptical of the manufacturer's bold claims and having heard that a friend's dad returned his for a refund at Target. But damn if it doesn't work like magic. It is far, far (really far) more effective than a scouring pad, sponge, or rag on everything I've used it on.

And the generic cheap-o versions work just as well.

And the Roomba is a godsend, too.

how fucking hard is it to put things in a bin without getting food all over the edge of the bin?

HOW FUCKING HARD UNIVERSE?

jesus!

lol as a continuation of the above post...

anyone in london use a cleaner? how much you pay, how many hours per week, are they good etc?

how fucking hard is it to put things in a bin without getting food all over the edge of the bin?

HOW FUCKING HARD UNIVERSE?

jesus!

u know i've thought of a phrase you could shout at them....

going rate for a good cleaner probably £7/8 p/h, stick an ad on gumtree

first person who replied to my advert was an incredibly dour slavic woman who looked like slavoz zizek crossed with john terry's mum

Man, can I echo Jesse's sentiments re: the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser? We had a couple walls we were SURE we were going to need to repaint, due to both scuff marks and dirty areas where a bookshelf was pressed up against the wall, but these got rid of all of the marks! But I do have to caution that you do want to test it on a small area first, because when we tested it on another color in another room it was found to pull the paint off with it.

I don't understand how they work so well. Not just for walls, but for food stains on countertops. They're wonderful for cleaning the range, too. And the fridge, of course.

My Roomba sucked up water and is now deceased. Fortunately iRobot has a replacement program where they send you a brand new one for cheap, or a refurb for even cheaper. Thank god, b/c that thing made a night/day difference in the state of my floors. Maybe someday I'll get a Scooba!

A blog post about how the Magic Eraser works. (I didn't know that there was a rumor (debunked) that it was toxic b/c it's made using formaldehyde.)

yaaay chemistry!!

It's springtime and talk in another thread made me think it's time for a revive.

As I said in the other thread, One thing that was SUPER inspirational (though not at all effective in changing my behavior) was hearing some guy on an HGTV show about tiny apartments say that he makes his bed every day b/c he deserves to come home to a freshly made bed.

So now, I think, I'd clean up that puddle of dried cat puke in the corner if company was coming, so why wouldn't I clean it up for Jesse....?

It is a really good way of thinking about housekeeping, IMO, even though it has been hard for me to put into practice on my own. Which is why I hired cleaners. I'm putting a higher priority on having a clean, inviting (to me!) home, and it's worth the relatively small $$.

I'm attempting to put the same amt of energy into learning about cleaning as I put into learning about other things. Then I'm going to do it. (it= keeping everything clean)

Recommendations for a wall/tall stuff dusting implement for short people?

LL I think you would like the Home Comforts book--I found it rather fascinating and read it from cover to cover (it is 896 pages!) in a weekend. Be warned that the author WILL make you feel like a disgusting savage if you do not change your sheets like every other day.

xp

I have a telescoping aluminium handle that accepts various attachments ... on the rare occasions I get inspired enough, I use it to dust the tops of bookcases, ceiling fans, ceiling corners, etc. ... much better than standing on a step-ladder or something

search "extendable broom handle"

Something that is helping me - giant boxes of disposable nitrile gloves from costco and a case of those anti-bac cleaning wipes. In the kitchen and bathroom where I can easily get to them. Also magic erasers b/c they are amazing.

This thing is wonderful

http://i.imgur.com/bfsrYHwl.jpg

(or similar)

I have gloves and a fancy apron I'm going to wear for inspiration. Bought a little fuzzy duster today while I waited for spare keys to be made too. Thanks for the suggestions!! I need to frame this in my mind as "something fun I'm doing for us" rather than "do not be disgusting piggy savage" so pls bear with my relentless positivity -- it's what I need in order to maintain interest.

I usually throw a dirty towel from the laundry over a broom and stick a chip bag clip on it to dust ceiling corners and tops of windows. Or a rubber band, that would work too.

that's a great idea orbit

project for next weekend: our ceiling fans are gross

we have one of those long skinny dusters on a pole for fans but they make such a bloody mess, i've only used it a couple of times. (hence the gross fans). But i found out about a cool way to clean them while I was googling:

get on a step ladder, and put a pillowcase over one of the fan blades as you would put the pillow case on a pillow. Then with 2 hands gently slide the pillow case off the blade, running the pillow case over the fan blade as you go, so that the dustmonsters all collect in the pillow case. And use a damp rag to wipe up what's left over. Repeat x each fan blade.

I have a pile of odd sad pillowcases just DYING to be sacrificed as dustmonster catchers. I'm excited to try this. Obv I will do this while Mr Veg is home so he can steady the ladder. Just in case.

i don't know how to reach my ceiling fan. i think the ceiling is 14 ft in my bedroom. i keep looking at it. i hate it! and the walls are dusty up there too.

i need bathtub help

What kind is it? Maybe you can use oven cleaner!

old fashioned ajax or comet, a scouring pad and elbow grease works pretty well a lot of stubborn bathtub nightmares...except horrible rust stains and mean old beaten up porcelain

that's when you reach for the CLR

yeah. there is rust between the grout. the main problem is not the tub itself but the tile.

clr might be the way to go

tilex makes a hardcore bleach spray for mold & mildew, but i have found thatvit works on nearly any kind of grout stains, maybe try that first?

orange stuff that looks like rust along the tile/grouting is often bacteria, the answer to which is bleach (and making sure your bleach use is well ventilated etc).

i deep-cleaned the bathroom a few months ago and it took the best part of an afternoon because I set out to scrub all of the tile w/ bleach -- but i'm probably not going to have to it again for another year or so now, and it's still super clean-looking now, so it really wasn't time wasted.

* to have to do it again

(actually i am thinking about redoing all the sealant because it's peeling in places)

nah i have gotten the pinkish orange mold/bacteria before. it's definitely a different color. i'm gonna CLR it. i can't even begin to describe the sealant.

well my landlord is supposed to come in and do something to the bathtub because he says something is draining into the basement, and i can imagine that might mean he is re-caulking. so that's why i have to clean.

I have to admit I never used to think I would want a pro cleaner to come in, but even having it every couple of weeks just makes such a difference -- keeps things at a sort of base level and prevents them from getting insane, and then I'm more motivated to clean the rest of the time. Of course having a kid crawling all over the floors also both (1) motivates me to keep them cleaner and (2) necessitates a lot more cleaning, since, e.g., I have to clean the floor every time she eats.

I usually throw a dirty towel from the laundry over a broom and stick a chip bag clip on it to dust ceiling corners and tops of windows. Or a rubber band, that would work too.

aha, this is cunning. I have been sitting here like a sadsack going "it's not myyyy fault there are cobwebs in the corner of every ceiling because I am too short to reach them even with my feather duster" but now I shall have NO EXCUSE

(tomorrow I might want my excuse back)

Re bathrooms, the only cleanser I use is any of those bleach-containing tile ones. I find they get the soap scum as well as anything else, PLUS the whiten grout and caulking. They are pretty harsh on grout, though, so if you're actually going to clean every week or something, maybe the disinfectant wipes would do as well.

1. Spray on foaming bleach cleanser.
2. Let sit for 10-20 mins.
3. Scrub with either a scrubby-sided dish sponge (I rotate the old dish ones into the cleaning cupboard so they have two lives) or one of those stubby iron-shaped scrub brushes.
4. Rinse w hot water.

I also wear gloves for all this fyi.

How long I leave the bleach on depends on how bad the mildew is + what's on ilx right then.

re: hiring a housekeeper

I have said, on numerous occasions: "if you are too busy to clean your own toilet, then you should look at WTF IS YOUR LIFE rather than hire somebody to CLEAN YOUR TOILET because that is just beyond the beyond."

I still really struggle with this. Something about paying another person to clean where I void my bladder and bowels. . . it really troubles me. But for the past three years, I have done just that. And it has been so helpful to me, my spouse, our marriage. . .

I dunno I am super conflicted about hiring housekeeping help. I really am. Part of it, I am sure, comes from being raised in a well-to-do family where your mom never had housekeeping help and your father still cut the lawn despite working 70-hour weeks as a Fortune 50 company exec VP. Clearly I have issues I need to work through.

Like, does my cleaning lady have a cleaning lady? Maybe? But ugh I am just really hung up on this point.

I grew up poor as dirt, so having a house cleaner is livin large. Never going back.

I used to clean houses for extra money in and after college, and my grandmother cleaned houses on and off for her entire working life. As long as you're not using Merry Maids* or similar, but hiring someone with an independent business, you are hiring an independent professional to bring their expertise to a specific job in your home, not "hiring help" or exploiting someone and forcing them to clean your toilet. And if the person you hire is like me at all, s/he's fucking psyched to have the business and is happy to have been hired.

*i worked in housekeeping at a ski resort for awhile and we used Merry Maids-type techniques, or in other words, spray with cleaner and wipe with a paper towel. Very surface, not very clean at all. Spraying the tub with windex and wiping it out with paper towels... I shudder to think of it.)

i'm relatively happy to clean things above a certain height. toilets aren't too bad. and i certainly did my share as a kid

floors and baseboards and such can gtfo tho

Jaq OTM about using oven cleaner on the shower/tub. In college I worked one summer cleaning homes, mostly post-move-out apartment cleaning, and oven cleaner was a godsend for some of the appalling (APPALLLLING) showers.

This thing

http://i.imgur.com/NC7uKOy.jpg

is great for maintenance. Surprisingly so.

Also, what carl a. said about hiring cleaners. It's an unglamorous job, but as an example, my cleaning job was for a business owned by a woman who paid a very decent wage, and was very happy to be running a good business. But yeh, screw Merry Maids (though I want to love one local likely-sweatshop b/c of it's name, "Manic Maids.")

It's unglamorous and it's physically quite hard on the body. A few months ago I was talking to one of the cleaners at the place where I work, who's in her fifties, and she said it made her sad that so many of her colleagues are young girls in their 20s who are damaging their backs etc so early in life-- for her it was very much a job you took on later in life, when you have as it were less to lose. Which wasn't a way I've ever thought about it before. I think most of the cleaners I've known, especially the young ones, have been using it as a stopgap or a part-time job to finance other concerns (my parents' last cleaner was doing an MA), whereas she was talking about people for whom it's their sole job.

I grew up in quite a seventies-feminist household so I always think about the idea of "wages for housework" in these situations -- domestic labour is a job as much as anything else. Just because people often perform it as an unbilled contribution to the running of the household doesn't change that fact. Paying someone else to do it, so long as you pay them a non-exploitative wage and don't take the piss (e.g. that you pay someone to clean and not tidy-and-clean, that you don't expect the cleaner to perform unsanitary tasks), is merely a recognition that it is a job with an economic function.

But I get that if you've been brought up in a culture of domestic goddessery it can feel like an admission that you're not fully capable. It's the same kind of admission as getting an accountant to work on your tax return, or a mechanic to flush your car radiator.

My mum & grandma both worked as cleaners, my grandma still does (she cleans old ladies' houses, at 74 she's probably going to be older than some of them soon). I'm not sure exactly why but the idea of hiring a cleaner myself makes me recoil somewhat. I think some kind of class guilt? If I hire a cleaner I become one of the posh people that thinks they're too good to clean up after themselves, or something.

Thing is I don't think my grandma would think badly of any of the people she's worked for, so this resentment is probably entirely my own making.

I grew up in quite a seventies-feminist household so I always think about the idea of "wages for housework" in these situations -- domestic labour is a job as much as anything else. Just because people often perform it as an unbilled contribution to the running of the household doesn't change that fact. Paying someone else to do it, so long as you pay them a non-exploitative wage and don't take the piss (e.g. that you pay someone to clean and not tidy-and-clean, that you don't expect the cleaner to perform unsanitary tasks), is merely a recognition that it is a job with an economic function.

This is great and OTM.

You can only really maintain a belief that it's demeaning to hire a house cleaner if you believe that housework itself is demeaning.

For me it is definitely a class guilt/posh people thing.

Our housekeeper makes far above and beyond minimum wage (I think it works out to about $30/hour), but in paying cash we do not contribute to her social security benefit, nor do we provide health insurance (she is insured through her husband, at least), nor do we contribute to a 401(k) for her. . . guess neither of us will be running for office anytime soon.

Previously we used a local company (NOT a Merry Maids joint) that did all of the payroll and benefits stuff for their employees, but damned if our current cleaner (who cleans other houses on our street) didn't march up to our front door and tell me straight up: "I come to clean your house every other Thursday afternoon from now on. Give me key." I admired her hustle!

Apropos nothing: The only thing the lady I worked for was grossed out by was sink drains. This is the woman who never bothered with gloves when she washed the inside of the toilet bowl by hand, with her bare hands.