Cleaning

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.

Legally unless there are specifically laws about it in your state/municipality, she's an independent contractor. You wouldn't have to insure her/put her on your 401(k) any more than you would a house painter.

To over simplify it, nannies (which is where politicians get in trouble) are a different story because they work full time for one employer and the employer exercises significant control over the nanny's work. Unless you are hanging out in your house directing your house cleaner when she cleans, she's not your employee.

House cleaners with their own businesses are people with their own businesses, not full-time domestic employees. Like any other freelance/independent contractor, they are responsible for paying their own taxes and taking care of their own insurance and retirement.

Fun story: when I was looking for a house cleaner in North Carolina, if I was checking out a company as opposed to an independent house cleaner, I always asked what they paid their cleaners and whether they provided health insurance. I got hung up on a lot. LOL.

OK so the cheap white vinyl blinds in my apartment are GROSS and it's really starting to bother me. I looked for advice online and found several variations on this:

In winter or inclement weather, put the blind in the bathtub with just hot water and automatic dishwasing detergent; let set until cool and clean with 'bowl' brush or other long handled brush; rinse in cool water with a little vinegar or alcohol for a nicer finish; towel dry and hang to completely dry.

This sounds difficult somehow and I'd be afraid I'd break them or something. Has anyone ever done this? Maybe it's way easier than it sounds? I guess I'm worried about the taking them down and putting them back up part.

My recommendation: take those fucking things down and stick them in the back of a closet and replace them with just about ANYTHING else (I would prefer a sheet nailed up over the window over cheap white vinyl blinds) and then when you move out, stick the gross blinds back up.

Jenny otm. Seriously, cleaning those fuckers? Don't bother. Do you really want to brush in between every slat to remove 10 years of dust and grime?? Let me answer that for you: hell no.

I might ask your new landlord to have them cleaned -- didn't you just move into a new place? Carl's plan makes sense, but it'd be unfortunate if you were charged for filthing them when you put them back up to move out.

I found this handy schedule in my old 1989 Better Homes and Gardens Household Tips book.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8272/8711486617_acfef9f87f_n.jpg

My experience with landlords is that asking them to clean your miniblinds will result in either being laughed at or being flagged as a pain in the neck.

I have cleaned my blinds in the tub, and the result was so-so, and I recommend a gadget like this:

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

I don't have carl's aversion to blinds, and in fact, when I first heard her express it, I was surprised b/c I thought miniblinds were considered "nice."

David Sedaris wrote about his house cleaning days when he would clean blinds by putting them in the bathtub with a mix of BLEACH AND AMMONIA a/lksdjf/;ksaljdf

I just mentioned it as a preliminary measure -- I absolutely do not know the first thing about keeping blinds clean if my last apt was any indication. There's a lady named Rita out there who is telling her friends how disgusting I am, I'm sure of it. In fact, that's part of what started this whole "I need to step up my cleaning game" ordeal. I wish window coverings weren't so vexing!

vinyl blinds is what I spent my Saturday cleaning with the vacuum cleaner. but I have a small one in the bathroom that's super greased-on gross. I'm planning on soaking it in the bathtub next weekend (have never tried this method) -- ENBB if you like I'll report back!

mr veg swears by garden hose, detergent and a broom, but I can't see what good cold water is going to do.

(ie taking them outside and doing them on the back lawn)

In case you didn't know: DO NOT MIX BLEACH AND AMMONIA. It creates ammonia gas, and that is toxic. Jesus.

xp - LL, don't be too hard on yourself. Even if you're as messy as you are saying, it's not a character flaw. And in person, you come across as a tidy, efficient, stylish, and clean person.

Seriously, if you're going to clean blinds, that gadget is the only sane way.

FOR THE GREASY KITCHEN BLINDS: USE AMMONIA. It is the best (and cheapest) degreaser ever. Let them soak in HOT water and ammonia and then use that multi-brush thing Jesse posted.

I am not absolutely sure if you're supposed to soak the header of the blinds in water? You know, the rectangular box at the top where the mechanism is. Unless someone else says it's okay to submerge it...?

That's good for dusting, but there's a point when they get beyond dusty into straight up grimy. I don't think that thing would take care of that.

xp

Curtains are way way easier than all this shit, btw. When they're dirty, you just take them down and put 'em in the wash and hang them up damp. Hit with a steamer if you really hate the wrinkles, otherwise say "fuck it" and leave them alone.

Oh is that thing just a feather duster? Never mind, then. I thought it was a scrub brush like.

It's a washer. You put it in soapy water and wash the blinds with it.

xp re the defamation of The Gadget

oh god, my new apartment has all dingy vinyl blinds on every window, awful, i makes me want to BLIND myself haha get it no seriously gonna get oedipal

I'm feeling totally neurotic about this -- it's true! I also have some longstanding issues wrt homes, cleanliness, order, and people pointing and laughing at me. Trying to take control of the situation and genuinely tcb is more of a general life goal for me than something I'm doing to evade shame/something I'm doing out of fear. I also want to take care of my new living area out of general respect for it and the people/animals who live there.

Take those fuckers DOWN! Down with your blinds!

Cheap white vinyl blinds and contractor grade cabinetry is what bums me out the most about being a renter.

also i have hired someone to clean the apartment i just moved out of because fuck it

I didn't grow up with blinds, I didn't really even know what they were? In 1997 I visited NY for the first time in my adult life, and somewhere in Hoboken we passed a sign that said "Blind Cleaners" and I spent days wondering whether they were offering to clean your blind people or offering the cleaning services OF blind people and finally dismissed it as a weird error. It took me YEARS to realize.