Dishwasher Cleaning

Silly as it may sound, this is a reminder that your dishwasher needs to be cleaned now and then.

It's so fast and Lazy, you'll want to do this! Check and clean the food trap at the bottom. Then just run a regular cycle without adding any dishes. About 10 minutes after it's started, throw in 1-2 cups of cheap white vinegar. (If you put in the vinegar at the beginning, it just drains away. If you add vinegar with soap, they neutralize because one is acid and one is alkaline so the vinegar doesn't do the best job it can)

The vinegar freshens and cleans the dishwasher. Done!

Like the live dangerously?  Do the following disinfecting clean with caution... since these chemicals cause a reaction and a potentially deadly gas if mixed. Since the bottom of your dishwasher sees so much food drips and remnants, before starting the cleaning cycle, splash about 1/4 cup bleach mixed with 2 cups water into the bottom and let it enter the drain. Start the dishwasher, and 10 minutes in, add the vinegar. Since the dishwasher should drain the bleach away, the bleach and vinegar should not have had contact. If your dishwasher does not drain before starting, this is dangerous... don't do it.

Paint Can Do's

I hate a messy paint can, but I don’t mind doing some painting of my own. It’s almost the only DIY I feel I can competently do and have professional looking results.

Here are a few tips for keeping your CAN from becoming a goopy mess:

• When you open your paint can, you can use a little plastic implement (about $3) to snap onto the lip of the paint can to help pour out the paint. If you use this, you don’t get runs down the can, and there is no paint in the lip of the can. It is easily washed and it can be used again and again. I've had mine for about 10 years - no kidding.
  

  

  image www.flexiproducts.com

• Closing the can is easy with a rubber mallet. Who has these? I don’t, but I used a hammer on my rubber garden slippers to properly close a paint can by gently tapping all around the lid. Closed well, I’ve used paint from 5-8 years after first buying it. And yes… you want to keep your paints for any scuffs or marks that may come in the years ahead. Even if you had the colour mixed again, there would be a slight difference in the batch.

• If you are painting with a brush, put a rubber band lengthwise around the can to be able to wipe excess paint when painting. It keeps the lip of the can paint and clump free. This is a Martha idea… and I tried it last week. It’s definitely a ‘good thing’ I will always use moving forward.

  

  image origin unknown - likely Martha

Here are a few more handy paint tips:

• If you need a lot of paint for a project, get all the cans mixed at one time – to avoid batch colour differences.
• To be extra careful for colour match, pour the multiple cans into a huge plastic bucket and stir fully so you blend them before painting your walls.
• Buy good quality rollers… cheap rollers often leave lint in the paint. What you can do is roll your roller with a pet-fur sticky roll before using it. This removes bits of lose ‘fluff’
• If you want a clean line, use the painter’s tape. (I don't know about you but my hand gets shaky and tired after a little while, so my free-hand lines are not acceptable.) Paint one stroke parallel along the tape edge before painting the wall to avoiding bleeding. That first little bit of paint on the tape edge ‘seals’ the edge.
• Keep a bowl of water and some paper towels always handy – almost everything is latex paint now and it’s easy to fix a mistake if you do it immediately with a damp paper towel
• Keeping a ‘wet edge’ really does work to give a streak-free, uniform, professional finish
• I don’t care how ‘good’ new paints are – I think a second coat is needed to give a flawless finish. I let my first coat dry for a day before I do the second… lots of drying and curing time and a lot less marking or scuffing. 
• Remember I said 'keep the paint'? Buy cheap little paint brushes from the dollar store and use them to stipple scuff marks that can't be cleaned with water and sponge. They are so inexpensive, you can just throw them out after each use. Another 'Martha gem' I remember from ages ago is to pour some of each of your paints in clean, dry baby food jars. You can see the colours easily and they are handy for small fixes. If your colours are similar, label the jars with a sharpie. To keep them from drying out, store them upside down so no air seeps in.  
• Store your paints in the basement - the garage gets too cold. The wide variance in temperatures and humidity experienced in the garage will  not be good for the paint longevity.

Spring-Cleaning the Kitchen

Today I cleaned my kitchen. Deep cleaning, spring cleaning, and organizing my kitchen.

If I am very honest I will have to say that this is a day-before-yesterday, yesterday, and today job. I haven't wanted to dedicate the entire day to cleaning, but I have put 2-3 productive hours each day into it and it's now done. It's not rocket-science, but it is a Big Job. And yes, it does deserve those capital letters. Every single thing in every single drawer or cupboard was taken out, assessed, cleaned, and put back. With a little re-organizing of course!

First I cleaned my normal kitchen-clean so that my surfaces were clean and ready to handle things coming out of the cupboards. I worked 'one at a time' (you won't believe how much fits in one!) and from left to right, top to bottom. I washed each cupboard as I went, and while one was drying, I'd begin to empty the next one.

My spouse does all the shopping and cooking so the kitchen is a bit of a battleground for us. Well, more like an uneasy peace. I do the cleaning in the house. And the organizing. And the decorating. So in the kitchen, two worlds collide. I've retained his placements of pots, pans, and implements. We are both strong-minded (two leos, both strong signs in the Chinese zodiac, and both smart-@sses). It took him visiting his parents for a few days for me to tackle this job.

Here are a few tips if you do yours:

• Use a cleaner without a residue, so you waste no time in re-washing things, surfaces etc
• Throw out anything broken. If it's not working, it's just clutter. If there is something you genuinely love and it's broken, get it fixed immediately so you can enjoy using it again. Don't put it away until it's fixed.
• Ditch any past-date foods, sauces, cans etc - this is the perfect time to check those things that get pushed to the back. Any foods you have bought and not used and don't need that are within date can surely be used by a food bank.
• If you never use something, maybe it needs to go. I am donating my bread-maker, napkin rings, big salad spinner, and one set of martini glasses - do I really need 3 sizes of martini? Do not feel bad about giving away gifts - these are guilt-anchors around your neck. Donate them to a cat-shelter garage sale or to a friend who will use it, and it will feel good. 
• Do you have multiples of things like kitchen scissors, wine bottle openers, serving sets? We tend to re-buy things we can't find or are unhappy with. Keep the one you like the most, throw out the broken ones, and donate the rest.
• Do things collect? I have a big ziplock full of soy-sauce from take-out. And a big ziplock full of unused freebie plastic utensils that also come with take-out. Why do I keep these?? Find places where this will be appreciated and just let these go. (Turns out my mom and aunt sometimes use soy for stir-fry's but don't often buy soy sauce. The office lunch room is always short of plastic utensils). Whatever your collections of excess are, let them go to be used.
• Keep a pen and pad convenient and list things you genuinely need to buy. Last time I did this, I went to the store for an armload of plastic trays and baskets. They have worked wonderfully to keep things neat and allow me to wash them so easily if there are spills etc.  This year my list was short... only about 4 small plastic trays and some rubber drawer-liners. It's tempting to buy all sorts of organizing tools, but if they don't get used, then they become part of the clutter problem.
• As you work, keep considering what can make your use of the space easier or more efficient. Keep your most used things close at hand and near where they are used. The biggest change for me was being able to finally put all my glassware together and in the cabinet closest to the table - this will absolutely make a difference. I'm going to put some thought into a built-in lazy-susan for the lower corner cupboard (you know which one!) It would require some construction and that space is not a real problem so I've got to think it through.

What's lazy about all this? It's lazy because I love creating a system that works. Time and effort up front means that for the next 2 years I will save a little time and frustration every single day because things just work. You know the system and placement of things work if things are exactly where you expect them to be, you spend no time searching, you don't have to constantly work to re-organize things. Lazy-smarts? I hope you think so!

Carpe Diem!

What wonderful thing did you recently shirk housekeeping for?

New Towels!

If you think I'm a geek about my existing towels, I shouldn't admit that I get giddy about new ones. Only because I don't buy them often, I splurge and buy good ones and I love colour.

If you want those new towels to be beautiful for longer, treat them right! Always launder towels before using them for the first time. Here are a few great things I have learned with new towels:

• For new, coloured towels, soak and then wash them in a vinegar/ water solution to help 'set' the colours. Salt (regular table salt) also helps set colours, so if you wanted to do a second 'soak' you could do this as well with about 1/3 cup of salt. With bold, saturated or deep colours, this is particularly important;
• Deep colours may bleed for a few washes even when treated, so be careful what you wash them with for the first 10 washes!
• Fabric softeners reduce the absorption of your towels. They also reduce the 'loft' of your towels. This is because they coat the cotton. If you are starting with new towels, never use softeners on them. If you have used softeners on them in the past, wash them with a 1/2 cup of baking soda to help minimize the silicone build-up. If you use dryer sheets, these too add build-up. Use a 1/2 sheet or old sheets (ones used already) if you must use them at all;
• Always wash sets of towels together to keep them the same colour and 'fading' at the same pace;
• Use less detergent than a normal laundry load to avoid build-up... about 1/2 to 3/4 is sufficient;
• Only use bleach on white towels. A colour-safe bleach might be used on coloured towels but it won't have the same disinfecting effect. Either sunlight or regular vinegar washes will help disinfect your coloured towels;
• Wash coloured towels in warm water. Cool water keeps colours fresh but hot water gets rid of body oils, dirt or staleness;
• Using lower heat to dry towels will increase softness/ reduce shrinking. A gas dryer is more gentle on all fabrics, if you have a choice; 
• Towels do create more lint at first and it might continue for a few washes.This is normal for good towels - just clean out the lint traps and don't stress it;
• Lint from cotton towels is perfect nesting material for birds... plush and natural and biodegradable. Won't hurt baby birds. I put some out in a suet cage and let the birds take it from there. Oh - and won't they have pretty coloured nests??
• Avoid using towels on sink areas or directly on toothpastes etc; some face creams, toothpastes, and cleaner residues have lightening agents which will discolour your towels permanently. Watch for terms like 'whitening', 'brightening' or 'peroxide'.

What kind of towels do you like? Did my tips help you? 

Is Fall the New Spring?

Is fall the new spring? Do you actually clean your whole house in spring?

Spring cleaning has always been a challenge for me. I try to do it but when the weather is still cool in March and April, I can't air out the house and really get to that cleaning. As soon as the weather is nice in late April and May, I certainly don't want to be cleaning. I get 'some' of my house done by my May 1 deadline.

Photo Pixabay

From the days of being in school and starting a new school year at this time, fall has felt like a new start to me. Summer is winding down, the days are getting shorter, and the air has a bit of crisp cool to it. To me, this is a perfect time to get to those things I am too lazy to get to in spring.

Honestly here are a few things that are smarter to do in fall:

• Steam clean the carpets.Before the house is closed up for the winter months and after the open doors and dirty feet run through the house. 
• Paint. Spring can be cool and damp and who wants to be painting when the nice weather finally arrives? The over-hot and humid days of summer are not the best time to paint and neither is any day under 12C. Fall is fresh and those low-humidity days are perfect painting weather - inside, so you can take advantage of a drying breeze and outside because you are so weather-dependent
• Wash the baseboards. This is not a fun task; it's not hard it's just dreary. I will put on my headphones and listen to a book on audio and get to it. It's a perfect fall task because you are cleaning off all the summer dust from the open windows and blowing breezes before the house gets 'sealed' against the weather. 
• Wash curtains. For the same reason, the drapes collect dust all summer long. I like to wash my drapes and hang them wet in early November. Why? Because the house has less windows open to let dust in and because I usually  have the heat on so the drapes dry easily. 
• Wash blinds... yep same reasons. Then they are clean through the winter and just need the regular cleaning to keep them in great shape. 
• Attack paper clutter. When there are cool or rainy evenings or afternoons, that is the perfect time to get rid of the build-up of magazines (consider donating them to an emergency room or doctor's office), piles of flyers or junk mail, and the other assorted piles of papers.

Besides, if you are a gardener, this is the perfect time of year to put in trees and shrubs! They have a couple of temperate months to settle into the ground before the winter comes, the earth is warm, and there is none of the full burning sun of June/July.

My version of LAZY means being smart about when I do my big cleaning jobs. My goal is to have the easiest time of it, have it stay clean for the most number of months, and get it right the first time. There is nothing I hate more than having to do something twice or having something half-done!

How about you? Do you clean in fall? How do you get your 'spring cleaning' done? 

Housekeeping Chuckle (3)

@The Lazy Housekeeper

Housekeeping Chuckle (2)

@The Lazy Housekeeper

A Housekeeping Chuckle (1)

The Lazy Housekeeper

A Little Sass

What is life without a little sass?

Well, boring! That's what it would be! So I'm going to spend a week sharing a little fun each day. I really hope you enjoy it, go with it, share it, and come up with your own sass to get though the dreary bits of your day!

This one will launch us... it's not by me.. .it's by purple pixie: