Give Me a Couch, and I’ll Kick Stuff Under It (Working Through Overwhelming Clutter in a Hurry)

It’s déjà vu, y’all.

(And yes, I had to google how to spell déjà vu and then copy/paste it to get the marks correct.)

Remember a while back when I revealed the scary underbelly of my living room couch? And then remember when I had to let washing machine delivery men into the house just hours after I returned from a trip?

Well, my age-old Slob Reasoning got me again. I cleaned out the laundry room. I cleaned the living room and the kitchen part of the kitchen they’d see from the laundry room.

I even walked from the front door to the laundry room, trying to be super-observant and catch anything they might see while making the delivery.

They arrived. They walked (without tripping over anything thankyouverymuch) to the laundry room, and then they asked, “Where would you like us to move the old washer and dryer?”

Oh. I’d forgotten about that. My garage was a mess, but it’s a garage, so I feel even a normal person could justify that on a random Tuesday.

I led the way to the garage, and one of them remarked, “We’ll have to move this couch out of the way.”

Ummmm, what??!? The couch? The couch blocking the path between the door into the gameroom and the door out of the gameroom (and into the garage).

Not blocking the path for people walking, but totally blocking the path for people pushing large appliances through the room.

Blech.

Oof.

Ugh.

I shy-laughed and told them to give me a minute to see what was under the couch.

I totally acted like it was no big deal.

As soon as their backs were turned, I grabbed a trash bag and bee-lined to the gameroom to start through the process that prevents me from being overwhelmed when I see something like this:

Seriously, y’all.

Note: I’m talking about keeping myself from being overwhelmed. I still feel overwhelmed, but the actual definition of overwhelm (thanks to google) is “defeat completely.”

I am not defeated. I may feel that way when I first see (or notice) an overwhelming mess, but am not actually overwhelmed unless I let it defeat me.

I didn’t have time to hem or haw. I needed to work through that mess fast.

Pre-blog, I would have scooped everything into a box to stick in the garage and forget about for a few years. That would have seemed like the only option since I was in a hurry. Feeling overwhelmed added to being in a hurry makes solutions like that (which aren’t really solutions, just justifiable procrastination) make sense.

But now I know that my steps work, and that I can get through them almost as quickly as I can scoop, and that I’ll never ever again have to deal with this crstuff if I go ahead and go through the steps now.

Step One:

Trash. Deal with the easiest of the easy stuff. Honestly, when there is a big pile of stuff I haven’t seen in who-knows-how-long, I’m much more willing to call things trash that I might otherwise consider treasure.

Step Two:

Do the easy stuff. Take things that have a real, already-established home somewhere else … to that home. Right now. Generally, if I find one thing that needs to go to the kitchen, I glance around to see if anything else needs to go to the kitchen, too.

Step Three:

Repeat steps one and two on anything I’ve missed, and stick everything else in the Donate Box.

Step Four:

Clean. I’m sorry to say that you can’t actually clean when there’s clutter everywhere.

Yay for motivation! Boo for not being able to predict every scenario ever.

Wondering about the stuff in the photo that didn’t bother me (but probably should have)? That’s my Return Spot. A place where we put things that need to go back to people. And now that I look, I see a couch cushion there, too. And a (probably empty) shoebox on the window sill. And some other stuff. Honestly, I’m pretty sure that stuff was invisible to me (until the moment I saw it in this photo) since the opened door would shove it out of the way while the delivery men moved the appliances to the garage.

Oh. And the jacket hanging off the back of the couch.

And the tap floor. (Which has a totally logical explanation here.)

Whatever. This isn’t a post about how to be perfect. It’s how to not be defeated. And honestly, a big part of not being defeated (for people like me) is not worrying about being perfect.

–Nony

The post Give Me a Couch, and I’ll Kick Stuff Under It (Working Through Overwhelming Clutter in a Hurry) appeared first on A Slob Comes Clean.

If you would like to find out more about how to keep your house tidy visit www.cleancarpetguru.com

Because They Just Don’t Care as Much as I Do

A better blogger might name this post “Labeling Shampoo and Conditioner Bottles to Keep Teenage Boys from Washing their Hair With Conditioner,” but I have a very hard time believing anyone would search for that.

In case you’re one to follow along closely, you know about our broken shower.

Which might mean that when I mention it’s still broken you’ll have a much better idea of how long it has been broken than I do.

I have T.P.A.D., y’all.

Hubby has adjusted to showering on the other side of the house, and I’ve become accustomed to washing my hair in the bathtub. And I am completely overwhelmed at the thought of picking out tile. And mostly … T.P.A.D.

Anyway, I decided my curls needed better conditioning than I could provide with the little conditioner I had left in my bathroom, so I took a shower. I planned to use some of my daughter’s conditioner and glob it on good.

As I held the bottles in multiple lights and at various distances to let my 42 year old eyes read which was shampoo and which was conditioner, panic rose in my chest at the realization that my less-observant teenage boys might not be going to as much trouble.

Even with their youthful and not-yet-betraying-them eyesight.

There’s a very high chance that they’ve been “washing” their hair with conditioner instead of shampoo, because the fact is: they don’t care as much as I do. 

They just don’t. Just like they don’t care when there is dust under a TV stand.

So I found my trusty Sharpie (<-that’s an affiliate link, FYI) and labeled them.

Because we are long past the days of helping them wash their hair, but this mama has to do what she can to make herself feel better.

And teenage boys need clean hair.

Really.

Confession: Fine. I’m glad to not have to squint and search to figure out which bottle is which.

Another confession: I made POO bigger because I’m pretty sure my kids will think that’s funny.

One more confession: Fine. I think it’s funny, too.

Since I love affiliate linking to things like Sharpie markers in hopes you’ll click out of curiosity (to see how much they go for over on Amazon) and then remember you need to order a new pair of running shoes while you’re there, did you know you can get shampoo and conditioner on Amazon too? You can even put them on Subscribe and Save so you never run out! Here’s my post about how Subscribe and Save works. 

–Nony

The post Because They Just Don’t Care as Much as I Do appeared first on A Slob Comes Clean.

If you would like to find out more about how to keep your house tidy visit www.cleancarpetguru.com

97 Steps to Working Through the Feeling of Overwhelm Podcast

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No bells or whistles today, just trying to get this posted!

–Nony

The post 97 Steps to Working Through the Feeling of Overwhelm Podcast appeared first on A Slob Comes Clean.

If you would like to find out more about how to keep your house tidy visit www.cleancarpetguru.com

The After After Post About the Laundry Room

I promised a real before-and-after post about my laundry room.

Because here was the real before picture of one thing that had been in my way in the laundry room for weeks months:

My rolling cart which never fit after I got my last washing machine. I had been moving it out of the laundry room every Laundry Day. Then I’d leave it out in the hallway (where we were always running into it) until I found out someone was coming over. I’d move it back into the laundry room until the next Laundry Day .

Since it didn’t have a real home, it became a clutter magnet.

It was just so convenient. Such a great place to hang clothes, drape clothes that shouldn’t go in the dryer, or generally shove anything I felt like shoving.

I was more-than-a-little excited that my new set made room for this super-narrow cart.

But before it went neatly into its new spot, it needed to not be a big, ridiculous mess.

Time to declutter.

Step One: Get rid of the easy stuff.

The easiest of the easy stuff is trash. It’s always trash. Even if that means assessing the situation and realizing there’s no trash. Which never happens to me. I always find trash.

The other easy stuff is stuff that has a home somewhere else. I don’t need to get creative and DECIDE where to put something, I just need to move it to the home it already has, but wasn’t in.

Things like:

A pink bandanna that needs to go where pink bandannas go, the Christmas towel that needs to go with Christmas stuff, and the piece of a really cool puzzle book thingy that needs to go in the trash. Because I put the really cool puzzle book thingy in the trash when I realized I’d “lost” some of the pieces.

I kept removing things that were easy, taking them where they needed to go right then, and consolidating the things that were there. I rounded up one of Hubby’s oh-so-useful leftover coffee canisters to hold coffee-scented clothespins, and put my cleaning cloth container on the cart since the top of the dryer is no longer a flat surface.

That container doesn’t actually fit, but oh well. (If you thought you were going to find amazing and perfect organizing ideas, I’m sorry.) Wonder why there’s writing on my cleaning cloths? Here’s why.

Once it held only what I needed (it was decluttered, not organized), I could slide the cart into its new (or old, depending how you look at it) home. I’ve loved having this stuff in a real home, out of the way, and my laundry room has been much easier to keep under control.

Yay for that.

Obligatory affiliate links:

Narrow Rolling Cart

Clothespins

Microfiber cloths

–Nony

The post The After After Post About the Laundry Room appeared first on A Slob Comes Clean.

If you would like to find out more about how to keep your house tidy visit www.cleancarpetguru.com

The Good and Bad of Cleaning with Baking Soda

Baking Soda is awesome, y’all.

I use it all the time to clean stains off my counter tops. My somewhat-old-fashioned, non-granite counter tops.

Y’all convinced me here, and then I became a believer here.

But even though baking soda is perfect for cleaning a lot of things and is safe enough to use in cookies (which means you actually EAT it!) or for brushing teeth (Hubby tried this recently when we were out of toothpaste, yuck!), there’s a downside.

I’m not knocking cleaning with baking soda, but I think it’s important to understand what you’re getting yourself into before you start sprinkling everything in sight with the stuff.

I’d hate for someone to think they’re doing a quick kitchen clean up before a guest shows up and not leave time for the endless wiping required to remove the film left  behind before the doorbell is due to ring.

Oh. I just gave the downside away. Oops.

There’s a film. A film that doesn’t go away in one wipe, y’all. Or two wipes. Or sometimes even three.

I can deal with it on my baking-soda-colored countertops, but my shiny (other than the burnt on stuff that looks significantly worse in the picture than I ever noticed while doing this and which is therefore a project and post for another day) black stove, not so much.

I thought I was being all Cleaning Blogger Awesome when I cleaned that stove.

And then it dried.

And I wiped it off again.

And then it dried again.

And I had to wipe it off again.

And then it dried yet again.

And my daughter exclaimed how terrible it looked and wiped it down again. And then again. She experienced that strange satisfaction that comes over you when you wipe away visible mess. And then she experienced the frustration of seeing the mess reappear when it dried.

Yes, crusty stuff had come off, but the magically re-appearing white film was getting ridiculous.

Finally, it looked ok.

But I’ve decided to stick to cleaning with baking soda on baking soda colored surfaces.

Especially after I used baking soda to easily clean this severely-water-spotted-and-long-neglected water dispenser tray on my fridge. It worked, and the mineral deposits (aka ickiness) were mostly gone. But then, when I stepped back to admire my work, I saw the the area around the area I’d just cleaned. Ugh. Did you read the post about cleaning that stainless steel? I’d just cleaned it about an hour before this!

Yay for natural cleaners that really do scrub out stains and get rid of tough built-up messes. Boo for the mess baking soda leaves behind.

Do y’all have any tricks for me? Do you know the absolute best way to get rid of the film in one or two (or even three) wipes?

Obligatory Amazon affiliate links:

Baking Soda. Really. You can get all sorts of household goods on Amazon. Go here to see how I use it to save my sanity!

Microfiber Cleaning Cloths.

–Nony

The post The Good and Bad of Cleaning with Baking Soda appeared first on A Slob Comes Clean.

If you would like to find out more about how to keep your house tidy visit www.cleancarpetguru.com

Dealing with Rust Stains on My Stainless Steel Appliances

About four years ago, I got stainless steel appliances.

I love them, but they are definitely hard to clean. To clarify, though, I’m not one to notice little smudges here and there so all appliances of any finish or color or type are “hard to clean” for me. I generally don’t see any issues until I know a guest is on her way.

For the first time.

Second and third time guests get a much more realistic view of our home.

I did the deep clean

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recently, though. On most deep cleans, I do a general wiping down and shinyfying, but I decided to get a little crazy on this one and try to deal with the small rust spots which didn’t go away with normal cleaning.

I scratched at one with my fingernail, and it rubbed off.

Yay! But I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my fingernails, so I grabbed my handy dandy go to cleaning scraper, an old credit card that I keep by the kitchen sink.

Seriously, I use this thing all the time, y’all. It’s plastic and doesn’t scratch, and is perfect for scraping burnt on food off of almost anything.

I tried all sorts of different ways, but here is what I found to work best.

Spray generously with stainless steel cleaner (this is my affiliate link to the kind I use on Amazon) and wipe off according to the cleaner’s directions, letting it sit longer according to how dirty your appliance is.

Once it’s clean other than the rust spots, spray the stainless steel cleaner generously onto the spot and then, going with the “grain” of the stainless steel, use the side of the plastic scraper or credit card (one you don’t need to ever use again) to scrape off the rust.

And that’s it.

Here are some before and after shots.

P.S. Do you know how hard it is to take pictures of teeny-tiny rust spots on stainless steel? It’s hard. Really hard.

If the thought of dealing with nitpicky stuff like this stresses you completely out because you’re overwhelmed with your house as a whole, listen to this podcast from a few weeks ago.

–Nony

The post Dealing with Rust Stains on My Stainless Steel Appliances appeared first on A Slob Comes Clean.

If you would like to find out more about how to keep your house tidy visit www.cleancarpetguru.com