What do you think? Doesn’t it go well with Will’s Chucks?

found at: bluntcard.com

In the past month, Will has been in and out of town three times, my brother came in to visit for a weekend, I worked overtime on several evenings, and hosted both a Super Bowl Sunday get-together and an Anti-Valentine’s Day party. Now, tell me how a reasonable person can still manage to find time each and every day – including the ones when they are entertaining guests – to clean. I just find it impossible. And so it is without remorse that I admit that this 30 day schedule is not for me. I would rather live a life full of spontaneity and surprise than be that person who can’t go out to dinner because she has to clean.

There are some good things, however, that I am taking away from this experience. I do think it is a good idea to spread out the cleaning over several days into smaller jobs. That way, you never have to spend an entire weekend cleaning. I also think the plan is good for when you do actually have 20 minutes to spare, which, truthfully is more often than I made it sound. Just taking a short amount of time to tackle one mess can make you feel much better, and keeps your place feeling cleaner than it does when you wait until the entire place is dirty before cleaning it.

In the end, I recommend this cleaning plan to the following groups of people (and no one else): those who are able to stick to very regimented schedules, those who must keep themselves constantly active and prefer to be doing anything rather than sitting still, and those who have no life.

photo credit: saltycotton

When I first read the article, I was skeptical, mainly because history has shown that I am not good at sticking to a strict routine, and this plan hinges on a person’s ability/willingness to set aside 20 minutes every single day of the week.  I also questioned whether some of these daily chores might not actually take longer than the allotted 20 minutes. For example, deep cleaning the bathroom might take more like 30-40 minutes, if done properly. I debated about adopting this new cleaning routine, but decided to put the idea on the back-burner because it was the middle of the month when I read about it, and I thought if I were going to try it, I should start on the 1st.

Well, Tuesday is February 1st and I figure, what the hell, I’ll try it! I figure the worst that can happen is that I slack off for several days and neglect my daily chores, freak out, and in a moment of caffeine-induced panic, throw myself head-first into a cleaning frenzy, which ends with me passed out in the middle of the tile floor wearing nothing but my yellow rubber cleaning gloves. No big deal, right?

And in case you were wondering, yes, I am roping Will into this – we agreed on it this afternoon. So since this could wind up being quite an interesting experiment in domesticity, I will try to post updates about how it goes. Wish us luck!

. . .

By the way, here is the list for those of you too lazy to click the link at the beginning of the article:

1. Surface clean living room and kitchen (pick up stray items, dust, sweep, vacuum)

2. Clean bathrooms (toilets, showers, floors, walls, mirrors)

3. Surface clean bedrooms (put away toys, clothes, dust)

4. Surface clean “extra” rooms (basement, office, play room)

5. Surface clean living room and kitchen

6. Clean bathrooms

7. Clean all interior windows (white vinegar and newspaper works great and is cheap!)

8. Sweep and vacuum all floors in the house (don’t forget stairs)

9. Surface clean bedrooms

10. Deep clean living room (mirrors, baseboards, dust artwork)

11. Clean bathrooms

12. Clean out closets (hang up clothes, mittens, jackets, hats)

13. Surface clean “extra” rooms

14. Deep clean bedrooms (organize drawers, check under bed, tidy closet, dust artwork, fans, lights, mop)

15. Surface clean living room and kitchen

16. Deep clean bathrooms (clean inside drawers, inside of trash cans, tops of mirrors, tile, mop)

17. Clean all door knobs, phones, entertainment equipment (remote controls), switch plates, banisters and other things that are repeatedly touched.

18. Clean out the refrigerator, take stock of food, organize pantry

19. Clean entryway, sweep porch (if you have one), clean out car (because they’re often our home away from home)

20. Surface clean living room and kitchen

21. Surface clean bathrooms

22. Surface clean bedrooms

23. Sweep and vacuum all floors in the house

24. Clean linen closet, straighten towels, sheets or regular closet if not applicable

25. Surface clean living room and kitchen

26. Deep clean kitchen (scrub appliances, wash trash cans, base boards, wipe down and straighten cabinets)

27. Surface clean bathrooms

28. Surfaces clean bedrooms

29. Clean one item you’ve been meaning to get to and haven’t (deep clean your stove, wipe down all light fixtures, tackle a particularly unruly area)

30. Sweep and vacuum all floors in the house

Bright, bold, oozing with 70s charm – what’s not to love about this shag carpet? Answer: see below.

This is what I have to deal with every time I vacuum this rug, which is frequently, since it is a total dirt magnet. I actually have to empty the canister 3-4 times while I am vacuuming to keep the vacuum from clogging. (I learned to do this after a very unfortunate incident wherein I had to extract this nasty rug excrement from the vacuum hose with my bare hands, because the dirt got lodged in there when the canister became full.)

A few weeks ago, we discovered that the mess from this rug runs deeper than we could have imagined. After a precious moment involving our cats knocking over not one, but two full glasses of water onto the rug, we pulled it back, and to our horror discovered dirt under the rug! And not just a little bit, but a thick layer of orangey dust which had accumulated underneath. My best guess is that the dirt somehow got forced beneath the rug when I vacuumed it, which does not make much sense, but I can’t explain it any other way.

Unfortunately, we had to leave town immediately after, so it was not until yesterday that we finally rolled up the carpet (and our sleeves) and tackled the mess. I had to sweep 3 times, dry swiffer, and wet swiffer to get all of the dirt up. It was a royal pain in the ass and, as we concluded, totally not worth the hassle. And so it was with a tear in our eyes, that Will and I decided to finally say goodbye to our dear old friend, the orange shag carpet. It has been in my family since before I was born, and so it will be returned to my parents soon, for proper burial in the attic. Farewell, ocherous floor cover. You will be missed.

Now, you must forgive me if you think this next part is hasty. Perhaps you think I should observe a proper grieving period, but I am already scoping out replacement rugs. Here are the current contenders:

Shaw Living 5×8 Area Rug: Blue Berries ($147.99 from Lowe’s)

This rug would change the color palette in the room a bit, but I like that it still picks up some of the neutral colors in the room, and has a really serene nature-y feel to it.

Orian Rugs 5×8 Yotta Area Rug ($120ish from Lowe’s – we looked in person, but the one listed online is the smaller version)

This is a high-pile rug, which you can’t entirely see in the picture. I like that the pattern is abstract, like the old rug, but the colors are a bit more subdued (which could be good or bad?).

So what do you think? Will either rug suit our space? Here are a few more pictures of the living room, so you can get a feel for it to make an informed decision:

View This Poll

It’s f-ing cold, right? I was excited for cooler weather, but now I am bundled up in two jackets, socks and slippers and wishing like ever that I had a fireplace to thaw my little toesies. I am in the middle of my home office re-do, but I am taking a break to show you the winter wreath I made! I wanted to create something that said Happy Winter and not Merry Christmas, but it was really hard, because somehow Christmas has staked out a claim on all things wintery:  greenery, ribbons, bells, tinsel, bows, anything shiny or soft – you name it, Christmas has claimed it. After a lot of agonizing over the relative Christmasiness of various holiday craft wares in Michael’s, I decided to use materials that look white and snowy, because I am pretty sure that no religion has claimed exclusive right to the weather (right?).

Making it was simple: I used hot glue to attach white and silver pom poms to a flat cardboard wreath form, and finished it off with a silver bow. Voila!

Wishing you the happiest of holidays! Stay warm!

Love,

Rachel

This is what I had to work with. A bit small, but pretty typical as far as cubicles go:

Not hideous, but certainly not beautiful either. And for me, completely unlivable. I do practically live there during the workweek and the thought of spending 50+ hours per week in this space just made me sad.

I decided that the biggest improvement I could make would be to perk up those oatmeal-colored walls. So, I went to Joann’s and bought some fabric.

I liked this because it was bright and the pattern was not too distracting. Also, because I was on a blue kick. Also, because it was on sale, I had a coupon, and the store was about the close so I had to make a quick decision. I am still happy with the choice of fabric, but sadly I did not get enough of it. It was the end of the bolt, so I just bought it all and wound up about 1/2 a yard short. It was very sad to me, but I made do.

Here it is in the first stage of installation. As you can see, I didn’t have quite enough to cover the entire panel, and the portion behind my computer screen is still oatmeal dull. Sigh. Anyway, I stapled the fabric into place, and then hot-glued navy grosgrain ribbon around the edges, to cover up the poorly cut and frayed ends. This unintentionally created a sort of frame, which made it nearly look intentional that I did not cover the entire panel.

If I could do it over, I would obviously cover the whole wall, but I had to just make up my mind to be content with this. There was no way I was going to spend any more time or money on something for work.

After that part was out of the way, it was off to Ikea for me to buy entirely too many office supplies.

This was another project fail turned “I meant to do that” moment. I bought this picture frame (Ribba from Ikea) to make a dry erase board, using the extra fabric from the wall makeover. I saw the idea here quite a while ago and was excited to finally get to make my own. Sadly, there were two problems with my attempt. The first was that I clearly did not have enough extra fabric, so to make it work, I had to leave the mat in, which sort of ruins the whole effect. The second issue was how to hang it. I had planned for this and thought I had a very clever idea. I bought over the door hooks (also from Ikea, for $.99 a pop, but I can’t remember the name of them). I thought I could wire the frame and hang it on the outside of my cubicle, using one of the hooks. Sadly, the hook was just to0 small and would not fit over the clunky outer wall of my space. Sigh again. So the frame has basically become “art” in an otherwise unused corner of my desk. I guess that’s okay.

I also bought a new pen cup ( = white bathroom cup) and brought in some odds and ends, like pictures and a candy jar (which is now full, of course). I also bought a new tape dispenser, which thanks to a coworker and her amazing stickers, is now my favorite desk accessory:

In the end, I think I was successful in cheering up an otherwise depressing space, even if all didn’t go exactly as planned.

Bumblebee and Carl: BFFs

The Micke ($79) from Ikea has space for two and would be a lovely solution to our mismatched desk debacle.

And a pair of Snille swivel chairs ($23 each) would  replace our current ugly seating arrangement.

Total makeover cost: $125. I think that’s pretty reasonable all things considered. What do you think?

Thank you for making skirts that are cute and appropriate for work.

Love,

Rachel

Silk Lace Skirt With Lining

Layered Herring Bone Skirt

Long Flared Skirt

Accordion Pleat Skirt

Prince of Wales Checked Flared Skirt

(Click any picture to view it on the Zara site. Or go check out their other stuff. I am a little in love.)

found here: Free People

Also, a few updates:

1. We had a very happy Halloween.

the Iron Man pumpkin that took us four hours to carve!

our Halloween display - Iron Man is not lit, because by this point he was completely full of mold, poor guy

the "other" pumpkin... a pity purchase

2. My dad turned 60!

the two of us, looking quite tired after a very full weekend in Orlando

3. My kitties are nuts.

well, mostly just Peanut

Hope you all (all my hundreds of readers) are well!

Love and cupcakes,

Rachel