For once I'm not seeking advice, but offering it.

Clorox Ready Mop, Clorox Whipes, Vanish Brush-Free toilet bowl cleaner... these are my friends.  These are the greatest household inventions known to man.  Forget sponges and soaps!  One wipe, or one spray and your done!

Is the Ready Mop like the Swiffer Wet Jet?  We don't have the Ready Mop in Canada yet, but I love cleaning product-toys!  I'm prepared to buy one.

What kind of cat litter do you use?  I'm having a hard time finding the crystal litter everywhere.  Today, I did find a packet of the crystals as a litter additive.  When you have more than one cat, this becaomes very important.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the Ready Mop is exactly like the Swiffer, just a different brand.  

I use Feline Pine cat litter.  I like it a lot.  It has a nice pine smell to it and it's in pellet form so there's no dust.  I think it lasts longer than most normal litters too.  I've wanted to try the crystal stuff, but around here it costs like double the price of regular litters.

I agree, Veda.  I hate to clean and I especially loathe mopping floors.  Those Swiffer Wet Jets and the ones that pick up dust are a god-send.  I use the one that picks up dust first and then I use the Wet Jet and my floors look brand-spanking new!

I also like those Pledge grab-it had mitts.  I has made dusting my bookshelfs incredibly easy.

Anything that makes cleaning my apartment less labor intensive is my friend.

Wow, y'all are so much more houseproud than I am.  One thing I do hate though is the bath being dirty - kind of seems like you're wasting your time getting in if it is - so I like that bath mousse stuff.  Scoosh it on, go away, come back and rinse with the shower head.  No scrubbing.

I actually have a cleaning lady.  It's just that on the rare moments when I'm forced to clean, I want it to be over within 10 minutes.  Hence, my love for all these new time saving, disposable wipes.

Same here... except the cleaning lady part.  But cleaning around here is generally done in a, "Oh Crap, our guests are going to be here in 25 minutes" or less frequently a, "This place smells gross, someone needs to do something about it.." kind of way.

I would like to sing the praises of CLR.

Gets rid of the calcium and lime deposits that make your showerhead spray water in all the wrong direction. Just soak the head in this stuff for a few minutes and the water spray is so precision-directed that you'll swear it was new. Also gets off the lime deposits from hard water in the toilet.

(Just to be paranoid, anyone else ever worry about the cancer risks to all these chemicals? I do.)

I really wouldn't worry, Nan. It generally takes heavy, sustained exposure to something carcinogenic (Dawn!) to cause cancer. But it is always a good idea to ventilate and avoid breathing things in, particularly when it says so on the label. Actually, I think the danger in some of those cases is of passing out or having breathing problems, not cancer.

And besides, everyone knows that it's Bruce McCulloch who causes cancer.

I was going to post something about how I shouldn't have exposed myself to Bruce McCulloch, then, but there was no way to phrase it without it coming out wrong.

I also have a fondness for all of the wipes and insty-cleaning products. It resolves the question of what to do with the item used to clean the toilet seat when you're done. Before the invention of the Pledge Grabit, I was unable to dust without a can of furniture cleaner and a face mask. (Damn my severe dust allergy!) Now I also have an electrostatic duster. It's excellent for cleaning off the odd areas like picture frames and lampshades.

My apartment was so messy until very recently, that I pondered hiring a maid to help out. However, my wonderful father just built me a shelf/storage tub rack and now I actually have room for all of my stuff. At this point, I'm not sure if I'm actually in the right apartment. It's so strange to go from fear that I'll have surprise guests or what the maintenance guys must think to the certainty that a swipe of a Mr. Clean cloth over the vanity is all it would take for my place to be neat and tidy. It's a completely alien lifestyle for me.

Heee!

My girlfriend's house (a student house). Mould, damp, and sinks that have never Ever been cleaned.

Yuck yuck yuck.

Yucky Yuck yuck.  reminds me of one I used to live in.

Question -  doesn anybpdy know a good way to rid your hands of the smell or garlic/onions when you've been chopping them?  I love the taste, but hate the smell on my hands.

Yes.  Wash your hands with toothpaste.  Because toothpaste is designed to rid your mouth of odors, it does the same thing to your hands.  Works like a charm.

Cool.  I shall try that the next time.  I would never have thought of that.  Thanks mjforty!

Y'know, the one bit of cleaning advice I have is that the orange-glo products are the BEST EVAH! They even smell loverly.

I am the world's quickest cleaner of bathrooms, since I used to be a chambermaid. I can get the job done in like, 4 minutes or something. It's akin to running a mile.

The orange-glo stuff is good - we use their stuff on our wooden floor in the hall.

In fact, Dad used it yesterday to clean the floor, which I didn't realise until I went skidding across the room!

Does anyone have any experience with cleaning upholstery? Our couch is kind of smelly from our canine housemate and I would like to clean it, but I don't want to hire someone or rent a big machine for just some couch cushions. Are there handheld steamers that are any good for this kind of thing? Other products? Advice?

I think some stores rent out steam cleaners. I'm not sure where, though — hardware stores, Home Depots, etc.

I suppose you've tried Febreze? That stuff is great.

I second the Febreeze recommendation, I find it especially useful for getting rid of cigarette smells.

Frebreeze is good but only seems to work temporarily for my odorous couch.

I suppose this is our designated Martha Stewart (ptooey!) topic. I've been on a regular bender, planting tulips in an inside windowbox for my apartment.

And my mother got me a bread machine for Christmas, and I've been going insane with it. A person can't even eat all that bread. Yesterday I went out and bought two big cookbooks for it... nice to have my long-dormant cooking/baking hobby reawakened by something. Next up are caramelized onion bread and chocolate mint bread. And jam! There are recipes for jam, chutney, even ketchup. My father: "Why would you want to make your own ketchup?" Me: "Because I can."

Does anyone else have one? Any adventures to share?

No breakmaker stories, but I have made my own ketchup. Well, closer to a chunky barbeque sauce than genuine ketchup, but damn, it was good. I've just about accumulated enough empty jars to make another batch!

Chocolate mint bread sounds amazing. I've been going similarly nuts with my Christmas smoothie maker.

I make my own salad dressing but I only know one recipe (honey mustard), so if anyone knows any more it would be cool.

My one thing is fresh-made pasta. Which I hadn't done for decades, but then rmd got a pasta machine and we've made linguini and ravioli several times now. I hadn't realized I had such knowledge about it but my hands remembered the semolina and the texture of dough we were going for (how much regular flour to mix in, how moist it should be) and the rhythm of feeding the dough through the machine. It was like I was 8 years old again, making cappelletti the day before Easter dinner at my grandmother's house. The grandkids always did this, because little fingers are good at shaping cappelletti (think tortellini, but smaller and ending up shaped like a hat instead of a ring).

That page describes making them from 2-inch circles of dough, but we did one-inch squares, which is what the pictures show, and we closed the rings. Teeny tiny caps.

These are the times when I feel the most Italian. Heh.

Mmm. What's a smoothie maker like? Is it just like a blender?

Pretty much, but it's a powerful one that can do ice or frozen fruit and also there's a tap dispenser so you can pour the drink straight into the glass. I used to have a blender but since I only ever used it to make drinks, when it broke I asked for that instead. I really wanted one which would also have a juicer, but I couldn't find anything that combined both functions, annoyingly.

It's all just a way for me to consume more fruit, really.

Hee! And a team of scientists told me that wasn't actually possible.

I'm feeling kind of impressed with my mother right now - despite being over 60 and therefore one would expect somewhat domesticated I have just discoved that she totally embrassed femenism and does not own an Iron.

Kind of anyoing given that I needed one but I'm also kind of impressed.

I've always resisted having a cleaner, but given how busy Mr M and I have been lately, and that we're about to put our flat on the market, today we had a couple of cleaners in for a spring clean. It felt very odd to leave for work with these two strangers left in my home.

So I come back tonight, and the flat is ... transformed. Not that we're dirty or anything, but London's very dusty so the flat's never spotless, and places like the back of the microwave, or under the bookcases, rarely get much attention. But now it's like I'm in a slightly alternate reality version of the flat, in which everything is gleaming.

I know I could never get stuff this clean myself. I can't imagine how they got the limescale off the shower screen, for example. And I'm pretty lazy. But I'm conflicted about employing someone, on close to mimimum wage, basically to clear up after us if we can't be bothered to do it ourselves. Yet this shiny, sparkly flat is so damn seductive. Do any of you have a cleaner? Does it cause you any ethical dilemmas? Or is it just worth it to not have to worry about dirt building up?

We don't have cleaner but Mrs VP and I have seriously considered it. The state of our house alarms us into action every couple of weeks, but it never actually reaches a state where we are happy with it.



Interestingly enough I've had a conversation with a friend of mine on just this dilemma. My take on the issue is that there really shouldn't be an ethical dilemma for employing a cleaner. It is creating employment, and while the wages are low it is better than no wage. If there are real issues about how much they are beig paid, pay them more. Vote for governments that will increase the minimum wage and have other social welfare policies that aid those who are at the lower end of the wage spectrum. It is a fact of life that there is and always will be a stratification of low to high paid jobs.

I think part of what causes the feeling of ethical dilemma is the distaste that we personally feel about the job that they are doing which somehow transforms itself into a guilt that we are forcing people into performing this roll through our laziness. I don't like cleaning, I wouldn't want to be a cleaner. However that is not true of everyone and being a cleaner is no less valid an occupation than being a professional or an executive. Not everyone who is a cleaner wishes they were something else, though no doubt most wish they were paid more. And even those who don't like cleaning are doing it because it is employment, it pays money.

Menial jobs are a necessity of society.

I'm probably displaying my middle class sensibilities.

rmd has hired a cleaner on occasion, at a rate of $20/room. Apparently at the speed this woman goes that is hugely higher than minimum wage. But she works for herself rather than for an agency, which leaves me thinking she's less likely to be taken advantage of. I don't know whether that's a reasonable assumption on my part.

Not that I'd ever be in a position to have one, but the thought of someone going through, around or near all my stuff freaks me out. I mean, people who have been burgled say that they hate the idea of strangers in their place, feel violated etc, isn't this kind of similar? However, I guess if you don't feel like that, it's a different issue. I do think there is definitely a class thing involved though - for me, it would be too strange to have a middle-aged working class woman cleaning up around me who wasn't my own mother.

Incidentally, we're just having a similar debate with my housing association. I have been pushing for about a year to have the back area cleaned up and now finally we've got a quote to have work done for us to approve, which I'm happy about. However the HA have for some reason thrown in a quote to have the stairs and communal entry cleaned - I don't think this is necessary, since we all seem to be pretty good at taking our turns to do this ourselves and it looks fine - anyway, they're asking us to pay nearly £9 ($16.41, Can$21.89, Aus$23.38) for this - per house, so times 14. Well, dammit, I'll do them all myself for half that! I daresay it's a crap job, but it takes ten minutes, that seems excessive.

Heh. When Mum and I were discussing rental agreements (see the Good Things thread for further details) I said to her "You don't have to pay me rent, just do the house cleaning!". Because there is nothing more I hate than cleaning the house. Actually, vaccumming I don't mind because I put boppy music on and its done in 10 minutes, but anything past that isn't as much fun.

When I was broke, I cleaned houses for people, and it was a great way to get good under the table cash. With the right cleansers, which do almost all of the work for you, cleaning a place right is just a matter of planning and, well, doing.

I would have no problem giving a starving college student (or a local person who already had another job) some money to clean my house if I got too busy to do it myself, or if I had a special event coming up where I needed it clean. In no way is cleaning a minimum wage job if the person is working on their own- they decide how much you pay. I think I got about $40 for a 3 hour stint, and I had a couple of regular customers. I'd prefer to give money to someone who's not doing it for a living, because that's what I really appreciated when I did it, but I'd go with a professional in a pinch.

Cleaning others' places helped me understand what kind of cleansers to use in my own to minimize time needed scrubbing.

My cleaning lady gest $60.00 for three hours work. That's $20.00 an hour. She works for herself and it's under the table so it's tax free. I have no moral dilemmas about hiring someone to clean up after me since I hate to clean. I hate it so much, I would live in squalor if I didn't have a cleaning lady. Also, she comes when I'm at work so I leave a dirty apartment in the morning and come home to a clean apartment at night. I love it.

I have absolutely no qualms about getting a cleaner to do something I don't want to. To me it's no different than getting someone to cook you a takeaway meal when you're too tired or busy to do it yourself. Plus, as you say, I'm never going to get it looking as clean as a professional will. My only concern is that you don't really know if something that looks clean really is clean. This book about low wage work in the US, including house-cleaning, kinda indicated that all may not be as it seems in that area.

Concerns about low-wage workers and workers who are vulnerable to exploitation are best addressed by supporting stronger labour laws, either through the Union movement or some kind of human rights consumer activists' group. The only thing that changes corporate behaviour is an organised workforce or money walking out their door, with regulation coming a distant third. An entitlement doesn't do you much good if it's not enforced.



Actually (for our international friends) in Australia the government doesn't have a direct role in setting the minimum wage because it's done as a quasi court case between the Union movement and employer groups, although the government can tilt the playing field one way or the other. Unions also drove the introduction of Medicare and compulsory superannuation contributions for all workers, through negotiation with employers that also involved and was facilitated by the government. The catch is that that would only ever happen under one side of politics, which is unfortunately what the world has come to.

VP, your middle class sensibilities are exactly in line with mine.

See I have no problem paying someone to clean. I hate cleaning. I really, really do. But I hate even more the fact that someone will have access to my stuff who isn't me.

Like libbylou, I hate cleaning. I will go out of my way to avoid it. Love cooking (and eating), hate cleaning. So I pay for it to be done. My cleaner is superb, and I have complete trust in her, although a few weeks ago, she decided to clean out my kitchen cupboards. She did a superb job, and I'm grateful she did it. Now, though, there are a few choice examples of TWW slashfic that used to be hidden in the back of a cupboard and are now resting comfortably on top of the Alfoil and the clingwrap.

How did they get there?

Still, better the cleaner than the mother...



Oh, well said, VP. I can't be at home when my cleaner is there; the guilt is unbearable.

Some of my concerns about getting a cleaner in were assuaged by using a large company that I know will at least pay tax, sick pay and National Insurance for its workers.

Yet I know that I exploit low-paid workers every time I buy a t-shirt or trainers; somehow it seems much closer to the bone when people are in my flat. And I certainly couldn't have hung around while they were doing the cleaning (like I always hide when the window cleaner comes round).

My concern was security - letting a stranger have access to my home when I'm not there was an issue for me. I got around that by using a very respectable agency, who've given me a cleaner with eight years in the Navy, followed by seven in the police force. This agency does police checks and the like on all it's applicants, and rejects about 94% of people who apply to work as cleaners through this agency.

(See, it is the fish John West reject...)

I just assume that if they're in the phone book and they're still in business then they're OK. For me, life's too short to worry about that kind of thing. I would rather just go with my gut feeling that most people are honest and reasonably civilised and professional in their work.