A Spotless Shower

We have a tile and glass surround shower that we custom built.  The greatest challenge is keeping the tile, grout, and glass clean.  The upkeep is very minimal as long as you take the 2 minutes after every shower to squeegee the glass. (You can find the squeegee we have, here.)  I never thought I'd want a shower that I couldn't just walk out of and continue my day, but this hasn't really put a damper on my day.  Maybe it's because our shower is so beautiful now? :)

Well, my other weapon of choice to keep this place spick and span is to keep a dishwashing wand in there filled with the only approved cleaning solution that our glass company endorses.  

Spring Cleaning: The Garage

We carried our productivity from the lumber jack party into our week and knocked out the garage.  It definitely needs more work to make it pretty, but the purging and general "this goes with this so this should go there" kinda stuff is almost done.  It was just clean enough to be able to pull our car in there.  Okay, so here's our before:

Spring Cleaning: Touching Up Baseboards

Nap time was good to me.  I managed to get both kids down around the same time so I would be able to tackle the baseboards.  There are so many dings and scuffs that it was beginning to drive us crazy.

I gathered my supplies, vacuumed the floors and around the baseboards while the kids were still awake eating breakfast.  Once they went down, I couldn't have opened that can fast enough.  I knew I had a set amount of time for that paint to dry before I had a curious toddler and newly (sorta kinda scooting) mobil baby discovering what white paint looked like everywhere.

Our Cleaning Lists

I've been using a cleaning list as a guideline for a couple of years now.  My first started out in a 1/2 inch binder and I would print out new sheets every week.  Well, I got tired of dragging out a binder and printing out lists.. Or just ignoring the cleaning when I didn't feel like printing things out that week.  True story.  I'm pretty terrible at getting my to-do list done unless I have a checklist goal right in front of me.  Even truer story, I still like to ignore certain things on my checklists that I just really don't want to do.  I know I'm not the only one.

Well, in order to avoid making more work for myself each week, I made myself a cleaning list that's reusable and readily accessible (to all family members).  Maybe they'll help out?

Spring Cleaning: Master Bathroom Closet

How is it that areas of the house always seem to get out of order just when you think you've tamed them?  I have this love hate relationship with our linen closet in our master bathroom.  I love it as soon as I clean it out and organize it.  I hate it when I have to do the dirty work.

This is what greeted me as I went to get a new towel this morning from our closet.  It's wanting to be organized with pretty white baskets and everything.  But things are just out of control!

Spring Cleaning: The Oven

Last time I did a spring cleaning project, I tackled the downstairs windows. This time, I tackled the oven.  Did you know that you are able to take the oven door apart to be able to clean between the panes of glass?  Somehow, there was a lot of dirt, smudges, and crumbs (yes, crumbs) that just could not be removed no matter how much I scrubbed.  Well, duh... I couldn't get to it!  So while the husband and kids were outside playing, I decided I could tackle this project really quick.

I just started by locating the screws on the inside of the door and just going for it.

Things started to fall apart rather quickly once I took the screws out.  There were 6 total.  The whole front of the door was able to be lifted right out to be able to clean both sides of the glass now!

Spring Cleaning: The Windows

It was nearly 70 yesterday in Ohio.  It was such a welcomed relief from the snow, ice, and cold that occurred last weekend.  Even with the high temperatures, there's still patches of snow on the ground.  Just a little reminder that, yes... It's still March.

There's something about opening the windows that makes me anxious for the warm weather.  It also makes me want to start purging everything in the house and start fresh. When I went to open the windows I noticed how hazy they were. (Truthfully, this is something I've noticed for months I just chose to ignore it.)  I couldn't let the thick film of dirt go on any longer, though.  This mundane task needed checked off the list.