Saturday, January 12, 2008

Cleaning

With the kids still out of school and me being a little too lazy to do much more than go to the beach now and then, we have spent a lot of time during our winter break cleaning.

We sorted through closets and got rid of clothes and toys. We put away things that had piled up in the laundry room and even moved my sewing machine up into the play room (which we also cleaned and emptied of trash and things waiting to go to goodwill.)

Nathan, you will be surprised to hear that I actually took everything (including those shoes) to the Salvation Army (not Goodwill after all). It was closed the first time we went by, so I had to make two trips in one day, but I did it!

I started to give away our Little People garage, but I stopped myself. My mom has several Little People sets that we had as children, and it is fun to see my own children playing with them. So I saved the cars. And I'm glad I did.

Emily and John's room is much easier to keep clean now that the toys have been pared down. The homeless person who was living in Hannah's closet seems to have moved out. And I could hang-out all day in my new improved (and de-junkified) laundry room!

We pretty much cleaned everything but the kitchen sink.

My kitchen sink has been bothering me for a while. I have tried scouring powder and sos pads, but my stainless steal sink just doesn't want to shine. We had a new faucet put in a couple months ago and the sink REALLy started to look dull. Car wax didn't help. Window cleaner didn't help. Leaving dirty dishes in it for 5 days didn't help.

I recently read something somewhere (I can't remember where) about using just a bit of oil to shine up a sink. I didn't really think that would work, but I read something about oiling a sink again somewhere else (I'm not sure, maybe flylady?) and I decided to try it. But I waited a few days just for kicks.

Then this morning, after I rinsed syrup off a couple of plates and sprayed the crumbs down the disposal, I dried out the sink, put a wee bit of olive oil on a clean washcloth and rubbed it around the sink. And voi-la! The sink is shiney and clean! La la! Go Me!

Now if I could just get someone to clean the black stuff off my flat-top stove....

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah! Way to go Wendy! Actually we started sorting through some boxes we brought upstairs when we had Erin's wedding. Yes they are still up here but I think in a week's time we will be able to get the things sorted, thrown out, recycled or put away. Hurray! Mom P.S. I'm glad you saved the garage too.

The Mrs. said...

Wow you guys sound like you have been not just busy but productive! Can you send some of that over here?

I'm going to take my lead from you and sort thru clothes and what not today to go to Goodwill (it is so much easier when the huby isnt around isnt it? : ) heheehe he comes home and doesnt even notice some of his things have left!)

Ann M. said...

you rock! we usually wait til we are about to move and then the whole "I'd rather give this away than pack it and unpack it again" thing starts!

Lana said...

wow! way to go!!

Mary said...

I am totally going to try that sink shining tip!

As for the flat-top stove, if the black stuff baked on there isn't in too big of an area, you can very carefully try scraping it off with a flat razor (like a box cutter). That might be easier than scrubbing until your arms fall off.

While we were at mom and dad's a few weeks ago, we found this fun book with all sorts of house-hold cleaning remedies and now I wish I had stolen it :)

Anonymous said...

Hey Wendy - I'll look in the book Mary mentioned and see if I can see any magic potion to clean the stove. I have some soft soap type stove top cleaner that works with a lot of scrubbing. It doesn't scratch the top. Mom

wendy said...

I bought some easy off flat top stove cleaner and it took off some of the newer stuff, but not the black ring around the big circle.

I may try the razor blade - but that sounds dangerous!

Amanda said...

Yay for you!!! I have the same black ring around the big circle on my flat top stove. I don't like it, but have tried to just ignore it. I am glad that you found a solution for your dull sink. The shiny clean sink is probably my favorite flylady idea. I have gotten to where I hate having a dirty sink, it just makes life better and easier if I keep it clean. Now if I could only adopt some of her other ideas....