How do you ask your friend to clean-up when you visit?
My best friend lives 5½ hours away and we love to visit. Every time we visit, though, the house is a complete disaster. I don’t know how to approach her about this because I am not comfortable staying there anymore unless it’s cleaned up. I love her like a sister, we’ve been friends for 12 years, and I don’t want to stop visiting. But I don’t want a fight because we have different priorities. Anyone have advice on how I can broach the possibly-sensitive question of asking her to clean up before I visit?
The top 5 myths about my refrigerator that I totally believe are true
My mother’s fridge was SPOTLESS when I was growing up. BOTH of them! (She kept an older one in the garage that she only turned on when entertaining.) My stepmother’s is spotless too, as are my aunts’. Mine is not spotless. You just don’t want to admit you’re having a problem in this area and yet I marvel at their abilities. Instead of having a spotless fridge, I just cling to these five myths that I believe are true about my refrigerator…
I like cleaning my house: WTF?! When did this happen?
Somehow, I’ve gone from a person who found herself filled with resentment and rage while cleaning to someone who actually (get this) enjoys doing my chores. Somehow, I now understand the concept of “domestic bliss.” I genuinely don’t know when this happened. Somehow, I’m that asshole who shouts “LAUNDRY ZERO!!” with a sense of genuine accomplishment once all hampers are empty and all clothes are folded. I don’t know how or why this happened, but in the interest of bottling it and sharing it, here are a few of my theories…
3 stupidly-simple kitchen lifesavers for lazy assholes
On a scale of one to ten, my love of cleaning is probably something around the seventh layer of hell.
How do you dry out a damp apartment?
My husband and I have just bought a lovely flat. Our ground floor unit is rather cool and definitely a bit soggy in the bathroom. Any advice for drying out a place (apart from heaters), or keeping mould away?
The easy-peasy guide to restoring your silver and silver plated-pieces
I found this silver-plated Wallace Silversmith cake service set on Shop Goodwill, in the original case! Seemed a bit tarnished but totally salvageable. But how to tidy these up? Enter some simple household materials, and very little elbow grease.
Where can I find an awesome double laundry hamper that’s easy to carry?
Right now our laundry system is a little all over the place: we’re putting everything into one medium-sized wicker hamper my husband thrifted a few months ago. It’s kind of driving me crazy, so I’ve decided the solution is a double hamper — one side for lights, one side for darks. But here’s my problem: everything I’ve found online doesn’t seem to be apartment/laundromat-friendly.
Cleaning + chemistry: Where do you find your reliable DIY cleaner recipes?
I’ve seen all the usual DIY eco-friendly cleaning recipes floating around the great wide Interwebs, and tried out most of them. But I’m wondering… are they all really safe? For example, I’m kind of suspicious of the baking soda, vinegar, and castile soap chemical reaction that takes place. What are some reliable resources with DIY cleaning recipes that rely on real research about the actual safety and effectiveness of the recipes?