fifty shades of stain

That pretty much sums up the original, 18-year-old carpet in our house.
This image is a collage of actual photos taken of our carpet (except for the ink bottle - that was just to complete the effect).
I know. Gross.

And now, I am sitting in my room, listening to the glorious sound of that stain-ridden floor covering being ripped up. Hooray! Our new 'Natural Oak' floating floors are being laid today.

I cannot even describe the state of the underlay and slab underneath the carpet. Too awful for words. I've also just been informed that the slab near our balcony door is in such a bad state that I'll need to pay an extra $240 in cash today so the man can fix it and flatten it out. For goodness' sake.

I don't care all that much about the extra cost, because I know that it's all going to be fixed and finished today. The carpet in the bedrooms will be laid on Wednesday, then we can move on. The place is going to look fantastic. The floor will look clean - and be easy to keep clean! It will be marvelous.

goodbye precious food

After nearly 8 years, I think it is finally time to say goodbye to the sugar flowers that decorated our wedding cake. I've never felt so sad about parting with something edible before.

Now, if only I had the guts to do the same with my wedding dress. I'm never going to wear it again, but I really can't bring myself to part with it just yet.

The flowers are enough for now.

I can take rings off tubs just like that!

"Have no fear of that ring,"
Laughed the Cat in the Hat.
"Why, I can take cat rings 
Off tubs. Just like that!"

– The Cat in the Hat Comes Back by Dr Seuss

Finally removing that ruddy ring of grime that never comes off the bath became my mission today. I went at it with all of the cleaning products I could find but it barely budged. Ugh.
I decided to consult the interweb and came across eHow, which listed a number of home remedies to clean that pesky ring around the bath tub.

I'm glad to say they didn't advise using Mother's white dress. The remedy that immediately stood out to me was, in fact - SHAMPOO! Who'd have thought?

Well, I got out the cheap Aldi shampoo and squirted a line of it around the bath. I scrubbed at the shampoo with a damp brush which made it form a bit of a paste, and then worked my way around the bath. I wiped it over with a wet cloth and, to my delight, was staring back at a shiny, white, spotless - no, RINGless! - bath!
The shampoo left it so silky and smooth. And it smelt great too!


I then had a thought. If shampoo works on the ring in the bath tub, would it work on the limescale on the shower door? I had tried everything on the glass of the shower door too but nothing worked. May as well give it a go!


Same method. Awesome results! Even though the photos are a bit blurry (it's hard to photograph glass), you can see the difference!

Now that you can actually see into the shower, I'd better get working on that hideous grout! I wonder if the shampoo will work on that too?

Ah, shampoo... my new must-have cleaning product.

speed cleaning

I'm the first to admit that I'm not a natural housekeeper. It takes a lot of thought and effort on my part to keep this place running somewhat smoothly.

Yes, I'm not always on top of things, and we still run out of clean undies on occasion, but I must say - I think I have improved dramatically from those early days. Newly married, first time living out of home, I'd find out we were to expect some surprise guests; "Oh, you'll be here in ten minutes? Great! See you soon!" Crap, crap, crap! A frenzy would ensue, normally consisting of shoving all of the stuff lying around the place into a cupboard and forcing the door shut.

Our guests would enter our 'tidy' home and we'd have an enjoyable time hanging out. I'd glance nervously at that cupboard every now and then, praying that the door wouldn't bust open at that very moment, revealing all the clutter I was so desperate to hide.

The other problem with my method of tidying was that I'd never actually get around to putting that stuff away properly. The cupboards would be filled to capacity with junk and we could never find anything!

I am finally getting a bit better at cleaning up as I go. Actually filing those papers rather than shoving them in a drawer, for example. However, as those of you with children (or nieces and nephews) would be aware of, lots of bits and pieces can easily accumulate around the house - the floor, mainly, at our place. Parts from toys and other things that "I'm just looking at, mum". Not much at first, but all of a sudden it's everywhere and out of control. (Actually, who am I kidding? I could create that kind of mess just by myself!) Most of the time I wouldn't even know where to start, so I'd just leave it.

But now, I've devised a way to save time and put things away properly. I'm certain this is nothing new. But I was excited about it and wanted to share. All you need is a washing basket! (...or a box if all the washing baskets are still filled with clothes needing to be folded and put away)

I will do a sweep through the whole house grabbing everything lying around on the floor and put it in a washing basket. I then take the washing basket full of random bits to a room in the house, packing away what belongs there before moving onto the next room.
And voila! Heaps of time is saved and you can see the floor!