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Archive through March 04, 2005

The TVClubHouse: General Discussions ARCHIVES: 2005 Mar. ~ 2005 May: Home and Garden (ARCHIVES): TVCH's Home & Life Organization (ARCHIVES): Archive through March 04, 2005 users admin

Author Message
Happymom
Member

01-20-2003

Tuesday, March 01, 2005 - 11:45 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks Lum!

Skootz
Member

07-23-2003

Wednesday, March 02, 2005 - 1:01 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Got this link today from About. It is 30 things that you can do around the house that only take 30 seconds to do. Thought I would share
Click here for the link

Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Wednesday, March 02, 2005 - 1:32 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks, Skootz, for the link...very practical things and some that we don't always think of.

Puppylov3
Member

01-26-2004

Wednesday, March 02, 2005 - 6:30 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I found my laundry room today. Needs a bit more work but it was there!!! sadly so was the floor which is scungy. That will require a bucket and scrub brush on knees scrubbing (my preferred method for scungy floors).



Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Wednesday, March 02, 2005 - 7:58 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I like that word...s-c-u-n-g-y! Good one and very descriptive. LOL! Hope that you have kneepads for that job, Puppy! Are you sure it must be done that way?

Catfat
Member

02-27-2002

Wednesday, March 02, 2005 - 8:16 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Hi Everybody, haven't been here in awhile and it is nice to see some familiar names.
Is anyone here still getting Fly Lady? I unsubbed about two months ago, just couldn't take all the different flings and tasks and regimented rules that piled into my email box every day.
I still think her original plan is great, do a little a day and pretty soon it gets done, establish routines and just Do It. So far the simplicity of it is still working best for me. I think she just got carried away.
So anyway, is FlyLady doing anything new or differently that would be a reason for me to join again?
Cat

Puppylov3
Member

01-26-2004

Wednesday, March 02, 2005 - 8:40 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
yes I am sure. I hate mops. the swiffer wet jet is great. but for nasty scungy floors - bucket of hot soapy water and a scub brush. as for the kneedpads - good point - I'll have to borrow my mom's - she has a pair (that I think were my sisters from her volley ball days perhaps) that she uses for cleaning leaves out from under her deck.

I'm getting flylady but since i started under two weeks ago I still need that nag from the emails. Since I work I do disregard some of them - just delete the suckers right out of my inbox. I need the flings reminders right now because i've got a lot of crap that needs to be moved right on out of the house and that's my reminder to do it. (i've got a trunk full of donation/recycle stuff right now that needs to be dropped off tomorrow - church is only blocks from goodwill and the walmart community recycling center so it's on my way to my bible study tomorrow night).

new stuff - they did just add a refrigerator boogie last week (go through the fridge and such).

and I will say that I did do my taxes this weekend because I got tired of the daily income tax procrastination challenge emails. that I can now happily delete when I get them.

Dipo
Member

04-23-2002

Wednesday, March 02, 2005 - 8:47 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
LOL, puppylov3, I too was happy to be able to start deleting the income tax emails without a thought. Got my refunds last week!!!

I like the emails, don't even read most of them, just the zone assignments and testimonials. I know what the regular ones are about so I just delete without opening. Anyway it works for me, so I like them.

Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Wednesday, March 02, 2005 - 9:11 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I am considering switching back to individual e-mails again after receiving the digest. It is just too easy to delete the entire thing in one fell swoop without even looking. Sometimes the house looks as if I am doing that, too.

For example, I will be going to bed tonight with dishes in my sink...something I would not have done just a short while ago, but I am so tired and can't stay up to deal with them now...

Glad that you are doing so well, Catfat. It is good to see your post. Simply visiting the FlyLady website regularly should help to keep you abreast of any new things. Don't be a stranger.

Have you checked out the computer flings that Lum has been assigning? I was able to get My Documents all cleaned out so nice and neat. (I hope she assigns a gif clean-up soon. )

Lk, thinking of you and wondering how the battle is going!

Happy scrubbing, Puppy!

Edited to add: I found something new at the site...Scavenger Hunt.

Prisonerno6
Member

08-31-2002

Thursday, March 03, 2005 - 5:53 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    

quote:

the swiffer wet jet is great. but for nasty scungy floors - bucket of hot soapy water and a scub brush




Let me put a recommendation in for the Hoover Floormate -- second best cleaning investment I ever made. The hardwood floors in my new house were filthy, disgusting, gross, and icky after pulling up the old rugs, so I ran out to Lowes and picked one of these up. It got them spotless in no time. I'm also a *very* messy cook, and it takes me just a few minutes to get my kitchen floor shiny with this.

Lumbele
Member

07-12-2002

Thursday, March 03, 2005 - 9:17 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Nice to see you around again, Catfat. Have been wondering myself why I still am signed up for the reminders (albeit digest) since I have only been reading the Kelly Missions. No time for all those testimonials etc. That's why I miss things like the Scavenger Hunt (thanks, Vee).

Happymom
Member

01-20-2003

Thursday, March 03, 2005 - 3:09 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Prisoner, what was your first best cleaning investment?

We have mostly hardwood floors and I think I may try that Hoover! While this won't wash them, I have a Shark cordless sweeper that really gets up dust, crumbs, etc. really well, much better than our big vacuum and it's so much handier than a broom and dustpan.

Prisonerno6
Member

08-31-2002

Friday, March 04, 2005 - 10:00 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
The Oreck Orbiter Floor Care Machine.

http://www.oreck.com/floor-cleaners/orbiter.cfm

I should first explain about the condition of my hardwood floors. Anyone who may have read my posts in the gripe thread a couple of months ago may recall that the former owners of my house were, to put it politely, frugal (when I'm writing yet another check to fix something they didn't do, or did improperly, I call them effin' cheapskates -- wanna hear about my $657 toilet?).

One thing they did improperly was sand large sections of the hardwood floors (the entire dining room and hallway, and around the edges of the living room and den), and then leave the raw wood unfinished -- no stain, no varnish, no polyurethane, no nothing. This makes keeping the floors clean in the winter, when people track wet, salty footprints over them, a challenge, because there is nothing on the wood to keep the crud out of it. Using the Floormate with water (sparingly! -- Remember, my floors aren't sealed...) gets the major crud up. Since it's a wet vac, it sucks most of the dirt away. Then I can follow up with the cleaning bonnet on the Orbiter and a wood cleaning product from Oreck to get the "ground in" dirt out (the bonnet gets tossed in the washing machine for cleaning). Then I follow *that* up with this stuff called "Wood Preen," which is a wax and a cleaner in one, and use the buffing head on the Orbiter. After all that, my poorly finished hardwood floors almost shine, and water even beads up on them.

I need to do the floors this weekend, so maybe I'll take before and after pictures.

Lumbele
Member

07-12-2002

Friday, March 04, 2005 - 10:11 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
After reading Prisoner's post I don't think I'll be whining about my laminate wood floor in the kitchen again. As much of a pain as it is, 5 mins (if that) with hot water and my fibre mop and I am done.
Prisoner, any chance you could seal that floor? Nobody should have to go through all that for a clean floor.

Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Friday, March 04, 2005 - 10:35 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Anyone interested in entering a decluttering contest from Family Circle? Check Family Circle.com for details and look for this icon:c.

The grand prize is a trip to Kauai, Hawaii and a coaching session with Don Aslett.

Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Friday, March 04, 2005 - 10:39 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Prisoner, in lieu of a sealer and as a temporary and very satisfactory fix, try a floor refinisher that you can put down simply and it looks great, too. Any hardware store should carry some.

Prisonerno6
Member

08-31-2002

Friday, March 04, 2005 - 10:40 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Eventually, that's the plan, but doing it right means stripping the entire floor, and then staining and sealing it (either varnish or poly). I'm going to try just doing a good cleaning and then varnishing an out-of-the-way way spot to see if I can at least do a temporary fix without doing any more damage to the floors. Then I can get a professional in at some future time to do everything correctly.

It's hard doing the floors now because a) it's winter in NEPA and a lot of crud gets tracked in, and b) I've had contractors in just about every week since I moved in, greatly increasing the cruddy foot traffic. However, I am contractor-free for the moment (*yay*) (until I start on replacement windows in the spring) (*sigh*), so I should be able to skip the Floormate step in after this next cleaning, and just do the Orbiter clean and polish stuff. This weekend I'll be Hovering up the last of the spackle dust, and sweeping the stairs to the second floor (where much of the construction took place and where my housemate lives), so that will get a lot of the crud under control.

Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Friday, March 04, 2005 - 10:47 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Just looking at Don's stuff...here's something more that's interesting to look at...a tour of his Hawaii home with features for easy cleaning...take the tour HERE.

No, Prisoner, this stuff is not permanent. It really is a temporary fix. When I had a little summer cleaning business, I used it all the time. The results are amazing. It costs about $25 dollars for a gallon, but the results do wear off. Edited to add: It'll just make things look better until you are ready to go through all the more permanent stuff and it will NOT hurt the floors either. I'll go see if I can find a link for you somewhere just so you can see what it is. (I'd take a picture, but I gave the last gallon to my son and his wife when they moved into their home with some damaged hardwood floors. It really brightened them up, too.)

Lumbele
Member

07-12-2002

Friday, March 04, 2005 - 10:50 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Prisoner, perhaps, if you tell your contractors down there that when we renovated every one of ours brought their own drop cloths that they spread from the front door to the spot where they were working, they might become more considerate of you, too.
To be perfectly honest, I didn't expect it, but was quite impressed with their forethought and will engage them again, not just for the good work they did, but also for that "we intend to make as little work for you as possible" attitude.

Prisonerno6
Member

08-31-2002

Friday, March 04, 2005 - 10:56 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Vee, there's no finish to refinish. :-) As I understand it, a refinisher "melts" the old varnish and fills in a micro-pitted surface in order to restore the finish to it's orginal luster. Sections os these floors have been sanded so much there is no stain left, let alone varnish, and you can feel the rough, open pores in the wood if you walk on them in your bare feet.

The Wood Preen has enough wax in it to seal the pores, but it's only temporary and doesn't hold up well to contractor he11 and the the salt and cinders of a NEPA winter. I hesitate to put anything else more permanent down until all construction work is done, since I don't want to trap any crud under a finish.

Unfortunately, we didn't find out how bad the floors were until the contractors pulled the rugs up. Even they couldn't believe what these people did to the floors -- you can see the scratch marks from sandpaper. If I had known it when I bought it, I would have arranged to have the floors redone before I moved in. As it was, I didn't find out until just before I moved, and by then it was too late. Now it will be a major production to get them refinished properly.

Just one more thing on the list. :-)

Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Friday, March 04, 2005 - 11:04 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
HERE is something similar to what I used. The point of a product like this is that it is an in-between step. It only lasts a limited time, but it sure improves the look of the floor while you are waiting for a better time to do the whole nine yards. (My son still has not done the whole nine yards because he is content with the look of using this kind of product for now.) And there doesn't have to be any sanding, etc., to use it. All you'd have to do is make sure it is clean first. It will wear off of its own accord or when you sand down the floors in the future.

Happymom
Member

01-20-2003

Friday, March 04, 2005 - 11:21 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Prisoner, that Oreck looks like a wonderful product! IMO, it does a lot for not a whole lot of $. I am going to seriously think about that machine!

Lumbele, I have wood lam. floor in the kitchen and I find it so much easier to keep clean than the hardwood that is in most of the rest of the house. I'm with you...no whining about the laminate!

I can relate about cheapskate former owners! I also know about $657 toilets! (That wasn't the fault of the previous owners, but there were other things!) Our wax ring on the toilet (I think those cost less than $1) needed replaced. We realized this because of the grout on the floor. Well, one thing turned into another and pretty soon...nothing left in the bathroom, no sink, no toilet, no floor, no sheetrock on 3 of the walls!

Good luck with your wood floors, I took the kids out of state while hubby redid them. What a job! I still find dust in closet corners and that was several yr. ago and he had doorways covered in plastic.

Vee, thanks for the links. The first thing I thought was "I need to see the photos of that maint. free house!" Sure enough, you posted a link to that too! I'm going to check out that book - Making Your House Do The Housework.

Little by little things are going! I cleaned out the catalog basket before I got up off the floor from wiping the dog's paws! (Our backyard is a pond now and it's still raining.) One of my daughters just went through about a kitchen wastebasket size box and got rid of most of it! What didn't get thrown or recycled will be put in back of car later today for donation.

Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Friday, March 04, 2005 - 11:23 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Nope, this stuff doesn't melt anything...thank goodness! It just puts a little shine down and makes the floor look better. I had hardwood floors in my former home that I never refinished. I just kept them washed...that's it!

One day a friend of my mother's who just happened to have owned several B&Bs came to visit and she told me that this product would work wonders on my floors without stripping them down and restaining and revarnishing. (Although, I am sure that that would have been great, too. I just was NOT going there.)

Sure enough! The stuff worked like a charm...no stripping, no restaining the spots that were bare, no nothing. Everyone thought that I had put down a new floor. I even had to haul the product out to prove to the tax man that I most definitely did NOT have a new floor!

Happymom, good going!

Puppylov3
Member

01-26-2004

Friday, March 04, 2005 - 11:35 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I couldn't shine my sink last night :-(

there was a water main break on wednesday. boil order in effect - even today. I didn't know about boil order until thursday evening. Yes I had done dishes in potentially skanky water - so those dishes will ahve to be rewashed once boil order is over. sigh.

Prisonerno6
Member

08-31-2002

Friday, March 04, 2005 - 11:56 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Vee, I think that's similar to what I already use.

http://frentzandsons.com/eshop/catalog/121.htm

It works well short term, however, it isn't going to negate the need for eventually refinishing my floors -- I don't have bare "spots," I have entire bare rooms. :-)