Resolution #2

Resolution #2 for this year is to get better organized around the house and do a better job keeping the house clean.

I'll admit it. I am a slob at heart. You may remember a post from about a year ago entitled "Operation Holy Crap We're Gonna Be Parents" in which Armando and I made an effort to keep the house clean for a baby. We've come a long way since then. The kitchen, living room and (for the most part) dining room are kept relatively tidy and cleaned/vacuumed once a week. Our bedroom is a work in progress. It's not as clean as I'd like it to be but it's better than it used to be.

Of course, my standards and expectations are much higher now that we have a baby in the house. Messiness bugs me much much more now that Gabe is mobile and sticks everything in his mouth. No matter what I do, the house is never clean enough for him. For this reason, he's mostly confined to the living room to play.

We were at a friend's house last weekend for a birthday party. Her house is always spic-span clean. I realized as I watch Gabe crawl around her house and through her kitchen that my house is nowhere near clean enough for Gabe to explore this way.

To add to that, we are househunting and hope to be moving out of this house in the next few months. So my goal is to take one room at a time and get it super clean. Hopefully it will be easier to maintain than it is to get it clean.

Last weekend was our master bathroom. It still needs a bit of TLC (we have very hard water and the toilet has bad hard water stains that I'll need to scrub off), but we managed to keep it clean all week.

This week - the kitchen floor. Let me tell you - my kitchen floor is disgusting. I hate it with a venomous passion. The floor is ugly industrial tile (like the kind you would see on the floor of a school cafeteria) and it has years and years of dirt and neglect. Mopping does nothing. I mostly just mop it with Pinesol and hot water, hoping that even if it doesn't *look* clean, at least I've gotten what I can off and hopefully sanitized it a bit. In addition, I should mention, this house isn't ours, we rent, so it's not like I can rip it out and replace it.

I finally got fed up with how the floor looked and went to the internet. I found a website that says 2 tablespoons of Oxyclean and a gallon of hot water will strip all dirt and wax off the floor (these floors should be waxed to keep stains like what we have from happening though I doubt this floor has seen wax ever in it's 30 years of existence). Supposedly you put it on the floor for 15 minutes and then scrub it and it will clean it all off. I had my doubts, but I figured what the hell, I have Oxyclean in my house and it's not like it can get any worse.

So I scrubbed it. I did it in 3 foot squares and it took most of the day, but I did it. And it worked! Seriously, these floors have never been this clean in the last 3 years we've been in the house. I should have taken a before and after picture, but I didn't (since I never thought it would succeed). Technically I'm supposed to put wax down on the floor to keep it from getting dingy again, but since I don't have a big machine to buff and wax the floors, I'm going to see how long it lasts and hopefully just scrub it one more time when we move out.

I can't believe how much having a clean kitchen floor and clean master bath has lifted my spirits. Sad, but true.

Next week I work on the guest bathroom. It shouldn't be too bad since we only use it for Gabe's baths, but I'm going to try the same trick on the floors in there (same ugly tile) and see if I can't get it looking super spiffy.