Full of questions today.

[snidegrrl]

• What should I read on my vacation?
• Will the tiny baby eucalyptus tree survive the winter or should I dig it up and put it in a pot, inside?


• If I do that, will it poison the cats?
• Can I take Advil on top of Relafen? No.
• How can one magically overnight become the kind of person who cleans the house and goes to the gym every day?

Comments

[keryx]

Even I don't go to the gym every day. I treat the gym as a thing to look forward to a couple of days each week (this is made slightly easier by the appearance of an old crush at the gym this week!) and keep gym stuff in the car for when I happen to be driving past and have the urge to stop. If I want to go in and just do ONE thing, I do. There is no "right" way to go to the gym, so whatever sounds fun enough to you to get you there...

My mother gave me very sound housekeeping advice: 1. Tidy up after yourself each day as you go (if you come in and drop your coat on the floor and kick your shoes off, grab both and put them away on your way to bed, wipe the stove off when you use it, etc.) and then just clean floors/windows/whatever in one room once a week. 2. Collect random stuff that needs to be put in place in designated spots (ideally in cute containers, which I haven't done) on each floor of your house, so it's easy to hide or put stuff away quickly. These things are working out ok for me, in that my house is not disgusting.

Eucalyptus is toxic for cats. It's also used in cat repellant, so it may be harmful but not sexxxay.

[snidegrrl]

Yes, I should keep up these minimal things. Right now the top thing that is grossing me out is the fact that I think the hardwood floors should be entirely mopped from one end to the other, and that is a HUGE undertaking. HUGE.

[keryx]

Really? I think of myself as a totally slackerly housekeeper, but I do the floors at least every 2 weeks.

Except the stairs and the porches, all of which intimidate me. I need an outdoor mop or something.

[snidegrrl]

Dude, that is hardcore housekeeping.

[keryx]

I think it depends on how your stuff is set up. I have all these wide swaths of empty floor, and I don't use rugs... so doing all my floor takes like an hour (I mop under & around furniture, but don't move it every time - maybe once a year). Including smoke and teevee breaks while I wait for things to dry.

[snidegrrl]

Are your floors sealed? I can't remember if we discussed this. Do you use Murphy's Oil Soap?

[keryx]

Mine are poly finished (not oiled), so no - I just use a floor cleaner, not an oil (you're only supposed to use oil on oil finished floors).

[snidegrrl]

I think that's part of my problem; ours require the oil and then a thing on top of that, which is a two step process at its most simple.

[keryx]

As I understand from when I had floor like that in an apartment, you're not supposed to oil them every time you clean. Yes?

[snidegrrl]

Um, I thought the oil was the cleaning.

[omphaloskepsis]

I will totally lend you my scooba if you'd like :)

[keryx]

OOOH! Scooba?! Do you love it?

[omphaloskepsis]

I doooo! I recently got a reconditioned one at amazon for $150. It had some battery issues, it was only cleaning for about 25 minutes at a time, but wow was it cleaning! I'd been on the fence for awhile about whether I would be happy with a scooba, but the couple of 25 minute sessions convinced me that I love it.

I was going to call the company to get a battery replacement, but I decided to just return it to amazon because our old roomba (the original version) had finally given up the ghost and there was a great combo deal at *gasp* the home shopping network. A new roomba and scooba for $400 with the new customer discount (which the normal cost of just one of them). They also had them separately for $212 with the new customer discount.

The newer versions have a longer default battery life and are easier to maintain (I sound like a commercial). My rationalization for the major splurge is that I have been budgeting for a cleaning person to come once a month, but haven't actually hired anyone, so clearly I could use it for automated cleaning tools. :)

[keryx]

I am so intrigued by this report, you have no idea.

Do you have old floors? Are they all grooved and gappy? I really want something that will clean the spaces between the floors, places where the 90 yr old floors and pocked & dented, etc.