A Quest for Clean

Oh boy, this is going to be a long story...

Let's go back to 2006.  Two huge books were published that I wanted very much:  Emily Post's Etiquette: 17th Edition and Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook.  I bought Emily first and my plan was to read that cover-to-cover and then buy Martha.

Let's skip to the end of 2009, I'm only about halfway through Emily.  I realized if it took me 3 years to read half that book, it will take me another 3 to finish, so I went ahead and ordered Martha from amazon.

Before I even left my job I knew that the biggest task I wanted to accomplish once it was over was all of the cleaning I never had the time nor the energy to tackle before.  And my method for accomplishing this?  Read through Martha and clean each item as she lists it.

The book starts in the kitchen, so that's were I started.  So far I've wiped the cabinets, cleaned out drawers, cleaned the sink and disposal, the range and hood, the microwave, and then yesterday - the fridge.

Amusing Cleaning Story #1

Up until yesterday, none of this was exciting and certainly not worth blogging about.  Cleaning the fridge was not a big deal, except I knew the coils had to be vacuumed because we have a constant drip in the fridge.  I'd never done it before because the thought of unplugging the fridge and vacuuming it scared me.  But I bucked up and did it!!  And the dripping inside stopped!!

But then... a few hours later I noticed a puddle coming out from underneath the fridge.  Hmm, I thought "I must've got the drip pan to spill out a bit", so I cleaned it and no prob.  But the puddle kept coming back so I pulled out the fridge and discovered the source - the water line had a drip close to the wall.  I tried to sop it up and put towels along the wall to try to prevent more puddles.  I kept staring at, willing it to stop and getting frustrated that I didn't know how to fix it.  My husband kept saying, "call maintenance that's what they are for" but I knew no one could come until morning.  I even had bizarre kitchen themed dreams....

The maintenance guy came today and confirmed that the pipe is busted.  He turned off the valve, which was under the sink - a ha! I was looking for it behind the fridge, esp. because the sink is on the opposite wall.  Tomorrow they are coming to repair the pipe - torches on fire and all.

Less than two weeks into my cleaning project and catastrophe strikes!!  What else is going to happen?  Either way I'm sure I'll have wacky stories or tips I've discovered {like below}, and of course a cleaner home!

New and Better Ways to Clean 

1. 2 cups water + 2 tbsp. dishwashing liquid = all purpose spray cleaner