Fun with housework

[marydell]

The Sonic Scrubber is a nifty $13 electric toothbrush for your shower/sink/etc.  It is a spin brush, and is only "sonic" in the sense that it makes noise.  It is not the sort of noise that blasts dirt off of your grout or opens every lock in the galaxy, but it's a nifty thing that conserves elbow grease, so I like it.

Bar Keeper's Friend is a nice old-fashioned toxic scouring powder, very good for old white sinks that have lost their enamel, and stubborn shower grout and so forth.  My sink, toilet, and shower are all very white now , and my oxalic-acid-induced headache has abated after an evening's fresh air and some sleep.  Possible TMI: if a cleanser says not to mix it with ammonia, do not use it to clean the toilet in a house occupied by a man.

Also done: sawing down the giant overgrown juniper from next to the stoop, and all-but-sawing-down the giant overgrown burning bush from the other side of the stoop. (Both can be seen menacing me and Charlie over in the left-hand-side of this photo).  The burning bush has the option of growing into something nice in the spring after the hard pruning I gave it (over 70% probably), or it can sulk, and get completely cut down in the spring, as it so chooses.  For now I can say HOORAY! I can sit on the stoop and actually see things. And I didn't get bitten or stung by anything in the process, despite both bushes being a popular hangout for various insects. (Part of why they had to come down...attracting a bad element)  I did see one spider that was brown with a white mark on its back, which behaved in a reclusive manner by scurrying under some leaves on the ground, but it does not appear to have been  a brown recluse.   There is now an enormous heap of branches lined up along the curb in the hopes that the village will take them all away without us having to call a tree service...it looks a bit like I'm building an evergreen fort.

Next: putting the library in order, and moving all of the storage and crap out of the guest room.  Also, about a thousand loads of laundry.  I'm glad, actually, that we have a lot of work to do to prepare for guests; otherwise we might fret about the visit. Which I'm sure will go fine, but I'm a fretter.

Comments

[kouredios.livejournal.com]

Ooh. Jay's got Barkeeper's Friend around for cleaning brewing equipment. I hadn't thought about using it on our old bathtub. I'm all over that!

At the moment, I'm taking a break from trying to organize my bedroom. I've needed to put away non-maternity clothes into storage for some time. Adding maternity clothes just made no room for anything!

[marydell.livejournal.com]

It's my favorite cleaner, but it may be contraindicated when you're pregnant. Ditto comet and other scouring powders.

[kouredios.livejournal.com]

That's a very good point. I may have to ask Jay to try it instead. :D

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Barkeeper's Friend has a good rep. I'd never heard of the Sonic Scrubber before. How well does it work on acrylic surfaces?

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Our shower has one of those acrylic floors with the raised round dots - the scrubber works very well on it. There are add-on packs of extra scrub heads in different levels of aggressiveness (2 different variety packs at 10$ each) so you can use a non-scratch pad instead of a brush. But the brush worked fine on the shower floor without scratching it, and also does a nice job on the glass door.

[real-gone-girl.livejournal.com]

it's too bad charlie's folks aren't visiting a month or two later, or jews might have taken your branches (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukkot).