Saturday cleaning day!

Saturday is cleaning day in my house. I once cleaned the entire house in one day, but that hasn't happened in a very long time. I now pick one bathroom to clean and one other area that is really driving me nuts to take care of.
Today - the hardwood floors on the 1st level of the house and the 1st floor half bathroom. That room sees the most traffic in the house and since I am having family over tomorrow it deserved a good hosing down.
I am a sucker for new cleaning tools too. So whenever I see something new on the shelf at my favorite Target store I usually pick it up to give it a try. Today my two new cleaning tools are:



Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber




I love this little tool!! If you have a stand up shower stall in your home, just bring this little guy into the shower with you and wipe down the glass doors and the walls with ease!! Love it!! It also did a great job on the pedistal sink in my half bath and the outside of the toilet. Even used it a little on the floor around the toilet. At that point the cleaning pad was out of scrub, so I went back to the old faithful Clorox Clean-Up. BEWARE of this stuff. If you are wearing any colored clothing - you will see bleach marks on them somewhere by the time you are done. But it also works great.



My other new gadget is the:



Shark Steam Mop



It was a little pricey at $79.99, but it assembled very easily and before I knew it I was steam cleaning my hardwood and tile floors. It worked well. The bigger & stickier stains took a little extra work from outside sources beyond the steam mop, but the usual mysterious spots came up very well. I felt good about cleaning with steam instead of the "hardwood safe" cleaners I have used in the past. I don't always find them to be so safe and we had the floors refinished earlier this year and I have been on the hunt for a good cleaner.

I figure with 3 men/boys in my house I deserve all the tools I can find to keep this house as clean as I can. I once had a cleaning lady named Veronica. She was nice but didn't speak too much English as she was from Poland. She was cleaning for me for about 2 years and at $100 a cleaning 2X a month - she took $2600 a year x 2 = $5200 + holiday tips from us. She left me last year right before Thanksgiving. Not the best timing for me or her. She bailed right before the holiday tipping season so I am guessing she walked away from about $600 just from our family. She was opening a Polish Grocery Store in New Britian, CT where she lives. If you know New Britain, CT you know that one more Polish Grocery Store would have lots of competition so I hope she is doing well and although I do miss her services I do like the extra $200 in my pocket each month.

I don't have a diet update because I have crashed and burned again. I briefly saw 179 on the scale but then I got hungry, so I am trying things on my own again. I am back into my size 14's and even a few big 12's, so will see how it goes.