Bathroom Cleaning Excursion

Hey guys,

Sorry I haven't posted anything for the past week.  I've been sicker than a dog!  It doesn't help any that my hubby has a URI and bronchitis too.

Fortunately, I've been in cleaning mode today.  I know that last time I said that I was going to clean my kitchen.  I actually did, but forgot to take the after picture for it and since I've been sick, dishes have been piling up and it pretty much looks like the before picture again.  I'm actually done with the bathroom though.  I finally got the stench out from under the sink and am now able to do the deep cleaning that I've been wanting to do.

I'm saddened to say that my living room is no longer the nice, clean living room as in the picture due to the fact that I've been camping out on the couch.  It's not anywhere near as bad as the before picture, but there is a game of Monopoly on the coffee table with properties all along the floor and the bottom of the box holding my money and properties while the top is holding my husband's money and properties.  At least there's not houses, hotels, and pieces spread out on the floor pretending to be Legos.  But along with the game, there's also a bowl, fork, and half drank glass of tea on the corner section of the couch from me and a random chair in front of the couch with two glasses on it.  Remember that liter of root beer?  Yeah.  It's right next to me.  Empty.  For the most part.  The Dr. Pepper was finished on Sunday.

So, yeah.  Back to cleaning the bathroom!    On my cleaning splurge, I found myself faced with a nasty, no, scratch that, gross encounter.  I had lifted up the seat to clean the toilet, and wouldn't you know that it just so happened that where I grabbed to lift the seat, there was a bunch of old pee that had the consistency of baking soda mixed with vinegar.  EWWW!!!  I dropped the seat when I realized what it was, sprayed bleach on my hand, washed it off, then used soap and a scrubby brush vigorously on my hand.  I went back to lift up the seat but this time, talentedly used the toilet brush to lift up the seat then attacked the stuff with the bleach three times.  After getting the toilet nice and clean, I went to the bottom of it to clean around the base of it.  It wasn't until I was wiping up the bleach that I noticed that the caulking around the base all but came off.  All that's left is about an eighth of an inch of the caulking.  Great.  Now I have to call a plumber to fix the leak under the sink as well as redo the caulking around the toilet (I would do it myself or have my husband do it, but the landlord has stuff against it or something.  I don't really know.)

Besides sticking my hand in old urine and accidentally taking off the caulking, there weren't any mishaps with the bathroom.  That's good!

I'll post the after pictures once I get around to taking the picture.

Have a great day!

DIY Eye Primer!

Hey guys!  Oh my gosh!  You know how in my tutorials I'm always emphasizing to use primer?  Well, I finally found a primer recipe online that has ingredients that the majority of you will already have!  It works well, not quite as good some primers that you can buy like the Urban Decay Primer Potion (which I have never tried) or the Ruby Kisses 24 hr Magic Primer (which is the kind I have), but it's still a good substitute for them when you don't have your primer.

What you'll need:
Lotion (preferably unscented)
Liquid Foundation
Translucent Powder
Container (to store your primer)

What to do:
Make sure that you clean your container.  Take one part lotion and one part powder and put in the container.  (For the lotion, I did an experiment to see if there was a difference between a thick or thin lotion because the majority of the recipes that I found said to use thick lotion or body butter, unscented if you're worried about the scent being on your eyes.  I made two primers, one from thick and one from thin lotion, and tested each one for a day and found that the thin lotion had better staying power but the thick had a better texture for applying and almost had the same staying power if the corners of my eyes didn't start to fade.)  Add in a drop or two of the liquid foundation (it's mainly for color so don't make it too dark).  Mix well, don't have any clumps, marbling (where you can see where lotion is and where color is), or powdery parts.  I used a tooth pick to do this, but you can use a spoon or even a bobby pin.  TAHDAH!  There's your homemade primer!

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures up.  I kind of got excited to find the recipe and made it right away.  The next time I need some, I'll be sure to take pictures so I can post them.

*Update:  It's been about two weeks since I made the primer and the one that I used thick lotion to make had actually dried out to being the texture of dried up toothpaste.  I don't know if it's just the kind of lotion that I used or what.  The one that I used thin lotion to make is starting to thicken up but not by much.  It went from being the texture of ranch dressing to dish soap (very vivid descriptions, eh?).  If there's any other changes, then I'll let you all know.

Have a beautiful day!

I finally went on my computer and drew up the idea I have for the bedroom closet.

Tada!  I'm not too sure as to if I want there to be a back or not.  I think it would be a little bit more stable with the back in.  I'm also not sure if I want it to be black or tan.  Black out match the shelf that we have that's similar to it, but tan would match the cabinet thing already in the bedroom (and can't get rid of.  Bummer.)  It looks like the only measurement that I didn't put down was the height of the shelves, which would be 1' 3".  This thing would find snuggly in the space on top of the shelf.

I know, I'm sort of breaking from my plans of a room a month, but I wanted to show my husband something that we can do with that wood he so desperately wants to make the entertainment center out of.  Like I said before, he's not a big fan of it because he wants to use--storage bins *dun dun duuun!*.  Didn't read why I don't like storage bins?  This is the link to read about those horrendous things!

*Update:  So today, my husband decided that we were going to use the wood that we already have to make a display rack for our bows.  I don't really mind, just as long as it looks good and not like some junky thing like the coat hanger he made.  Kudos for ingenuity though.  I'll eventually post a picture of that coat hanger.  It might be when I get started on organizing the living room.

Have a great day!

Operation Clean Living Room

 Operation clean living room was a success!  I love having a clean living room.  It would be so much better if it was a clean house!

 

So in my two day expedition to clean the living room, I found a shovel, three socks, a bag of sugar, a shirt shoved in the couch, a backpack, a nut, a soldering iron, a half drank beer, flower seeds (yes, flower seeds.  I didn't leave out sun in that), a liter of root beer and a liter of Dr. Pepper.  Apparently, the sodas and the beer were there before my husband came out to Utah.  He claims that the sodas are still good.  I'm  not going to touch them, but if he wants to, then he can finish them off.

 

So now that I made it out alive, the next adventure I'm going to make is to clean the bedroom.  Awesome.

 

 

 Before

After!!!

 

So wish me luck!

Plastic Storage Bins

I hate--no, that's too mean of a word--I despise those plastic storage tote things.  You know what they are.

 

These satanic things.  Why do I hate--sorry, despise--these things?  Here's a list:

1. They're bulky.  I don't care how much stuff you can put in them, these things take up valuable space when you store them.  They especially take up valuable space when you have to put something bulky in them.  Since the bottom is narrower than the top, you can't really use that space where it angles out with those bulky things.
2. They're ugly.  Just look at it!  It's a big eyesore!  Name one house that you've been to that has these for organization (and visible) and you though "What a pretty house!"  No.  Just, no.
3. They give a bad impression.  Every time I watch Hoarders, I see these things.  Automatically, I link these to hoarding (even before the show came out).  I have a big fear of becoming a hoarder and living in a house where it's an obstacle course just to sit on the couch.
4. I've had a bad past with plastic storage totes.  I would randomly put stuff in them and hide them away.  I'd wind up forgetting about them and wind up with a mess when I finally decided to organize them out.  I'd rather stay away from this.

Now these storage bins aren't all that bad.  There is a good side to them and pretty much the only way how I see them as useful.  They're great for seasonal stuff.  Put all of the ornaments for the tree in them, some wreaths, maybe even a tree, perfect for the lights though.  However, they must be stored right as well.  They can't be splayed out in a living room, garage, or anywhere at that.  Unless you have them stowed away in the attic, or neatly on a shelf in the garage, or anywhere out of sight (even from yourself), then they don't belong.

 

My mother actually uses these quite well.  My step-dad is in the Army and his uniforms take up a lot of room.  He puts them in a storage tote, and puts the tote easily accessible in his closet.  I find this acceptable because it's only one because my mom limited him to the one.  My mom also puts her seasonal clothes in a tote and takes them out to the barn so they can't be seen in the house.  She also has a storage tote for her shoes.  It's actually a pretty neat one that has wheels and is short enough that she can store it under the bed and pull it out when she needs it (out of sight even from yourself...unless you're actually looking for it.) 

This is somewhat what it looks like.

 

I think I learned from her about my feelings of these totes.

 

So let's refresh.

Reasons I despise totes:

• They're bulky
• They're ugly
• They give a bad impression
• Bad past

Acceptable uses:

• Only ONE is being used in plain sight
• They're not in the house
• They're not easily visible

Now you know why I'm not a fan of plastic storage bins!

Beginning Stages of Operation Organization

So last night, I talked to my hubby about allowing me to organize the house.  He agreed with me about how badly it needed to be organized.  Que happy dance!

I got to brainstorming.  My first priority was figuring out something to do with the living room.  I wanted something with not only shelving, but slots for me to organize on the shelves.  I like the idea of those fabric bins and they would be perfect for storing stuff in and out of sight.  Using those ideas, I came up with an idea.  I originally drew it out on a piece of paper, but it was a little difficult to see so I went on the computer and drew it up (with measurements to boot!)

Tada!  So it was a little less on the lines of an optical illusion, I color coded it.  Black is parallel with the wall, dark gray is perpendicular to the floor and wall, and the light gray is parallel to the floor/ceiling (which ever way you want to look at it.)  I'm going to use two of those bins in the left and right slots and use the middle slot to display stuff.  The TV and it's stand are going to slide on into the bigger part.  I threw the little foldable shelf in because that way, right as soon as one of us walks through the door, we can throw our keys in a basket and the mail on it.  I don't know as to whether I'll want to paint it or stain it black.  I'm more of a fan of painting so that might be what I go with.  As for the color of the bins, I'm thinking either chocolate or tan.  (I'm leaning more towards chocolate so it'll match the couch.)

The only problem with this is that my husband wants to use the wood we already have.  I think it won't be wide enough (it's 1' wide) because I don't want the table stand to be sticking out, but my husband doesn't want it to be even with the TV stand because "you won't be able to see the TV if you sit on [the couch by the window and up against the wall]."

This is the spot he was talking about.  Honestly, I don't see why he's always using this spot to complain about.  I don't sit there.  He doesn't sit there.  There's not really anyone who comes over, and if they do, they tend to sit on the other end of the couch.

 

I even came up with a plan for the wood that we have since I think it won't be wide enough.  I haven't gotten a chance to do it up on the computer yet, but I did draw it out so he could see what I was planning.  I was planning on putting it on the shelf in the closet.  He apparently didn't like that idea.  He wants to use the space above the closet for those plastic storage bins.  I'm not a fan of storage bins.  I might even do a post right after this one about why I don't like storage bins.  So when he said that he wanted to put those storage bins there, I cringed.

 

Hopefully, I can change his mind about the storage bins and sway him to the idea I have for the closet.  That way, I can get the width that I would like for the entertainment center and not have to do with plastic totes in the closet!

 

Wish me luck!

A Messy House

I really need to find a way to organize this house.  Remember in my last post about my nice little dry erase board and how my husband couldn't have dinner until he finished his before dinner chores? 
Click here if you don't.  Yeah.  Didn't work.  He did put his dirty clothes in the hamper.  Just only the ones in the living room and even then he still left a sock under the couch, two shirts under his uniforms in the corner, and a sock under the dining table.  He also didn't pick up the trash in the living room at all.

Sooo, I'm back to the drawing board (almost literally).  I've been looking around on Pinterest and I've gotten some ideas on what to do.  One pin that I saw that really caught my eye was a little station kind of thing.  It was a dry erase board, calendar, mail holder, and French memo board.  I might tweak it around to fit my needs like turning the regular calendar into a dry erase calendar (probably get four weekly dry erase calendars so I can have the full month and the weekly menu).  I definitely want to keep the French memo board in there, but change the mail holder to a key holder so that way we don't have to keep looking around for them.  There's a perfect place for it in the hallway.  It'll either be there or the one full wall in the dining room.

While at the idea of having an organized station, I've been trying to think of ways to get this place organized.  Believe it or not, we don't really have all that many shelves in this place.  There's the book shelf by the TV (about a foot and a half wide and five feet tall), the small shelf in the coat closet, some extremely deep shelves in the bedroom cabinets that are about ten inches tall but capable to allow me to curl up in a ball and squeeze in (and the shelves don't move), and the last shelf is in the closet in the bed room.  That's it.  Even our storage room doesn't have shelves (even though it should).  Oh, and of course there's the kitchen cabinets which are horribly placed, too narrow, and the spacing between the shelves are too short (to get the blender in without it on the stand, I had to twist and move it around and eventually put it on it's side and threw it in out of frustration).

I have this goal all set up.  Every month, I'm going to focus on organizing a room.  Since May is already half over, I'm just going to take the rest of this month to focus on cleaning the house.  I'll even go as far to post pictures up of this still messy house.  I already cleaned the bathroom yesterday, but I had to do some unexpected/kind-of-expected cleaning.  I've been telling my husband that the bathroom has been stinking but he says either "It's a bathroom.  You have to expect it to stink." or "I don't smell it."  Yesterday, while I was cleaning the bathroom, I opened up the cabinet under the sink and the smell just "hit me like an elephant falling from an airplane while I run into a brick wall".  What was causing the smell was a leaking pipe and some carpeting that my husband had put under the sink.  The carpeting was catching all of the water and wasn't dry so it became moldy/mildew-y.  My solution was to tie a plastic bag around the pipes to keep it from dripping onto the wood and spread baking soda all on the wood.  It's already smelling better, not great, but better.

Anyways, here's my organizing plan:
May- Clean house to sparkling standards
June- Organizing living room.  Make it not embarrassing!

(The kind-of-messy-but-could-be-worse living room.  There's a

bookshelf on the other side of the TV.)

July- Organizing storage room.  It looks like a tornado whipped through.  UNACCEPTABLE!

(It already looks as if a tornado went through it.  The reasoning behind the bottles is that we don't throw them away but instead collect them up and take them to the recycling center for a cash refund.)

 

(I might organize this closet with the storage room.  I'm not too sure

when I'll do this for sure though.)

 

August- Organizing bathroom.  Don't let it look like what you do in there.

(You can see that baking soda under the sink and of course the stuff that was under the sink.)

 

September- Organizing dining room.  You want to eat in it not sleep in it!

(Yes.  That is a Coca Cola machine in our dining room.  My husband saw it at work and brought it home.  Why?  To keep his beer cold.  Is it used now?  Nope.  Just taking up quite a bit of space.)

 

October- Organizing kitchen.  Make it to where you'll actually want to cook in it.

(The dishes are my fault.  I won't blame my hubby for this one.  My get up and go got up and went after I did the laundry.  You can get a better look at that Coke machine though.)

 

(You can see my cute little dry erase board here!)

November- Organizing bedroom.  You sleep here not shovel here!

 

(Half of the closet.  There's sliding doors.)

 

(I did the laundry today.  That's why there's no sheets and pillows everywhere...and a laundry bag.)

 

(This is the cabinet I was talking about being able to curl up in.  There's three shelves but you can't tell past the suitcase.)

Whether you believe it or not, there is a reason for that order.  The living room is the most used and the first thing people see when they walk it.  That's where the "embarrassing" part comes in.  Once the living room is finished, odds are that there will be little to no room in the storage room for anything else making it look like a tornado stopped by and had a field day.  To get anything else done, that room would have to be organized.  The bathroom is a room that you (or at least I) see at least three times a day (and I'm including when I get ready to go somewhere and before I go to bed to take off makeup, take out contacts, shower, what ever).  The dining room would probably be the third thing that you see but we use it for a lot of things.  Currently, there's a finished puzzle on the table.  The kitchen is the second thing you see when you walk in and it's also used for cooking.  I can be patient enough with this kitchen to let other rooms take priority.  Last, the bedroom.  I'm not a big fan of letting people see this room because it's where I sleep.  I feel creeped out when people know what the room I sleep in looks like at that moment.  (I guess you can say I'm paranoid that someone has a photographic memory and during the night when I'm sleeping they will come in, avoid any obstacles, and stare at me.  Not do anything else.  Just stare at me.)

Now you've seen my lovely pig sty of a house.  Here's the hallway and where I'm going to put my organizer wall thing.  Like I said, I'll either put it here or the wall in the dining room.  (More than likely here because it's right outside our bedroom door so we'll see it a lot.)

 

 

I'll go on ahead and wrap this post up.  I'll make a post for each thing that I do on the lines of organizing everything.  I will go on and say though that one thing that I am working on is actually in the bedroom.  I'm starting to gather up the used toilet paper rolls and folding up my underwear and putting them inside the roll.  That way, it saves up some room in my drawers and I can easily see which pair to choose from.  I'll post a picture when I'm done gathering them up and the before and after picture.

 

Have a great day!