Spring Cleaning

I’ve been in a stupid and totally self inflicted cycle of Spring Cleaning, paying the price for so much activity, recovering, and then doing another cleaning project to start it all over again.  *laugh*  My latest medication system has helped me to get a lot more done than I’ve been able to do for several years now, but it does take a few days to recover from each project.  Since I want to utilize what energy and ability I have I am all about cleaning hacks.  I found two that are super handy, so I decided to share their links with you and I really hope that you’ll check them out (and try them if you’re in the midst of cleaning!).

The first is for cleaning the inside of the microwave.  I never used to mind cleaning a microwave, but in this house our microwave is mounted under our top cabinets right above our stove, so fun sized me has a lot more problems seeing into it let alone cleaning it.  As a result it got messy and once I finally got onto a medication that made me stable enough to be able to stand on a chair for a bit to reach inside (and see lol) some stuff got cooked in.  I hit Pinterest to see what hacks were out there and here’s the one at Practically Functional that really worked well for me (just click the name since I embedded the link there).  Basically you fill a microwave safe bowl with the recommended liquids and steam lose everything.  I went ahead and dropped a toothpick in my water and that turned out so well, because you can use that moist toothpick to get into the nooks and seams.  I also dipped my cleaning rag into that solution after I finished steaming and it worked perfectly for the spots that were really stubborn despite the steam.

With the microwave above the stove, and a lot of frying done on said stove, the outside of the microwave had some horrific and thoroughly embarrassing (I can’t believe I’m actually admitting to this since it’s so embarrassing for me) grease spots and finger prints.  Over at One Good Thing by Jillee there is a life altering post about removing grease.  I have so many sensitivities to cleaning supplies that I am tickled to have found an easy method that I can actually tolerate!  I’ll wait while you go and read the post (it’s not long, so really, you should go read it really quick and come back…).  I used vegetable oil since I had it on hand, along with several paper towels, both of my cleaning rags, and quite a few toothpicks, but the outside of the microwave is now cleaner than when we moved in!  It seems counter intuitive, but it cut the cleaning down to one session instead of working on this for days.

Next is to work on the filters and stove hood, but I gave that job to Larry since it involves a big pot and boiling liquids.  I may be more stable since I started the Marinol, however I still have enough bruises at any given time that I don’t trust myself with that project.  If you’d like to try out that hack it’s over here at One Good Thing by Jillee again and a lot of people say it works.  Everything I’ve ever tried from her blog has worked so well that I tend to trust her posts.  While he does that I’ll probably bite the bullet and do a thorough cleaning of the bathroom.  It’s amazing how such a tiny bathroom can get out of hand.  *laugh*  Oh, and in case you’re scratching your head and saying Spring is pretty close to being over so why am I just now doing “Spring Cleaning”, well, I’m not setting a time limit on this year’s cleaning.  My brilliant friend Leah asked me why I was pushing myself so hard to try to get all of this cleaning done quickly when I started planning out my plan of attack, especially since I haven’t been able to clean thoroughly for the past few years, and that question really gave me a lot to think about.  As long as I’m finally able to get things done who cares how long it takes?!  It’s also a handy perspective when it’s taking an average of at least four days of recovery per project.  *grin*  I have completely redone my home office, organized two shelving units (and corresponding rooms) that Larry assembled for me, redone about three-quarters of my kitchen, cleaned and organized the refrigerator, and cleaned and organized the storage room.  I’m pretty proud of myself honestly.

Anyway, I hope you find these cleaning hacks helpful too and have a great weekend!  I’ve been experimenting with a soothing bath blend while trying to ease the pain from cleaning and hope I can share a new successful product with you soon.  Once I get this blend just right you’ll truly have some happy pampering ahead of you if you try it.  *grin*