Mops

Day three of the new place meant cleaning the kitchen floor. When your tiles are black and white there is a clear distinction when a white tile is dirty. Cleaning the floor meant a spay bottle of bleach water and a cleaning rag. There was the purchase of a dollar store mop--we'll get to that later. The white tiles had the elegant color of gray to begin with, and now the kitchen smells like a swimming pool. Bleach worked wonders on our kitchen sink. This was the elegant color of rust to begin with that is now a shinny white and dare I say it, BEAUTIFUL!! (I got to find joy somewhere, right?!) The hour and a half on my hands and knees cleaning the floor led to an hour standing on the counter top cleaning the cupboards. The second happiest thing of the day was that standing on the counter top, I didn't even hit my head on the ceiling, I probably had an extra 2-3 inches or so! I was hoping the Lysol all-purpose cleaner would help and they did. However they are still sticky. I'll try the TSP powder today--hopefully they will be sticky no more!!

Dollar Store mops seem like a decent idea. In this cleaning game we've been playing since Saturday saving some bucks is a great idea. NOT. Cleaning Tip of the day: The only smart cleaning products at a dollar store are probably bleach and name brand dish soap. Bleach is about a $1 everywhere you can buy off-brand, even if you buy name brand it is like $1.50 tops. For the most part it is the best thing out there, just use it in a well ventilated area, not near ammonia and wear old clothes. As for the dish soap, I say name brand--like Palmolive because I don't like the smell of the other type there, so it is a matter of preference--the size of the bottles was just the same so if I had to choose I would go with what I would like best. Don't buy a mop. Mops are like a good jacket I feel. A pretty decent investment that you can make for your home. The mop I got had a sponge for the bottom and within one move of the mop the sponge detached on one side, then in the second round, it fell off all together. Now I don't expect perfection for $1, but I was hoping to use it to save my knees (they have bruises on them, FYI!)