My "Green" Cleaning Solution

It seems like "green," "natural," and "homemade" cleaning solutions are all the rage these days. I jumped on the train last fall.

"Green" cleaners that you buy in the store have never appealed to me. For one, they are outrageously expensive. Who wants to spend that much on cleaning products?! Not me. Two, how "green" are those products, really? I don't trust them. I read the labels of a few products labeled "green" last year, and I sure didn't get the warm and fuzzies from what I read. Oh, I'm sure there are wonderful "green" cleaning products out there, but I am and always will be a skeptic at heart. At any rate, there's not enough evidence to make me want to try them for myself.

Same goes for "natural" products. Lots of things are "natural." Doesn't make them safe! And I don't see how anything sold in mass volumes can be totally natural and harmless, anyway. Something, somewhere along the production process, has nasty, unwanted chemicals lurking. I don't know much about chemicals and this sort of thing, so please don't think I'm making some kind of scientific statement here! Just calling it like I see it. I also know that I will never be able to get away from certain things. Like plastic. Yeah, I keep reading about how bad it is, but let's be honest - plastic is a HUGE part of our lives (well, most of us). Anyway, I'm getting way off track here...

Then comes homemade cleaning products. This I can be down with. If I make it myself, I know exactly what's in there. Its why I like to make my own bread (though I do still eat store bought bread, don't get me wrong). Its why I like that we grow a lot of vegetables in the summer. Its why I like that we raise a lot of our own meat (and all our milk).

Do a Google search and you will find thousands of "recipes" for homemade cleaning solutions. There are different solutions for bathrooms, kitchens, toilets, shower mildew, disinfectants, clothes washing, you name it and someone has come up with a "simple" solution to clean it. Some of them truly are simple, but some are pretty involved. (Which is why I haven't ventured into making my own washing detergent, and I doubt I ever will. Too many steps that I could mess up!) Some call for all kinds of essential oils. I think essential oils are wonderful, but boy are they expensive!!!

This little guy was over $9! Fortunately, essential oils last a long time because you only use a few drops at a time. I bought this tee tree oil back when we thought C had a yeast rash (tea tree oil is great for getting yeast out of cloth diapers). The other problem I have with essential oils is they aren't easy to buy locally. We have one store around here that sells them, but not a huge variety. So I don't want to get too much into the oils and be disappointed when I can't buy what I want locally. I'm not big on shopping online, either. I will if its necessary, but I prefer to buy things in person (I'm old fashioned, I guess!).

Last fall, I read that white vinegar is great for a great many things, including cleaning. I ran out of bathroom cleaner, so I decided to give it a try. I stuck to a simple "recipe" - I just used straight vinegar. Boy, was that smelly! But it worked. I poured the vinegar into a spray bottle and just sprayed the entire bathroom down, then used a wet rag to wash everything.

By the way, straight vinegar (even vinegar mixed with water) works great for cleaning mirrors. Just make sure your rag is DRY. For some reason, if the rag is wet, it leaves spots and streaks. But if I use a dry rag, the mirrors look perfect.

After a few months, I got tired of such a strong smell, even though it was much better than the terrible smells I was getting from my old commercial cleaners. So then I remembered that tea tree oil I had purchased a few months ago. Tea tree oil is a great disinfectant. I figured it would be perfect in the bathroom. I happen to love the smell of tea tree oil, but it is kinda strong.

I just made a spray bottle filled with 1/2 vinegar and 1/2 water (I found that mixing the vinegar with water really doesn't make it less effective, and the smell is easier to handle), and then added 3-4 drops of tea tree oil. Just enough so that I could smell it, but not so much that the smell was overpowering.

Ta-da!

I thought vinegar cleaned like a charm. But adding just that tiny amount of tea tree oil made a HUGE difference. Before, I had to spray everything down, then use my wet rag to wipe and scrub. And sometimes scrub a lot. I am not a fan of scrubbing. Now, I just spray everything down, and within a few minutes its ready to wipe. And that's it! No scrubbing. I swear I'm not lying.

I don't have a picture cause I don't like to document nastiness, but my shower gets pretty gross. The shower head drips constantly (despite DH's attempts to fix it; he says to fix it we'll have to work on the plumbing, and that just sounds way to involved), so the shower never dries. Which means, of course, mold/mildew is constantly growing in there. EW. (For the record, I used to use Tilex shower spray every single day in hopes that the gunk would be held at bay, but it never even slowed down.) Straight vinegar took care of the nastiness very nicely, but like I said, I had to use some elbow grease. NOW, however, I can seriously just spray it down, wait, then wipe it off with a rag. And presto! Clean, mold-free shower! For a few days, at least...

So that's it. My truly simple all-purpose cleaning solution. Here it is in a list in case you missed it before...

In a spray bottle, combine...

1 part water

1 part white vinegar

3-4 drops of tea tree oil.

And you're done!

For the kitchen, I suppose you could use the same solution. For now, I've just been using 1/2 water and 1/2 vinegar in a spray bottle. A few weekends ago I cleaned every cabinet door in there with that solution and was very pleased with the results. (And woah, were they nasty!!) DH doesn't really like the smell, but he's never home when I'm cleaning, so its not a big deal. Plus, I think he secretly likes walkin into a home that smells like vinegar, now that he knows why it smells like that! ( :

If anyone else has any SIMPLE homemade cleaning solutions, I'd love to hear them! I'm certainly not claiming that my method is the best, and I may in the future change it completely. For now, though, it works and I am happy. And I don't feel worried that my baby (or myself!) will die from toxic fumes when I clean!

Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention that this solution is CHEAP. White vinegar is not very expensive at all, and you really don't use that much cleaning every week (or every other week if you're lazy like me...!).

One more use for white vinegar in my house - fabric softener!! When we started using cloth diapers (2 years ago this month - wow!), I realized I could no longer use fabric softeners, because they can build up on diapers and affect their absorbency. Not good. It turned out to be a really good thing because my allergies got a LOT better once I quit using fabric softener (and switched to All Free & Clear detergent) - turns out, I'm allergic to basically all fragrances and perfumes that they put in cleaning products.

So, I started adding about a cup or so (depending on the load size) to the fabric softener dispenser in my top loader washing machine. It really does help keep the clothes soft. Plus, if I forget about a load of clothes in the washer and they start to smell musty, I just toss in some more vinegar and run another quick cycle, and that takes care of it. This has been tested many, many times in my house...haha.

I still haven't figured out a good way to get rid of static when I dry clothes in the dryer (I mostly air dry things, but then throw them in the dryer to "fluff them up" and they are always super static-y). I use dryer balls, but they're not wool. Maybe I don't have enough of them? Or maybe I just need to invest in some wool ones. Stay tuned....

Bathroom: Organized!

One of the great things about blogging to me is being able to use this thing for accountability. If I say I'm gonna do something on the blog, I feel like I really have to git 'er done (sorry for you non-Southerners, haha!). Friday I posted about a wife's role of being a help meet for her husband - since then its been on my mind even more than usual, and though this weekend was a challenge (due to my current sickness and medication reaction - ugh), I was still able to try really hard to be what God's called me to be. (Did I succeed? Probably not, but the point is I'm trying all the time. God doesn't demand perfection, thankfully!!)

I'm also happy to report that C and I successfully got the master bathroom organized. I said on Friday that would be my project for the weekend. I wondered if I'd actually get it done, given how I've been feeling physically for the past week, but we did it! I intended to tackle this project Saturday morning, but when C and I got home Friday afternoon, I told her I had a fun project for us to do that weekend. She asked what it was (that kid loves projects, and loves to help her mama!), and I told her we were gonna organize the bathroom. She said "ooh! I want to or-gize!" and got really excited. It was precious. She immediately went to the bathroom and opened up the cabinets - don't tell me my child hasn't witnessed a few organizational projects!

So I figured why not start right then? No time like the present, right?

Here's a wide shot of our bathroom. In my post last year on this room's makeover, I didn't include any wide angles. So here ya go, our master bath in all its glory. Haha.

 And here's a few shots of what lies beneath the counters.... (or what did lie beneath!)

This is my side of the cabinets.

 I completely forgot I had purchased baskets a few years ago. Even though I see this one daily, I don't actually see it.

This next shot is the middle of the cabinets.

 And this is DH's side. 

 No organization whatsoever! I had no idea what all was in there, and if we needed something we don't use on a daily basis, sometimes it took forever to find it.

So the first step was to take everything out. C loved this part:

I purged a grocery store bag full of stuff. I was amazed at how much I was holding on to that I will never use!

Then I separated everything into piles that made sense to me, grouping like things together. After that, putting everything back in the cabinets was simple! Well, maybe not simple, since C decided she much preferred to keep taking things back out...!

My side:

It still looks like a lot of junk, but now its organized and I know exactly what's in there and where it is. Behind the two wooden baskets sits one of the dollar store white baskets I bought Friday - it holds all my lotions and potions that I don't use every day. Most of it is Mary Kay. I think I have tried every single Mary Kay moisturizer!

I have always used one of the wood baskets to house my styling tools - hair dryer, curling iron, flat iron, etc, and that didn't change. Now I use the other one to hold my styling products and brushes. I love having everything right there in one place.

Here's a shot of the middle cabinet now:

Those little drawers proved to be perfect for storing extra razors, toothpaste samples, bandaids, etc! If I was really crafty I'd make little labels to go on the drawers, but that's not really me. Plus we all know how much I appreciate a quick project!

On to DH's side:

I realized after I started that I really need one more of the white baskets for his side. I plan to pick one up today. Just so there's not anything randomly laying around in there like you see in the shot above. Oh, and I realize that there is still a lot of stuff crammed into Ziploc bags here. That's DH's system and I have learned not to mess with his system! So while its not my style and doesn't help me at all, that's the way he likes it, and that's the way it will stay. Somehow, he knows exactly what is in those bags.

So that's it! Not a glamorous makeover by any means, but it sure does make this mama happy! I may have opened the cabinet doors several times this weekend just to bask in the new-found order...Its the little things. Don't you love how doing something so simple and quick can make such a huge impact? ( :



I'm linking up with Jen over at IHeart Organizing for her March organizational challenge of Linens and the Loo! 

Weekend Project: Bathroom Organization

One of my favorite blogs (don't I say that an awful lot?? haha), IHeart Organizing, is hosting monthly challenges this year to get people motivated to organize their house. Each month, she focuses on a different room or area of the house. Last month she did the kitchen, and I sort of got on board with that challenge with my Quick Kitchen Project - the hanging organizer, though I did it this month - and then that one weekend last month where DH and I organized some in the kitchen and our office. Its good to be motivated and I'm grateful that the woman behind IHeart is issuing these monthly challenges to get our juices flowing.

This month IHeart's challenge room is the bathroom and the linen closet. I did a makeover on our spare bathroom last fall, but there's nothing in there to organize since we don't really use it much. Not long after we got married, I made over our master bathroom, but I never tackled the mess under the sinks. This weekend, that changes!!

source: IHeart Organizing

Our master bathroom is a fairly decent size, I think. We have a shower, a garden tub, a pretty big closet (linen closet, I guess you'd say), the toilet of course, and a double sink with a good amount of counter space between the sinks. There are no drawers, but lots of cabinet area under the sinks. Right now, everything is just kind of thrown into that space. I'll take "before" pictures this weekend so you can see the mess, but beware! The space has the potential to be very functional, so that's my goal this weekend.

My plan is to take everything out of the cabinets, organize it, purge what we don't use, and put everything back in a way that makes sense and hopefully looks prettier than it does now. I'm kinda scared to tackle this project, because to be honest I don't even know exactly what is hiding in those cabinets! I figure C can help me take everything out - she's great at that already, haha.

Today I went to the Family Dollar and bought some supplies to help me get organized. For $13, I think I got some good stuff:

Those stacking drawers were the most expensive, at $5.50 each. But I think they'll really come in handy in my deep cabinets. If not, I'll return them! I got two of the big white baskets and two of the small red ones. Red doesn't go with anything in that bathroom, but I figure it'll be under the cabinet so who cares?

I can't wait to get started on my new project! I'll be back either tomorrow or some time this weekend with hopefully the finished project! ( :

Done!!

Project bathroom makeover is complete!! Well, its not completely decorated, but that will take me a loooong time, judging from previous projects. I don't like to rush decor. ( :  Its finished enough that I'm showing it to people now. I have to say, I am very proud of this room. Sometimes I just stand in the door way with a smile on my face and just stare at it. Yes, I am aware that is weird. It just looks so much better!

Before I continue, let's take a moment to remember what it looked like not too long ago...

 *shudder*

I do not miss that ugliness at all!!

After several days of hard work, sweat, and getting accidentally high from paint fumes, I finally finished. When I first started painting the walls, I thought oh no, this color is hideous! I hate it! Luckily, after I finished one whole wall, I was in love. *whew* Once all the walls were painted, I loved it even more. Now that everything is back in place and the curtains are up, I can't even express how much I am in love!

Ahhhh. I moved the shelf to the other wall, since I couldn't reach it over the toilet. DH thinks its in the way here, but this is not *his* bathroom, so I'm not too concerned. It will be C's once she starts using a bathroom on her own (taking baths and stuff alone). Its also the guest bathroom, since its right off the living room. I doubt that mirror will stay there (it was originally behind the shelf), but we had it and DH painted it and I wanted something up there in that space, so for now its okay.

Next, I'll have to get a soap dish, toothbrush holder, and that kind of stuff. My intentions are to get clear glass containers to place on the shelf for holding cotton balls, q-tips, etc. I think that'll look pretty.

I'm not sure what kind of picture or art I want to do on the wall over the toilet. There's also a space beside the door, but its narrow. I'm searching for ideas!

I hate that you have to turn your head to see this one. Stupid blogger.

And see? Now the shower curtain looks like it belongs in here. It doesn't "match," but it "goes." Meaning, there are no stripes in there that are the color of the walls, but it blends well. Just like I envisioned 3 years ago when I hung it up! I love it. Its bright and cheery now. Almost makes me want to start using this bathroom instead of our master bath! ( :

Another bathroom update

Almost done! I worked really hard over Thanksgiving break. I am quite proud of myself, because I really didn't think I'd get anything done in there!

One night early last week (Monday or Tuesday night), I stayed up super late finishing the wall prep. I think I said before that DH did most of the mudding that had to be done, but he missed one wallpaper seam, and then I decided to take out the 4 anchors in that same wall, so they had to be patched up, too. (The anchors were holding the metal shelf, and it will be going back up, but not in that spot.) Anyway, I got that done and then the bathroom took a little break (haha).

Because Wednesday night I went to see Breaking Dawn Part 2! I am a total Twi-hard and I am not ashamed to admit that. It. was. awesome!! I can't wait for the DVD to come out so I can watch it again and again.... But back to the bathroom! ( :

So we had a really great Thanksgiving day. It wasn't nearly as hectic as I anticipated and we actually enjoyed the day. Late that afternoon, C went down for a loooong nap (like 3 hours!), and DH went outside, so I got to work again. I sanded down everything and spread out drop cloths. Then I got out the Kilz.

Word of advice: if you ever have to use Kilz in your house, do NOT buy the oil based one!! In other rooms, we used Kilz, but we got the water based. No idea how I managed to buy the oil based one this time, but I learned my lesson.

I noticed the smell immediately, but figured I'd get used to it. Well, I did, sort of. I painted for about an hour before I decided to step out and take a break. And WOAH. I was completely high. Everything was spinning, my eyes wouldn't focus, my head felt light....not good. I thought maybe a break would make me feel better, so I stayed outside for about 15 minutes. I was determined to finish that coat, though, so I went back and resumed painting. Then my head started hurting...I managed to finish all the walls with the roller, but of course there were spots I couldn't reach and had to use a paint brush. But I knew there was no way I could do any more that day.

It took me several hours to recover from the fumes. We all went to DH's mama's house for supper that night, and when we got back home the fumes were still terrible. I was worried about something catching on fire since we have gas logs, so I made C sleep in our room in a travel crib (which she thought was great - when I was setting it up she kept saying "thank you, Mama! I love it!" lol). Luckily, our room is at the other end of the house, so the fumes weren't too bad in there.

Friday, the fumes were still noticeable, but not headache-inducing anymore. When C went down for her nap that afternoon, I finished up the coat of Kilz with a paint brush. So, after all that torture, this is where I was:

Friday night I was really motivated. I got back in there after C went to bed and painted the walls GREEN! I think I was up until 1 or 1:30am, but it was worth it. I completely finished that part, but I don't want to post any more pictures until the bathroom is totally done. ( :

Saturday, I painted a lot of the trim, but then my friend in England called me on Skype, so I quit to talk to her. (Have I mentioned I love my new iPad?? Skype all around the house AND see my girl across the world? Yes please!!)

Yesterday (Sunday), I tackled the trim again while C took a nap. And I finished!! DH took all the hardware out to the shop to be spray painted. He got a coat of primer on everything, so now he just has to paint on the white. Hopefully that will happen tonight, and tomorrow night we can get everything hung up and put back together. I still haven't made up my mind how this place will be decorated, but I'm waiting until the shower curtain, shelf/mirror, and towel bar are up first before I make any decisions. I'm so excited and I can't wait to share the end result!

Bathroom progress

I am happy to report that I actually did what I said I'd do this weekend - I started on the bathroom! I didn't get quite as far as I originally planned, but that's okay. I'm super excited about this project!
I had planned to get a lot of the prep work done Saturday afternoon while C took her nap. But the day turned out differently than I imagined, and in a good way. C and I met up Saturday morning with my friend Ashley and her daughter, who is 4 months younger than C. C says Aubrey is her best friend. ( :  Anyway, we went to a church in town that was having a craft fair. I found the perfect hair bow to go with C's birthday/Christmas dress (since her birthday is December 21 we do a two-fer in the dress department), and I even bought myself some adorable bobby pins with fabric flowers on them. After that, we ran errands around town and ate lunch at a local Mexican restaurant - yum! We finally ended up at Lowes where I bought a sample of the paint color me and C chose and a gallon of Killz (to cover up the wallpaper in the bathroom). On the way home, the babies fell asleep, so Ashley and I sat in the car for a while talking. It was so nice! When the babies woke up, we went inside Ashley's house and let them play a while before C and I headed home. So C didn't take her super long afternoon nap at home like I planned, and I didn't get anything done in the bathroom Saturday, but that's okay because we had so much fun that day.

Yesterday when C went down for her nap, I got to work. DH helped me. I kept telling him I could do it and he didn't have to help, but I think he's more excited than I am that this bathroom is finally getting redone! Before I continue, here's some "before" pictures. You can see why the bathroom desperately needs a makeover!

Edited to add: Okay, blogger originally rotated these pictures and wouldn't let me rotate them back. So I did a search for how to fix this problem. Clearly, the solution did not work. *sigh* Now they look all distorted...but at least you can get the idea now without straining your neck!

That shelf thingy over the toilet...I'm trying to decide if I want to use that again. If I do, I'll spray paint it white. I might end up hanging it lower on the wall, and hang a picture of some sort above it. I'm not sure yet. I do like it because it can hold a hand towel, but do I really want a towel hanging over the toilet??

I also plan to have a mirror cut to go between the sink and the medicine cabinet. This will be C's bathroom and she won't be able see herself in that high mirror for years. I would love to do away with that cabinet completely, but that would require much more work than we need to take on right now, since the lights are wired into it....so we'll just deal with it. (Plus, I do like the extra storage.)

That patch of green on the wall will be the new color. I was trying it out Saturday. I may end up going a shade darker, though. That's awfully light!

Oh, and you can see the lovely purplish counter top again. I told you, they're in almost every room of the house!! Even the built-in bookshelves in the living room have that same ugliness. *sigh*

This closet holds towels mainly. It also hides my cat's litter box. Thankfully, the closet is already solid white inside, so I won't be doing anything in there. *sigh* of relief!

And this shower curtain actually goes with the color I want the walls to be. Of course, it doesn't match at all now, but I've used it for 3 years because I knew eventually it would match the walls...lol. 

Once we got everything off the walls, I realized this won't be quite as bad as I originally thought. There is quite a bit of open space on the walls in here, so it will be pretty easy to paint. Not at all like the master bathroom. I'm not really looking forward to some places, like around the toilet, under the medicine cabinet, and above the shower, but it won't be that bad.

Yesterday, I took a razor blade and cut off all the edges of the wallpaper that were rolling up. We were going to glue them back down, but someone told DH last week its best to cut them off. You have to mud over it anyway, so I figured we might as well not worry about workin with glue. After that, I sanded everything so it was as smooth as possible. Then DH went behind me and slapped mud over all the wallpaper seams and all the imperfections in the walls. I did some of this, but DH did the majority for me. That's all we could do yesterday. The mud has to dry over night. The next time I have a chance to work in there, I'll sand everything down again, and then we'll be ready for the Killz!

Today I'm going to Lowes to buy the paint for the walls and the trim. Thank goodness I remember the name of the trim throughout the house (Betsy's Linen) because we have none left like I thought. I'd hoped to work in there tonight, but I just remembered that I'd planned to go to the La Leche League meeting tonight, so the bathroom will most likely be put off for another day this week. No worries. (I'm actually hoping that since C and I won't be home tonight, DH will jump in there and sand for me....hehe!)

So before I sign off, here's a pic I took this morning of one wall in there.

No, those aren't wallpaper seams running horizontally along that wall...at some point in the life of this bathroom, someone had something adhered to the wall there. The residue was left behind and I tried my hardest to scrape it off with the razor blade, but most of it wouldn't budge. If you look at the 2nd picture above you can see the brown line....yeah. Be kind to your walls, people. Someone else may have to deal with your mistakes someday!!

Master Bath Makeover

I actually did this several years ago. We purchased our home in 2008 and it needed a LOT of work/love before it was habitable, so from August 2008 to February 2009 (which is when we got married and moved in), we did a ton of work in there. Every room got a makeover, and I really wish I had taken "before" pictures of every room, but I just didn't think about it. Before the wedding, we managed to repaint every single room except the two bathrooms. I totally despise painting bathrooms, so I procrastinated there. For months after we got married, we used the smaller second bathroom off the living room. Its ugly in there but we ignored it.

Because it wasn't nearly as atrocious as the hot mess that was our master bath:

Hideous, right? It was even worse in person, trust me. When we moved in, I shut that door and didn't open it for several months. Seriously.

Now, granted, it didn't look like this all the time. When I took this picture I had already started working on it. I attempted to remove the wallpaper, which is why you see so many white patches in that picture. Whoever applied the wallpaper did it incorrectly, and no matter what I did, when I pulled off wallpaper, I also pulled off sheet rock. Not good. I tried every method I found on Google, and nothing worked. So finally, I gave up. I patched up the edges of the remaining wallpaper, painted Killz over everything, and got to work. Much easier.

I originally envisioned this bathroom looking kind of like a personal spa. I wanted it very light and airy (the complete opposite of what it was!), and I wanted very pale walls, but not white. I was thinking a blue-grey. It had to "go" with the vibrant blue walls in our bedroom. Well, when you have half-wallpapered walls, you have uneven walls, and any imperfection in a wall is amplified when you paint over it, especially with a light color. So I decided to do an old-school technique. I painted the walls a soft bluish grey color, then got a sponge and sponged a lighter grey color on top. That way, the walls looked textured and kind of hid the actual imperfections. It works, as long as you don't look too closely!

I was extremely pleased with the results:

Much better, huh? So much nicer than the dungeon that used to be the master bath! Oh, and to make it even more dungeon-y, there used to be a cabinet over the tub. Yep, right on that bare wall back there. I'm sure it would have been nice to have extra storage in there, but I just couldn't imagine taking a bath with a cabinet looming over my head....*shudder* Plus, it just looked so cramped. DH took that out for me.

That wrinkly white curtain (I did later iron it, just FYI!) hides the closet, which used to have annoying accordion-type doors. I like the curtain because its more airy and just goes nicer with the room.

I would love to replace the light fixtures (there's another sink at the other end of the counter), those awful medicine cabinets, the counter tops (hard to see here, but they're purplish - and all over the entire house, ugh), and the floor (you can't see it, but its a dark green, which matched the ugly "before" wallpaper perfectly), but I've been ignoring them for 3 years now, so I suppose I will continue to do so. At least for now! ( :

Eventually, I added a little decor to the room, but not too much. Now, I wish I had done something a little different, but this is okay.

I decided to go with a "Charleston, SC" theme, but not an obvious one. It probably only has meaning to me and DH. But that's okay. Charleston is where we went for our honeymoon and we go there almost every year. LOVE that place!

I made this little cutie myself. Just a couple of hydrangea blooms from Michael's, some opaque accent rocks, and a glass bowl.

I decided to use shells I'd collected over the years to hold soap. I still love that idea. (I also use a shell to hold hair accessories that I use a lot, like bobby pins and clear elastics.) I took that picture myself. Its of a tulip tree blossom in, you guessed it, Charleston.

I took these two pictures, too. They're of camellias. The camellia should be the official flower of Charleston. I'm in love. On our honeymoon, we visited Magnolia Plantation, which we decided should be renamed Camilla Plantaion because there were so many camellias in bloom there. It was beautiful! Anyway, I really need to paint that flower pot white, but I never remember to! On the shelves there are also some smaller shells and smooth rocks, all meaningful. They were all collected on fun trips with my husband. ( :

So that's it. Even though its been over 3 years, every time I walk into the master bath I smile because I remember how ugly it used to be, and I love how pretty it is now! No, its not perfectly decorated, and no, I never have found a curtain for the window, but I still love it. And like I said earlier, there's still some changes I'd like to make in there, but is a house ever really finished? I don't think so.

This room was not easy to redo. Not at all. I worked so hard on it, and I really don't think I'll ever forget that work. Which is why I appreciate it all the more now. And I love that I did it completely by myself. I told DH I wanted to do this one alone, and I did. Well, almost. He helped patch up some really bad places in the drywall, and he did some sanding, but that's it. I just love that accomplished feeling.

The reason I'm posting this is because now I'm finally motivated to do the other bathroom. You know, the one that is ugly but not so ugly we feel the need to keep the door shut. After completing the master bath, I was so tired that I just couldn't bear to think of doing another bathroom. And I knew it would be the same issues, because that bathroom is wallpapered, too. So I put it off....for 3 years. I know. But I did get pregnant and have a baby during that time, so cut me some slack. (And let's not forget also during that time, I lost my job, started a new one, and finished my graduate degree, so its not like I wasn't busy!) A few months ago, C and I picked out a color for the other bathroom. It will be a pale green. Our living room is a really awesome green that is extremely hard to describe. I'll post a picture soon. Since the bathroom is off of the living room, and you can completely see it, it needs to flow. So a pale green it is, with white trim to match the rest of the house. As far as decorations go, I am clueless, but I know it'll come to me eventually, so I'm not stressing over that.

Anyway, I finally feel ready to tackle another bathroom. Thankfully, this time I know what not to do. I'm not even attempting to take down the wallpaper. I have a plan. And I'm excited! The goal is to start the prep work this weekend (when C takes her naps in the afternoons), and then get the painting done next weekend (I'll be home 4 days over Thanksgiving). I'll post pictures of my progress to keep me motivated! Wish me luck! ( :

I cheated!

The exclamation point in the title of this post probably tells you that I'm not really beating myself up over my "cheating" incident. I was actually pretty pleased with myself! Sometimes, you just gotta take a short cut, you know??

I have been sick lately. Like really, really sick. The doctor in the Emergency Room last week said I had the stomach flu (DH took me there because I was severely dehydrated - that's how sick I was). I got 3 bags of fluids, some nausea medication, and some pain medication (dehydration makes you have intense stomach pain, if you didn't know - so intense that I told DH I'd rather be in labor again...yeah). It was a fun night. Its been over a week now, and I'm almost back to normal.

Luckily for me, my family really stepped up and were just basically awesome last week. My mother-in-law keeps C every day, and pretty much every day last week I called her to come pick up the baby. Which meant she also had to get her dressed for the day, pack her bag, etc. I was just too sick to take care of my own child, which was a hard pill for me to swallow! DH had to do things he doesn't normally have to do around the house, and he was a good nurse. My mother came a few nights and gave C her bath for me, which was a huge help, and then she stayed with me all day Friday because I was too weak to do ANYthing for myself. (She made me drink Ensure - yuck! But it helped me. I guess I needed the calories.) So what I'm trying to say is I am eternally grateful for my family! Its wonderful to know I have so many people I can count on when I'm in need.

Back to my cheating. I clean our bathrooms usually once every 2 weeks. I know some people clean their bathrooms much more often than that, but I struggle to get it done, so every 2 weeks is impressive to me! The bathrooms really don't get that dirty, anyway. My husband and I are both neat people and clean up after ourselves. And C is never in there unsupervised. Anyway, even though I clean the bathrooms regularly, I still have a mildew problem on my shower curtain. Gross, I know.

For a while, we did the shower spray stuff. You know, that chemical that you spray after you take a shower that is supposed to prevent mildew. It doesn't work. DH and I were diligent about it for months, and still mildew grew. Straight vinegar works wonders on the stuff growin on the walls of the shower (though it still grows back every other week - grr), I found. But I haven't had any luck with the mildew on the shower curtain, at the bottom.

It. Was. Nasty!

The week I got sick, I had planned on taking the curtain down and soaking it in bleach or something really strong to see if that took care of it. Of course as sick as I was, that didn't happen. I thought about just buying a new shower curtain, but DH would surely be less than happy with that idea. Plus, what a waste of money! Even though I'm feeling better this week, I have had so much to catch up on that I haven't had time to work on that curtain.

So, the other night I cut off the offensive bottom of the curtain!

I cut off about 2 inches of nastiness. Definitely cheating, but it looks so much better in the shower now. And I'm looking at it as a clean slate. Hopefully I'll find something that keeps the mildew away when I'm doing my regular cleaning.

What's funny is that DH hasn't even noticed. Or if he has, he hasn't bothered to mention it to me.

But I am vowing to myself to keep the dang thing clean and mildew free this time. I will NOT let it get to that point again. And I will NOT ever have to cut off 2 inches of a shower curtain again!

Don't judge me; aside from my previously nasty shower curtain, my house is actually pretty clean. Not as organized as it could be, perhaps, but definitely clean. ( :  And I can't be the only one who's ever cheated on housework like this, can I??