This is likely the most boring blog post ever but here we go! A round up of recent cleaning wins, losses, and in-progress results.
Car Cleaning
A few weeks ago we had our car professionally cleaned by a mobile valet person. I've never had this before, we usually don't clean our car or just hoover it ourselves but after 3 years of ownership it was getting a bit... grim. In February Lily had a vomiting bug which unfortunately landed right in the back seat of the car. I googled what to do and the top answer was "Burn your car" followed by "take it where the taxis go" and then finally some mom blog websites said to clean it with baking soda and so that's what I did.
On the plus side, the car did not smell like vomit!
On the minus, there has been a lot of baking soda in our car since February. That stuff is hard to get out of fabric.
Anyways, the mobile valet guy came (I did pre-warn that it was a very family used car!) and he managed to get most of the baking soda out and also all the grim stuff that driving a car for 3 years with 4 kids will do. It was £75 and he spent over 2 hours working on it. We only did the inside to save money, but I bet it would have looked super nice to do the outside as well. Next time!
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| Baking soda slightly visible behind Ezra |
Oven Cleaning
About once a year we get our oven professionally cleaned. I started doing this after I accidentally splashed oven cleaner in my eye while cleaning our oven on the day we moved in. Luckily I remembered how to flush my eye out (thanks Chem 101!) and then I brought the box of oven cleaner into A&E where they numbed my eye and then flushed it out more and then charged me nothing because the NHS is free (or taxpayer funded) and so I walked out with eye drops and also colored numbing dye dripping down my face while I took the bus home (Andy was turning in keys to our other home so couldn't get me... plus I probably still wasn't the weirdest person on that bus).
Since then I've paid to have our oven cleaned. Every year I think "this is the last time I"ll get this oven cleaned, because there is no way this kitchen can last another year!" and after saying this for 6 years I messaged our oven cleaner and... he retired.
I googled how to clean our oven naturally and again the internet moms suggested baking soda and then I decided to save £60 and do it myself. And that was 3 months ago and I have not even tried. So a new oven cleaner is coming on Wednesday to clean our very gross oven. That has lasted another year. And currently looks like this. Yuck.
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| (Roasted carrots and chunky chips for dinner) |
I seem to be the only person in this house capable of recognizing when the fridge needs cleaning. I generally wipe out the veg drawer when it gets super gross, and I also wipe the crumbs off the bottom when they annoy me enough. However, when we went to Portugal and stayed at an AirBnB with an actually clean fridge I came home and realized that our fridge was just... gross.
We arrived home on a Saturday, put the kids to bed, and while waiting for our grocery order Andy and I started properly cleaning all the shelves and drawers. It was as empty as it's ever been and was the perfect time for a deep clean and I am so glad we did, because now it's just normal dirty and I am unlikely to clean it again for a year.
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| Standard fridge situation |
Window Cleaning
We pay someone to wash our windows on the outside every 2 months. First we had a person who did it for £8 but he was odd and unreliable. Then we had someone who did all the windows for £15 and used a squeegee and it was so clean! But then he stopped showing up. Now we pay a very nice guy £25 and he turns up regularly and does a great job. I also use it as a reminder to clean the inside of the windows because toddler prints are everywhere.
House Cleaning
We don't currently have a house cleaner. I have given up on the search. It's probably better financially. Maybe we can do a one-off clean once a year. Maybe our house will just be kind of gross until the twins start school.
How often do you clean your car? Do you pay for it or do it yourself? What about your Oven? Anything else in your home you outsource cleaning? What do you hate cleaning or love cleaning? Have you ever had a ridiculous cleaning related injury?
This is J at jellyjules.com, I can’t log in.
ReplyDeleteWe have a self cleaning oven, which I LOVE. It just gets super hot and burns everything off of the inside. The windows, we have a two story place and we pay someone once every year or two to come. It’s closer to $150, so not nearly so nice as yours, though that is for inside and outside. Yes, I can do inside myself, but it’s not half price to just do outside, so I may as well. We’ve just finished a big construction project, and our rainy season is over, so clearly this is the time to get on that.
Why am I the only one who cleans the fridge? Is it because I am the only one who cares? Or would I get mad if they threw something away that I wanted? Who knows.
Your car detailing sounds very reasonably priced.
Oooh I love the idea of having both the inside and the outside done at the same time! While it's nice to have the outside cleaned sometimes it just highlights how bad the inside of the windows are for us.
DeleteI am also the default fridge food monitor - we rarely throw anything away but I am always sorting and checking dates. I think people just don't see the muck on the shelf!
The detailing was interior only - It would have been £150 for inside and outside. I may do that next time, but even with inside only it was a big improvement over what it was before
When we got a new car (1,5 years ago), we started paying for a monthly car wash membership. I drive it through the car wash 2-3x per month and then also vacuum and wipe down the inside. We don’t have kids, so we keep the car fairly clean this way ;)
ReplyDeleteOther than that, we don’t pay for cleaning services. I wonder though if I should ask our landlady if she could send someone to do the windows from the outside… I could do the downstairs windows, but I cannot reach the upstairs (they’ve very high up). I am not sure if that is something she thinks about (or would pay for), but we haven’t had our outdoor windows cleaned since we moved in.
I am also the only one who sees when the fridge needs cleaning. I think men are blind to this LOL
I love the idea of a car wash membership but I have not seen anyone do it over here. I am sure it would keep things from getting so bad if I washed more regularly.
DeleteWhen I rented I never had the windows cleaned and neither did our landlady. I wonder if that would be something she would pay for or you would? We can't reach our upstairs windows either which is why we pay someone with a big long brush to do it.
Solidarity on the fridge san!
"Burn your car". HAHAHA. I am rolling with laughter on this.
ReplyDeleteI've never cleaned my oven...ever. It just... doesn't seem to get horribly dirty. Or maybe I'm blind to it. I legit didn't know you could hire someone to clean ovens, but this makes sense.
Also, that oven cleaning accident is HORRIFIC. And the day you moved in!
You are the second person to mention not having an oven cleaned due to not needing it! I wonder if there is something in my cooking that makes our oven super gross? We do overfill pans sometimes, and things drip on the bottom of the oven, and mostly the gross splatters on the window that are caked on. But maybe this time I'll do better regular maintenance and then I won't need a professional with chemicals to sort it out for me in a year (or maybe this time I'll have a new kitchen next year... but I doubt it!)
DeleteElizabeth, I'm with you on the oven. I vaguely feel like it is something thst should be cleaned eventually but as I have never witnessed anyone do so I have no idea how to go about it. So shamefully uncleaned it remains...
DeleteI am fairly sure more people have said they don't clean their oven than have said they do... I think I only cleaned ovens after a landlord withheld a deposit due to the oven being dirty, and then I cleaned it when I moved. But this oven gets so gross, I am very curious whether it is a me problem, or whether it's just that I don't do any general oven maintenance at all (as in, I wipe out the microwave periodically, but never the oven).
DeleteGood times! I like the idea of a hot fridge cleaning date.
ReplyDeleteI would like to treat myself to getting my car detailed just once to see what it's like. My current car used to belong to my niece, who got it used. Just sayin' that someone did not treat the car well and there were a lot of stains on the upholstery when I got it. I treated them to the best of my ability, but it's not perfect. The other issue is that my #1 passenger is Doggo, and even though I have a blanket covering the back seat, she still manages to bring in a lot of dirt. So if I did get the car detailed, it would not stay looking nice for very long, but still I kind of feel like doing it sometime just for laughs.
I also don't seem to need to clean my oven regularly. Well, let's be honest I don't use the oven regularly but that's because most things are faster in the air fryer so I use that more. If I bake something that seems like it might bubble over, I put it on the top rack and put a baking sheet on the bottom rack
Dogs and nieces are probably harder on fabric than kids! But hey, life is short, and maybe a clean car for a short time is worth it on balance! YOLO when it comes to car cleaning...?
DeleteI think the bottom sheet rack is important. I'm not sure why the glass gets so grody and splattered with muck. But I do think that wiping it more than once every 18 months may keep it looking better.
I just cleaned my oven. Thankfully without accident it was pretty dirty with drips of things spilled over time burnt onto the bottom. It never occurred to me that you could get just the oven cleaned. The car detailing that comes to your house sounds like a win.
ReplyDeleteI think if I wipe the oven down every few months it wont get quite so dire that I will feel the need to pay someone to clean it.
DeleteCar detailing was a win... although my son already threw leaves in the car. But the baking soda vomit is gone so that's beneficial...
This is now the third or fourth time I'm writing this fact in a blog comment: I have never in my fortysomething years on this earth cleaned an oven. We've lived in our current house for almost eight years and it's never been cleaned. Why are people's ovens getting dirty? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS.
ReplyDeleteI also have this question! What am I doing wrong that makes my oven so yuck? I feel like this must be a me problem. Or maybe other people do more general cleaning and don't wait 18 months untill their oven is totally grim?
DeleteHi Rachel! I loved this post so much. Outsourcing cleaning is something I do on and off, and it honestly brings me the most happiness.
ReplyDeleteI’m not really into shopping at TJ Maxx or getting my nails done, and we rarely eat out, so hiring a cleaning service is my version of "treating myself"—it’s how I buy back my time! We have someone come bi-weekly now. Even though one visit costs about the same as a month of my son’s swim lessons, having the house in order is so worth it for my peace of mind. I even pay a little extra every few months for an oven deep-clean, which is a total lifesaver.
I know you mentioned you don't have a cleaner right now, but I can't recommend it enough if you're on the fence! It saves my sanity not having to think about scrubbing toilets on the weekends or squeezing it in between meetings.
Pro-tip: I found our current lady through our local Facebook community page. I much prefer paying her directly so she gets the full amount, rather than going through an agency where the workers usually only see a fraction of the fee.
To keep things manageable, I still do the fridge myself—usually just a few shelves at a time while I’m waiting for a grocery delivery.
One thing I did have to cut back on lately is professional interior car detailing. Now, I "splurge" on a fancy car wash that has the industrial vacuums and mat cleaners. It’s oddly satisfying!
Thanks for sharing your journey with this!