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?
