Mrs. Clean

I'm getting better at cleaning. Especially since I now have my very own apartment and my very own brand new furniture. And my very own husband, who is actually amazing at helping out around the house.

I have always wanted to be a clean person. I went through extremely messy/dirty stages in my early teens, but began attempting cleanliness through late high school and college and have been slowly building up to the level of cleanliness that I feel a wife should have.

My main problem has always been that I am extremely cluttered. I keep everything, I don't like to put things away(because then I can't find them; I like them out where I can see them), and I have a habit of leaving kleenex's and paper towels wherever I go. This drove my family crazy, and drives my husband even crazier. But I have improved enormously since moving into our apartment. I put my shoes away every night, I throw out my kleenex's and paper towels( I do not like doing this, because I tend to think I need a kleenex or a paper towel when I really don't. So I blow out air and wipe off my clean hands, leaving two perfectly good items for which I paid good money. So why throw them out?), and I either throw out items that litter our tables or file them away. I'm pretty proud of myself for my improvement.

And, not only have I been able to combat my cluttered nature, but I have also developed cleaning techniques that I don't hate, so that I actually clean the objects instead of staring at them telling myself I need to do that "when I have time". For instance:

The toilet: I hate cleaning toilets. They are disgusting objects. Cleaning them is just gross, though leaving them alone is even grosser. My mom uses bleach and a cloth to clean her toilet, but that disgusts me. So you take this cloth and wipe up all the nasty stuff with it, and then what do you do with it? Where do you rinse it out? I do not want toilet germs being rinsed into my sink. That is gross. If I wanted to get urine in the sink, I would urinate in the sink. But that is not what I want to do. So I have decided that my technique is to 1) use a disposable toilet brush for the inner bowl and 2) clean the rest of it with paper towels and Lysol Green Apple cleaner. The cleaner smells wonderful, and I can just throw the paper towels out. This makes sense to me, and though it may be a tad bit more expensive, it's worth it for a clean toilet.

The shower: Cleaning the shower is what inspired this post, because I have just recently developed my technique and I am very happy with it. I hate cleaning the shower, because you have to get in the shower to clean it. Either that or kill yourself by trying to stretch and reach all the places, and that just isn't fun. But getting into the shower with a heavy duty cleaner is just not right. Especially with bleach, which is my mom's favorite cleaning tool and is therefore in my mind as the only right thing with which to clean. But I don't want to be in the shower using bleach with my clothes on. Bleach is not nice to clothes. And I sure don't want to be in the shower using bleach with my clothes off, because bleach is not nice to skin either. So what do I do? How do I clean? The answer comes from Mr. Clean! I discovered the magic eraser one night when Tom and I were at Lowes, and I decided to give it a try. It turns out you only need water to use it, so it solves my entire problem of shower cleaning. And it works like a charm! I scrubbed the shower last night and it's sparkly clean. And I did not get covered in bleach in the process. I've also starting using a shower spray every night after I take a shower, to keep away soap scum and mildew buildup, and I am happy with the results so far.

So, there you have it, more than you ever wanted to know about Rebecca Rich's cleanliness. Pretty soon I'll be needing to change my name again, to Mrs. Clean. Then Tom will need to shave his head and get his ear pierced. Oh wow, that is a funny image :)