Today we’re going to spruce up the room that so often gets neglected, buried under mountains of clothes, covered with dust and lint, and nearly universally hated by its owners.  Nobody likes spending time in the laundry room, because let’s face it, that means you’re doing laundry.  No fun.  But a clean, fresh room will [...]

We’re cleaning the hallways and stairs today.  That’s it.  I told you this would be an easier challenge!  Dust and/or wipe down anything you have hanging on the walls, including that family picture that’s so old it’s missing three of your children.  Wipe down the walls and wash the baseboards. Remove all unintentional kid art. Vacuum [...]

Today we’re finishing our main living areas.  This means the next guest who walks through the door will be greeted with a fresh-smelling, scrubbed and polished living room.  How often does that happen?  Enjoy it while it lasts, because the kids are eventually going to come home from school. There are several steps to this [...]

  Having trouble snooping on the neighbors lately?  It’s probably your dingy windows.  Today we’re going to focus on all of the windows in the main living areas.  This means living room, family room, great room, kitchen, dining room — all of the main shared areas of the house. First, concentrate on the window coverings.  [...]

Today’s challenge is to clean all your garbage cans.  Not the ones that go by your curb for pickup (because they’ll be full of the garbage from all your other cans, hello), but the ones inside your house.  Some of these will be quick and easy:  Just change the liners and wipe the outside with [...]

Have you looked at your light switches lately?  How about the door jambs?  If you have young children, chances are there is a smear of jelly or mud on nearly every one of them.  Even if you don’t have kids, you’ll find finger smears from cooking, gardening, newsprint, or good old-fashioned every day living. So [...]

Did you sweep down all the cobwebs yesterday?  Great!  Now we’re going to tackle the ceiling fans and light fixtures.  If your fan is as disgusting as the one in the picture, please vacuum it first (with extendable wand or hand-vac).  You do not want that stuff flying around your room.  Also, ew.  Now dust [...]

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to throw open the windows, air out the house, freshen, clean, brighten, renew.  In other words, your mission is Spring Cleaning.  Most people stay up on dishes and laundry, if only because they have to eat, and public nudity is frowned on.  Maybe there’s a half-hearted vacuuming [...]

Here it is, folks, the answer to my overflowing music problem. And it was a piece of cake to assemble. You will need: a phillips-head screwdriver, a hammer (or a shoe, or a thick Russian novel), and an I.Q. over 100. I hope I didn’t confuse you too much with my technical terminology.  I realize [...]

No raindrops on roses (we’ve been getting snow) or whiskers on kittens (ours ran away), bright copper kettles (I have stainless) or warm woolen mittens (Thinsulate gloves around these parts).  No brown paper packages tied up with string (but I do have an ongoing affair with Amazon, and its brown cardboard boxes with the smile [...]