No Christmas Tree, No Christmas Tree

So I go to put my tree up tonight and discover that somewhere in the middle of all of our moves I misplaced the stand for it.  It is not in my house so I assume it is gone forever.  So now I get to go buy another one.  Yippee.  I might get it up before Christmas.

I revamped my site as I am sure you can tell.  I wanted to be able to have categories on the top bar that you could click on to find posts pertaining to certain things.  This was the best I could find without having to pay for it. 

 

Carly says hi 🙂

 

Back to Christmas trees.  I have always wanted to do a different theme every year.  Maybe one day I will have the money and storage to do so but for now we just have a normal one covered with bright ornaments.  Here are some I found online that I just love…

 

And here are some other Christmas trees for decoration…

 

Which one is your favorite? How do you decorate you tree? Any neat themes? 

So fresh and so clean, clean

I got most of my house cleaning done. I still have about 2-3 loads of laundry left plus the kids’ room and bathroom to do.  I really deep cleaned the bathroom which got me to thinking about cleaning supplies and cleaning schedules.

In my house things are pretty laid back right now with no real schedule for getting anything done.  This leads to mass cleanups instead of tiny ones everyday.  I realized it was a problem so I set out to make a cleaning schedule to follow.  I wanted it to be simple yet effective.  I figure it should take me no more than 20 minutes of flash cleaning per day to maintain my house.  Then, once a month I can go through and do things like baseboards/windowsills.  I have found if things get cleaned everyday the cleaning goes way faster.  Here is what I came up with:

Everyday:

• Clean Kitchen (dishes, counters, trash, sweep floors)
• Dust (dressers/night stands, TV stands)
• Pick up clutter/trash
• Clean Bathroom (counters/sinks/mirrors, floors, empty trash, toilet, tub)

1-2 times/week:

• Laundry
• Clean out fridge (throw out expired items/ wipe down shelves)

Monthly:

• Baseboards
• Windowsills
• Dust top of ceiling fans
• Check for cobwebs
• Vacuum under/behind furniture and in between couch cushions
• Clean stove inside and out

I will try this plan out and hopefully it will work for me.  If not it will be back to the drawing board.

The other thing I was thinking about today while cleaning was all the cleaners that are out there.  When you go to the store there are so many options and choices to pick from it is ridiculous.  I currently use these products:

Dusting: Swiffer (Aerosol with febreze scent)

Counters/Glass/All-purpose: Mr. Clean (pink color, unsure of scent)

Tub/Toilet: Scrubbing Bubbles Foam Spray/ Lysol Toilet Bowl cleaner

Dusting for non wood surfaces: Swiffer Duster

Dishes: Cascade Action Packs

Laundry: Cheer detergent/ Downy fabric softener/ Tide stain release packs

What products do you use?  Any great ones I should know about?  This is probably kind of nerdy of me but I love buying cleaning supplies.  Almost as much as I loved buying school supplies when I was in school.  I have no idea why, but there you have it.

At any rate I am super happy to have all of the major cleaning out of my way.  It is a job when you are trying to keep an eye on two toddlers at the same time.  It makes everything take twice as long because you have to stop and poke your head around the corner to be sure they aren’t into anything.  Gotta love em! I will be back here tomorrow so don’t miss me 🙂

Cleaning and Dreaming

Hi everyone!  I was supposed to have my Christmas Tree post going up today but we never got around to putting the tree up this weekend.  Instead we had a very relaxed weekend at home spending lots of time together and watching a ton of television.  We finished another season of The Wire (Stringer Bell died and I am sad because he was my favorite character).

Today I have a full day- cleaning my house top to bottom.  I am stoked.  Can you tell?   I am especially stoked about the bathrooms, woohoo.  But, it has to be done so I will do it.  I just hope the kids cooperate and let me get it done.

As a side note, I have been having the strangest dreams lately.  Most all of them have people in them from high school that I was friends with, some that I haven’t seen in at least 8 years.  I like to try to make sense out of my dreams but these are bizarre enough that I don’t think that will be happening.

I know this post is super short and I may be back later today with another one, not sure yet.  I just have so much cleaning to do and then I’ll be making dinner.  Also, the Giants play tonight so I will definitely be watching that.

In the mean time I want to know if any of you went Black Friday shopping? Are any of you taking advantage of Cyber Monday today? I want to know the kind of deals you guys are getting and also any crazy stories- things you may have seen or that happened to you.  I know you guys saw the people going after the $2 waffle makers, right?  If not, YouTube it now.  I will be back later 🙂