[kittenb]

Umm, sounds like laundry should be one of his chores

I do laundry on a Monday evening (as that's the night I'm usually in) - machine goes on while I'm cooking dinner then I hang the clothes after I've eaten. Sheets and towels get done on a weekend morning - I get up, throw them in the machine, head back to bed with breakfast then chuck them up/out to dry before I head out for the day.

Sorry, this is from a UK perpective - do you have to go downstairs to a laundry room?This website has a good list of tips.

I second the tips on having separate bags for colours, whites, delicates and dry-cleaning (so you sort as you go), establishing a routine and having all your products etc ready in a caddy.

Yes, as he is better at laundry it would make sense that it is his task but it is mine. Like I said, I actually enjoy doing it more, I can just never stay on top of it. My hope is that this move will be a chance to get a fresh start on my lazy housekeeping tendancies. In my current place, the laundry room is 3 floors down and down a long hallway. Too much work. It should be different in the new place.

I like the idea of different small hampers for colors. And starting the habit of washing the sheets the same day that I change them would make a big difference in what is lying on my closet floor.

Thanks for the link and thanks for the help.

[kittenb]

I cannot believe this thread is still here!

[ginger_kitty]

Tons of cleaning to do.......but it can wait until Sunday.........

[raisingirl]

Bumping because I need a domestic intervention. Help.

[GiGi21]

Doodle goo-gone. We once had a candle go over on our carpet and the wax was all gummy into the bottom of the plush carpeting just soak it with goo-gone and it come out with a little scraping and picking.

[raisingirl]

I have been in a housecleaning rut for months now. I truly hate it. One of the reasons I think I hate it so much is because I don't have places to put certain stuff. So many things I have are just homeless. So I clean and I toil and where am I supposed to put this crap? I just pile it up, put it on a shelf, and call it a day. I know I could buy those square baskets with lids, but I just want to buy a big sideboard-type of piece of furniture that's nice to look at for all the homeless junk I have.

[doodlebug]

Hey, I'm glad this thread is back!

Does anyone know how to get sticky gooey stuff out of carpet? I moved some furniture and have what appears to be a little patch of dirty, gooey, old gum ground into the carpet. As this is a rental, it's probably in my best interests to try and get rid of it! Any thoughts?

[bunnyb]

magic, chica, just like nutella.

(if you search for "lost" threads then sometimes you find that they're not actually lost but just on a bermuda triangle island.)

[raisingirl]

WHOA! Thanks for that, Bunny; I swear I didn't see it. Were you hiding it behind the Nutella?

[bunnyb]

bump for raisingirl, or adding a little bit of clutter to ab-fad .

[doodlebug]

You're welcome, anarch! Glad to know it worked for you!

[bklynhermit]

ok, triple post, because i'm a URL moron.

for the third and last time, the URL to my flickr page is

www.flickr.com/photos/opoponax

geez.

[anarch]

Thanks Doodlebug for the baking soda & vinegar tip. I tried it on Friday. The bathtub still drained slowly on Saturday, and I thought it didn't work and I'd have to call a plumber after all, but Sunday it drained faster and today, yay! No puddle at all collected while I showered! I'm so pleased.

I guess the blockage took a while to disintegrate completely.

[mornington]

hehe, bklyn, you think you're such a girl. I had to get someone (male) to change the fuse on my blender.

I've given in & told the people who run this hole. I now have to wait until friday for someone to come do something about it, and pray my shower doesn't actually start flooding. The pipe cleaner was a miserable failure.

Thanks for everyone's help!

[treehugger]

A snake is a long, coiled, spring-ish thing. It's wrapped on a spool. Some of them are operated by a drill type motor, and others are hand cranked. When it's cranked, it's cranked in the same direction as the spring goes, so it feeds. They have a thicker coil on the end. As it's cranked it grabs the gook on its way. I *believe* some even have blades on them, for cutting through tree roots and the like.

I own a snake, can you believe it? But it's pretty primitive, it doesn't have a spool. So it's hard to crank it into the pipes, I have to sort of twist it.

(I used to have a real shack house.)

[bklynhermit]

i think they might be motorized or something?

i may be making this up -- i think i've seen that sort of snake maybe all of like one time, ever.

aha. wikipedia does it again: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumber's_snake

the picture isn't very helpful, though, as the one and only time i might have maybe seen one there was definitely a long skinny pipe looking thing involved.

god i'm such a girl.

[dusty]

A snake is a long metal snakey thing that they put through pipes to unclog them. Um, I'm sorry if that isn't any more information than you had already figured out but that's about all there is to it. Hee.

[mornington]

thanks everyone!

unfortunately my landlord is a large nationwide company intent on screwing as much money as possible out of students as the possibly can... so the cost of a plumber won't bother them as they'll charge me for it (because thier shitty plumbing is my fault, obviously), and they wouldn't own such a thing as a plunger or snake (what's a snake?).

I've been trying to keep it clear of hair since I noticed it getting slower; my plughole looks like it's meant to catch hair (my hair is short and thin, too) and I've been pouring mr muscle drain cleaner down it too. i have rapidly come to the conclusion that I live in a poorly-constructed shithole.

thanks for the baking soda/vinegar tip, doodle. I'll keep it in mind for when I move out of this tip in a few months.

[doodlebug]

I have it from a friend (who is a plumber's daughter) that putting Drano or Liquid Plum'r down the pipes is the WORST thing you can do for them. Apparently it corrodes them; the corrosion makes the pipes worse for catching stray bits of stuff and causing more frequent blockages (and over time, causing leaks). Ideally, if cleaning the drain out by hand doesn't work (try pouring a bunch of baking soda down the drain, followed by vinegar - you can do this every week to KEEP drains clean, without harming the pipes), plunging should be the next step, followed by snaking the drain. Plungers are pretty cheap to come by...and most landlords own a snake (so that they can avoid the cost of a plumber, if possible!).

[altargrrrl]

i also have bad plumbing combined with longish hair, and was using a bottle of drano every few months. it was making be feel really guilty for pouring so many chemicals down the drain, so after the last time i bought this rubber drain cover that has little holes in it, and it catches the majority of my hair. i haven't had to use the drano since.