Busy busy
What a tiring couple of weeks. First, my new (temporary) job has been going well, and is based in Docklands so it’s a refreshing change from driving to work. It takes the same amount of time (nearly an hour) but usually I get a seat on the tube, and can pass the time how I want to, rather than being forced to pay attention to the world around me. Which is a GoodThing, both for me and for the people who unwittingly shared the road with me.
Second, the people in the flat above ours managed to flood their flat, and ours, and the flat two floors below ours. They really do appear to be idiots. When I got home on Thursday afternoon, we had two-foot wide damp areas on the floor of each bedroom, and the floor of the en suite was sparkling with water. How pretty. Water was steadily dripping down from the light-bulbs. I went upstairs, hammered on their door, and when there was no response I tried to turn off their mains water. A combination of a stepladder, a delicate pipe that moved whenever I touched it, and the certainty that just out of eyeshot there was a huge hairy spider all conspired to terminate my efforts prematurely. I went back to the flat and proceeded to start moving stuff. Our bedroom wasn’t too bad, just a sodden carpet. The en suite – well, it’s a bathroom. Annoyingly though, the water had been flooding through the fan, so that all shorted out and started smoking. The study (our second bedroom) was a bit of a mess. Our spare wedding invitations were mostly waterlogged. Mr W’s sister’s veil was all wet. My tiara was soaked. Its box was waterlogged and actually had standing water inside it. At least my tiara is made of sturdier stuff than sugar, so it seems to have survived. The repairs will all be covered by buildings insurance, which is good, but we’ve still got to arrange electricians and painters, and work out what (if anything) needs to be replaced. So that’s annoying!
Third, our cleaner decided she needed to spend more time on her studies and stopped coming. The agency who supplied her seems to have gone out of business, so whilst we find a replacement cleaner I’m doing the cleaning. It’s quite cathartic, and probably a good workout. The first time I cleaned the flat in its entirety it took me about eight hours. Admittedly this did include ironing, for which I’m not about to win time trials, but also things like dusting all the blinds, cleaning the insides of windows, and cleaning the bathrooms completely.
When I was younger, I used to clean my parents’ bathrooms in return for my pocket-money. I wasn’t paid unless I thoroughly cleaned all the bathrooms, which would usually take about one and a half hours. When I was at university, I acquired a random set of jobs during the summer. These jobs included cleaning the houses of our optician – so I can definitely say that I can clean a house. As I’ve said, I do enjoy it, and before we stopped having a cleaner I would occasionally “deep clean” something, because I knew that it wasn’t something Betty (our ex-cleaner) did. A couple of times I completely cleaned the extractor unit in our kitchen, and occasionally (well, once) took out all the glassware from out glass cabinet and cleaned the whole thing. Anyway, I didn’t do much apart from that. And the flat usually looked clean.
Betty specified what she wanted us to buy, and we would buy her preferred cleaning products. She used to ask for flash wipes for the bathrooms, and occasionally for limescale cleaner, so I assumed she was doing fine. However, when I went through the panoply of products we have, we didn’t have a cream cleaner! Amazed, I tried the flash all-purpose stuff, and the wipes, but they didn’t really do the job; so I cleaned out our under-sink cupboard (where we keep our cleaning stuff) just to make sure, and then went and bought some cream cleaner.
Last night I tackled the bathroom. With the cream cleaner. And then with the limescale remover. We now have a sparkling bathroom! My master-plan is that during the evenings this week I’ll completely clean everything in the flat to the right standards, so that when our new cleaner starts she’ll know the standards we expect to be maintained. I can’t afford eight hours one day to do all the cleaning, and I do like to know that on a certain day, all the cleaning and ironing will be done. If I did our cleaning, I’d split it into various sections, but would end up cleaning or ironing every single day – and I think that the novelty would wear off within three days! So we’ll be getting a new cleaner, and I’ll go back to occasionally cleaning stuff. Only downside is, with sorting out a lot of wedding preparations, it might take us a while to sort out the new cleaner!
Products I can wholeheartedly recommend include Cif cream cleaner (which I use with a mildly abrasive cloth), which has a lovely lemony scent, and flash glass cleaner. This stuff is super, and makes cleaning windows, mirrors, and all types of glass a delight. No random smears, no need for excessive elbow grease, and a lovely finish.
Second, the people in the flat above ours managed to flood their flat, and ours, and the flat two floors below ours. They really do appear to be idiots. When I got home on Thursday afternoon, we had two-foot wide damp areas on the floor of each bedroom, and the floor of the en suite was sparkling with water. How pretty. Water was steadily dripping down from the light-bulbs. I went upstairs, hammered on their door, and when there was no response I tried to turn off their mains water. A combination of a stepladder, a delicate pipe that moved whenever I touched it, and the certainty that just out of eyeshot there was a huge hairy spider all conspired to terminate my efforts prematurely. I went back to the flat and proceeded to start moving stuff. Our bedroom wasn’t too bad, just a sodden carpet. The en suite – well, it’s a bathroom. Annoyingly though, the water had been flooding through the fan, so that all shorted out and started smoking. The study (our second bedroom) was a bit of a mess. Our spare wedding invitations were mostly waterlogged. Mr W’s sister’s veil was all wet. My tiara was soaked. Its box was waterlogged and actually had standing water inside it. At least my tiara is made of sturdier stuff than sugar, so it seems to have survived. The repairs will all be covered by buildings insurance, which is good, but we’ve still got to arrange electricians and painters, and work out what (if anything) needs to be replaced. So that’s annoying!
Third, our cleaner decided she needed to spend more time on her studies and stopped coming. The agency who supplied her seems to have gone out of business, so whilst we find a replacement cleaner I’m doing the cleaning. It’s quite cathartic, and probably a good workout. The first time I cleaned the flat in its entirety it took me about eight hours. Admittedly this did include ironing, for which I’m not about to win time trials, but also things like dusting all the blinds, cleaning the insides of windows, and cleaning the bathrooms completely.
When I was younger, I used to clean my parents’ bathrooms in return for my pocket-money. I wasn’t paid unless I thoroughly cleaned all the bathrooms, which would usually take about one and a half hours. When I was at university, I acquired a random set of jobs during the summer. These jobs included cleaning the houses of our optician – so I can definitely say that I can clean a house. As I’ve said, I do enjoy it, and before we stopped having a cleaner I would occasionally “deep clean” something, because I knew that it wasn’t something Betty (our ex-cleaner) did. A couple of times I completely cleaned the extractor unit in our kitchen, and occasionally (well, once) took out all the glassware from out glass cabinet and cleaned the whole thing. Anyway, I didn’t do much apart from that. And the flat usually looked clean.
Betty specified what she wanted us to buy, and we would buy her preferred cleaning products. She used to ask for flash wipes for the bathrooms, and occasionally for limescale cleaner, so I assumed she was doing fine. However, when I went through the panoply of products we have, we didn’t have a cream cleaner! Amazed, I tried the flash all-purpose stuff, and the wipes, but they didn’t really do the job; so I cleaned out our under-sink cupboard (where we keep our cleaning stuff) just to make sure, and then went and bought some cream cleaner.
Last night I tackled the bathroom. With the cream cleaner. And then with the limescale remover. We now have a sparkling bathroom! My master-plan is that during the evenings this week I’ll completely clean everything in the flat to the right standards, so that when our new cleaner starts she’ll know the standards we expect to be maintained. I can’t afford eight hours one day to do all the cleaning, and I do like to know that on a certain day, all the cleaning and ironing will be done. If I did our cleaning, I’d split it into various sections, but would end up cleaning or ironing every single day – and I think that the novelty would wear off within three days! So we’ll be getting a new cleaner, and I’ll go back to occasionally cleaning stuff. Only downside is, with sorting out a lot of wedding preparations, it might take us a while to sort out the new cleaner!
Products I can wholeheartedly recommend include Cif cream cleaner (which I use with a mildly abrasive cloth), which has a lovely lemony scent, and flash glass cleaner. This stuff is super, and makes cleaning windows, mirrors, and all types of glass a delight. No random smears, no need for excessive elbow grease, and a lovely finish.
The Pledge dusting wipes are pants. As with all of the wipes (floor wipes, bathroom wipes), they are ok if you're just using them to touch up during the week, but if you're relying on them to clean properly you'll gradually notice your home becoming grungy as they just do not cut the mustard. We have some, but they are now only to be used when we're quickly tidying before people come over. I just don't trust something you quickly twirl around a bath/ floor/ room to provide a proper clean.
posted by Chaya at 12:44 pm
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