I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
I have a number of reasons for thinking this can plausibly be posted on Ricochet. First, Conservatives are Godly, or at least not unfriendly to the Godly, right? Cleanliness is next to Godliness, and right now, my new apartment is such a mess that the God-fearing among you would tremble. Next, Conservatives favor order, not anarchy, and this apartment is verging on a Hobbesian State of Nature. Finally, I just can't concentrate in this kind of chaos, so if you ever want to hear about anything else from me, you've got to help me get this sorted out. I can't find anything--I can't find books and papers, obviously, but I can't even figure out where I put things like the coffee cups. I can barely even find the cats. They're just blending into the dust.
Some of you must be better at this sort of thing than me. Ursula, you must be--your kids always look so cute and clean and well cared-for in your photos. I can't imagine you getting yourself into a situation like this.
I'm overwhelmed looking at these boxes and all the half-unpacked stuff in every room. Nothing's labeled, everything's dusty, and everything is totally disorganized. It looks so impossible that this will ever be orderly that I'm tempted just to retreat to the kitchen--which I got pretty clean last night--and stay there.
Does anyone have any good advice for me about how to approach this? I've got about fifteen big boxes full of books, six garbage bags full of clothes and towels, five miscellaneous boxes of stuff, and enough dust to build an army of golems. Where do I even start?
Some specific questions:
1) The movers put packing tape around my furniture. I can't get it off. How do I get tape off wood without destroying the finish? These aren't valuable antiques or anything, but I want them to look clean, and that tape is seriously destroying my wa.
2) Dusting: No matter what I do, I just seem to be moving the dust, not getting rid of it. Who has a super dusting tip?
3) What's the best way to clean bathtubs and toilets without using bleach? They're a very pretty lavender color, and I think bleach would stain them. But I really want them to be cleaner than I know how to get them without bleach. I mean, they're toilets.
Note to my Mom: Mom, if you want to fly to Istanbul and help, I know you'd be better at this than me.
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Jun '10
Re: I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
Jun '10
Re: I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
I would only add that a neat as a pin house is a sign of a sick mind, so don't get too carried away. Oh, and another thing, when unpacking or house cleaning, never resist the urge to stop everything when something worthwhile pops up that you might read in lieu of doing the chores. No one ever died of dust, but many have, on there death bed, bemoaned not having read more books.
Re: I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
Cas, you're fantastic! You're just the kind of practical person I was hoping would answer. The hair-dryer tip: Fantastic. That had never occurred to me. (You're sure alcohol won't just make a sticky mess of the varnish?)
I'll report. I am, however, unpacking books right now, so there's a real chance of my being lost for a long time. I'm finding books I had no idea I owned. Including a copy of Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin, which I wasted days looking for in every bookstore in Istanbul two months ago before giving up. It was in my library all along.
Jun '10
Re: I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
Read Goodbye to Berlin this year. Mostly liked it. I was a bit disappointed in that it was not more Cabaret-esque, I guess that's what comes of seeing the movie before reading the book. Currently reading The Corrections by Franzen, no question that he's a good writer, but I have mixed feelings about the novel, the characters are not very likable, hence no empathy.The book I read this year that I loved was Robinson's Housekeeping, and if you haven't read it I recommend you do.
As for the alcohol and sticky messes, most of the glue should come up with the tape, so there should be no sticky mess. Another thing you might try if you have to clean is white, not wine or cider, vinegar. Not only does it clean, but it deodorizes. Vinegar is particularly good when a guest goes all emetic on you.
Re: I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
My guests don't usually do this, but my seven little furry buddies do quite often, so I'll keep this in mind. Lots of thoughts about Isherwood and Franzen, but I cannot stop unpacking now. If I do, I'm doomed. It's now or never. Thinking about Interwar Berlin would be more than enough distraction to stop this cleaning juggernaut in its tracks. The books are about 80 percent unpacked. There aren't actually a million of them, it just seemed that way. When they're on the shelves, there aren't really that many at all.
May '10
Re: I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
Cas handled the technical questions, I will attack the unpacking priorities. Get the kitchen done first, followed by lounge and bedroom essentials. Clean pots/pans/utensils/glasses etc. are a basic of life. A place to sit or lie down follows closely. Clothes are easy, just hang them up or throw them in a drawer to be ordered as desired when you have time - but out of sight helps the spirits.
Pace yourself on the rest. I generally have a "box room" that contains non essential stuff that gets pulled out/home found for, as I go along. If you can get it out of immediate sight and attack steadily and gradually, it makes the whole process survivable without deppression.
Note for the next time, good bax labelling makes the moving in a LOT easier.
May '10
Re: I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
Throw everything away. Buy new stuff item by item and organize at the rate purchased.
May '10
Re: I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
Scott's on to something, but throwing everything away may not be your total solution.
However, as you unpack ask yourself "am I really going to use this again?" "do I really ever wear this, does it even fit?" and so forth. Deaccess as much as you can.
If the lavender color is "baked into" the porcelain, cleaning with bleach then rinsing probably won't discolor it (test a small inconspicuous spot by leaving a drop of bleach on it for a couple days).
Vinegar, salt, and baking soda all have their uses as cleaning agents (vinegar and soda together will just make a mess, but separately).
The only way you're going to get rid of the dust is an air filter, preferably the electrostatic variety. No idea where you'll find one in Turkey.
May '10
Re: I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
Goo gone, Un-du, Goof-off, and Goo Gone brand "Sticker Lifter" may help with getting the tape off the wooden furniture. Again, no idea where you'd buy it in Turkey. The Sticker Lifter is great, you could maybe buy it online from Demco Library supplies (which is where I got it). The idea is these liquids are greasy/solventy kinds of things that get under and around the tape residue allowing you to gently lift/roll the tape and adhesive residue off the surface. Again, check an inconspicuous spot.
Also, virtually any tape or sticker can be peeled up if you peel slowly enough (provided the adhesive or tape hasn't dried out to the point where it cracks). Work up a corner, then slooowwwwllly pull at a 45 degree angle to the line of the tape. If you have a lot of tape, this will take a lot of patience.
Finally, you took a great first step by getting one room in order. Take things one at a time. Get the job done one small accomplishment at a time. Be content with taking the whole job in several phases if that what it takes.
Good luck.
Re: I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
The neighborhood in which you now live -- where I myself lived a quarter of a century ago -- is notoriously dusty. I suggest that you buy a bottle of Scotch. It will not clean up your apartment, but it will make you feel better.
Re: I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
I have one, and I love it. You can buy them here, but they cost a fortune. It's only strong enough to filter a single room, though--and the rest of the apartment is, I'm pretty sure, full of dust mites. To which I'm now pretty sure I'm allergic. I'm really glad I bought this one, though. I hesitated because of the price, but the difference between the air in the filtered and unfiltered room is night and day.
Re: I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
I pretty much did that the last time I moved (not by choice; my building was destroyed). I discovered that a lot of the stuff I thought I could live without was actually stuff I really needed. It's really tempting to think "simplify, throw stuff out," but it's actually probably easier in the long run to do the work of organizing it all.
Re: I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
Wow, now those sound like products I could use--and no, I've never seen them sold in Turkey. Please pause for a moment to admire what capitalism creates. Show me a planned economy where the government sees the need for such products, invents them, distributes them at what I assume is a reasonable cost and gives them such great names. I know: You can't.
Re: I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
Unfortunately, what we're looking at is a lot of sticky tape residue, not something that could be peeled off intact.
Aug '10
Re: I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
I think Scott may be related to my wife.
May '10
Re: I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
There's old dust and new dust. What we do is move the filter from room to room. That gets the old dust one room at a time. Won't be perfect, but it will be better.
Aug '10
Re: I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
This reminds me of one of my favorite sections of P. J. O'Rourke's Bachelor Home Companion:
Bachelor Decorating
* Decorating With Alcohol: (1) Start with an empty room and take a big drink. (2) See, it looks better already. Take another drink. (3) Drink a bunch more. (4) Hey, this place looks great, dammit! Know what I mean? This is a great-looking place. Looks great.
Re: I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
We think alike! That's what I'm doing.
Re: I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
Update: All of the books are unpacked, and to my amazement, they fit exactly into the new bookshelves, or rather the used bookshelves that I bought yesterday at the flea market. I mean, exactly. This is another Miracle in Istanbul. And the garbage and empty boxes have been neatly stacked in the corner. I still don't know where to take garbage, and won't find out, I don't think, until after the holiday. I suspect that knowledge lives with the--what do you call the kapıcı in English? The guy who does stuff in the building?--and he's probably off sacrificing a goat with his extended family. (Just when I need a live goat, too.)
Re: I Need Household Hints From Ricochet
Concierge?