Category Archives: House Cleaning

Tips on Buying a Hypoallergenic Dog

October 06, 2023   Matt

Tips on Buying a Hypoallergenic Dog

If you suffer from allergies, you are not alone. Even though most people suffer from some type of allergy, whether it is food, plant, or pet, they can usually find a way to enjoy their lives, which in many cases, includes having a few pets. Depending on the severity of your allergies, you will be able to bring a dog into your home as long as you take the time to find the breed that is right for you.

Hypoallergenic dogs are specific breeds that shed less hair and dander than other dogs, and produce fewer allergens in their saliva and urine. You should keep in mind that all breeds carry a certain amount of allergens, but hypoallergenic dogs carry less. Allergens can become stuck in carpets, on walls, and in bedding and clothing. This is why people have allergic reactions to their pets. In order to have pets, these allergens must be removed through frequent house cleaning, designating certain spots in the house for your pets to sleep, and by finding pets that have shorter hair and do not shed their skin cells as often.

When looking for a hypoallergenic dog, you should research breeds that have short hair, shed their skin cells (dander) every few weeks rather then every few days, and do not product as much saliva. Since allergies can occur at different times during your life, you should spend some time with the breed of dog you are thinking of adopting. Visiting a dog breeder or a friend who has a dog will give you a better idea of which dog to adopt.

You should also consider your current living conditions. If you live in a small house or apartment, you may experience more allergy attacks because the dander and hair is confined to a small space. Adopting a small hypoallergenic dog is the best way to remedy this problem. If you live in a larger home, you should be able to purchase a larger dog. Letting the dog outside to run in the yard or by taking it for frequent walks will also help because your dog will be able to shed outside instead of inside on your carpeting and bedding.

Once you bring your new dog home, you should give it a few weeks for your body to adjust. Your allergies may become worse before they get better, but after a month, you should see a difference. A hypoallergenic dog does not need any special care unless the breeder has specific health advice about the breed you are buying.

Taking of your home by cleaning often and invest in a quality vacuum that will thoroughly clean your carpeting. If possible, you should replace your carpeting with hardwood flooring. This will keep allergens from piling up and causing an allergy attack. Wipe down the walls once a week and try to keep your new pet off your bed. These precautions will help reduce allergy attacks and help you have a fun, loving relationship with your dog for many years to come.

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Cleaning House – Caring For Your Dollhouse

October 01, 2023   Matt

Cleaning House – Caring For Your Dollhouse

We all have things in our lives that hold some sort of sentimental or monetary value. For some, it is a prized collection of coins or rare books. For others it is an irreplaceable antique or piece of jewelry. It is these things that always require special care and preservation, whether it is a yearly polishing or a consistent cleaning.

The same practice holds true for avid dollhouse collectors. Dollhouses are basically miniature replicas of a large-scale home, equipped with wood furnishings, electrical lights and even miniature pieces of china and crystal. Dollhouses, and their accessories, require the same kind of loving care that a regular home needs.

First of all, you should never place a dollhouse in a room that gets direct sunlight. The suns rays can heavily damage the delicate woods used in making most dollhouses. It can cause paint, wallpaper and fabrics to fade dramatically. And in extreme degrees of temperature changes, it could even end up warping or cracking the wood.

Another thing to keep in mind when caring for dollhouses is to always dust it regularly. Dust collects in our own homes on a daily basis, and the same holds true for dollhouses. All the accessories are so small and intricate that they require a good dusting and polishing to maintain their value and beauty. The dolls, animals or other small figurines you purchase for your dollhouse should also be dusted regularly to maintain their quality.

You should never store a dollhouse in damp climate. Dampness, such as in a basement, can deteriorate the materials used to make a dollhouse. It can also lead to mold development that can be difficult to remove or eliminate from fabrics or carpeting. You should also be weary of storing a dollhouse in the attic because moths or other household varmints could do damage to the house itself or its accessories.

Be sure to keep your dollhouse away from household pets. Pets love to chew and nibble on small objects, and what better chew toy than a piece of dollhouse furniture or a miniature figurine? Small children and toddlers should also be kept away from dollhouses. Children of this age like to put things in their mouths. The small accessories present a choking hazard to younger children who don’t understand the value of what they are touching.

Not all dollhouses are going to be detailed enough to go to extreme measures of protection. But for most avid collectors, these precautions are necessary. In fact, one of the best ways to store a prized dollhouse is to have a special case made for it, usually from a clear material. This prevents dust from collecting on items inside the house and it keeps pets and small kids from touching it. And if you are a smoker, a case is a great way to keep smoke from tobacco away from the dollhouse.

Prized possessions need proper care, so it is best to stay on top of keeping your dollhouse in tip-top shape.

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A Wish List From Mom To Dad

September 26, 2023   Matt

A Wish List From Mom To Dad

Here is just a little wish list I put together for you. First, I feel I should tell you that I greatly appreciate all that you do for me and our family. Feel free to grant any or all of my wishes time permitting. They can be fulfilled in any order. I will gladly accept them on any given day. No need to wait for a special occasion or holiday to grant any of the following:
A thorough house cleaning preferably when the house is dirty. I will gladly show you where the cleaning supplies are kept and will provide a detailed list for you if needed.
A night out. Just about any activity will do. This would include everything from a simple picnic to a night on the town. Oh, I almost forgot, no kids. So you will need to arrange for a sitter.
A few diaper changes. For the baby of course, I’m past that stage. If you really want to impress me, you can change a few of the pooh pooh ones. That would be great!
An occasional morning to catch up on my beauty sleep. So I can remain the beautiful woman you adore. This can be arranged around your days off of work.
A night free of dinner duty and clean up. I trust you, so anything you decide to prepare will do just fine. I know you wouldn’t even consider serving me a TV dinner. And don’t worry about getting dish pan hands from the clean up. I use a wonderful dish soap that will moisturize your hands while doing dishes.
A couple of late night feedings would be nice. Not for me, I’m watching my weight. But, the baby is known to wake up a time or two hungry for a late night snack.
A bedtime round up. This would consist of rounding up all the munchkins and getting them tucked in their beds. Really its good exercise. All the repeated trips to the restroom and the kitchen for last minute drinks.
A thank-you for a job well done. It really boosts my self esteem and shows me how much you appreciate all that I do.
Now this was just a small list. Feel free to add anything to it or repeat any of my wishes. I will accept most graciously.
Love,
Me

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Death to Fleas

September 21, 2023   Matt

Death to Fleas

Summers here in Texas can be brutal! The intense heat, the humidity. Not a summer passes without hearing of at least one person collapsing from heat exhaustion. I am fortunate to possess what every Texan aspires to own: air conditioning. Now that might seem as mundane as, say owning an indoor toilet, but truth be told, there’s still many people here in Texas today who do not have A/C. In fact, until I was thirteen, I also lived in a house with no A/C.
But I digress from the subject of this entry, which is FLEAS. I only mention that about the heat here in Texas as an example of however bad it may be, it does not even come within spitting distance of the horrors of FLEAS.
See, with the coming of summer, the heat and humidity, we also get, you guessed it, FLEAS. Humans might dislike excessive heat, but these blood-sucking creatures LOVE the heat. It’s their breeding time. People may do most of their conceiving during the winter months, but not FLEAS! Oh no, they like it hot, apparently a fan of the movie.
Anyways, we have three cats, one inside cat and two outside cat. Now, dealing with these fleas every year, you’d think that we would have become smarter about it. But no, each June when the FLEAS start hatching, we do nothing to take any precautions until it’s too late. What can I say? We’ve slept since last summer.
So, our outside cats pick up the fleas, and presents them to our inside cat. Yes, I know what you’re thinking: Why don’t you keep your outside cats outside? Like I said, the FLEAS only get bad in early summer. The rest of the year they are not a problem; so we forget their existence until, you guessed it, it’s too late!
For the last two weeks, I have been cleaning my house much more than normal. I’ve been vacuuming my WHOLE house every day! Constantly shaking flea powder on the inside cat, Brat. I should just throw her fleabag butt out the door, but she’s just too pretty! A holy terror for sure (hence the name) but beautiful nonetheless. Besides, she’s just a baby still, and it’s not her fault she has FLEAS. Poor thing, she runs and tries to hide whenever she sees me coming toward her now!
So, back to cleaning. My house SHINES, it SPARKLES! Not a dustbunny anywhere. Martha Stewart would be proud. But the FLEAS remain. I’ve spent at least fifty dollars on flea and ant death powder to put on carpets and floors. The darn things won’t sit still long enough to be killed. They jump and jump and jump all over my SPARKLING house, evading the death powder. How inconsiderate is that? My daughter, complaining of killer dust clouds in the house, ran away to a friend’s house last weekend where she could, presumably, breathe without gasping.
But still they’re here.
I was tired. I was discouraged. I was just about to admit defeat and remove myself to another lodging and let the FLEAS take over this house.
THEN the fleas crossed the line. All the time I had been engaged in open warfare with the FLEAS, I had not felt any personal animosity towards them. They did their best to suck my blood; I did my best to stop them. Just the way of nature, right? I didn’t hate them; not them personally. Of course, I hated it when they bit me, but I didn’t hate them, even though I was doing my best to kill them.
But then, like I hinted at above, they crossed the line. They, in their arrogance and perceived superiority, committed an error they will soon regret. One of their bloodsucking soldiers, either ignorant of or completely disregarding the rules of warfare with humans, that is, to stay within the bounds of feet and ankles, decided to reconnaissance my son’s ear. He quickly paid for his transgressions.
But it does not end with only the one transgressor dying a horrible death (being squashed between my fingernails). Oh no! Because now my blood is boiling! My hatred is rampaging! I will hunt down every single flea and make them ALL pay for the sins of the one!
DEATH TO ALL FLEAS!

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Make a Weekly Cleaning Schedule

September 16, 2023   Matt

Make a Weekly Cleaning Schedule

We all know how easy it is for our week to get away from us. It seems strange because we live in such a highly technical age. Sometimes it feels as if all those toys that are supposed to help us live easier lives have actually taken over the world. Instead of a little more down time, we’re constantly being called on our cell phones, beeped, paged, and generally at the mercy of others every hour of every day.

Our regular routines are more difficult than ever to keep. When we’re not at work or school, we’re driving the kids to events. We also try to schedule a work-out, lunch with a friend, and recreational activities. It’s not hard to see where a weekly household cleaning schedule can fall by the wayside. So how do we keep up with that aspect of our lives?

One key is to actually write out a weekly household cleaning schedule. Seeing something in black and white gives us a much better sense of just what needs to be done. Once you list your chores, you can decide if you want to devote an entire day off every week to doing them. You may find that there are some things you can do during the weekday evenings, thus freeing up a little more time to relax.

Floors definitely demand a lot of our attention. After all, there’s a floor in every room. Some are carpeted; some may be tile, marble, or linoleum; while others might be hardwood floors with area rugs lying on top. Chances are you use a variety of tools and products to clean them. Most likely you vacuum carpets and rugs. For the wooden floors you would use mops with hardwood floor cleaners. Hopefully you use earth friendly floor cleaner on hard surfaced floors.

Cleaning Your Floors

Most of us feel a lot better about the whole house when all the floors are clean. There’s something really unpleasant about looking down and seeing dirt, stains, and piles of objects that aren’t in their normal place. In terms of our weekly household cleaning schedule, floors can take up a fair amount of time.

As with anything else, keeping up with problems as they happen, is an important factor. For instance, if you spill something on your tile flooring, grab your earth friendly floor cleaner right away and clean it up. If your pets shed regularly on your carpet, vacuum every couple of days instead of waiting until your weekly household cleaning schedule tells you it’s time. As with most things, preventative maintenance and prompt action can be big time savers.

Wood floors are beautiful and always add a special something to the appearance of a room. Just as with your carpeting, they don’t require a huge amount of work if you stay on top of the job. Usually, you can do them when you do the rest of your weekly household cleaning schedule; or maybe you’ve elected to do all of your floors on a certain day or night. Generally using mops and hardwood floor cleaners will do the job.

Fortunately, one of the things technology has done for us is to make our weekly household cleaning schedule easier. For instance when it comes to floor care, you can often do it in one step. In times gone by we’d have to wash the floor, often on hands and knees and then follow up with a wax or polish. It’s also great to know that research and developers are creating more in the line of earth friendly floor cleaners.

Kitchen and bathroom floors often take the brunt of the abuse in our homes. It’s usually better to work on them more often than our weekly household cleaning schedule dictates. When we cook, we often spill food and drink, as well as splash water around while we’re scrubbing vegetables or washing our hands. In the bathroom, hair spray and other products go with gravity and head for the floor. These rooms are ideal for combined cleaner/ polisher. Many homes use hardwood flooring or look-alike tile in which case mops with hardwood floor cleaners are appropriate.

Regardless of the flooring combinations in your home, you want to save time and make all the chores as easy as possible. You already have plenty to do on your weekly household cleaning schedule, so plan for it to go as smoothly as possible.

Whenever you can use earth friendly floor cleaners as well environmentally safe cleaners everywhere that you can.

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Take Control Of Stress And Relax With These Tips

September 11, 2023   Matt

Take Control Of Stress And Relax With These Tips

Stress is a common problem that all people suffer from. Stress can have a negative effect on your health. The more stress you experience in life, the more discomfort your body will have and the more likely you are to suffer from headaches or worse. If you want to combat stress, then read this article.

If you’re feeling stressed out, consider taking up martial arts. Not only can martial arts give you an outlet for any pent up anger or stress, but it will teach you to focus your mind and body. You’ll learn effective ways to manage stress and to clear your mind. It’s also a lot of fun and can be a break from the rest of your life.

Find out what is the cause of your stress and try to eliminate it. There are many different things that may cause you stress in your daily life. By eliminating the problems that are causing you stress then you will not have to deal with that particular stress anymore.

Reducing clutter in your life will automatically reduce some amount of stress! Be it your desk, pantry or closet, anything over cluttering your physical environment makes it much harder to work and find things and just isn’t pleasing to look at it! By cleaning up clutter you can operate more efficiently, enjoy your surroundings more and simply be less stressed.

If you eat foods that have a lot of carbohydrates, your body will release serotonin. This is your body’s natural relaxing chemical. So if you’re feeling stressed, munch on some crackers, pretzels, a bagel, or other snacks that have a lot of carbohydrates in them. This will help your body naturally relax itself.

When you are feeling stressed, count to ten before you react. Counting to ten gives you a minute to step away, and think about what you’re doing. It can help you to avoid a reaction that you might regret. This tip can be especially important if young children are the cause of your anxiety.

Although it may seem incredibly silly, the very act of counting to ten slowly can really help you to clear your head and allow you to move past the stress. If you think that there is no way that this could help you out, you should give it a try.

If you feel that you are being overwhelmed with stress and anxiety you should take some deep breaths. Deep breathing has been shown to reduce anxiety. It causes you to focus on the way that you are breathing rather than on what’s causing you so much anxiety.

If you have problems with stress, try joining a sport team or community. Look for adult softball, racquetball, basketball, or other team sports. Sports are great for relieving stress because they satisfy our need for competition as well as proving exercise. Let yourself have some fun and burn some calories to relieve your stress.

In conclusion, people suffer from stress. Stress has a negative impact on your health, by causing discomfort, headaches, and worse problems as stress accumulates. If you remember the tips found in the article above, then you can combat stress in your life and prevent your body from experiencing its negative effects.

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