Spring cleaning -- it's time!

rubysmama said:

 
I have forced hot air heating too, so I totally understand about the dust.  I wonder if the cheesecloth over the ducts would work.  And would it be safe?  I'm always scared of fire. 

I'm grateful that I don't seem to have any cobwebs in my ceiling corners.  And thankfully, Ruby keeps spiders and any over unwelcome creepy crawlers under control, so I never see any.  She loves my furnace room, it's like her playground. One day she sauntered out of there licking her lips!   I shudder to think what she found to eat, but at least I didn't have to worry about coming across it. 

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It wont start a fire. The airway duct work is far from the source of the furnace. I use kerosene. Is yours gas or oil/kero? I think I feed my cats too much..they dont catch all the creepy crawlies..other than swat at them a few times then get bored and take a nap

foxxycat said:

 
It wont start a fire. The airway duct work is far from the source of the furnace. I use kerosene. Is yours gas or oil/kero? I think I feed my cats too much..they dont catch all the creepy crawlies..other than swat at them a few times then get bored and take a nap

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Good to know.  As I mentioned, I worry about fire.   I've got an oil furnace, btw.

Yep You can also run kerosene if you wanted. My tank is outside and I can't use regular oil or it sludges up from freezing. They do sell a mixture called mobile home mix but honestly you are better off running straight kerosene. It burns cleaner so you don't have to have the nozzles changed out every year. Oil tends to leave more soot than kerosene inside the furnace is what I have been told by a few oil guys. I've gotten spoiled by the air vents. I often get cold and stand or sit in front of the vent with my cat and we both enjoy the hot air. She runs and lays down in front of the one in the kitchen. She lays on her back and I can see the air blowing at her fuzz on her belly

Ruby loves to lay by the heating ducts too. I've even stood under the ones in the basement ceiling on occasion. 

I've only heard of using furnace oil and since my furnace is pretty old, I think I better stick with what it likes. 

I'm laughing reading all these posts. We do passover cleaning... I would say its spring cleaning on steroids.

Move every piece of furniture, clean every surface, clean your counters with a toothbrush and toothpick (and then cover it). Every surface that touches food must be cleaned and covered. We need to make sure that but a single crumb is left behind. The cleaning takes about a month to do.

Oh, and we put away all our year round dishes and appliances and pull out our passover ones for the week. And we need to buy all new kosher for passover food for the week. (Even for the animals)

And then when the week ends...you have to put all the passover stuff away and switch your kitchen back to year round.

I've been doing this since I was a kid so it's no big deal, BUT every year without fail there is a dust storm either the week before passover or on passover so the house is destroyed before you can even enjoy it.

Thank god for the family aspect of the holiday or I'd really despise it!

rubysmama said:

Ruby loves to lay by the heating ducts too. I've even stood under the ones in the basement ceiling on occasion. :lol3:
I've only heard of using furnace oil and since my furnace is pretty old, I think I better stick with what it likes. 

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Yep its all the same just different grade. If you ever ran out of oil you can run kero in it for an emergency I've been told by my oilguy. You just keep doing what you are doing

I actually vacuumed out the air filter in the furnace closet and it didn't really help. I have to actually remove that thick piece of filter and vacuum. I hate removing it because it sheds blue bits and pieces so I try to leave it in place...so annoying with this dust!


I would have to hire help for that princess Sophia. But it sounds like a good idea. The bf was actually washing the kitchen floor this morning. I made a mess in the middle of the night.

And damp rag the tv again while bf is telling me that a big pile of dust is behind it. I almost threw the rag at him but I grinned and bared it. At least its only dust.

princess sophia said:

I'm laughing reading all these posts. We do passover cleaning... I would say its spring cleaning on steroids.

Move every piece of furniture, clean every surface, clean your counters with a toothbrush and toothpick (and then cover it). Every surface that touches food must be cleaned and covered. We need to make sure that but a single crumb is left behind. The cleaning takes about a month to do.

Oh, and we put away all our year round dishes and appliances and pull out our passover ones for the week. And we need to buy all new kosher for passover food for the week. (Even for the animals)

And then when the week ends...you have to put all the passover stuff away and switch your kitchen back to year round.

I've been doing this since I was a kid so it's no big deal, BUT every year without fail there is a dust storm either the week before passover or on passover so the house is destroyed before you can even enjoy it.

Thank god for the family aspect of the holiday or I'd really despise it!

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You forgot the candle and the feather.

Stewball said:

You forgot the candle and the feather.

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Ah, of course but the candle and feather only comes the night before passover and I think it's more for the kids than the adults. I always loved hiding the bread around the house for my father to find with the candle.
But I only started enjoying the cleaning when I had my own house and realized what the payoff was!

I've officially started weeding the garden; so that's part of spring cleaning right?  There is plenty of outdoor cleaning to do.  The back patio really needs a power washing.  

Inside I'm ready for a good deep decluttering.  I need to send the kids to my mother's for a day.  Or let the tv entertain them. 

The public sale for Rick's mother will be in a couple of weeks; once that's done, we're going to try to get outside to work on some weeding. I don't know that we're even going to bother with a garden this year. We may just plant some rye grass and let it go over the summer before tilling it in come fall. Rick completely disagrees with me, but I don't think we're going to have time to deal with a garden. I remember the mess we had last year because we had no time to do much of anything in the way of gardening; the poor garden looked simply terrible. And I don't want to deal with that again. Rick thinks we'll have more time this summer, so we'll see what's going on. I'd like to have a garden, as long as we have the time to handle it. 

I'm working on a list of things that I really want to get cleaned out while Rick will be away, things like bureau drawers, closets, etc. I'm going to make another pass through my cookbooks and see what I can weed out again -- the first time I did it a few weeks ago, I did manage to get rid of three tote bins of cookbooks, but I know I can get rid of more that I'm no longer using. The library ladies seemed pleased to get them and I'm pretty sure that some of the cookbooks went straight into one woman's hands  ; those books will never see the book sale this summer. We emptied out the totes and I brought them back home to fill back up again. I just hope the weather holds out; strange as it sounds, when the sun is shining, I love to clean and can go all day. But when it's raining and dreary outside, the only thing I want to do is sleep!

We're also looking at some things that we might be able to sell at Rick's mom's public sale. Things that we'll never use again, but still have value. We'll see how things go. We hate to just put stuff in the landfill if people might want it.

I'm taking down the living room drapes tomorrow night and will take them into the dry cleaner on Monday after work. I may take down the computer room drapes, too, but I hate leaving the window at the back of house bare, esp at night when I'm here on the computer. The bathroom curtains go into the washer and dryer.

I must do my clothes cupboard.

I work better when it's raining.  I know that's so weird but it's true!  It has to be raining though.  If it's just gray; then I want to sleep.  

My back was feeling good, so I did a shelf, standing and bending.
My back feels so bad now.