1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:02,600 Stop comparing yourself to other people. 2 00:00:02,880 --> 00:00:06,240 Just do your personal best for this get together with the time 3 00:00:06,240 --> 00:00:10,120 you have and whether you do things right or you just do them 4 00:00:10,320 --> 00:00:12,120 depends on how much time you have left. 5 00:00:12,280 --> 00:00:15,080 When your house is a mess and you're feeling the stress, what 6 00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:16,960 you need is a friend in your ear. 7 00:00:17,080 --> 00:00:24,640 Start the job and you'll see it through with Ronnie talking to 8 00:00:24,640 --> 00:00:28,440 you. Make the Chaos Disappear with Me 9 00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:37,840 podcast is here. Thanks for joining me. 10 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:42,280 In today's episode, I'm going to talk you through deep cleaning 11 00:00:42,280 --> 00:00:47,760 your kitchen and then taking care of some finishing touches 12 00:00:47,760 --> 00:00:53,280 throughout your house to get it ready for your holiday guests. 13 00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:57,720 Let's get right into it. It's time to gear up for our 14 00:00:57,720 --> 00:01:01,360 cleaning session. Maybe you need to get your house 15 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:05,720 smelling fresh. Take out the trash, reline it. 16 00:01:06,320 --> 00:01:12,080 Wipe down the exterior parts of your waste baskets. 17 00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:20,120 OK, maybe you need to let some fresh air circulate or open some 18 00:01:20,120 --> 00:01:22,320 curtains to kind of energize you. 19 00:01:22,320 --> 00:01:26,280 Although going outside to take out the trash is a great way to 20 00:01:26,280 --> 00:01:30,080 kick off a cleaning session because, you know, you get 21 00:01:30,080 --> 00:01:34,920 moving and you get some sunshine, and that's often the 22 00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:38,080 way I get started. I'm not going to talk about 23 00:01:38,080 --> 00:01:42,400 laundry because at this point I'm assuming you're getting 24 00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:46,920 close to your guests arriving and you don't want to keep doing 25 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:49,560 laundry. The only exception is if you 26 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:53,480 have to wash some bedding for guests. 27 00:01:53,480 --> 00:02:00,240 I did instruct my teenage son to wash his bedding because his 28 00:02:00,240 --> 00:02:03,320 room is one of the potential guest rooms. 29 00:02:03,520 --> 00:02:06,320 OK. And then my office in the back. 30 00:02:06,320 --> 00:02:08,680 I've already got fresh bedding on that one. 31 00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:12,160 Just for quick, just a quick recap while you're doing 32 00:02:12,160 --> 00:02:14,560 whatever you need to do to gear up for your, your cleaning 33 00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:15,800 session. Maybe you need to get yourself 34 00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:18,600 presentable, but while you're doing whatever you need to do. 35 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:23,240 In case you haven't been following my series on deep 36 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:28,080 cleaning for guests, I've been having people #1 store more 37 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:36,120 stuff out of sight #2 deep clean surfaces #3 buy anything you 38 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:41,400 might need for your party or overnight guests, like for the 39 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:47,360 shower or something, and #4 wash any bedding they might be 40 00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:52,080 sleeping on. OK, so I'm going to kind of 41 00:02:52,080 --> 00:02:55,160 revisit those topics throughout the episode. 42 00:02:55,360 --> 00:02:58,520 So I just wanted to let you know those are kind of my 4 main 43 00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:02,040 steps. And I realize number one and two 44 00:03:02,640 --> 00:03:06,320 are pretty involved, but I'm going to assume that you've 45 00:03:06,320 --> 00:03:11,600 already done a lot of the early preparation. 46 00:03:12,120 --> 00:03:15,880 And today you just need to make sure that your kitchen is ready 47 00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:21,760 and then do kind of a whole house walkthrough and of course, 48 00:03:21,760 --> 00:03:24,320 clean the floors. We're going to talk about all of 49 00:03:24,320 --> 00:03:28,520 that in this episode. But right now you're just 50 00:03:28,520 --> 00:03:31,080 gearing up. Maybe you need to freshen up for 51 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:35,440 the day. I wanted to bathe before I 52 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:39,200 started recording. My hair is still wet, but I'm 53 00:03:39,200 --> 00:03:43,640 well on my way to being ready for the day I'm dressed. 54 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:48,040 Or, you know, maybe you need to have your waste baskets empty 55 00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:53,600 and relined for your cleaning session because we are going to 56 00:03:53,600 --> 00:03:58,280 be cleaning out your refrigerator and most likely 57 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:03,960 you're going to be throwing some stuff away as part of that 58 00:04:03,960 --> 00:04:06,240 process. My husband even checked the 59 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:10,440 expiration dates on our salad dressings and tossed some. 60 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:15,960 Our ranch in 1000 Island never expire because we use those so 61 00:04:15,960 --> 00:04:21,519 often, but he found some other dressings that were expired 62 00:04:21,519 --> 00:04:23,600 because we don't use them as often. 63 00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:25,720 But we'll get to that. We'll get to that. 64 00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:28,760 Right now you're just kind of gearing up for your cleaning 65 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:31,480 session. As with any cleaning session in 66 00:04:31,480 --> 00:04:34,600 the kitchen, I want you to gather up any dishes from around 67 00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:36,320 the house. Maybe you have a mug on the 68 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:41,240 night stand or your teenager has a cereal bowl in their room. 69 00:04:41,480 --> 00:04:46,480 It's time to get all that stuff to the kitchen so that when you 70 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:51,200 do dishes, you're you're taking care of everything at once. 71 00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:55,600 OK. And I'm assuming that your 72 00:04:55,600 --> 00:05:00,240 guests are arriving today in this episode, but obviously 73 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:03,760 these episodes will be beneficial whether you're having 74 00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:07,680 guests or not. You can always use these as fall 75 00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:10,360 deep cleaning episodes. And if you haven't heard the 76 00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:16,920 other episodes in the series and you have more time, definitely 77 00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:20,000 go back and listen to some of the other ones after this to 78 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:24,440 make sure you've taken care of everything that needs to be 79 00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:27,840 done. OK, while you're gathering up 80 00:05:27,840 --> 00:05:32,520 those dishes, I will just give you the reminder that your house 81 00:05:32,520 --> 00:05:35,560 doesn't need to be perfect. You just don't want to have any 82 00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:37,920 build up anywhere that looks like you haven't cleaned in a 83 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:41,360 while. And you want your guests to feel 84 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:44,840 comfortable and that that like they're eating food that was 85 00:05:44,840 --> 00:05:48,240 prepared in a clean kitchen because it was OK. 86 00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:51,240 And people might be helping you in the kitchen. 87 00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:54,680 That's why that's an an area of focus. 88 00:05:55,280 --> 00:05:59,120 Even though you probably keep your kitchen sanitary, you wipe 89 00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:05,720 down your countertops regularly and clean your stove top and you 90 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:09,600 clean out your sink, it's not going to give the right 91 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:14,480 impression if there's food smears on your lower cabinets, 92 00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:17,040 for example. So we're going to be taking care 93 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:18,960 of all that. I'm going to help you check 94 00:06:18,960 --> 00:06:23,520 those boxes so that you don't worry about anything, but I'm 95 00:06:23,520 --> 00:06:26,080 also going to be assuming that you've listened to the other 96 00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:30,760 episodes in the series. OK, While all of these episodes 97 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:35,920 are kind of standalone, ideally you started preparing for guests 98 00:06:36,040 --> 00:06:40,840 weeks in advance. But again, if you didn't after 99 00:06:40,840 --> 00:06:44,920 this episode, go back and listen to the other holiday deep 100 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:47,160 cleaning episodes. You just Scroll down and they're 101 00:06:47,160 --> 00:06:50,160 the recent ones. That way you can make sure that 102 00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:53,280 you've checked all those boxes, especially if you have several 103 00:06:53,280 --> 00:06:57,600 hours before your guests arrive. But that having been said, we're 104 00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:00,600 going to be taking care of the most important things in this 105 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:03,680 episode that you would do just before your guests arrive. 106 00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:08,760 Now that you've gathered up all of your dishes, it's time to get 107 00:07:08,760 --> 00:07:11,320 started on your dishes. And the first thing I want you 108 00:07:11,320 --> 00:07:12,920 to do is put away your clean stuff. 109 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:17,480 I want you to empty that drying rack and clean it and clean the 110 00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:20,880 countertop under and around it. If you have a drying rack. 111 00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:24,800 I also want you to empty your dishwasher because of course, if 112 00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:27,960 you have a dishwasher that you use, you're going to be loading 113 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:34,120 it OK. And I encourage you that if you 114 00:07:34,560 --> 00:07:40,200 hand wash, you might even want to put your clean hand washed 115 00:07:40,200 --> 00:07:45,200 dishes into that dishwasher that you don't use and use that as a 116 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:48,480 drying rack because then your dishes are going to be drying 117 00:07:48,480 --> 00:07:51,080 out of sight. That would be a good trick. 118 00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:54,920 If you know the assuming the inside of your dishwasher that 119 00:07:54,920 --> 00:07:59,000 you never use is clean and that your guests are arriving fairly 120 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:02,000 soon and that you might not be able to put everything away, 121 00:08:02,320 --> 00:08:08,560 that might be a way to have your countertops cleared and looking 122 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:12,440 streamlined for that first impression when your guests 123 00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:14,280 arrive. And you could always empty the 124 00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:16,240 dishwasher later. Oh, you have a dish? 125 00:08:16,240 --> 00:08:17,560 Well, I'll use it as a drying rack. 126 00:08:17,640 --> 00:08:19,840 Whatever. OK, it's just a thought. 127 00:08:20,640 --> 00:08:23,480 I'm saying that because my husband likes to hand wash and 128 00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:26,240 sometimes uses the dishwasher as a drying rack, so I'm just 129 00:08:26,240 --> 00:08:31,960 throwing that idea out there now for some get togethers. 130 00:08:31,960 --> 00:08:36,280 I actually stash my drying rack in the cupboard under the sink 131 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:41,080 just to make my kitchen look more spacious. 132 00:08:41,679 --> 00:08:46,760 But that's more for somebody stopping by or, or you know, 133 00:08:46,760 --> 00:08:49,280 having one meal that I've already prepared or something 134 00:08:49,280 --> 00:08:51,480 like that. Thanksgiving is a time where 135 00:08:51,480 --> 00:08:54,720 people are working with you in the kitchen and they're going to 136 00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:59,320 be helping you probably by not everybody, but they're probably, 137 00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:02,600 if you're having several people over, there are a couple people 138 00:09:02,600 --> 00:09:05,640 who are going to step up and like start kind of washing 139 00:09:05,640 --> 00:09:09,480 dishes as you go. And they're going to need a 140 00:09:09,480 --> 00:09:11,200 place to put stuff. So you're probably going to need 141 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:13,240 your drying rack, but you're going to want to make sure it's 142 00:09:13,240 --> 00:09:15,320 clean. OK, So. 143 00:09:15,640 --> 00:09:19,440 And yeah, mine has hard water discoloration, like almost 144 00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:23,520 everything in my house. OK, my shower walls, my shower 145 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:26,400 doors. And a friend of mine told me 146 00:09:26,400 --> 00:09:31,280 this a while back. You can deal with the hard water 147 00:09:31,320 --> 00:09:35,520 by scrubbing with like an abrasive scrubber and some 148 00:09:35,520 --> 00:09:39,320 vinegar, but some of us don't always keep up on that. 149 00:09:39,400 --> 00:09:43,560 We're just kind of spraying glass cleaner on our glass and 150 00:09:43,560 --> 00:09:47,000 wiping it down. And, you know, we're washing our 151 00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:55,960 our drying rack tray with dish soap and not necessarily soaking 152 00:09:55,960 --> 00:09:59,960 it in vinegar. But if you have time and you 153 00:09:59,960 --> 00:10:03,920 have super hard water, maybe you could soak the tray of it and 154 00:10:03,920 --> 00:10:07,480 vinegar for a little while while we're doing other things in the 155 00:10:07,480 --> 00:10:11,600 kitchen, especially if you're already caught up on dishes. 156 00:10:12,120 --> 00:10:16,560 But as long as there's no dirtiness on it, it's going to 157 00:10:16,560 --> 00:10:19,200 be OK. The water spots are not that big 158 00:10:19,200 --> 00:10:23,120 of a deal, so once all of your clean dishes are put away, go 159 00:10:23,120 --> 00:10:26,480 ahead and start washing your dishes. 160 00:10:26,840 --> 00:10:30,280 But something I want you to do differently is check the 161 00:10:30,280 --> 00:10:33,640 refrigerator for anything that needs to be washed. 162 00:10:33,640 --> 00:10:37,600 Maybe you have a nice glass container that has leftovers in 163 00:10:37,600 --> 00:10:39,280 it. You're going to want to purge 164 00:10:39,280 --> 00:10:44,840 all of your leftovers before cooking a holiday meal, OK, 165 00:10:45,680 --> 00:10:49,040 because nobody's going to be eating those older leftovers. 166 00:10:49,040 --> 00:10:51,880 They're going to be eating the Thanksgiving or Christmas 167 00:10:52,040 --> 00:10:54,560 leftovers, depending on when you're listening to this episode 168 00:10:54,880 --> 00:10:59,120 or insert holiday that you're cleaning for. 169 00:10:59,360 --> 00:11:02,520 But for a lot of us, the time that we have a lot of people 170 00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:04,880 over is usually going to be Thanksgiving or Christmas. 171 00:11:05,200 --> 00:11:08,520 Let's just make sure that your dishes are clean and that your 172 00:11:08,520 --> 00:11:12,880 drying rack is clean. If you do air dry your dishes in 173 00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:18,040 the drying rack, unlike usual, try to put them away a couple 174 00:11:18,040 --> 00:11:23,480 hours later after they've dried. OK, I realized that maybe you 175 00:11:23,880 --> 00:11:27,600 leave your stuff in the drying rack and then maybe empty it in 176 00:11:27,600 --> 00:11:32,480 the morning while your coffee is brewing or maybe right before 177 00:11:32,480 --> 00:11:38,720 you start to wash more dishes. But I encourage you to kind of 178 00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:41,640 start with a clean slate. You definitely, I mean, there's 179 00:11:41,640 --> 00:11:44,960 a lot of dishes involved when you're cooking a huge meal with 180 00:11:44,960 --> 00:11:48,880 several courses, you've got to get down to dish zero. 181 00:11:49,280 --> 00:11:52,720 OK, you've got to clear those leftovers out of your 182 00:11:52,720 --> 00:11:54,880 refrigerator. And I do remember I said if you 183 00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:58,360 have a nice glass container with leftovers, I said that for a 184 00:11:58,360 --> 00:12:03,640 reason because those semi disposable containers, the 185 00:12:03,640 --> 00:12:09,120 Gladware or whatever, you can just toss to save time. 186 00:12:09,360 --> 00:12:14,480 OK, We've got to be ruthless about throwing stuff away and 187 00:12:14,480 --> 00:12:18,880 focusing on what matters when we're in that final cleaning 188 00:12:18,880 --> 00:12:22,800 session before guests arrive, like the the night before or the 189 00:12:22,800 --> 00:12:25,040 morning of. I've mentioned this before, but 190 00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:30,880 I like to save the Hillshire Farms lunch meat containers. 191 00:12:30,880 --> 00:12:35,800 And no, we don't eat a ton of processed meats, but my son 192 00:12:35,800 --> 00:12:40,760 takes a ham sandwich to school twice a week and there are no 193 00:12:40,760 --> 00:12:45,080 added nitrates in the Pilshire farm, so it's not too bad. 194 00:12:45,480 --> 00:12:48,600 And what I love about that brand, because I could buy other 195 00:12:48,600 --> 00:12:52,960 brands, but what I love about the brand is those containers 196 00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:56,800 that I can reuse. But I always reserve the right 197 00:12:56,800 --> 00:12:59,000 to throw away semi disposable containers. 198 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:02,400 And I also sometimes just buy a package of those types of 199 00:13:02,400 --> 00:13:05,320 containers. We usually wash them and reuse 200 00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:09,640 them, but I definitely toss them at times as well. 201 00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:14,400 So once you've removed any containers from the refrigerator 202 00:13:14,400 --> 00:13:18,200 that you need to wash, just start plugging away at those 203 00:13:18,200 --> 00:13:19,640 dishes. You might need to get the 204 00:13:19,640 --> 00:13:23,680 difficult items soaking and then wash the easy stuff. 205 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:28,440 If you're a combo washer like me where you use a dishwasher plus 206 00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:32,640 hand wash, you want to get those difficult pots and pans and 207 00:13:32,640 --> 00:13:37,440 leftover containers pre rinsed and then full of hot soapy water 208 00:13:37,440 --> 00:13:41,560 and soaking. And then the easy stuff like the 209 00:13:41,640 --> 00:13:44,160 glasses and silverware. You could be just kind of 210 00:13:44,560 --> 00:13:48,720 rinsing under running water and then scrubbing with your 211 00:13:48,720 --> 00:13:51,880 dishwashing brush or your abrasive sponge or whatever. 212 00:13:52,200 --> 00:13:55,360 Just kind of removing the food, putting them into the 213 00:13:55,360 --> 00:13:59,640 dishwasher. OK with the idea that once the 214 00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:03,680 dishwasher is loaded, those other difficult items have had a 215 00:14:03,680 --> 00:14:07,200 little time to soak, you can go ahead and hand wash them. 216 00:14:07,320 --> 00:14:10,920 Or maybe you have room in the dishwasher to finish pre rinsing 217 00:14:10,920 --> 00:14:14,160 those items and place them into the dishwasher. 218 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:20,640 We definitely try to stop generating dirty dishes when 219 00:14:20,640 --> 00:14:23,560 we're getting closer to having guests arrive. 220 00:14:24,600 --> 00:14:29,040 I mean, my husband did cook dinner last night, but he made 221 00:14:29,040 --> 00:14:32,400 something simple. But, you know, you could also 222 00:14:32,400 --> 00:14:34,720 consider, if you're listening to this the night before your 223 00:14:34,720 --> 00:14:38,080 guests arrive, you might want to consider ordering some pizzas or 224 00:14:38,080 --> 00:14:42,360 something if money permits. That way, you know, and just 225 00:14:42,520 --> 00:14:45,880 eating them out-of-the-box or off of napkins, you know, or 226 00:14:45,880 --> 00:14:49,600 paper plates. That way you're not generating 227 00:14:49,600 --> 00:14:53,680 more dishes to wash when there are other deep cleaning tasks 228 00:14:53,960 --> 00:14:58,600 that you want to focus on. OK, so I'm assuming you don't 229 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:01,440 have a huge pile up of dishes, but no judgment here. 230 00:15:01,440 --> 00:15:04,960 If you do, you can always pause the episode, listen to some 231 00:15:04,960 --> 00:15:08,240 music, come back to it, you know, whatever works. 232 00:15:08,800 --> 00:15:13,120 But I'm going to give you a couple more minutes to take care 233 00:15:13,120 --> 00:15:17,120 of those dishes, and then I'm going to have you start cleaning 234 00:15:17,120 --> 00:15:20,120 out your refrigerator. People are going to be in and 235 00:15:20,120 --> 00:15:24,880 out of your refrigerator. OK, that might be because you're 236 00:15:24,880 --> 00:15:29,520 cooking a huge meal where maybe people are eating at like 1:00 237 00:15:29,520 --> 00:15:34,200 in the afternoon and then they're reheating leftovers at 238 00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:38,640 dinner time or getting a, you know, a cold pumpkin pie out of 239 00:15:38,640 --> 00:15:40,960 the refrigerator. I love pumpkin pie when it's 240 00:15:40,960 --> 00:15:44,000 cold or they're going in there just for the whipped cream. 241 00:15:44,160 --> 00:15:47,680 They're going to be opening your refrigerator if it's kind of an 242 00:15:47,680 --> 00:15:51,440 all day feast. Also, if it's a potluck, people 243 00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:54,640 could be bringing things over, placing them in your 244 00:15:54,640 --> 00:15:57,240 refrigerator. People could be helping you 245 00:15:57,240 --> 00:16:00,440 clean up, putting the leftovers into containers and placing it 246 00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:02,680 into the refrigerator. You know they're going to be in 247 00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:04,720 the refrigerator, so you're going to clean out your 248 00:16:04,720 --> 00:16:08,280 refrigerator and microwave. OK, you're not going to make a 249 00:16:08,280 --> 00:16:11,400 big project out of it, but if you're if your refrigerator is a 250 00:16:11,400 --> 00:16:16,560 total nightmare, you might want to listen to my dedicated 251 00:16:16,560 --> 00:16:20,040 refrigerator episode after this. If you have a lot of time and 252 00:16:20,040 --> 00:16:22,480 you're like, I'm not going to clean the refrigerator right now 253 00:16:22,480 --> 00:16:24,280 because it's going to take me a long time. 254 00:16:24,560 --> 00:16:27,120 You're probably overestimating how long it's going to take. 255 00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:32,120 But I do have a dedicated episode that gives you like 30 256 00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:34,320 minutes to clean your refrigerator. 257 00:16:34,560 --> 00:16:38,600 So I will link to that in the episode description in case 258 00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:42,000 somebody wants to spend a little more time on that, you know, and 259 00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:44,440 maybe, you know, you're dealing with other surfaces in your 260 00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:48,840 kitchen. OK, just while I talk, I want 261 00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:54,040 you to be cleaning out your refrigerator and microwave, and 262 00:16:54,480 --> 00:16:57,720 you can always just use dish soap and hot water. 263 00:16:57,880 --> 00:17:01,720 Hot water is your friend when you're cleaning areas that have 264 00:17:01,720 --> 00:17:04,040 dried on food. You want to get the water as hot 265 00:17:04,040 --> 00:17:09,200 as possible. OK, I often clean my dishwasher 266 00:17:09,200 --> 00:17:17,680 shelves with just a rag and an abrasive sponge and some liquid 267 00:17:18,079 --> 00:17:24,319 dish soap, super hot water. And then I shine the shelves by 268 00:17:24,319 --> 00:17:29,640 cleaning them with white vinegar and a paper towel or microwave 269 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:34,080 microfiber cloth. OK when my husband cleans the 270 00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:38,880 refrigerator, he takes the shelves out and cleans them. 271 00:17:39,240 --> 00:17:43,520 But you know, you might be cleaning it and, and obviously 272 00:17:43,520 --> 00:17:46,440 that's the best way because it gets the stuff that's around the 273 00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:49,040 edges or whatever. That's a thorough way is to kind 274 00:17:49,040 --> 00:17:52,120 of take everything apart. But you might be cleaning at the 275 00:17:52,120 --> 00:17:54,840 last minute. So you might want to just scrub 276 00:17:54,840 --> 00:17:58,440 the visual area, you know, visible areas and just get up 277 00:17:58,520 --> 00:18:01,680 next to the edges or whatever. But you'll see if there's some 278 00:18:01,680 --> 00:18:05,200 kind of a spill where you ought to remove something, like if 279 00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:08,920 there's a visible spill and you wipe down a shelf and you can 280 00:18:08,920 --> 00:18:13,000 see some kind of a substance around the edge, then then you 281 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:14,960 know you have to remove it. OK. 282 00:18:17,440 --> 00:18:19,520 But yeah, you just pull everything out. 283 00:18:19,840 --> 00:18:22,880 It's not going to get too warm in the amount of time it takes 284 00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:25,640 you to clean the refrigerator. You can either pull everything 285 00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:28,680 out at once or you can do it shelf by shelf. 286 00:18:28,680 --> 00:18:34,440 Like you can start with the door, then you can clean the 287 00:18:34,760 --> 00:18:36,960 bottom shelf. And, you know, you could start 288 00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:41,120 at the top or bottom, depending on what you're worried about, 289 00:18:41,120 --> 00:18:42,800 whether you have a, you know, you shouldn't have open 290 00:18:42,800 --> 00:18:45,880 containers of food. If you do, you're going to move 291 00:18:45,880 --> 00:18:47,920 those out before you clean. OK? 292 00:18:47,920 --> 00:18:51,480 Like, if you have just some uncovered item in there, it's 293 00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:53,960 not as hard as you think. It's one of those chores that 294 00:18:53,960 --> 00:18:56,440 you tend to procrastinate on because you think it's going to 295 00:18:56,440 --> 00:19:00,080 be more involved than it is. It it really isn't. 296 00:19:00,080 --> 00:19:04,600 You just need super hot water, something abrasive, some kind of 297 00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:07,080 soap. You know, the liquid dish soap 298 00:19:07,080 --> 00:19:09,640 is safe to use inside your refrigerator. 299 00:19:10,040 --> 00:19:15,200 And if you are worried about like the glass being cloudy, you 300 00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:19,240 can fix that by using white vinegar as your glass cleaner. 301 00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:22,800 And we all know about those little tricks for cleaning the 302 00:19:22,800 --> 00:19:27,520 microwave where you put some hot water with like lemon or vinegar 303 00:19:27,520 --> 00:19:31,240 and you like boil it to loosen the debris or whatever. 304 00:19:31,880 --> 00:19:36,080 OK, you can do that. But you can also just use an 305 00:19:36,080 --> 00:19:39,720 abrasive sponge, like a, a sponge that has an abrasive side 306 00:19:39,720 --> 00:19:43,840 and a soft side and the liquid dish soap and the hot water. 307 00:19:44,480 --> 00:19:47,920 OK, you can clean almost everything in your house with 308 00:19:47,920 --> 00:19:51,200 dish soap and water, like other than your glass and mirrors, 309 00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:54,360 which would obviously be clouded, but you'd be surprised 310 00:19:54,360 --> 00:19:56,440 how much you can do with just some liquid dish soap. 311 00:19:57,680 --> 00:20:00,680 I think the reason we get other products is just sometimes we 312 00:20:00,680 --> 00:20:03,800 don't want to have to scrub as hard and different products are, 313 00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:05,800 you know, good on different things. 314 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:09,960 I am still going to be wiping down some cabinets today. 315 00:20:10,520 --> 00:20:16,000 So I wanted to mention that the product that I especially like 316 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:19,880 for that is and I'm not, you know, sponsored by these 317 00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:22,600 cleaning products, but like some of you are asking for product 318 00:20:22,600 --> 00:20:26,840 recommendations. There is a pledge multi surface 319 00:20:26,840 --> 00:20:29,840 cleaner. It's not that old school pledge 320 00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:33,400 that your mom used just on like the wooden furniture. 321 00:20:33,800 --> 00:20:39,880 OK, it is a different one that's like in a blue and orange 322 00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:42,520 container. It's a little expensive, but 323 00:20:42,520 --> 00:20:45,520 that stuff's great because it works on glass and other 324 00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:49,800 surfaces like wood. It works on your countertops, so 325 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:53,760 if you needed to clean your kitchen with just one product 326 00:20:53,760 --> 00:20:59,120 other than the dish soap, that pledge is definitely 1 to get 327 00:20:59,120 --> 00:21:05,760 because you can use it on the glass windows of your appliances 328 00:21:05,760 --> 00:21:08,040 or your stainless steel appliances. 329 00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:12,080 You know, obviously, disclaimer, read your owner's manual if you 330 00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:14,800 have such fancy stuff that you've got to use certain 331 00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:19,240 products, but I use it. I'm just telling you what I use. 332 00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:24,200 I will use that on the stainless steel refrigerator on my 333 00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:27,840 appliances that are a combination of stainless steel 334 00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:32,480 and black and have windows. It that product does all the 335 00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:33,640 things. OK. 336 00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:37,760 So that's definitely an easy way to go. 337 00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:42,000 But it and I'm I'm excited about scrubbing my cabinets with it, 338 00:21:42,280 --> 00:21:45,440 but at the same time, I could use dish soap if I needed to. 339 00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:49,280 OK, you might not have time to go to the store, so you might 340 00:21:49,280 --> 00:21:51,120 need to just use whatever you have. 341 00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:54,440 And then I also have a more natural cleaning spray, the 342 00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:57,000 Myers. But when I'm deep cleaning for 343 00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:02,600 guests, that's not the time for these soft products. 344 00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:08,400 OK, in my opinion, that's more of a nice everyday product where 345 00:22:08,440 --> 00:22:10,600 you're, you know, you're limiting your, if you're 346 00:22:10,600 --> 00:22:15,480 limiting your exposure to toxins and you want to, you know, be 347 00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:17,320 careful with the sprays you use and stuff. 348 00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:19,840 And there's science to back that, OK. 349 00:22:20,360 --> 00:22:26,040 But special occasions call for the stronger products in my 350 00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:29,120 opinion. So just be working in your 351 00:22:29,120 --> 00:22:33,400 kitchen while I talk. And then after we're done 352 00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:36,720 talking about the kitchen, I'm going to talk about going 353 00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:40,200 through a whole your whole house and just doing kind of a 354 00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:44,000 walkthrough and putting things away. 355 00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:47,080 I'm going to talk more about that in case you have anything 356 00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:50,520 that's out and you're also going to be looking for certain 357 00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:52,960 problems. I'm going to tell you what to 358 00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:55,240 watch out for. I'm going to help you look at 359 00:22:55,240 --> 00:23:00,080 your entire house through, you know, the lens of a guest. 360 00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:04,880 And then of course, you're going to do a little bit of dusting 361 00:23:04,880 --> 00:23:09,040 and vacuuming, sweeping and mopping at the end. 362 00:23:09,240 --> 00:23:11,760 You're probably going to want to put on some music for that. 363 00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:15,680 It definitely helps keep you energized. 364 00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:17,600 You might need some more caffeine. 365 00:23:18,040 --> 00:23:21,080 Maybe you need to pause the episode right now because you're 366 00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:25,400 feeling a little bit overwhelmed and caffeine kind of calms you 367 00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:27,360 and energizes you at the same time. 368 00:23:28,200 --> 00:23:32,200 Don't come at me if you're not into caffeine, but when I have a 369 00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:36,560 lot of cleaning to do, there's definitely an iced coffee 370 00:23:36,560 --> 00:23:40,560 involved and it might be my second or third one of the day, 371 00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:44,440 but I'm still going to drink it if I have a lot to do. 372 00:23:44,840 --> 00:23:48,040 OK. And I don't know, does anyone 373 00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:54,800 else drink coffee more for like the mental relaxation that it 374 00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:56,800 provides? I'm not saying that coffee is a 375 00:23:56,800 --> 00:23:59,640 downer to me. I know people like with severe 376 00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:03,480 ADHD or whatever, like coffee might be like a total downer for 377 00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:06,240 them. Like it has the opposite effect, 378 00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:09,640 or at least they say it does. OK that's not what I'm talking 379 00:24:09,640 --> 00:24:13,440 about. Coffee does energize me and make 380 00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:17,240 me feel like getting up and moving around but at the same 381 00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:27,000 time it relaxes me mentally. So like during the visit I might 382 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:32,080 have like my Stanley full of some iced tea or something just 383 00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:36,920 as my 0 calorie companion drink. I'm not sure if I mentioned this 384 00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:42,680 before, but I've I've discovered doing like cold brew tea and at 385 00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:45,840 first I thought I had to buy like a specific product for 386 00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:49,240 that. But then I saw something online 387 00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:51,000 that you can do it with any tea bag. 388 00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:57,080 And it's kind of that same principle where our mothers used 389 00:24:57,080 --> 00:25:00,240 to make sun tea. They'd put some tea in a jar and 390 00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:03,520 the water wasn't hot, but they'd put it out in the sun and let it 391 00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:07,040 sit. Well, you can actually just put 392 00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:13,080 regular water, whether it's room temperature or cold, in your 393 00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:17,280 Tumblr. Drop a tea bag or two in there 394 00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:23,600 and then let it sit for a while and add ice, or even add your 395 00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:27,200 ice right away. And the tea does provide flavor 396 00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:30,240 to the water. Maybe it's not as strong as if 397 00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:33,360 you'd heated the water and obviously it doesn't brew as 398 00:25:33,360 --> 00:25:37,440 quickly, but it does flavor the water. 399 00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:42,040 It does work and I, I find that it's super convenient and just 400 00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:45,240 be working in your kitchen, OK, Your refrigerator, your 401 00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:49,040 microwave, your countertops, your sink, your stove top. 402 00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:53,040 OK, I'm assuming you already deep cleaned your oven a while 403 00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:58,280 back, but I find that it's convenient on those days that I 404 00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:02,840 work at the school, I work at the school twice a week to make 405 00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:09,200 these cold brew teas just by throwing in water iced tea bags 406 00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:12,280 and then, you know, screwing on the lid. 407 00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:19,160 And by the time I get situated at work, you know, maybe an hour 408 00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:22,920 after I put this drink together, it has a lot of flavor. 409 00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:26,040 It just does so. And I don't recommend 410 00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:30,280 necessarily paying extra for the cold brew tea bags because I 411 00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:33,800 couldn't really tell the difference and I just have a lot 412 00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:39,160 of tea bags in stock. My personal favorite companion 413 00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:44,680 drink, 0 calorie companion drink is and what I mean by a 414 00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:46,600 companion drink is just something to kind of carry 415 00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:50,120 around and keep near you. Like you know, you're visiting 416 00:26:50,120 --> 00:26:53,080 and you have that on the end table or whatever, or you're, 417 00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:55,240 you're going to work and you have it in your tote bag. 418 00:26:56,040 --> 00:27:02,520 But I'll do 1 green tea bag and one mint tea and I think I have 419 00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:06,360 a green tea with lemon tea bag that I sometimes use with 420 00:27:06,360 --> 00:27:10,400 another tea bag that's mint. But yeah, use your favorite tea 421 00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:12,760 bags. And I drink a lot of plain 422 00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:17,920 water, but we all get bored with water sometimes and some of us 423 00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:19,760 have a little caffeine addiction. 424 00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:23,400 I have a lot that I need to squeeze into this episode. 425 00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:27,080 And I'm not expecting you to get all of this done necessarily 426 00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:29,680 during the episode. You might need to go into 427 00:27:29,680 --> 00:27:32,680 overtime, especially to clean your floors and whatnot, which 428 00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:36,960 I'm going to kind of advise you to do at the end, but just make 429 00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:39,960 sure that you clean the inside of your refrigerator and 430 00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:46,520 microwave and spray and wipe down your stove hood. 431 00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:49,280 That might be an area you don't deal with very often. 432 00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:52,640 If you're tall like me, you don't really see this, the 433 00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:56,800 inside part of the stove hood, but you might have somebody 434 00:27:56,800 --> 00:27:59,080 shorter helping you in the kitchen and they're going to see 435 00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:03,400 it and it needs to be cleaned anyway because that's gross to 436 00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:06,520 just leave it gross. So spray and wipe that down. 437 00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:09,440 Don't obsess over it. Just spray and wipe it down so 438 00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:12,880 there's no debris that might fall into the food or something. 439 00:28:12,880 --> 00:28:14,400 Gross. OK. 440 00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:18,280 And wipe down your cabinets. I think I mentioned that. 441 00:28:19,120 --> 00:28:23,000 And then just look around, you know, do you need to clean any 442 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:25,720 outlets, switch plates, pantry doors? 443 00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:31,000 OK, but you've probably been dealing with things like that. 444 00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:33,200 You've probably already cleaned baseboards. 445 00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:36,320 I'm also going to link to my baseboard episode in the 446 00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:40,760 description in case you're listening to this at a time 447 00:28:40,760 --> 00:28:45,760 where it's not really the last minute for you and you you still 448 00:28:45,760 --> 00:28:49,800 want to go back and do that. There is a bonus episode that's 449 00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:52,920 all about baseboards for financial supporters. 450 00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:56,200 Another thing, and I'm just throwing things out there, I 451 00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:59,440 know I can talk faster than you can clean, but another thing to 452 00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:02,760 notice in the kitchen, are your windows OK? 453 00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:08,440 I'm a little disappointed because a few days ago I washed 454 00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:13,200 the kitchen window and the sliding glass door inside and 455 00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:17,880 out meticulously, and my dogs have already dirtied up the 456 00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:22,120 sliding glass door and I said something about it. 457 00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:24,920 And my husband's just like, well, we have pets and he's not 458 00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:27,720 even really into the pets, but he's just trying to tell me like 459 00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:31,320 it's normal that they're these doggy prints or whatever. 460 00:29:32,120 --> 00:29:34,480 Obviously, I'm not going to be able to keep up-to-the-minute on 461 00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:36,720 that, and I have other things to focus on. 462 00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:40,000 So I told my daughter, who's kind of the main one who lets 463 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:42,960 the dogs in and out. Like, can you just shut the 464 00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:46,680 curtain this week after letting the dogs in and out? 465 00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:50,520 Because I have a sheer curtain that covers that sliding glass 466 00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:53,560 door. It lets a lot of natural light 467 00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:56,840 in, which makes my house look bright and big. 468 00:29:57,240 --> 00:30:01,920 I love my sheer white curtains, but it also disguises those 469 00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:04,600 smudges on the sliding glass door. 470 00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:09,400 But if you haven't at least cleaned the old build up off of 471 00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:13,000 a kitchen sliding glass door or a kitchen window and you have 472 00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:14,920 time, that's something to think about. 473 00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:19,440 But windows probably should not be your top priority if you are 474 00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:22,400 running out of time. You want your kitchen to look 475 00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:25,200 sanitary and the windows aren't super important. 476 00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:26,840 You should have done it in advance. 477 00:30:27,120 --> 00:30:30,440 All right? That said, if you have a kitchen 478 00:30:30,440 --> 00:30:34,320 window sill, this is so random, but this was one of the things I 479 00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:39,320 did a few days ago where you've grown seedlings and stuff. 480 00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:43,320 There could be like a little bit of spilled dirt in the window 481 00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:47,720 from these little projects if someone in your family puts 482 00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:49,600 little plants in the window or whatever. 483 00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:53,600 So make sure you vacuum those up and wipe down those window sills 484 00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:57,720 and vacuum out those window tracks because it looks dirty. 485 00:30:57,720 --> 00:31:01,320 Even though you know it was for an herb garden or whatever, it 486 00:31:01,320 --> 00:31:05,640 looks super dirty to have visible dirt there, whereas your 487 00:31:05,640 --> 00:31:09,760 dog's putting muddy footprints on the back door doesn't make 488 00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:11,640 the inside of your kitchen seem dirty. 489 00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:14,640 Choose choose your battles. I've got to get this cat out of 490 00:31:14,640 --> 00:31:15,600 here. She's meowing. 491 00:31:16,360 --> 00:31:20,280 I did not know that my daughter's cat was in my office. 492 00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:24,200 She started meowing like right next to me 'cause she wanted me 493 00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:28,720 to let her out of the room. Speaking of cats, your guests 494 00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:30,600 don't want to see your litter box. 495 00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:36,160 Days ago, we relocated it to my daughter's room and I'm hoping 496 00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:39,960 that it stays there. Obviously, once you've cleaned 497 00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:44,960 the upper surfaces in your kitchen, you're going to want to 498 00:31:45,040 --> 00:31:50,680 sweep and mop or vacuum and mop, but I'm going to have you do the 499 00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:54,320 floors in your entire house in one fell swoop. 500 00:31:54,520 --> 00:31:59,160 When I'm doing something like cleaning floors and vacuuming, I 501 00:31:59,160 --> 00:32:04,520 like to hook up whatever I'm listening to to a large 502 00:32:04,520 --> 00:32:07,960 Bluetooth speaker rather than wearing like the earphones and 503 00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:11,120 earbuds. Like, I tend to have headphones 504 00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:17,920 on when I'm cleaning out a closet or folding laundry or 505 00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:21,640 doing dishes. But when it comes to those 506 00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:26,320 heavier chores where I'm, you know, using a vacuum that makes 507 00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:31,400 noise and things like that, I like to switch to a large 508 00:32:31,400 --> 00:32:34,880 Bluetooth speaker. Let's talk about walking through 509 00:32:34,880 --> 00:32:37,240 the rest of your house. If you need more time in the 510 00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:39,880 kitchen, pause or rewind the episode. 511 00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:43,600 But let's talk about things. Do you have an entry? 512 00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:48,960 Do you have a tile entryway that you usually just run over with 513 00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:53,600 the vacuum? Today would be the day to sweep 514 00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:57,280 and mop that or vacuum and mop that to shine it up. 515 00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:00,960 We do not mop our entryway that often. 516 00:33:00,960 --> 00:33:05,800 We just go over it with the vacuum because it's not like the 517 00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:09,360 kitchen where, you know, there could be food spills or whatever 518 00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:12,640 it it's just kind of part of our living room. 519 00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:17,640 But that's on the To Do List for today to shine that up 'cause we 520 00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:19,560 have some really pretty shiny tile. 521 00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:27,160 If you are one of my higher dollar Patreon supporters, you 522 00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:30,720 know what my tile looks like because I recently posted a 523 00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:35,600 picture in there of my Swiffer on the tile. 524 00:33:35,600 --> 00:33:42,920 I have that tile in both bathrooms as far as the floors 525 00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:48,040 and shower walls, and then my kitchen floor is that kind of 526 00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:55,280 tile and then also my entryway and it's very shiny, so I do 527 00:33:55,280 --> 00:33:57,240 like to try to shine it up for guests. 528 00:33:57,920 --> 00:34:00,800 You might have other things to deal with in your entryway. 529 00:34:00,800 --> 00:34:03,400 Maybe you need to dust a piece of furniture there or whatever, 530 00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:06,480 but your entryway is a first impression area. 531 00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:09,679 And don't forget about the front porch. 532 00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:14,280 OK, Usually the way we clean our front porch is we power wash it 533 00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:18,760 with a hose, like we power wash the front door and just kind of 534 00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:22,239 the front of the house. And this time it's fall, my 535 00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:25,280 husband needed to rake the leaves, which he already did. 536 00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:28,360 We had so many leaves accumulating on our porch. 537 00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:31,600 Like most people have leaves all over their front yard. 538 00:34:31,600 --> 00:34:36,080 They rake them into a pile or whatever, the way the wind blows 539 00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:39,080 in our area or something. All of the leaves just 540 00:34:39,239 --> 00:34:43,280 congregate on our front porch and just pile up at the front 541 00:34:43,280 --> 00:34:45,400 door. So that's been dealt with. 542 00:34:45,639 --> 00:34:46,960 I'm just throwing that out there. 543 00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:48,760 Maybe that's something you can delegate. 544 00:34:49,800 --> 00:34:52,360 I feel like a lot of husbands prefer the outdoor. 545 00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:55,199 Don't don't come at me for stereotyping. 546 00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:58,000 A lot of them would rather do something outside. 547 00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:03,360 I know someone who every time she's having a party at her 548 00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:08,080 house, she will ask her husband for help cleaning the house. 549 00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:14,000 And, you know, he's out in the yard trimming a tree or doing 550 00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:17,840 something in like, you know, the remote corner of their backyard 551 00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:21,240 that nobody's going to see. They, they like those outdoor 552 00:35:21,240 --> 00:35:27,120 tasks better oftentimes. So it's quite possible that your 553 00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:33,560 spouse might rather hear, hey, can you power wash the front 554 00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:39,280 porch and rake the leaves? Then can you clean these 555 00:35:39,280 --> 00:35:42,600 baseboards? But great if he can help you on 556 00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:44,520 the inside of the house too. That's great. 557 00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:50,920 And my husband does a lot both inside and outside, but he has 558 00:35:50,920 --> 00:35:55,240 retired sort of OK. We are waiting for that to kick 559 00:35:55,240 --> 00:35:59,040 in when he turns 62. So special thanks to our 560 00:35:59,040 --> 00:36:04,040 financial supporters who support the show either on Patreon, 561 00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:10,080 Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or some other way that's helping us get 562 00:36:10,080 --> 00:36:13,160 through kind of a tight financial time. 563 00:36:13,240 --> 00:36:17,120 Because if you don't already know this, my husband's company 564 00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:21,320 shut down before he was old enough for retirement, but he's 565 00:36:21,320 --> 00:36:25,480 already had a quintuple bypass and this and that. 566 00:36:25,880 --> 00:36:29,760 So he doesn't really want to start a new job at this 567 00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:32,200 juncture. So we're kind of just weathering 568 00:36:32,200 --> 00:36:34,120 the storm for these next few months. 569 00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:37,320 And your support is helping us to do just that. 570 00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:42,760 And even after that, your support helps me justify the 571 00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:46,720 time I spend on this show. If you're listening to this 572 00:36:46,720 --> 00:36:51,600 episode in the future, there might be commercial breaks, but 573 00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:56,760 at the time of this recording, I don't have any commercials, so 574 00:36:56,760 --> 00:37:02,360 I'm only making money from the bonus episode subscriptions. 575 00:37:03,200 --> 00:37:06,000 So you're making a huge difference in our lives, and we 576 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:09,720 appreciate that. But again, if I ever do get 577 00:37:10,040 --> 00:37:13,800 dynamic ads again, they'll be inserted across all episodes. 578 00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:17,480 So if you heard a commercial, it's because you're listening to 579 00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:21,760 this in the future, OK? Also, focus on your main living 580 00:37:21,760 --> 00:37:23,320 area. We talked about the entrance. 581 00:37:23,600 --> 00:37:26,600 Let's focus on your main living area. 582 00:37:27,320 --> 00:37:29,120 OK? It could be that people are just 583 00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:32,080 walking through a front room and then they're going to be hanging 584 00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:34,960 out in a family room that's farther back in your house. 585 00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:39,360 Obviously you want your whole house picked up, dusted and 586 00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:42,600 vacuumed. OK, But I want you to spend a 587 00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:45,520 lot of time on the main room that they're going to be sitting 588 00:37:45,520 --> 00:37:47,640 in. Let's remove clutter from that 589 00:37:47,640 --> 00:37:50,520 room. For example, if you keep a toy 590 00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:54,600 box in that room, then it weigh down, pack a lot of the toys 591 00:37:54,600 --> 00:37:58,600 away so that the kids aren't going to make a mess at the last 592 00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:02,600 minute. OK, my grandkids toy box is down 593 00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:06,360 to like 5 items for during the visit where we're going to have 594 00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:09,040 a lot of people over so that they aren't just spreading stuff 595 00:38:09,040 --> 00:38:12,000 everywhere and creating an obstacle course in my living 596 00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:14,720 room. I can bring back more toys later 597 00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:17,920 or I might choose to keep it real minimal and just kind of 598 00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:22,480 rotate the toys in and out. OK but there could be some other 599 00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:26,360 issue. Just look around, check for any 600 00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:33,240 cobwebs, any super 30 strips of baseboard, you know, grab a rag 601 00:38:33,680 --> 00:38:37,840 and some cleaner and just deal with any problems in the main 602 00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:41,800 living areas. OK, if you haven't dusted in a 603 00:38:41,800 --> 00:38:44,160 while, quickly dust the furniture. 604 00:38:44,760 --> 00:38:48,240 This could be as simple as grabbing a feather duster or a 605 00:38:48,240 --> 00:38:52,400 dry cloth. OK, Just make sure that there's 606 00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:57,200 not any visible dust and, you know, straighten those cushions 607 00:38:57,760 --> 00:38:59,640 and make sure that the house looks good. 608 00:38:59,640 --> 00:39:01,440 You also want the house to smell good. 609 00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:05,160 If you know when your guests are arriving, light a candle like 30 610 00:39:05,160 --> 00:39:08,040 minutes prior. And here's an interesting tip 611 00:39:08,040 --> 00:39:11,960 for your living room. I was doing some research online 612 00:39:11,960 --> 00:39:13,960 and I was like, how did I not know this? 613 00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:18,440 But I watched so many videos about preparing for guests 614 00:39:18,480 --> 00:39:21,560 because I like to kind of, you know, consume content before I 615 00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:24,680 make content, just to kind of give me ideas. 616 00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:30,000 And one thing that so many videos talked about was to use 617 00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:32,640 lamps instead of overhead lighting. 618 00:39:33,400 --> 00:39:36,640 And I do have a lamp in my living room, but it's just been 619 00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:40,440 sitting there without a bulb for the longest time because we 620 00:39:40,440 --> 00:39:43,680 typically turn on the overhead lights. 621 00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:46,880 There's a light in the entryway, which is part of our living 622 00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:49,320 room, And then there's a ceiling fan with a light. 623 00:39:49,880 --> 00:39:52,320 Once we turn on those two lights, we have plenty of 624 00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:54,720 lighting. And that's just what we've been 625 00:39:54,720 --> 00:39:57,200 doing. But I mentioned to my husband, 626 00:39:57,200 --> 00:40:01,360 like, supposedly, like we're supposed to be using lamps to 627 00:40:01,360 --> 00:40:04,160 kind of, you know, create some ambiance or whatever. 628 00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:11,840 So we put a light bulb in that lamp in the living room so that 629 00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:15,040 in the evenings we can turn on that lamp. 630 00:40:15,480 --> 00:40:17,920 Light the candles and it's going to be evening when the guests 631 00:40:17,920 --> 00:40:22,160 arrive, so we'll have that lamp on, we'll have the candles lit 632 00:40:22,160 --> 00:40:24,600 so the house will smell good, it'll look nice. 633 00:40:25,160 --> 00:40:29,760 And this will also draw attention to our fish tank, 634 00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:32,360 which is kind of an interesting focal point. 635 00:40:32,480 --> 00:40:37,080 So just make sure that your main living area or sitting room, 636 00:40:37,080 --> 00:40:42,400 family room, whatever you call it, looks presentable and it's 637 00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:47,080 been dusted. And maybe create some ambiance 638 00:40:47,360 --> 00:40:51,280 using lamps and candles. Obviously you don't want to go 639 00:40:51,280 --> 00:40:53,920 to the extreme where you're, you've got the room just dark 640 00:40:53,920 --> 00:40:57,560 and it's just candlelight. OK, you have the lamp on, so it 641 00:40:57,560 --> 00:41:01,160 looks like you've got a light on, but then the candles are 642 00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:03,640 also noticeable. The fish tank, if you have it, 643 00:41:03,640 --> 00:41:07,480 is also noticeable. So those are just some staging 644 00:41:07,480 --> 00:41:09,760 ideas. And in the fall, it's always 645 00:41:09,760 --> 00:41:13,120 cozy to have a pretty blanket draped over the couch. 646 00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:17,040 And even if we don't end up lighting the candles, you know, 647 00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:20,280 because we're cooking or doing whatever, I have some fresh wax 648 00:41:20,280 --> 00:41:23,760 in the wax warmer and the whole house smells like cinnamon. 649 00:41:24,120 --> 00:41:27,240 Of course, you're going to walk down any hallways, check for any 650 00:41:27,240 --> 00:41:30,440 problems. Hopefully you've already cleaned 651 00:41:30,440 --> 00:41:32,600 the baseboards in your hallways. Again, I'm going to link to a 652 00:41:32,600 --> 00:41:36,000 baseboard episode in case you still have time to do this. 653 00:41:36,320 --> 00:41:40,320 But I'm assuming today is kind of the culmination where you're 654 00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:43,280 just doing kind of a final walkthrough. 655 00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:48,560 OK, Of course you're going to touch up your bathrooms, 656 00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:51,200 especially your guest bathroom. But if you're having a lot of 657 00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:55,400 people over, you definitely need to make sure that that secondary 658 00:41:55,400 --> 00:42:00,920 bathroom is presentable as well. I have deep cleaned both of the 659 00:42:00,920 --> 00:42:03,600 bathrooms. Make sure that there's toilet 660 00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:09,480 paper, extra toilet paper, fresh clean hand towels for guests 661 00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:11,040 that are going to be there for the day. 662 00:42:11,160 --> 00:42:14,440 Also bath towels if you're having overnight guests. 663 00:42:14,680 --> 00:42:17,280 And then you might need to, if you've deep cleaned your 664 00:42:17,280 --> 00:42:21,040 bathroom recently, you might need to just touch it up with a 665 00:42:21,040 --> 00:42:23,640 glass cleaner or a glass and surface spray. 666 00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:26,840 OK, touch up the mirrors, touch up whatever. 667 00:42:27,520 --> 00:42:33,480 OK, the most important rooms when having party guests are 668 00:42:33,480 --> 00:42:37,720 your main sitting area, your kitchen and dining areas, your 669 00:42:37,720 --> 00:42:40,720 guest bathroom. But of course, if you're having 670 00:42:40,720 --> 00:42:44,080 overnight guests, you need to go into the bedrooms as well. 671 00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:46,480 Or there's just a chance somebody's going to go into a 672 00:42:46,480 --> 00:42:48,320 bedroom. Maybe they need a place to wrap 673 00:42:48,320 --> 00:42:54,360 gifts, maybe they need to change a baby on your bed or something. 674 00:42:54,640 --> 00:42:58,960 So make sure that the bedrooms look good as well. 675 00:42:59,640 --> 00:43:03,240 Obviously at the the last minute, it's OK to lock a 676 00:43:03,240 --> 00:43:07,080 bedroom if you need to. Oh, sorry, that bedroom's not 677 00:43:07,080 --> 00:43:09,200 childproof, so we're keeping that one locked. 678 00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:11,720 But you can go in this other room, you know, that sort of 679 00:43:11,720 --> 00:43:13,200 thing. OK. 680 00:43:13,360 --> 00:43:15,920 But obviously if you're going to have guests for like a week, 681 00:43:16,160 --> 00:43:18,400 they're probably going to see into all of your rooms. 682 00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:23,440 Look around your guest room, make sure that it's neat and 683 00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:26,280 tidy and there isn't any dust building up anywhere. 684 00:43:27,080 --> 00:43:29,160 OK? You basically want to get your 685 00:43:29,160 --> 00:43:32,960 whole house vacuum ready, OK, if you haven't already done so. 686 00:43:33,560 --> 00:43:38,760 And earlier in the series, one of the first steps or the first 687 00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:41,720 step was to store more stuff out of sight. 688 00:43:41,720 --> 00:43:45,520 We talked about like cleaning out closets so that you'd have 689 00:43:45,520 --> 00:43:51,120 more storage. Well, now's the time to use that 690 00:43:51,120 --> 00:43:54,360 storage space and start stashing things away. 691 00:43:54,760 --> 00:44:00,080 OK, when you had a couple weeks before the get together, you 692 00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:04,200 were organizing your closets, you were decluttering, you were 693 00:44:04,200 --> 00:44:06,640 throwing things away, you were donating things, you were 694 00:44:06,640 --> 00:44:11,480 organizing things. So ideally now you have some 695 00:44:11,480 --> 00:44:17,000 extra space in your closet so you can hide that basket of 696 00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:19,720 residual clean laundry that you're not going to have time to 697 00:44:19,720 --> 00:44:23,480 fold. At this point you can stash 698 00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:27,640 those random items that you're still storing on the floor 699 00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:30,880 somewhere. You can clean your bedroom 700 00:44:30,960 --> 00:44:35,080 teenager style and just stuff everything in the closet because 701 00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:37,400 ideally you freed up space for that. 702 00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:43,640 There's definitely a time to quit doing things the perfect 703 00:44:43,640 --> 00:44:48,480 way and just put everything out of sight so that you can vacuum 704 00:44:48,480 --> 00:44:50,400 and dust and your house will look good. 705 00:44:51,240 --> 00:44:55,880 OK, It's not the end of the world if somebody opens a closet 706 00:44:55,880 --> 00:44:58,520 and it's a little stuffed or whatever, they're probably not 707 00:44:58,520 --> 00:45:04,280 going to be opening a closet. I mean, they might open a coat 708 00:45:04,280 --> 00:45:07,720 closet if they're you live in an area that's cold and people wear 709 00:45:07,720 --> 00:45:10,200 heavy coats that they need to hang in a closet. 710 00:45:11,400 --> 00:45:14,640 They also might open a linen closet if that's where you store 711 00:45:14,640 --> 00:45:17,440 your towels. But what they're not going to do 712 00:45:17,440 --> 00:45:21,120 is open your bedroom closet. OK? 713 00:45:22,000 --> 00:45:25,080 I mean, if you're worried about them maybe hanging things up in 714 00:45:25,080 --> 00:45:29,120 the guest room closet, just open it and make sure there's nothing 715 00:45:29,120 --> 00:45:32,240 super embarrassing in there. But your closets don't need to 716 00:45:32,240 --> 00:45:36,120 be perfectly organized. You don't need to prove that 717 00:45:36,120 --> 00:45:39,800 you're the perfect housekeeper. You just need to show that you 718 00:45:39,800 --> 00:45:43,680 know how to throw a party and that you know you can dust and 719 00:45:43,680 --> 00:45:47,520 vacuum and have a sanitary kitchen and a house that smells 720 00:45:47,520 --> 00:45:49,720 good. OK, Very few of your guests have 721 00:45:49,720 --> 00:45:54,360 a perfect home, OK? And if they do, it's because 722 00:45:54,360 --> 00:45:56,000 they're in another season of life. 723 00:45:56,640 --> 00:46:03,720 OK, maybe that guest with the perfect house never cooks, so 724 00:46:04,040 --> 00:46:06,080 there's nothing to clean in their kitchen. 725 00:46:06,520 --> 00:46:12,080 Or maybe their kids are grown or they're retired. 726 00:46:12,080 --> 00:46:15,440 I mean, different people have different situations. 727 00:46:15,440 --> 00:46:17,840 And I'm not saying that if your kids are grown or you're retired 728 00:46:17,840 --> 00:46:20,000 that you don't struggle to clean the house and that you aren't 729 00:46:20,000 --> 00:46:24,960 listening to this episode. But what I'm saying is stop 730 00:46:24,960 --> 00:46:29,080 comparing yourself to other people whose priorities are 731 00:46:29,080 --> 00:46:31,000 different. Their schedule is different. 732 00:46:31,000 --> 00:46:34,280 They might be getting more help from a spouse, but then you 733 00:46:34,280 --> 00:46:37,240 wouldn't want to be married to that guy because there are a lot 734 00:46:37,240 --> 00:46:41,040 of bad things about him. OK, so there are too many 735 00:46:41,040 --> 00:46:43,520 variables. Stop comparing yourself to other 736 00:46:43,520 --> 00:46:48,000 people and just do your personal best for this get together with 737 00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:51,960 the time you have. I mean, I could spend a lot more 738 00:46:51,960 --> 00:46:56,480 time and money preparing my house for this get together, but 739 00:46:56,680 --> 00:46:59,160 I have no desire. I have other things I need to 740 00:46:59,160 --> 00:47:01,160 do. I'm going to be working on 741 00:47:01,160 --> 00:47:04,600 homework later today. So again, just go through the 742 00:47:04,600 --> 00:47:10,640 four steps to the best of your ability within reason, OK? 743 00:47:11,200 --> 00:47:13,760 Based on the time you're willing to spend, the money you're 744 00:47:13,760 --> 00:47:17,280 willing to spend, you're going to store more stuff out of 745 00:47:17,280 --> 00:47:18,880 sight. Hopefully you've recently 746 00:47:18,880 --> 00:47:22,680 cleaned out your closets or you just have some extra space. 747 00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:25,640 Stick some things in there that aren't normally going to be in 748 00:47:25,640 --> 00:47:30,080 there, OK, like your clean laundry basket or maybe some 749 00:47:30,120 --> 00:47:34,000 items that you meant to take over to your daughter's house or 750 00:47:34,280 --> 00:47:36,920 have her pick them up and they're still here, so you're 751 00:47:36,920 --> 00:47:38,240 just going to put them in the closet. 752 00:47:38,480 --> 00:47:40,400 OK? I'm using my own examples here. 753 00:47:42,040 --> 00:47:44,720 So #1 store. Store more things out of sight 754 00:47:44,720 --> 00:47:48,280 as you're doing your walkthrough #2 deep clean surfaces. 755 00:47:48,320 --> 00:47:50,400 As you're doing your walkthrough, see if there's any 756 00:47:50,400 --> 00:47:53,840 embarrassing surface that you failed to deep clean and just 757 00:47:54,000 --> 00:47:57,360 get some cleaner and clean it. You probably cleaned most of 758 00:47:57,360 --> 00:48:01,760 your baseboards recently, but if you see a dirty spot, clean it. 759 00:48:02,840 --> 00:48:07,440 OK #3 buy anything you need. Maybe you need to go on a trip 760 00:48:07,440 --> 00:48:10,400 to the store. I keep telling myself that I 761 00:48:10,400 --> 00:48:14,560 might make the signature chocolate cake tonight, but I'm 762 00:48:14,560 --> 00:48:17,280 not going to go get the ingredients for it because I 763 00:48:17,280 --> 00:48:18,680 want to get my homework done first. 764 00:48:18,680 --> 00:48:22,000 So I'm telling myself, if you get your homework done, you can 765 00:48:22,000 --> 00:48:24,720 take this extra step of baking this cake at the end. 766 00:48:25,160 --> 00:48:27,680 But it's not absolutely mandatory. 767 00:48:28,160 --> 00:48:30,600 You know, sometimes you have to cut some things out of your 768 00:48:30,600 --> 00:48:35,360 original plans #4 wash bedding. Yes, I'm going to make sure that 769 00:48:35,360 --> 00:48:38,440 my son washes his bedding in case his bedroom becomes one of 770 00:48:38,440 --> 00:48:41,000 the guest rooms. Set a timer to put it in the 771 00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:44,320 dryer. Make sure you have clean towels 772 00:48:44,320 --> 00:48:46,240 if you're going to have overnight guests, and decide 773 00:48:46,240 --> 00:48:47,960 where you're going to store those towels, whether you're 774 00:48:47,960 --> 00:48:54,240 placing them on the guest beds or under the sink in the 775 00:48:54,240 --> 00:48:59,360 bathroom or on a towel bar or in the linen closet. 776 00:48:59,480 --> 00:49:02,960 Just make sure you've got those clean towels and you know where 777 00:49:03,120 --> 00:49:07,000 to find them. What I don't want you to do is 778 00:49:07,360 --> 00:49:11,640 go dig them out of a laundry basket while your guests are at 779 00:49:11,640 --> 00:49:14,520 your house. OK, Fold them and put them away. 780 00:49:15,360 --> 00:49:16,720 And we talked about buying stuff. 781 00:49:16,720 --> 00:49:20,560 If you have any finishing touches, you know, hang up those 782 00:49:20,560 --> 00:49:23,120 cute towels you bought. Put out those decorations, 783 00:49:23,160 --> 00:49:25,960 whether you're, you know, whether you're decorating for 784 00:49:25,960 --> 00:49:29,520 Thanksgiving or Christmas. I decorate for Thanksgiving when 785 00:49:29,520 --> 00:49:33,360 I'm having a Thanksgiving thing. So Christmas decorations are 786 00:49:33,360 --> 00:49:35,840 either going to come out after Thanksgiving if my kids asked to 787 00:49:35,840 --> 00:49:40,080 decorate or maybe even a few days later after the guests 788 00:49:40,080 --> 00:49:42,440 leave. But I no judgement here. 789 00:49:42,440 --> 00:49:45,440 If you like your house decorated for Christmas during 790 00:49:45,440 --> 00:49:47,880 Thanksgiving. Like I didn't grow up with that. 791 00:49:47,880 --> 00:49:51,600 So that's not what I do. My mom does it now so she can 792 00:49:51,600 --> 00:49:55,440 take like cute Christmas photos of her dog and whatnot and just 793 00:49:55,440 --> 00:50:00,400 'cause she has a lot of fun Christmas decor, but that's just 794 00:50:00,400 --> 00:50:03,880 not how I do it. So as you're walking through 795 00:50:03,880 --> 00:50:08,960 each room, just check for cobwebs, dusty areas, you know, 796 00:50:08,960 --> 00:50:12,360 quickly dust the furniture doesn't have to be super 797 00:50:12,360 --> 00:50:14,000 thorough. It could be it could be dry 798 00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:17,520 dust, it could be wet dust, whatever is easy for you and 799 00:50:17,520 --> 00:50:20,800 just items that you have out stash in the closet. 800 00:50:21,480 --> 00:50:25,560 OK, I've definitely got a large container of clean laundry. 801 00:50:25,680 --> 00:50:27,600 I'm going to just stick it in my closet. 802 00:50:28,480 --> 00:50:32,200 I don't care if I can necessarily walk through my walk 803 00:50:32,200 --> 00:50:35,360 in closet if the rest of my house is clean. 804 00:50:35,560 --> 00:50:37,560 You see what I'm saying? Something's got to give 805 00:50:37,560 --> 00:50:41,720 sometimes, and whether you do things right or you just do them 806 00:50:41,920 --> 00:50:43,720 depends on how much time you have left. 807 00:50:44,200 --> 00:50:47,280 So don't panic. Just dash everything out of 808 00:50:47,280 --> 00:50:49,640 sight. Dust and vacuum. 809 00:50:50,720 --> 00:50:53,520 Assuming you sanitized your kitchen during the beginning of 810 00:50:53,520 --> 00:50:56,600 this episode and assuming your bathroom's been deep cleaned 811 00:50:56,800 --> 00:50:59,920 recently. If not, prioritize that. 812 00:51:00,920 --> 00:51:05,040 OK, now it's time to do that heavy work of doing all the 813 00:51:05,040 --> 00:51:09,280 vacuuming and mopping and whatnot, so it might be time to 814 00:51:09,280 --> 00:51:12,880 listen to another podcast or put on some music. 815 00:51:13,320 --> 00:51:15,720 I hope you got a lot done during this episode. 816 00:51:15,920 --> 00:51:20,560 I hope I motivated you and gave you permission to take some 817 00:51:20,560 --> 00:51:24,200 shortcuts too. Oh, by the way, I was going to 818 00:51:24,600 --> 00:51:30,240 schedule out another episode closer to Thanksgiving, but I I 819 00:51:30,240 --> 00:51:33,600 decided to to combine the kitchen deep cleaning episode 820 00:51:33,600 --> 00:51:37,360 with the finishing touches episode, which is what this was. 821 00:51:37,720 --> 00:51:42,720 So I won't talk to you until after my guests leave and I'm 822 00:51:42,720 --> 00:51:47,560 not even sure what day that is. So maybe I'll do a bonus episode 823 00:51:47,560 --> 00:51:51,320 this weekend or maybe it won't happen till Monday. 824 00:51:51,680 --> 00:51:54,840 Happy holidays, happy cleaning, and I'll talk to you sometime 825 00:51:54,840 --> 00:51:55,760 after Thanksgiving.