Desperate Housewives of ILX

Justine, def see if there's a screw-in attachment on the end of the faucet, and either try tightening it, or unscrewing & rescrewing it in. It may have been jogged loose.

<3 yr house, jaq! glad you are getting an upgrade.

i cleaned the ceiling again last night and this morning the little dots of water were already collecting and looking icky again. sigh.

we had a show where i work this season called "water stains on the wall"

i have been rattling around the house. i have been feeling kind of nutty. it's kind of unnerving.

i am getting a new litter box! recommended me to me by some ILX peeps. supposedly much tidier.

I BLEACHED MY BATHROOM FLOOR LAST NIGHT. It looks divine. Or at least cleaner than I have ever seen it. In fact there are parts of it I've never seen at all before last night.

damnnn girl that's awesome

What litter box, surm? I got two of the Tidycat Breeze, which have been completely awesome and almost stink-free.

that one looks similar to the one i got! "smartcatbox" also has the pull out tray thing

I just texted my roommate an instruction not to drop any black clothes on the bathroom floor for a while. I sponged it all up multiple times with hot water but it still smelled awfully bleachy in there this morning, so I wouldn't bet on it being gone.

my house is such a gd mess. we had someone to stay for a week two weeks ago now and its still not tidy or together again

http://www.smartcatbox.com xxp

Jaq what kind of litter do you use for the tidy breeze? and where do you get it?

nm got my answer.

Oh! I used the smart cat boxes for a few years before switching! Don't let the seeds go down the drain! I had sunflowers sprouting up through the shower drain. If you don't want to buy the safflower seeds, I successfully used extra large sunflower seeds (with the shells on).

The Breeze uses these clay pellets that we change out once or twice a year - I get them from Amazon because with Prime the shipping is free (and the pellets are heavy!). I used them with the smartbox for a few months, but our cats are so heavy they eventually started breaking the grid, so I switched completely over to the Breeze.

xp because I had typed it up anyway :)

yeah i see they're on amazon and i have prime! the thing about the smartcatbox is that the shipping for the litter is exorbitant. i am trying to cancel my order now so i can get the breeze.

once a year?? really? do your cats like the pellets?

I had sunflowers sprouting up through the shower drain.
OMG

L, your bathroom will reek for a few days... i usually spend at least 3 after i bleach trying to recover from the brain damage :(

once a year?? really? do your cats like the pellets?

yep they are fine with them, but then they were happy with the sunflower seeds too (which I also got from Amazon). The cool thing with the pellets - if you have an outdoor area with a water supply, you can hose them off in the box. Just take out the tray that holds the absorbant pad.

btw, one time to be extra frugal, I tried washing the sunflower seeds from the smartbox. In a loft apartment. Then I realized they weren't drying. so I stupidly put them in a low oven. The smell was absolutely horrendous - DON'T DO IT!!!

omg.

soo would you recommend one over the other? seems like the breeze is a little more cost effective? and do you always have to be getting new pads i guess?

sorry for all the questions.

ps if you play a brass instrument, those absorbant pads are fabulous for dumping out the accumulated spit on.

Also! If you go ahead with the smartcatbox, get some of the large puppy piddle pads to go underneath because sometimes the reservoir sloshes a little bit when you remove it - protip.

The smartbox seemed "greener" due to using seeds, but much more maintenance. The reservoir had to be replaced once a year with our two cats using it - got errrmmm crusty. Changing out the seeds and washing out the whole box was a production (had to be done every 2 months or so).

I'm subscribed and saved on Amazon to the pads - each one lasts 5-7 days with the 2 cats/2 box setup. Happier with the Breeze, mostly because there is less hassle.

Laurel, was this a hands-n-knees scrubbing sort of bleaching? Mine needs that so bad, the microfiber mop is just not cutting it anymore.

yeah i am all lazy w the swiffer shit but every once in a while i do a proper hands-n-knees thing (in the kitchen, too) because it just really needs it.
btw y'al, enbb recommended a method floor cleaner that is almond scented and i love it. i first accidentally bought a different almond method cleaner so now i have a wood cleaner AND a floor cleaner. almonds for everyone! it's not overpowering, though!

I use that almond wood floor cleaner - didn't know they had another one! The lemon ginger floor one isn't bad either.

Laurel, what's your bleach:water ratio for the floor scrub?

the other one is a spray in a smaller bottle that i bought w/out reading the label. so now i am using it to clean the coffee table, tv stand, etc.

awesome thx jaq

I need new curtains for the window over the sink. What do we think of 2x of these on a simple cafe rod: http://www.etsy.com/listing/81719054/butcher-diagram-of-a-cow-floursack-towel?ref=pr_faveitems ?

love

This Tidy Cats Breeze looks kind of amazing. The Smart Cat Box always was a little off putting to me because I don't want to carry around or wash out a container of cat pee.

How is the litter tracking with this thing? We have to sweep cat litter nearly every day (or, well, we should sweep every day) and it makes me crazy.

Also, how many cats do you have and how many boxes do you have? We really only have room for one box, but I would be perfectly happy to change the pee pad twice/week. We already clean the litter box twice/day every day.

The clay pellets are bigger than a normal piece of litter and heavier, so I think they don't stick in between paw pads and they are harder to scrape out of the raised edge of the box. A couple do make their way out though, and they are tubular so one of ours sees them as a fun toy and bats them around. Had a similar problem with the round litter crystals except those were more like little glass BBs.

We have 2 cats and 2 boxes now, because we moved to a place with more room and we are lazy about scooping and changing the pad. When we started with the breeze we only had one box - it has a smaller footprint than the Smartbox which was also a plus at the time.

omg so scary with the smartbox woman on the phone this morning.

i was like i'm returning it and she goes "are you switching to the breeze"

she's like "you'll be sorry later"

We took a look at the Breeze at PetCo and decided against it for now. It didn't seem that cost effective, given that a giant jug of litter is like $13 and lasts about a month. I'm still intrigued and may revisit this later.

Sooooo much laundry to fold and put away :(

If anyone likes folding laundry please come over; I will feed you tacos.

i just picked up my dry cleaning; i can't tell you how nice it feels to have my button down shirts back. i had really let them pile up.

guys i found a miracle cleaning product that i have to share with you: X-14 mildew stain remover.

i was freaking out about the impenetrable black stains around the grout/caulk of our bathtub, bc our landlord is super fuckin strict about that stuff. we are kind of lazy cleaners, so it had gotten pretty bad and nothing was shifting it, not even making a dent. i was convinced we were gonna have to pay for the whole thing to be re-caulked. but this stuff is amazing: i sprayed it on twice a day for 2 or 3 days and the caulk is now perfectly white! without scrubbing!

i'm not sure what it says about me that i am posting about cleaning products on a saturday night.

Amazing! Where did you get it?

I might have a bottle of that? Most mildew-killing bathroom cleaners are bleach-based, I think, and those bleach gel pens are also useful for spot-treating stained areas...leave on overnight, even. Very very hard on the grout, though.

I have a spray-bottle of vinegar water in the bathroom that I keep meaning to use on a regular basis so the mildew doesn't form, but once it does, the only way forward is bleach.

xps amazon!

OMG Thanks for this J, I suddenly needed something like this and saw it in Walgreens and got it! It's good but OH GOD THE FUMES
I used it in a shower cubicle and I usually don't even notice ~vapors~ but these were pretty strog.

tilex mold/mildew is pretty kickass for this
but open all yr windows and wear gloves, shit is hardcore

woah X-14

Xps see, I didn't find it v toxic at all - it smelled like diluted bleach, I was convinced it couldn't possibly work if it couldn't even make my eyes water!

I guess I don't mess with much hardcore cleaners so that was about the strongest I'd come across, lol I r a babby

i sort of have a cleaning lady now

Feel like my house is too messy to get a cleaning lady. If it were about 50% tidier I would consider it.

i mainly need for her to do the bathroom and floors every few weeks

otherwise it's all me

i am resisting a larger apt in part because i dont want to have to clean it

although yesterday i scrubbed my kitchen and bathroom till the sparkled well except the tub i have to do that tomorrow

also i made so much food but i fucked up the barley risotto and its not v good