Stephany Writes

Categories: Life

Monthly Recap | June 2019

READING

I read 12 books in June, bringing me to 65 books read this year. Woop! Right now, I’m on pace to read 130 books this year, so I’m still reading at an insanely fast pace. I’m not even trying hard here! I just really love reading and make lots of time in my schedule for it. (Also, audiobooks are KEY. Being able to knock out a few books a month while commuting is such a blessing.) Here are my top three books from June:

WATCHING

  • Always Be My Maybe – I watched this adorable romcom with a friend one Friday evening, and it was so delightful! I am not a huge fan of Ali Wong’s comedy so I wasn’t sure how I would like a movie written by her, but it was surprisingly sweet and heartfelt. Definitely add this one to your watch list.
  • Murder Mystery – I didn’t have high expectations for this Netflix movie starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, and it… met my mediocre expectations? Haha. I have a soft spot for Adam Sandler and really enjoy his movies, and this one was exactly what I expected. Goofy and ridiculous, but I was actually surprised by the ending so there’s that.
  • Schitt’s Creek, season 2 – I’m almost finished with season 2 of Schitt’s Creek, and you guys, I am so glad I kept watching. It is so funny!! It definitely needed that first season to lay the groundwork and allow you to figure out the characters, and I’m glad I didn’t give up on it.
  • Big Brother – IT’S BACK! I am paying $6 a month for CBS All Access so I can watch this ridiculous reality TV show. My mom and I started watching the show 11 years ago (!) and haven’t missed a season. (Well, aside from Celebrity Big Brother. That one gets a big fat NOPE from me.) The season just started so I don’t have any favorites or villains yet, but they’ll come with time. 🙂

BUYING

  • Cheap e-books ($12) – I subscribe to all of the different daily deal emails for Kindle, but it’s rare for me to actually buy an e-book from these emails. I have placed certain restrictions on myself: (1) the book must be priced $1.99 or cheaper, and (2) it must be a book that I have marked as want-to-read on Goodreads. This keeps me from spending willy-nilly on e-books. Well, apparently, these email lists figured out my system because all of a sudden, they’re sending me daily deals for books I’ve been meaning to read. Like, Hope Never Dies by Andrew Shaffer and No Exit by Taylor Adams and Otherwise Engaged by Lindsey Palmer. So now I have a whole slew of new e-books waiting to be read on Kindle. Oops.
  • EIMIN 3/4-sleeve, v-neck cardigan ($23) – I mentioned this cardigan in my last TGIF post and I can happily report that this cardigan is perfect. It has elbow-length sleeves and fits me great. I wish it were a smidge longer but you can’t have everything, right? 😉 I’m happy with it and looking forward to buying one in every color!

LISTENING TO

  • From the Front Porch – I’ve tried a bunch of bookish podcasts in the past few months but most of them haven’t been right for me. So, I finally downloaded From the Front Porch, which I’ve heard so many good things about and I’m really loving it! It’s hosted by an independent bookstore owner and a member of her staff and discusses all kinds of bookish things. It’s a fun podcast to listen to!
  • This Land – This is the newest Crooked Media podcast and it’s a docuseries about a Supreme Court case involving a 1999 murder that will decide if half the land in Oklahoma is Native American land. It’s so damn interesting and also very enraging to recognize how much atrocity Native Americans have suffered at the hands of white people. Please give it a listen!

THE HIGHS

  • Pool party – I had a blast at a pool party my friend and her husband hosted at their home. I got to catch up with old coworkers, chat with my beloved besties, and snuggle an eight-week-old puppy! I stayed for five hours and didn’t get a sunburn, so it was a win all around.
  • Sunken Gardens – To celebrate our five-year friendiversary, my friend, B., and I visited Sunken Gardens, which is a botanical garden located in the middle of my city. Can you believe I’ve lived in this area my whole life and have never been to Sunken Gardens? Crazy! It was a really fun morning, though. The flowers and trees and plants were gorgeous, of course, but the birds really stole my heart. They were so talkative! It was fun to have conversations with them. 😉
  • Brunch at The Library – I have found my new favorite place in town. The Library is a restaurant in downtown St. Pete that is book-themed. The walls are filled with bookshelves and your receipt comes inside an old book! It’s so cute and the food is fantastic, too. I’d love to see if I could arrange a silent reading event in the space. It’s something I’ve been mulling over!

THE LOWS

  • 17 bug bites – As much as I loved my day at Sunken Gardens, I did not love all the bugs. I came home with 17 mosquito bites on my legs. SEVENTEEN! I could feel them attacking me while I was there and the bites itched like crazy the first two days. My mom even asked what happened to me because it seriously looked like I had chicken pox or a crazy rash on my legs.
  • Being told my sweet Ellie is overweight – My vet had the audacity to call my sweet Ellie Girl overweight. She’s just under 11 lbs. I was definitely not expecting to hear that because she seems to be normal to my eyes and doesn’t seem overly greedy about food. I have been giving the girls less food (one full cup split between two bowls; I was putting 3/4 cup into each bowl, but I also wasn’t filling it daily, only when it got low) and dropping down to treats only a few times a week and not every day. Let’s hope that helps, but I’m also not stressing about it. She’s happy and healthy!
  • Reminders – June is always a tough month for me, but I made it through. My dad’s birthday was surprisingly difficult for me (it’s not always) but I met up with two friends and had a Fireball sangria, which took the edge off. 🙂 Father’s Day was another difficult day but I stayed off social media, buried myself in work, and then met up with a friend for a bowling date, so it passed by uneventfully.

Categories: Life

Crazy Cat Lady At Your Service

Sunday will mark four months since I became a mom of two cats. In those four months, my life has been filled with so much happiness and joy and silliness… and a lot of cat hair. (So much cat hair.)

I knew right after getting Eloise in December that I wanted to give her a sibling because I wanted her to have a playmate, especially for those times when I’m on a trip or away for the weekend. But I was also worried: would Eloise think she wasn’t enough for me? Would she be jealous of this new cat? What if they never got along?!

I didn’t introduce them to each other the “right” way. (It probably didn’t bode well that I was frantically googling “how to bring home a second cat” while at the animal shelter signing papers to adopt Lila.) My apartment is so small, though, that keeping her in a separate room wasn’t really feasible. Instead, I just opened her cat carrier and let them sniff each other immediately. Lila ran to hide under my couch and Eloise mainly left her alone.

The first few weeks were touch and go. They fought constantly and Eloise couldn’t seem to have a single interaction with her without hissing. But Lila was determined that her big sister was going to love her. She would curl herself right next to her sister when she found Ellie sleeping. Eventually, things shifted to a more loving relationship. They still have wrestling matches from time to time but it’s always playful. Once they started to groom one another, I knew they were best of friends. It warms my heart so much.

Eloise and Lila have very distinct personalities, which I find so fascinating. I really didn’t know much about cats and their personalities until I adopted my girls, and it’s been so fun to see how their personalities have developed as they have grown more comfortable with me and their environment.

Eloise is my little extrovert. While she took longer to warm up to me than Lila did originally, she’s the one that will greet new guests more easily than Lila. She always needs to be near me, so I’ll often find her sitting on my kitchen island if I’m working in the kitchen or sitting next to me when I’m on the couch.

She’s a major snuggler. She’ll snuggle right in between my legs at night. She lets me hold her like a baby and snuggle her face next to mine and give her tons of kisses all around her neck. In the mornings, she’ll meow at me as if to say good morning and rub herself on me, flopping down for tummy rubs.

She’s a dainty little eater, especially compared to Lila who goes nuts when I get the treat jar out. When I give the girls treats, I have to put them in separate areas so Lila doesn’t steal Ellie’s treats because Lila eats hers as if she’s never had food while Ellie daintily eats each piece slowly.

Ellie is also a bit more easygoing than Lila. I can trim her nails and brush her hair without too much issues. She doesn’t get into trouble and usually lets Lila steal her toys without issue. (Although I do wish she would be a little more aggressive about that – stand up for yourself, Ellie-Bellie!)

Oh! But before you think Ellie is a perfect angel, she definitely thinks my bar stool is her throne. I have a very small apartment to the point where there’s no place to fit a dining room table. My kitchen island effectively serves as my table – it’s where I work when I’m at home, it’s where I eat, etc. I only have one bar stool right now for the island and Ellie will stare me down when I’m using it. The minute I get up, she races over to the stool to sit on it. I definitely need to train the girls on not using my kitchen island (…since I eat there), but how can I take away her throne?! (I know, I know. We’re working on it!)

She has the most expressive green eyes, the sweetest little meow, and the cutest little stomach pooch that I like to squeeze. 🙂

Oh, my sweet sassy Lila. I consider her to be my introvert because she takes a bit longer to warm up to people and often likes to hide away in a closet or under my bed to take naps. (I finally got her one of those cozy cave-like beds for my closet so she can really hide away!)

She’s a snuggler, but on her terms. She won’t let me pick her up but she will jump up on the couch or my bed and lay on my chest to request pets. And she loooooves pets. My goodness, she’s a little whore for pets, haha. She will paw at me, roll on her belly, and basically do anything to get my attention so she can have her pets. It’s adorable and, of course, I give her all the snuggles and love she needs when she asks for them!

Lila goes nuts for toys, although she often bats most of them underneath my TV stand within minutes of me retrieving them. She also loves bottle caps and if I ever leave one sitting on my kitchen island, she will find it and bat it to the ground within seconds. (Last night, I dropped a bobby pin on the floor and knew Lila would find it, and sure enough, home girl found the bobby pin and spent 10 minutes playing with it like it was the greatest toy in the world.) She’s still learning how to share, though, and often takes any toy Ellie is playing with.

She’s a little troublemaker at times, but it’s never anything crazy. She’s just super curious and wants to figure everything out. The only time I find myself trying to discipline her is when she tears at the scratching pad with her teeth. She’s ruined so many scratching pads!

She’s pretty much a nightmare, though, when it comes to trimming her nails or brushing her hair. I have to trap her in a blanket like a burrito to trim her nails because she’ll bring out her back claws and tear me up. (The last time I trimmed her nails, she whimpered the whole time like I was ripping out every nail and it broke my heart!) Brushing is another annoyance because the minute I bring out my little brush, she runs away. Her hair is rather fluffy (at least when compared to Eloise), so she could use a good brushing a few times a week but a few times a month is all she’ll let me do.

She has the sweetest meow. She only recently started using her voice – she was pretty quiet for her first few months with us – but now it’s out and makes me melt every time I hear it. It’s the cutest little squeak, so I call her Sissy Squeaks a Lot. 🙂

If you can’t tell from the 900+ words I’ve written about my girls, I am completely smitten with them. I think about them constantly when I’m away from them (don’t even get me started on how crazed I was about updates when I was in Ireland!) and always get sooo excited to come home and see them. I get sad whenever I have plans after work because it means an even longer time for me to see them. Obsessed.

While I’ve always identified as a dog person, I’ve never been anti-cat. I’ve always loved cats! I’m an equal opportunity when it comes to animals. But man, having these two angels has put me firmly in the crazy cat person category. I understand it now. I am 100% crazy when it comes to these two ladies. They are everything to me, and I ask them all the time how I got so lucky for them to be mine.

Categories: Life

Monthly Recap | April & May 2019

I wasn’t able to get my April monthly recap up before my trip, so I decided I would combine April and May into one recap. I thought it would make this post a lot longer than it actually is, but it’s a pretty normal size. Yay! Let’s dive in:

READING

I read 21 books between April and May – whew! This puts me at 53 books read for the year, so I’m well on my way to crushing my yearly goal of reading 100 books. Not sure if I’ll beat last year’s record of 134 books, but maybe! Here were my top three favorites:

  • On the Come Up by Angie Thomas, which was such a unique story about a girl trying to become a rapper and the complexities that provides.
  • All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner, which was a story that gripped me from beginning to end. It’s a story about drug addiction from the perspective of a white, middle-class woman, and was incredibly powerful.
  • The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne, which is going on my shelf of all-time favorites. It’s about a gay man named Cyril who was born in Ireland in the 1940s and follows him throughout his life as he comes to terms with the feelings he has for his best friend as well as what it means to be gay in a society that believes homosexuality is a criminal act.

WATCHING

  • Jim Gaffigan, Noble Ape – I watched Jim Gaffigan’s latest comedy special on the plane to Ireland where I had to do a lot of silent laughing with tears streaming down my cheeks. I highly recommend his special, but also recommend watching it in the safety of your own home where you are free to laugh as loudly as you need to.
  • Schitt’s Creek, season 1 – I watched a good majority of season 1 on my plane rides and then finished it up in early May. I thought I would like it more than I do, which is disappointing. However, I heard from a friend that season 1 isn’t great so I’m hopeful I’ll start loving the show more as I go.
  • Mad Men, season 5 – I breezed through the majority of season 5 in May (I have two episodes left!). It’s so, so good. Jon Hamm is everything to me.
  • Nailed It! – I watched seasons 2 and 3 in May, and this show is just such a delight. If you haven’t watched it yet, give it a try!
  • Cheers, season 2 – I’m slowly working my way through season 2 of Cheers and still in love with Sam Malone. Although I have to say that Carla might have my heart most of all. Her sarcastic one-liners are everything!
  • Wine Country – I watched this Netflix movie with some friends on a Friday night, where we drank lots of wine and talked through most of the movie. Ha. The movie is… not great, lol, so watch it with friends + wine if you do give it a try!

BUYING

  • YAMIU 7-piece packing cubes – On the recommendation of many friends, I bought a set of packing cubes for my Ireland trip. At first, I was uncertain if a set of seven cubes could hold everything I wanted for a seven-day international trip but I was proven completely wrong. The packing cubes were perfect and I didn’t even need all seven (I used five of them). Since I lived out of my suitcase during the trip, it was so helpful to know exactly where everything was. I didn’t have to go scrounging around for underwear or a T-shirt. I’m a fan and will be using them for all my trips going forward.
  • Catit bench scratcher – I bought this bench scratcher for Eloise’s birthday in April, knowing she’d love it. She’s always seemed to prefer sleeping on scratchers than cat beds for reasons I can’t understand. She loves this bench scratcher but so does Lila – so much so that Lila will sometimes force Ellie off it so she can sit on it herself. Guess I need to buy a second one!
  • Johanna Basford “World of Flowers” coloring book – I’m rather obsessed with adult coloring books. I finished my last one in mid-April and had to immediately buy a new one. This is from the same artist as my last one, and I’m really enjoying it.

LISTENING TO…

  • Over My Dead Body – True-crime podcast series are everywhere now and I’ve just started keeping a list of the ones I hear about so I can go back to listen to them when I have time. I listened to this series in May and while I found the ending a little confusing, I really liked it! It was about this perfect couple who end up having a pretty volatile divorce that leads to a murder – but you don’t know who was murdered or why.
  • Cold – This investigative podcast follows the disappearance of Susan Powell and the subsequent murder-suicide of her husband and two young sons. It’s fascinating and super well-researched. I’ve never heard of this case, but man, it’s sad and I’m infuriated by Susan’s husband. What a monster.
  • Throughline – I could have sworn that I have talked about this podcast before on my blog, but a search doesn’t bring any results, so apparently not? It’s such a great podcast, though, for news junkies like me. It takes present-day news headlines and discusses how we got here by looking at it through the lens of history. The tagline is, “We go back in time to understand the present.” I haven’t always followed the news as closely as I do now so there is a lot of background info I’m missing, and this podcast does a great job of explaining things like how China became a superpower and how Mitch McConnell has won eight consecutive elections when he’s demonstrably unpopular.

THE HIGHS

  • A friend getting married – It was a joy to watch one of my dearest friends marry the love of her life. She asked me to photograph her low-key wedding, which I was so happy to do for her, and then we all celebrated their marriage the following weekend at her reception. The best!
  • IRELAND – Obviously. The highest high ever! Ireland was amazing and everything I could have wanted. The weather was beautiful, the sights were lovely, and the company was fantastic. I can’t wait to go back!
  • Wine and cheese night – I got together with some coworkers on a Friday night to enjoy lots of wine, cheese and apps, and the movie Wine Country. As expressed above, the movie wasn’t great but the night itself was exactly what I needed.
  • Big moves – Two big moves happened in May: my brother and his wife became homeowners and moved into their new house, and my mom and stepdad moved into an apartment closer to me (with a much easier parking situation, as her old place had very little visitor parking and it was ALWAYS a crapshoot if I’d find a spot!)

THE LOWS

  • Extreme anxiety – I discussed this when I was recapping my Ireland trip but May was a month of lots of anxiety due to being off my meds for two weeks. That period of time reminded me how much I need to be on my meds, and what a stabilizing force they are for me.
  • The news – The news was pretty fucking depressing in May with abortion ban after abortion ban being passed. It’s so upsetting, and I can just hope and pray that nothing comes of these bans. I signed up to volunteer with my local Planned Parenthood because I want to do more than just be angered by the headlines, so I’m hoping I’ll receive some info about that soon!
  • Getting back into the dating scene – After taking a year off the dating apps in 2018, I’m back on them (and off them, and on them… it’s not a great scene out there, friends). I went on a date with someone in April and it was pretty damn lackluster and his message to me after the date was… not great, so it’s a bit discouraging.

Anticipating

  • Attending a Silent Reading Party – I’ve been wanting to attend one of these parties for a few months now, and I have been too intimidated to go on my own. I brought it up to a group of friends so hopefully one or two of them can come along and I can finally make this happen!
  • Going to a friend’s pool party – My dear friend, B., is hosting a fun pool party at her house and I cannot wait to hang out and have a good time.
  • Brunch at The Library – This is our book club meeting spot for June, and I’m looking forward to finally experiencing this restaurant that’s inside our local children’s hospital and built to look like you’re dining inside a beautiful library. Is there a more perfect place to have book club?!

Tell me something good that happened to you in May!

Categories: Life

Monthly Recap | March 2019

READING

I read 9 books in March to bring my total of books read in 2019 to 32. I’m well on my way to read 100 books this year! My top three books from the month were:

  • Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating, for anyone looking for a sweet and fun love story. I adored Josh and Hazel so much!
  • The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes, which had such a unique plot that kept me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. One of those books I’ll be rushing to recommend to everyone I know.
  • Pachinko, which is a sweeping novel following a Korean family living in Japan at the time of World War II. It follows this family from the 1930s to the 1990s. I learned so much about Korean and Japanese culture and realized I know very little about how the war affected this part of the world.

WATCHING

  • Friends, seasons 8 and 9 – I’m nearly done with my rewatch and all I want to do when I finish it is start over from the beginning. I may be in perpetual binge mode with this show. It’s just the best.
  • The Case Against Adnan Syed – I’m really glad I still haven’t canceled my HBO Go subscription, even though I don’t use it nearly enough to justify the $14.99 monthly expense. But it means I got to watch this four-part documentary about Adnan Syed (from Serial season 1). The documentary was a bit anticlimactic in my opinion, mostly because we already know what happened with his appeals, but I did find it interesting to learn what has been going on in the years since the podcast aired and to get more background on the people involved.

BUYING

  • Sterilite stacking drawers – I bought this pack of six drawers ($34) that stack right on top of each other. I have four of the drawers stacked two-by-two underneath my bathroom counter to hold my washclothes, medicine, extra beauty products, etc., and it is perfect. The other two drawers are stacked in my closet.
  • A library card – I spent $100 to buy a library card, which sounds crazy but I promise it’s not. My local library system is great for print books, but its online system is very much lacking in e-book and audiobook selections. The neighboring library system’s Overdrive is so robust and it actually saves me money to spend $100 to use their system rather than buying all the books I want to read. (Not to mention, I’d need to invest in an Audible subscription to listen to audiobooks.)
  • A plane ticket to Boston! – For our yearly trip this year, my girlfriends and I are going to Boston (!!!) and we all purchased our plane tickets this month. We have an adorable Airbnb booked, too, and I am looking forward to a really fun time exploring Boston in the fall.

LISTENING TO

  • Dr. Death – This podcast series was wild, and I’m so glad I finally got around to listening to it. While the first episode hit a little too close to home (considering my Pops died after having spine surgery), it gradually moved into an entirely different realm, one I could not have fathomed for the life of me. Definitely a great podcast that I recommend!
  • Keep It – This month Keep It was killin’ it with its podcast guests. I especially loved the episodes with Mandy Moore and Busy Phillips. I have mad love for both actresses, and it was fun listening to them.
  • Season 5 of Invisibilia – The fifth season of Invisibilia launched in March and every episode has been FASCINATING. I was especially drawn to The Remote Control Brain, which is about a woman who has severe OCD and depression and gets an implant in her brain that helps her control her mood. If you’ve never listened to Invisibilia, season 5 is a great place to begin (and then go back and listen to the archives!)

THE HIGHS

  • Meeting Taylor Jenkins Reid – It was so fun to attend my first book signing and get to meet an author I greatly admire. TJR was everything I expected, and I’m so excited to have my first signed book on my bookshelf.
  • Chip turned 1! – My little fur-brother is officially a whole year old. I bought him some presents to celebrate his very first birthday (a toy and some bones to chew on) and we sang happy birthday to him while he ate a “pup”cake. He’s not spoiled, nope, not one bit!
  • A shopping date with my mom – On the last day of the month, my mom and I went outlet shopping. We left around 9:30 and didn’t get home until after 6, so we really did it big! It was so much fun to spend time with her, and she didn’t even complain when I made her stop at two used bookstores (and she even picked up two books of her own to read!)

THE LOWS

  • Feeling disconnected – I’ve been feeling this weird sense of disconnection, a feeling that I’m not fitting into any specific group. It has me questioning a lot of things, mainly how I want to spend my time and who I want to surround myself with to do that. Growing pains, perhaps.
  • A reading slump – I fell into a reading slump in early March and it was awful. I just didn’t want to read and none of my books interested me at all. I attribute the reading slump to trying to read The Grapes of Wrath, hating it so much, but wanting to finish it. Once I finally put that book down and gave myself a few days to get over it, my reading picked up again. But man, reading slumps suck. I’m glad mine didn’t last too long.
  • Not meeting my no-spend challenge – Oof, it was hard to accept defeat for this goal. But March just wasn’t the best month to not spend money. And hopefully, I’ll learn from the mistakes I made in March.

ANTICIPATING

  • Taking photos at a friend’s wedding – One of my favorite people is getting married this month in a low-key celebration, and she asked if I would come out and take some photos of the wedding. I was so honored! I’m looking forward to capturing their special day in the best way I can.
  • A wedding reception – This same friend will be having a wedding reception the weekend following her wedding, and I am sooo excited! It will be a fun evening filled with dancing and love and laughter.
  • LEAVING FOR IRELAND – Ahhhhh, yes. The best part of April will be leaving for Ireland on the 29th. I am so excited to explore Ireland with my favorite person!
Categories: Life

My Cleaning Routine

Does anyone else ever feel overwhelmed by keeping a clean home? *raises hand*

I can totally understand why people hire a cleaner to come and take care of these pesky tasks, especially because I struggle to maintain a cleaning schedule as a single person with a low-stress job, plenty of free time, and a very small apartment. I don’t know how people with bigger homes and kids and stressful jobs do it!

After a lot of trial and error, I’ve finally settled on a cleaning schedule that makes sense for me. Still, it feels like every weekend I’m looking at another cleaning to-do list and thinking, again? Didn’t I *just* clean my bathroom?

At first, I tried to implement a daily schedule, in which there was a task assigned every day. Mondays were for cleaning the bathroom sink, Tuesdays for the toilet, Wednesdays for vacuuming, and on and on. But I’d always forget about my cleaning task for the day, so they’d begin to pile up and I’d have to do them all on the weekend. So now, that’s what I do. I spend a few hours every weekend cleaning and I usually split these tasks over the course of three days. I should probably power through and get all the cleaning done on Friday evenings (and with that sentence, you can tell how exciting my social life is these days…) but I’m a bit too lazy for that. It’s easier to do it piece by piece.

So, without further ado, here’s my cleaning schedule separated into daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, and quarterly chores:

Daily

  • Tidy up apartment
  • Wash any dirty dishes that are in the sink
  • Wipe down counters (and stove, if it was used)
  • Scoop out litter boxes

This is about all I can handle on a daily basis and I’ll be honest that there are nights when I go to bed with dirty dishes in the sink or the litter boxes unscooped. Actually, that probably happens once or twice a week. But, generally, I love to go to bed with a tidy apartment, a clean sink, and fresh litter boxes for the girls.

Every few days, I’ll brush the girls (Eloise loves it, Lila tolerates it) and then do a quick dry mop around the apartment to pick up cat hair. I tell ya, having cats has added a lot more to my cleaning routine!

Weekly

  • Clean bathroom sink and toilet
  • Dry + quick wet mop
  • Vacuum (including area rug and couch)
  • Change sheets

These are the tasks I get done every week without fail. They are the must-do’s. I use an all-purpose cleaner to wipe down my bathroom sink and then a regular toilet bowl cleaner for the toilet. I do a dry mop and then a “quick mop,” which is different from my regular mopping routine. For the quick mop, I put a wet pad onto my Swiffer Sweeper to mop the floors without moving rugs or anything else on the floors. (Sweeping and mopping are my least favorite but with two shedding cats, it’s now something I’m doing often.) I also vacuum around my bedroom, which is the only carpeting in my apartment, as well as vacuum my large area rug that the girls often sleep on during the day. And I just bought a handheld vacuum for my couch to clean up all the cat hair. Oh, and I change the sheets every week since they also get so much cat hair on them. I rotate between two fitted sheets.

Biweekly

  • Wash bedsheets and pillowcases
  • Wash bath towels, kitchen towels, and washclothes
  • Wash bras
  • Wash clothing

Every other week is a major laundry day, but laundry is probably my favorite cleaning chore. Maybe it helps that I’m only doing it biweekly? Ha. Typically, I don’t worry about laundry until I’ve run out of underwear (or am close to running out) so it usually falls every other week. Bedsheets and pillowcases get washed biweekly without fail, and since my bras need a separate special wash, I do that every other week (if I remember because I think it’s been nearly a month since I last did a bra washing, oops). Anyway, laundry is my favorite because it doesn’t take a ton of effort, I can listen to a podcast, and I just love folding freshly laundered clothes.

Monthly

  • Full sweep and mop
  • Clean tub
  • Wash quilt
  • Wash all rugs
  • Wash out litter boxes

Once a month, I do a full sweep and mop and this honestly takes so much out of me! I remove everything from the floor – rugs, bar stools, cat toys, scratchers, litter boxes, etc. – so I can do a full sweep using a broom and then use my other Swiffer (the Wet Jet version) to get a nice good scrub. Should I be doing this on a weekly basis? Probably, but there’s no way I’m going to do that. I also wipe down my tub, wash my quilt, and wash all my rugs.

Washing out the litter boxes is probably something I should do more often than monthly, but since I use a clumping, flushable litter that I scoop daily, the litter stays pretty clean. Typically, I wait until the litter is getting low and then I’ll dump what is left, wash out the box with soap and water, and fill it with fresh litter. That seems to happen once a month.

Quarterly-Ish

  • Dusting
  • Clean mirrors
  • Wipe down fridge and freezer
  • Wipe down windowsill

These are the tasks I tend to do only when I notice they need to get done – I don’t really have a set schedule. I’ll just add it to my to-do list if I notice my ceiling fan is dusty or my fridge needs a good cleaning. I would say this stuff gets done every few months.

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Anyway, that’s my cleaning routine right now! It feels like all I’m doing on the weekends is cleaning, which is probably just due to how slow I am. Maybe I should time myself and see how fast I can get everything done at once!

What’s your least favorite cleaning task? 

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