While I am at it...

[katallison]

Really rewarding moments, on a Sunday afternoon:

1) Tweezering masses of confetti out of the thoroughly-jammed paper shredder, bit by bit by bit.

2) Going to dust off the top of the cabinet hanging above the range, which has about a one-foot gap between it and the ceiling, for the first time in *ahem* ten years or so quite a while indeed, and discovering that it is covered in a quarter-inch-thick layer of grease felted with dust, so thick and tarry that a putty knife will be required to scrape it up.

3) Discovering that nobody on the entire planet makes or sells replacement drip pans for the weird-ass range in your apartment, and hence the original drip pans, which you have cavalierly burnt black over the years of slopping your cooking about, cannot be replaced and your landlords will probably be forced to kill you when you move out. (Assuming they haven't killed you already for the disastrous spots where the long-defunct cat puked red-food-dye-infused cat food on the unsealed wood floors.)

4) Spending several hours on Google, trying to figure out how in the hell a person is supposed to clean unsealed wood floors, anyway, since every cleaning product in modern commerce, including those specifically made for cleaning wood, is labeled "Do Not Use on Unsealed Wood!"

Oh, Sunday late afternoon, you saddest of all sad times of the week, why do I make you even bleaker by diving NOW into a full month's worth of deferred cleaning??

Comments

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

*sends sympathy*

Have you thought about a small, accidental fire?

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

If you figure out how to get the greasy dust (dusty grease?) off your cabinet, please let me know. Our stove hood is covered with the stuff. It is not pretty.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

*g* Yeah, the thought has passed my mind, though it'd probably just make my landlords even less happy.

Thanks for the sympathy!

[katallison.livejournal.com]

It seems like scraping off the worst of it with a plastic putty knife that doesn't scratch the surface, and then going at it with a baking soda/water paste, is the best bet. The baking soda really does a better job of cutting through the grease than any of the fancy modern much-more-toxic cleansers, although you're left with a whole secondary clean-up project with the baking-soda splatter; it does tend to get all over everything.

(And I hug you! and apologize for being so out of touch for so long!)

[tazlet.livejournal.com]

Windex, darling, with Ammonnia D-or if you really need your sinuses cleared good ol' fashioned sudsing household ammonnia-though I strongly recommend waiting until you can open the windows.

[akite.livejournal.com]

#2, OMG, you made me wince there. I have this same set up over my range. I shudder to think what might be up there.

[debchan.livejournal.com]

Oh! I have the answer! It's something I picked up at Cub in the cleaning section called Goo Gone. It's made with orange oil and it works really well. I've found it's also good for the million and one stickers my male offspring used to like to put every where (and I'm still finding).

[debchan.livejournal.com]

#3 Try using Easy Off Stove Top Cleaner. If that doesn't work, try spraying on a little oven cleaner and letting it sit for an hour to get the worst off. I'm in the same boat WRT to stove/drip pans and the above worked on mine. Not that they look perfect, mind you, but better.

And for the floors, what about Murphy Wood Soap? It's pretty mild, but does a decent job.

[ratcreature]

Well, I didn't seal the tops of my kitchen counters which are wood, I just used some kind of ecologically responsible oil and wax combination on them, not varnish sealing the wood, and I just clean them with water (not a lot, more like a damp cleaning rag) and at most a bit of dish soap, and try to remember to oil the wood from time to time so that it'll remain resistant to spills. However certain kinds of spills just leave stains, like for example olive oil will partly soak into the wood if it isn't cleaned up quickly, but I don't mind my counters looking used, and I considered this when choosing and treating my counters.

I think unsealed wood used as floor would need regular care from time to time with whatever oil/wax was used initially to keep it resistant to stains, and then you just use a vacuum cleaner and a damp mop. I don't think you can use harsh cleaning agents on unsealed wood, however I have seen special cleaners for oiled wood floors in stores. Mostly I've seen those cleaners in DIY stores and such, like I think the US equivalent would be Home Depot? not in stores that just have regular cleaning products. For oiled wood floors in very bad shape there are special treatments that can be done by professionals, basically I think it's a mild form of sanding or something like that to remove the old layers of oil/wax protection, but that's usually done with a machine and almost as much work as the first oiling, so it's done very rarely, unless the floor sees lots of foot traffic.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I shall have to try that. It means buying a putty knife, but that doesn't seem to be too daunting a task.

I'm totally with you on the baking soda, but so far it hasn't budged the stuff; I guess it needs scraping first.

And don't apologize. I'm so glad to see you posting! ::hugs::

[tazlet.livejournal.com]

Oh, for the unfinished wood, oxalic acid-but again open the windows and wear gloves.

[heresluck]

Yes! Baking soda!

Putty knife first, yeah, but then... paste of about equal parts baking soda and water, smear it on there, and leave it for, I don't know, thirty minutes? maybe longer? and wipe and rinse.

[namastenancy.livejournal.com]

Sends love and sympathy. Have you thought about hiring a cleaning team? They can do all the gunky stuff in a day - stuff that you take you ages (time unspecified in order not to freak you out) to do.

Drip pans - look in the yellow pages for people that specialize in the repair, etc. of old stoves. I got somebody to fix my 1946 Wedgewood including making new drip pans and burner covers. It cost under $200 and was well worth it.

Cat puke - see suggestion above.
In closing....sends more love and sympathy!

[vagabondage.livejournal.com]

I spent a good chunk of yesterday cleaning my stove, too. Must have been something in the air.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Aha! I have used baking soda on it, but evidently I haven't left it lying there long enough. Now I know the secret and no grease shall thwart me! Bwahahahaha...