Ah, the Dreadful Cleaning

Have you ever been too tired of cleaning your house? Oh, isn't that a stupid question – of course you have! It's like that with everybody. The bigger the house, the more space and comfort for you, the more rooms for people, and so on and so forth, but also the more work there is when it comes to cleaning. You really can’t get around it. It has to be done, eventually. But procrastination is the mother of all work! That’s a joke and don’t support it, since it won’t do you well, even though it’s very tempting.

However, cleaning can become fun if you want it, no matter how much it’s tiresome and boring. Well, you can’t just wish for it to happen and expect some supernatural entity to respond, you have to work on it. You have to have a positive attitude about it. Frankly speaking, an attitude towards things is very important. You can make anything become fun if you are positive and optimistic about it. It’s really not that hard actually.

Start off with some music, for example. You can never get bored and tired whilst listening to your favorite band. And while you listen, you can still do things, like cleaning... Yes, cleaning of course – I have been talking about it since the start. Working while listening to music, yes, that can be good. And if you think that that will make you start hating your favorite band, don’t think like that – positive attitude, remember? It’s the key to all this and much, much more.

If music isn't enough, then, well, I don’t know what else can be. Because there isn't much you can do while you’re cleaning, as you know, it tends to employ most of your body. Your ears are kind of the only thing left that isn't doing anything. You can try watching television, but unless you have a TV on every corner, I doubt that you’ll be able to clean and watch it at the same time.

Oh, but look at me, being all negative and pessimistic, even though I told you how important a positive attitude can be. But that part about TV is just me being realistic – no pessimism involved there “unfortunately”. It would be great if you were able to watch your telly and work at the same time. However, since you can’t, you have to think about other things that can amuse you while you work. I gave you one example; I think that’s enough from me.

On the other hand, you can try avoiding cleaning whatsoever! Yes, it’s possible – not entirely, but at least to some degree. And by this I mean that you should look at getting things that don’t become dirty easily, or at least they get dirty but a bit less than regular stuff.

For example, don’t go with black furniture, especially black tables and such. No other color points out the dust and everything else possible as black does. Even if there’s not much dust, it sticks out and it really can’t go unnoticed. It’s a shame really, as this type of furniture is one the best looking ones. I’m sure you would agree. So, in this case, you have to choose: either you have the best furniture and clean it all the time, or you get some different furniture, the one that doesn't get dusty as much, and you don’t clean it a lot. It’s your decision.

When it comes to cleaning the house most of us momentarily think about the bathroom and kitchen, since these are the rooms that need the most cleaning and are the ones that get dirty much more than other parts of the house. Many can’t even do it, like me, so they get their partners, roommates, or even a cleaning lady to do it. This problem will, however, never go away, and it has to be done. So I've started implementing the idea I've been giving you all this time – a positive attitude. And, thankfully, it helped. It still disgusts me a lot, but it’s more manageable than before.

Yet, here as well, you can get a sink, toilet, bathtub, which doesn't get dirty as much as regular kinds. But besides this, there’s another thing more important. The walls, especially the ones in the bathroom, and the tiles on them, can get much more dirty and can even rust, at least the parts in between – you know what I’m talking about – and this cause more problems and more work than the rest of the bathroom altogether.

However, as always, there is a solution for this as well. Maybe it’s not what you would expect, but it does the trick. It did for me. I got those stainless steel tiles which are amazing and have solved the rust problem and the cleaning one as well. But what I actually did was get those pretty mosaic tiles, with colors and stuff. They are much prettier and they get dirty less. If not that, they are to pretty to leave unclean! There’s some motivation for cleaning. Yes, that actually became my solution.

I looked on-line, and there are many different kinds of these mosaic tiles. I got so infatuated with them that I had to get more, for the kitchen as well, and I was looking at other parts of the house to embellish with these magnificent things. What wonderful things I found! Stone tiles, I think these can be put on the outside of the house. Glass tiles and even those made of sea shells – how great is that? All of them are mosaics, so they are as pretty as these things can be.

So, all in all, I think I gave you some interesting ideas for cleaning and how to survive that dreadful “exercise”. I even gave you some ideas on how to beautify your home. What more do you want from me – more jokes? I’ll stop before you get bored completely and will tell you only one more thing. Actually I will repeat that one thing again – positive attitude!

Pragmatism and Something Else

Everything can be practically applied to something/somewhere/somehow. Human ingenuity is limitless when it comes to that. Oh, well, it’s limitless in general, not just in that part. That little fact is simply amazing, no doubt about it. It is not rare for any of us to be surprised by ourselves when we realize how well we can think of thousands of ways to use something. These ideas can sometimes be as dumb as possible, almost to the level of a retarded person, but sometimes they can be at the level of a genius. When you do something so smart, you feel like you are Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla and Leonardo da Vinci all in one... Or that can simply be the ego... Definitely the ego...

But I am not here to talk about the obvious, it is the way it is, no need to debate about it. What’s important are all those ways to apply something. It’s very important because most of us are simple people, living normal lives, doing day to day chores and other things that regular people do. But I am not being very clear, now am I? What I want to talk about are all the ways you could set up and decorate your home, because that really is one of the important things for us regular people. And since human ingenuity is practically limitless and often full of dumb ideas, it can’t hurt to limit it to several good ones. At least I hope they will be good. I may be very smart but I’m not a genius! There goes that ego again, I should tone it down or something... But I’m still a smart person...

So many ways to do this, I may be over my head here, but it’s ok. One thing is certain about this arranging the things in your house and similar. Everything you can put on walls, put it. This is not the part about decorating but the part about pragmatism. It can include decoration of course, when it comes to decorating your wall with art and alike, but the rest is not. When I say the rest, what do I actually mean by “the rest”? I’m referring here to shelves of course. It is best to have as many of those. They can be used for books, for some pretty little statuettes and pictures, for all kinds of things. They can be a bit ugly, the shelves I mean, but that can be taken care of too – a paint job or you simply go out and buy some good-looking shelves – it’s rather simple actually. Those that you use for books, don’t really need to be pretty, the books cover that part, if you have them; if you don’t, get them, and start reading! It’s important to read books, for your vocabulary and for your overall knowledge. But if you really don’t want to do that, I guess you can get them just for show, to have a whole wall covered with shelves filled with books. It will make you seem like a very smart person, I guess.

Another good thing besides shelves, are wardrobes (not as much as they are for women). Not discriminating or anything, but women do have more clothing than man, it’s just the way it is. Thus, women need more room. But besides these, simple cabinets for the kitchen are important also. Don’t forget to have enough of them, because you don’t want to have to keep all your dishes on shelves, do you? That’s just bad taste and lack of ingenuity.

Talking about the kitchen decoration and functionality reminded me, it is partly connected to being practical as much as it has to do with decoration. I’m referring to tiles, and not just any tiles, because regular tiles are nothing special, they are as boring as much as they lack in creativity. These are different kind of tiles, these are mosaic tiles. Yes! It’s like I’m announcing a big winner of some enormous amount of prize money. Well, we have to be a bit theatrical or everything will get boring. Anyway, the tiles, the mosaic ones, all have some interesting patterns, if not, they are in different colors, they come in different materials, etc. The combinations are endless! It’s impossible not to find something that will suit you and the interior of your home.

From your regular types of tiles that everyone has somewhere in the house, bathroom or kitchen, to tiles made of sea shells, you can find anything you need. And that, of course, is best done online. Browse the net to find exactly what you need. There is nothing simpler than that. But I’m still going to tell you about some of them, just to get you started. For example get some tiles of stainless steel. Steel has a modern look to it, and plus it’s stainless so you won’t have to worry about them getting the rust and going all ugly on your house. Plus the mosaic patterns are wonderful, they fulfill that modern look for which you have to be going if you are getting these types. On the other hand, you can get some glass or a mixture of glass and metal tiles for a more regular kind of approach, not really the opposite of modern, but it does the trick. When you get mosaic tiles, you really can’t get any kind of retro and old look. Unless you get some wood tiles for example, or even some made of aluminium or copper, both mosaic, but with very little patterns, and you’ll certainly get that older look if you are aiming for that one.

All in all, you have many types and kinds, with simple or complex patterns, and much more, so in essence, you’ll always find what you are looking for.

I don’t really have anything else to tell you, nothing comes to mind right now, and I have told you enough to get you going. Like I said previously, it is about human ingenuity, human in general, not just mine.

Kitchen Functionality

There is this widely spread misconception that you shouldn't pay that much attention to your kitchen design, and that you should focus more on what to do in your living room or bedroom, because you don’t spend that much time in the kitchen. But, really, is that so? We all have to eat, and most of us prepare our own meals. Now, the occasional sandwich takes about 5 minutes to prepare (10 minutes, but only if you are making the best sandwich ever). But, when you are preparing a complicated meal for your family, or for some guests, you might end up spending hours in the kitchen, and, in reality, these types of situations are not that uncommon. Actually, they are very frequent, come to think about it.

If a kitchen is plain, uninteresting and dull, the meals that you make will not be as good as they can be, because you will be very anxious, and you will want to get out of there as soon as you can, so you will rush through the cooking process, and, chances are that your meal will end up in a trashcan, because not even you can eat it, let alone someone else. Another very important fact is hygiene. “You are what you eat”. You have probably heard this sentence uttered a million times by different people. I think that this means that, if you eat bad and unhealthy food, you will end up with some sort of disease, and your overall health will deteriorate.

Everything mentioned above contributes to the fact that your kitchen should be well designed and well organized. Read the following pieces of advice to get a better insight on the matter.

1      Equipment

Kitchen gadgets are very important for a kitchen’s functionality, and the quality of this equipment is essential. So, when you are purchasing ovens, refrigerators, dishwashers, and so on, make sure to spend a little more cash on advanced technology, because this move will save you money in the long term. Old fashioned kitchen equipment tends to use up a lot of energy and people that have them make a sad looking face every time the electricity bill comes to their doorstep. This will not happen with new age equipment, since it is built to save up energy. Another plus is the fact that these devices will look after your food better, and thus they will keep it healthy for a longer period of time.

2      Backsplash

Everyone knows that cooking can be messy. Oils, food, water, and other materials just splash around the place when you are cooking, and it will always be like this. Apart from your own self, the most important things to protect from these splashes are the surrounding walls. The stains that might appear on wall surfaces can prove to be impossible to clean. That is the main reason a kitchen backsplash is introduced. This is actually a form of tilling (just like in the bathroom), and, in this writer’s opinion, the best thing for you to go for are glass tiles, coloured in numerous colours and aligned to form a mosaic looking construction. Glass is easy to clean and thus perfect for this situation. Apart from protecting the wall from oil and food stains, it protects the wall from humidity (again, just like in the bathroom).

As far as other things are concerned (the colour of walls, the cupboards, the working surface, and the whole organisation process), I cannot advise you on anything, because everyone has a peculiar taste. I can only say that you should make the things that you put in your kitchen work for you and not the other way ‘round. Check out some of those cooking shows, see how these people organised their kitchen, remember that they are professionals who know what they are doing, and try to use their ideas in your own way, to make your perfect kitchen.

To sum up, each room in your home should be designed to suit your needs and your taste. People are aware of this, but there are numerous cases where the living room is contemporary and very tastefully designed, but, when you walk into the kitchen, you can see a colony of ants finding their way round the premises. This is something that should not happen, AT ALL, so make sure to at least dwell on the advice that I have given you in this article. I assure you, it can only do you good.