First date…with the housekeeper

After a long search, we have found THE ONE. We finally have a housekeeper! Her name is Lupe and she is amazeballs.

About three months ago, V and I finally accepted that we were terrible at maintaining even a modicum of tidiness at our apartment. We’re both just too busy and lazy. Since we’re still trying to live frugally, it took us a while to find someone we could afford. But we finally found one and she came this past week for the first time.

First, I had to “clean” the place a bit so she could clean. We had unfolded/unhung laundry in the living room, unwashed clothes spewing out of suitcases on the floor, scraps of wrapping paper, ribbon and other crafting materials strewn about the house. I pretty much threw everything in the bedroom to clear up the spaces I wanted her to work on.

She doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Spanish so I pretty much just pointed out the problem areas, took out my cleaning materials and let her do her thing. I would sneak a peek once in a while and I realized something – her way of cleaning is so much more superior to mine. She was doing things that we would never ever do on a regular basis. I’m going to share the list of things with you even though you might judge us for it. These may be things that everyone else but us does. But it’s okay, we excel in other areas of life. In fact, watching our housekeeper has shown me that it’s worth it to spend money on an expert who will do the job excellently than attempt to do it myself poorly.

Lupe’s amazing list of cleaning feats:

• take food out of the pantry/cabinet and wipe down each shelf. Confession – I saw spilled panko in those shelves a few weeks ago and did not clean it. I’m so gross, I know.
• wash the dish drainer
• wipe down the tops of the cabinet
• wipe down cabinet doors
• clean behind the toaster oven. clean the crumb catcher.
• remove discoloration in the bathtub with ammonia. I don’t even know what form ammonia cleaner comes in. What is ammonia and why is it better than bleach?

But just so you don’t think we’re cave people, I should tell you about some of the cleaning-related things we do on a regular basis:

• do laundry
• disinfect the toilet
• spray down the shower after each use
• disinfect kitchen surfaces

Hmm, that list seems pretty short…maybe we are cave people.

Mini makeover: bathroom

Our bathroom doesn’t have any built-in cabinets (just a medicine cabinet) so when we first moved in, we used one of V’s plastic shelves to hold all our bathroom stuff.

It wasn’t pretty by any means, but it was what we had on hand and we didn’t want to start buying furniture until we really knew what we needed. We had double the bathroom supplies and we wanted to whittle it down to just one set of supplies.

So six months after we moved in, we finally got rid of the plastic shelves and bought some real cabinets.

I Didn’t Give V a Christmas Gift

V gave me lots of awesome gifts for Christmas (My favorite are the super soft snowboard socks. I’m excited about socks!). But I didn’t give him anything, not even a Christmas card.

I had planned to give him an HD TV for Christmas/bday/graduation/wedding anniversary. I wanted his help researching it so I told him about it. Since college, he had always said that he would splurge on a TV when he got first real paycheck. Since his first really paycheck won’t be coming for a few months, he was ecstatic at the prospect of getting a big TV before the Super Bowl. And I was giddy knowing that I had come up with the BEST GIFT IDEA EVER.

But I got gift-blocked.

Our Alien Bed

I don’t like our bed. But we have to stick with it until we move to a bigger place in one or two years.

It’s too small
I had a queen size bed all to myself before moving in with V. But the apartment we ended up getting has a smallish bedroom and there was no way we could fit a queen bed, a dresser and a desk in it. So we’re stuck with a full size bed until we move. I like to spread out when I sleep but in a full, I can’t stretch without running into V’s space. And V won’t budge to make room for my arms and legs even when I try to push him.

We Like Fancy Soap

V and I usually opt for the basic option when it comes to household items. We have basic cable, store brand rugs, Kirkland detergent, etc. But we like “fancy” hand soap. While cheap soap cleans our hands just fine, we kind of like having nice smelling soap. Who doesn’t like to have their hands smell like cherry blossoms?

This week, we took advantage of Bath and Body Works’ holiday sale and stocked up on hand soap. I used a gift card so technically, we only spent 60 cents!

BBW has different promotions throughout the holiday season and they ultimately come out to be the same deal, just different math. Or so we thought. We were bummed to get a $10 off coupon after we bought all our soap though. We could have gotten three more bottles for the same amount of money!

I think we may have enough to last us a whole year.

Decorating Tips

An e-mail string between me and my sisters:

To: Sisters
From: K

any suggestions for what decoration to put above our couches? would it look like a shrine if I put pics of us?

———————–
To: K
CC: Sisters
From: Sis 2

I don’t think it will look shrine-y if it’s the right size and it’s wedding related

———————–
To: Sis 2
CC: Sisters
From: K

one pic or a cluster of pics?

———————–

To: K
CC: Sisters
From: Sis 2

If it’s a cluster with different frames, just use 3 otherwise, it will be shrine-y

———————–

To: K
CC: Sisters
From: Sis 1

cluster

———————–

To: Sisters
From: K

But maybe with my lack of design skills, it will turn out to be a cluster f*

I’m so clever.

———————–

(fragments translated from tagalog, edited for relevance and brevity)

Furniture

Our dining table is finally here!! We bought it two weeks ago and finally had a chance to pick it up from the South Bay. All this time, we had been eating off two TV dinner tables and it’s sooo nice to finally have an actual dining table.

Picking a dining table was a challenge. We don’t have a dining room so we couldn’t get something big. But we like to have people over for fatfests so we couldn’t get something too small either. In the end, we decided to get a table that fits four comfortably and six with a little less elbow room.

I was so excited to finally have a dining table, I decided to make an attempt to set it nicely. I couldn’t find any of my decorative items so I decorated with whatever was on hand. The candle is actually the unity candle from our wedding.

Here’s a closeup of our new flatware. My coworkers gave us this set. I really like it when a knife stand ups its edge instead of its side.

I would have posted a photo of our first meal on the dining table but it wasn’t very pretty. I made mashed potatoes with red and purple potatoes so the color was a little weird. It was yummy though.

Moving In – Kitchen Edition

I think we’re finally done setting up our kitchen! Since food makes our world (and bellies) go round, the first room we set up at our new apartment was the kitchen.

Most of the gifts we received from the wedding were for the kitchen (since that’s what we registered for, haha!) and I had a lot of fun arranging the pretty dinnerware, flatware, bakeware, etc.

Some pics:

the empty kitchen before we moved in

plates and saucers and bowls! plus dessert dishes