Okay...I totally have a confession...I have created a big deception and it involves fake cockroaches!
Here's the deal...I've been living at my brother's place.
An awesome 3 bedroom 2 and a half bathroom house that he bought probably about 4 years ago.
It was the model home so he has a ton of upgrades (like interlocking brick driveway, solid hardwood floors etc).
However, it drives me CRAZY how he takes care of his house becuase he virtually doesn't.
He hires a cleaning lady (which if you have the money go for it) who cleanes the house weekly and does his laundry. To this day my brother is now 26 and has never done laundry.
His friends come over and they all live in either student housing or crappy apartments and they are gross boys who leave things EVERYwhere. It isn't unusual for me to come down on a Saturday morning to find empty beer bottles (like 48 I counted), emtpy food containers like pizza boxes, etc. all over the place.
It is also frustrating to keep picking up after them and sometimes I've tested it and since the cleaning lady comes on Fridays he will leave stuff a mess ALL THE WAY UNTIL FRIDAY (gross gross gross and I've only let that happen once). Let me be clear also that the cleaning lady does not clean my room or do my laundry etc.
So I finally came up with a master plan.
I found a bug outside (like a big potato bug). It took me forever to bring up the courage to catch it and bring it inside by the garbage bin. Then I started shrieking "kill it kill it it's a cockroach".
This freaked my brother out completely and before you knew it he was researching cockroaches.
When he read about infestation gross issues he started clearing out the entire kitchen and cleaning EVERYTHING. He stayed up until after 1am cleaning his place and searching for more cockroaches. In fact he couldn't sleep that night so at 3am he did what one of the websites said and snuck downstairs in the pure darkness and turned on all the lights really fast (and no sign of cockroaches).
From that day on he no longer leaves anything lying around and actually puts all dirty dishes in the dishwasher immediately after he uses them! It has been a wonderful wonderful change. I sincerely hope that this is a permanent change. Fingers crossed!
Then this weekend we started tackling the garage (which was full of garbage like 2 truckloads of garbage including 15 empty cases of beer!!!)
So we cleaned that all out and then power washed the garage and sprayed a bleach solution all over.
Next we tackled the basement (his side first) and was able to have 10 large black plastic bags of garbage and get rid of a few more things like a random metal futon frame, spare foozeball table etc. The unfortunate thing is we basically moved this all to the clean garage instead of keeping it in the house. We have to wait for a truck from my dad's work to come pick up this stuff.
I have to admit my side is not tackled as of yet (that will be my project this weekend). So for a little taste of things to come here are some of my BEFORE pictures. With an AFTER post to come.
The non garbage pile next to the driveway. And notice how nice it is...no sign of snow etc (we got pounded Sunday night...ice, snow, hail yuck!)
The empty garage ready for a powerwash.
Is it me or are most basement staircases very creepy!
Left Side Basement in the Front.
Left side basement in the back...yes that would make two Fooseball tables.
Right Side Basement Front...admittingly some of that stuff is mine.
Right side back of basement.
My saving grace...heavy duty rubber gloves.
I get so creeped out and hate bugs so so much. Even cobwebs gross me out so I took a vacuum and vacuumed every corner and cobweb and any area that seemed to be a place where creepy crawlies could be.
So those are the before...I will post after pics later on. It was a very busy and much needed spring cleaning.
So is it completly horrible that I totally lied about this to my brother if it has resulted in a way way cleaner house. And this totally decreases my anxiety levels.
I hope not.
Oh my word that is SOOO funny. I'd love to be a fly on the wall one day when he's married and his wife is telling him how much she loves how clean he is, and you break the news it was your bugscapade that did the trick. Maybe that's not such a good idea, though, 'cause then he might go back to his old ways. I'm still laughing after reading this.
ReplyDeleteThat is awesome and oh, so clever! I agree that you might want to keep that to yourself for years though. I think it is just brilliant!
ReplyDeleteDon't feel too bad - I agree with the others that it is a good little trick! :) We desperately need to do some spring cleaning in our garage and house and I'm sure you feel so good afterwards. Now to just find (and make) the time and tackle it!!!
ReplyDelete@pinksundrops- I'm so glad you could appreciate the humor of the situation...I think I will keep it to myself a very long time. So far so good or should I say so clean!
ReplyDelete@Liz- I definitely think I will keep it to myself haha.
@AnEarly30- Spring Cleaning really does only feel good after (it is pretty boring and annoying during...opps not to be discouraging). I still will have to finish this weekend because during the week is just too darn busy :)