"Living On Your Own" sample chapter

Living On Your Own The Complete Guide to Setting Up Your Money, Your Space and Your Life

Pierre A. Lehu

Fresno, California

Living On Your Own Copyright Š 2014 by Pierre A. Lehu.

All rights reserved.

Published by Quill Driver Books An imprint of Linden Publishing 2006 South Mary Street, Fresno, California 93721 (559) 233-6633 / (800) 345-4447 QuillDriverBooks.com Quill Driver Books and Colophon are trademarks of Linden Publishing, Inc. ISBN 978-1-61035-212-3 135798642 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data CIP DATA GOES HERE

Contents Introduction

Chapter One - Budget Chapter Two - Banking/Money Chapter Three - Taxes Chapter Four - Utilities Chapter Five - Housekeeping Chapter Six - Doing Dishes Chapter Seven - Laundry Chapter Eight - Home Maintenance Chapter Nine - Plumbing Chapter Ten - Electricity Chapter Eleven - Health Chapter Twelve - You Are What You Cook Chapter Thirteen - Furnishings Chapter Fourteen - Legal Issues Chapter Fifteen - Living Arrangement Chapter Sixteen - Dorm Life Chapter Seventeen - Sex and Relationships Chapter Eighteen - Travel

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Housecleaning You may be among those who, while playing video games, watched out of the corner of your eye as your parents went about cleaning the house and wondered what was the point as it always get dirty and messy again (in no small part because of your activities.) And while you enjoy having clean clothes to wear, if forced to do laundry, you might prefer to wear the same items of clothing again, and maybe even again and again. Or possibly you were forced under penalty of grounding to do your share of the housework and you vowed that once you had a place of your own you’d never do a stitch of housework again.

Keeping your living space clean is a never-ending battle but it’s one worth fighting and understanding why is therefore vital to providing you with the incentive to put in the required effort. Having a clear picture of why you need to devote a certain amount of your precious time removing as much dirt and grime as possible will at least keep the mental struggle under control. So while you probably won’t find yourself feeling chipper while doing clean up, at least you can prevent yourself from feeling so angry that it ruins the rest of your day.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

One major reason to maintain a clean home is to prevent an infestation by bugs because they’re....gross. Supposedly cockroach leavings can cause asthma but that’s not really the reason you don’t want to have them crawling into every nook and cranny of where you live. The real reason is that the thought of these creatures sitting on your face while you’re sleeping is more nightmarish than a real nightmare. And while bugs such as cockroaches, silverfish and ants are disgusting, bed bugs will leave you full of bites. And an important component of keeping the place where you live bug-free is keeping it clean.

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Caution Having a can of bug spray to kill any bugs you see may satisfy your immediate urge to zap a visible invader but if you have a bug infestation it’s all the bugs you don’t see, and which are reproducing at warp speed, that are the main problem. Potentially the only way to handle a real infestation is to call an exterminator. Of course if certain bugs have made a home in the building where you live, then that exterminator might have to come back regularly just so the bugs leave you enough food to eat.

Bugs can enter your home in a number of different ways. First of all, they may already be there when you move in. It would be bad enough to move in and discover that the place has roaches but if it’s bed bugs, that would be a serious problem. Getting rid of bed bugs is very difficult and if the infestation is very bad sometimes the only way is to throw out pretty much everything you own. So before you move in to a new place, ask the neighbors about the bug situation, especially bed bugs.

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If you discover bed bugs before you even move in, then that would be grounds to break your lease in most states. Some exterminators have dogs that can smell them and so having a smell test prior to moving in might be useful. Once you’ve moved in, it becomes harder to prove who is at fault, you or the landlord, unless other tenants reported that the infestation was long-standing.

If there are no bugs in your place or in the building, and if you later get them, the only person to blame could be you. One common way of bringing in bugs is in moving cartons. If you pack your belongings in cartons you got from a supermarket, it’s possible that some bugs will have lain their eggs inside the carton which will later hatch inside your new digs. If you don’t want to buy cartons from a moving company, then get them from a liquor store. Since everything a liquor store sells is well sealed, bugs tend not to hang around such establishments as there’s no ready food supply.

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If you have any doubts about any boxes or other containers that you’re going to be using to move your stuff, spray them with insecticide before you load them up and let them sit over night. That will reduce the odds that you’ll also be moving some little creatures along with your belongings.

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What attracts bugs is not you (except in the case of bed bugs) but your actions that leave behind a source of food. So if you want to live a bug free existence, keep all food stored in sealed containers or the fridge. Roaches can feed off of things that aren’t food to humans and can go without food for long periods of time, but since their first choice is to share what we eat, keeping your groceries unavailable won’t lure them into your abode in the first place.

The other important attractant to roaches are other roaches. Roaches like to flock together and they’ll leave a trail to attract their brothers, sisters and third cousins twice removed. So if you see one roach, that’s the time to bring out the big guns because if you let that little fella get away he’ll be on Roach Twitter tweeting your address in the blink of an eye. If you don’t have neighbors who are tolerant of roaches, by keeping your food stored properly and maintaining a state of cleanliness it is possible to live roach free. Of course if your neighbors are slobs then nothing short of moving will keep the bugs at bay Roaches are the most common pest but if you have an infestation of any type of bug, or worse mice or rats, then the best thing to do is call in a professional exterminator. Once things reach a certain level, your efforts just won’t be enough to eradicate a population that likes to hide inside walls and other places where you can’t get at..

Germs

Of course you also have to worry about the bugs you can’t see, especially those microbes that can cause illness. You’ve probably read about the outbreaks of E coli that have sickened thousands (and actually many more since most cases don’t get reported) while even killing a few people. The human body can tolerate a certain amount of contact with germs, and most are actually beneficial, but if your cleaning standards aren’t up to snuff, then the odds of you coming into contact with some type of bug that can leave you constantly running for the toilet increase.

Caution One of the reasons you don’t want to have bugs like roaches in your place is because they are carriers of germs, some of which might make you sick.

You might think that the bathroom is the most likely spot in the house for any nasty microbes to lounge about but the truth is the kitchen is their prime habitat. You’ll find more on that and what to do about it further on.

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Other Dangers

Asbestos, lead paint and mold are three common dangers that can be in an apartment you rent and make you sick. You’ll probably need an expert to make sure that your new place is free of such dangers but you can at least be the first set of eyes to notice a potential problem. If you see flakes of anything in your new place, then study up on asbestos and see if you can determine whether the stuff could be dangerous. If you think it might be, then call in that expert.

Lead paint is more dangerous to small children, who are more likely to ingest it, though if you do your own scraping of the walls prior to painting, you could breathe in a good quantity of lead. If you have any doubts, wear a mask when working on the walls.

If you see any white or black stains on the walls or under the sink, assume it is mold. Ask the landlord to clean it up before you move in, and if you can, have a clause inserted in the lease that it is mold free. That way if the mold returns, meaning there is more in the building, you can break your lease without penalty.

Guests

While there are some guests you want to keep out, like vermin, there are other guests, like friends, family and especially dates, that you want to attract.

If your castle looks like a hovel, then instead of wanting to hang with you, guests will want to flee. And that’s especially true if you’re playing host to those smaller guests mentioned in the section above who are visibly moving around while your guests are there. So while you may be OK living like a slob, you don’t want to drive away company that you want to have over bearing that grossed out feeling. And if it’s a date that decides conditions aren’t worth a repeat visit, well that would be very frustrating, to put it mildly.

Making a Mountain Out of a Molehill

And the last reason to clean regularly is because if you don’t, the job becomes so big that it can be overwhelming. If you maintain a certain level of cleanliness, and make it part of a routine, then you’ll never be faced with having to spend an entire day doing nothing but housekeeping chores or else feeling guilty about how badly your place looks for weeks at a time.

Cleaning isn’t fun, and parts of it can even be described as hard work, but in today’s times with so much electronic equipment available to help with household chores, keeping your place clean really isn’t anything to get

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overwhelmed by. It only becomes a monster when you let things pile up. So by making cleaning part of your routine, you’ll find that it’s well within your wheelhouse.

TIME saver

You might want to make a weekly cleaning schedule which will force you, to some extent to do the deed. While the odds are that more important uses of your time are going to replace cleaning regularly, at least by making a schedule you’ll know what needs to be done and that alone might help get you motivated.

Getting Help

If your funds are sufficient for you to hire outside help, then you don’t need to bother yourself too much with the subject of cleaning, though bear in mind if a housekeeper finds that you’ve left too big a job week after week, you won’t keep this person in your employ for very long. People who clean houses for a living take pride in what they do and so most have certain standards. So even if you don’t have to thoroughly clean your house before the arrival of a housekeeper, you at least have to neaten up somewhat.

If you use a service instead of an individual, you’ll be paying a premium but you’ll also get someone who is bonded, that is to say if they steal something, the company is liable. (At least make sure that any help you use from an agency is bonded!) But you might not get the same person, or team, every time so that if you’re particular about some things, it may be harder to get your standards met.

Equipment

If you’re reading this book, the probability is that you’re not hiring anyone to do your cleaning and you also probably don’t have the skills of Tom Sawyer to get others to do the job for you, at least not more than once. So cleaning is going to be in your hands and since you don’t want to use only your hands, you’re going to need some equipment. We’ve got separate chapters for some types of cleaning but here we’re going to deal with floors.

Bare floors are easily swept with a broom and a dust pan. If you get a dust pan with a long upright handle, you won’t have to do as much bending as you make your little piles of dirt, dust bunnies and old pennies that you’ve swept up. But many apartment landlords demand that you have carpets so that your neighbors below you can get some shut eye now and then, and you

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can’t sweep carpets with a broom. (Well, you can but it’s hard work and not very effective.)

So if you have carpets, be it wall-to-wall or individual area rugs, you’re going to need something to pick up the dirt. The lowest cost alternative is a mechanical sweeper. It’s got a base and a long handle and as you push and pull it, the brushes inside pick up dirt, lint, etc and dump it inside. When you’re done you empty the sweeper’s bin it into the trash. Sweepers work on wood floors as well as carpets, they don’t use electricity, don’t make much noise while doing their job and are easily stored.

So if these are so great, why do people use vacuum cleaners? The answer is that sweepers do an OK job but not a great job. You can go over and over a spot and sometimes not be able to pick up that piece of lint staring you in the face. With its suction, assuming you have a decent one, a vacuum will pick up anything and everything. And sweepers are limited to the floor, while with a vacuum, and the assorted gizmos you can stick on the end, you can pick up dust on a shelf or in between the seat cushions of a chair, etc.

There is a wide array of electronic machines that use suction to pick up dirt. The least expensive resemble a sweeper and are really only good for the floors. The more money you spend, the more versatile your vacuum will be.

There are two ways of looking at which vacuum you want. One is what will fit your budget, which might mean going the bare bones route. Just be careful that you don’t spend money on one that either doesn’t get the job done or else will break the day the warranty expires. money saver

Whether or not you buy anything on Amazon, make a point to check out the reviews on that site, or others, so that you won’t be wasting your hard-earned money on an item guaranteed not to work, plus the reviews will give you a good idea of the item’s pluses and minuses as well as whether it had the features for which you are seeking.

Another method of choosing a vacuum is to check out your needs. If you’re living in a studio apartment with very few square feet to keep clean, a small vacuum will probably do. But if you don’t expect to live where you are forever, you might want to invest in a more elaborate machine that will last you for a decade or two. Just make sure you have the room to store it.

These days you can also buy a little robot-like vacuum that cleans each room automatically. Some people swear by them, some not so much. They are expensive but you can set a timer and the machine will set to work while

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you’re away. If you have a pet that sheds, especially if you have allergies, this type of machine could be a real blessing because it will vacuum for you every day.

These machines have limitations and in all probability you’d want a vacuum as well so it’s probably not the first machine most people would buy but that’s not to say it wouldn’t work for you. Since the prices and abilities of these machines vary, you’ll have to do some research to pick the one that best suits your requirements.

Dust

The best way to get rid of dust is to prevent it from building up in the first place. Using floor mats, both inside and outside of every door will help.

Shake out the mats now and then and make sure everyone going in and out uses them.

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Having people leave their shoes at the door is another method of keeping dirt out of your house but not everyone will be happy. If you keep a few pairs of slip ons in assorted sizes near the door, those people who don’t want to walk around barefoot will thank you. If you buy the paper kind, then you can throw them away and no one will ever have to share footwear either.

Whenever you open your windows, you’re letting in dust. If you run air conditioners (and you can even use them in winter set to fan when you feel the need for some fresh air) then the filter will screen out much of the dust, provided you change or wash the filter once or twice a year. Of course A/ Cs use electricity and aren’t good for the environment, but for anyone who is allergic, to dust or pollen, this is a good way to keep your suffering to a minimum.

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Dust bunnies occur when the various components of dust, lint, hair, dead skin, spider webs, etc. clump together due to static electricity. If you haven’t cleaned under your bed in a while, there’s a good chance you have a whole herd of dust bunnies under there. Because dust mites and other parasites can move in to your dust bunnies and set up shop, it’s best not to let your herd get too large.

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Caution Dust in electronics, such as computers, can be damaging. You can use a can of pressurized air to blow dust out, though in some cases you might have to take an item apart to get at where the dust has accumulated. Before you decide to take apart any piece of electronic equipment, always unplug it.

And make sure you pay attention to how it came apart so that you can put it back together!

One way to get rid of dust is to use your vacuum. That way you know you’re sucking up the dust and not just moving it around. Of course most vacuum hoses won’t reach every place, like high shelves so a vacuum can’t usually do the whole job unless you have one of the smaller ones that you can easily lift.

Lots of people use old clothes that they tear into rags to dust. Depending on the material you could leave as much lint as you pick up dusting with an old rag, though spraying either water or some commercial spray on the surface will greatly improve the results. Feather dusters have also long been used as dust clings to them, but compared to cloths made out of microfibers, they’re really no match. These really attract dust, without leaving any lint behind, though they may cling to the dust so well that they’re hard to clean afterward. Yet if you don’t clean them, the tiny particles they pick up could damage your furniture the next time you dust. If you use the throw away kind, your dusting costs will of course climb.

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Do you find that you have a lot of single socks hanging around? Once you’ve given up on ever finding a match, a sock makes a great dust cloth as you can stick your hand right in it, wet it down and get into places, like in between the slats of venetian blinds, much more effectively.

F Y I As mentioned, there are products that you spray on furniture that will make it easier for the dust to cling to whatever you are using to wipe it up. Just remember that whenever you use a spray, as opposed to a pump mist, you’re putting chemicals in the air that do damage to the environment.

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Caution If your place is really dusty, while dusting put on a mask you get from either a hardware store or drugstore to keep the dust out of your nose and lungs.

This is particularly important if you’re a highly allergic person or have asthma.

The act of dusting usually creates dust, meaning that as you’re dusting you stir up the dust, fail to collect it all and so it moves elsewhere. That’s why it’s best to start dusting high places first, so the dust will fall down and you’ve got a second chance at it. And vacuum the room last, so that the machine can get any of the dust that’s fallen all the way to the floor.

If you have any dust collectors, like throw pillows or slipcovers (or even an old sheet you use to cover up how bad your arm chair is stained) you can throw these in the dryer on delicate for 15 minutes or so and the dust will be shaken loose and taken away by the dryer. Just don’t forget to clean the lint filter after you’re finished.

Wiping and Mopping

Some hard surfaces need special attention because of those invisible creatures mentioned earlier, germs. It’s not enough to wipe the dust and dirt off with something wet. You need to use a cleaning product that will sanitize as well as clean. Of course this battle against germs is a losing proposition as you can never kill all of them and they come back very quickly. So while you want to keep any microbe that might make you sick from multiplying to a dangerous level you also don’t want to drive yourself crazy by having to constantly disinfect every surface you’re likely to touch.

If you visit your local grocery you’ll discover a wide range of cleaning products. To some degree they all function pretty well so in the end what you pick may not matter. But knowing something about how these products function may help you make your decision.

money saver

Do cheaper or generic products work just as well as the brand name ones?

The answer is, it depends. If you only use the cheaper brands, it’s hard to make a comparison. If you start out buying a name brand cleaner and see the results, and then find that you can’t duplicate those results with a cheaper brand, then it’s up to you to decide. Of course the difference between any two products will differ. It may take some experimenting to find the products you like best, in terms of price and quality, which is why when you’re just starting out, buy smaller sizes so that you don’t get stuck using a product you don’t like for months.

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So what does a cleaning product need to contain to make it better than using plain water? The first type of ingredient is a surfactant, which emulsifies grease and helps to lift the dirt off the surface you’re cleaning. A solvent is a water soluble organic compound that dissolves soil. Chelants are materials that bind with metal ions that are found in soap scum.

Caution How dangerous is the product you’re using? If you really want to know, the government will tell you. Go to http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/cgibin/household/brands?tbl=brands&id=18001012 and you can look up most products and see how they rate with respect to various health factors. You can also find out what to do if you accidentally get injured using one of these products.

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If you really want to play it safe, don’t use any product that has a warning on its label. There are plenty of “green” cleaning products out there that can’t harm you, though exactly how harmful non-green products are in the long run, assuming you don’t do anything stupid like drink them, is not exactly clear.

Caution One surfactant, Alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs), has been banned in Europe because it is an endocrine disruptor. If you want to be as cautious as the European authorities, then avoid products that contain this ingredient.

money saver

Put some bleach in a spray bottle with plenty of water (dilute to 10%) and you have yourself a great cleaner for kitchen counters, tile floors, etc., which doesn’t cost very much at all. Always spray a small area first that’s not so visible to make sure that whatever you’re cleaning won’t lose it’s color by your bleach solution because it’s too strong.

F Y I The smell left by bleach is very potent and so it’s better to leave an open window when using bleach. But while it’s not a pleasant smell, it gives the message that the room has been cleaned so not a bad aroma to leave behind if your parents are coming over.

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Mopping

In the Navy they call it swabbing the deck but in your residence it’s plain old mopping the floors, except these days many people substitute something else for the old style mop. Sponge mops take up less room but the sponge won’t last as long so make sure if you go that route that you can easily find replacement sponges otherwise you’ll find yourself with a series of empty sticks as you have to buy the entire contraption.

The newest “mop” has a flat plastic head to which you attach a special cloth. The stick may have a built-in dispenser to add a cleansing solution.

These work fine, whether you use the name brand like Swiffer or a generic, but keep in mind that you’ll be buying rather expensive refills on a regular basis.

Such products are like computer ink jet printers, where the manufacturer sells you the printer at a cheap price and then makes money selling you ink.

Caution It pretty much doesn’t matter how often you clean your kitchen floor, if food drops on it, throw it out. Those old rules about how many seconds it has to stay on the floor to pick up germs aren’t true unless the food has a lot of salt or sugar, both of which retard germ growth. Scientists have found dangerous germs growing on dropped food after only three seconds so unless your reflexes are so good that you can catch the food before it lands, don’t consume dropped food.

Most kitchen floors are made of tile, either vinyl or ceramic, or linoleum, and these surfaces clean pretty easily. If you have a wood floor, you don’t want to use too much water as that can damage wood. You’ll also want to add a sealant, either wax or some other product, to protect it.

Places Often Overlooked

Some places that need to be cleaned are obvious but there are some others that you need to add to your list when planning your cleaning routine. For example, the bottom shelf of a refrigerator needs regular and thorough cleaning. The reason is that the moisture and condensation tends to gather down there and so that’s where bacteria multiplies.

But the dirtiest place in your house (yes, even more dirty than your toilet bowl in most cases, unless you never clean it) is the kitchen sink. You might even wash it and it may look clean, but germs live in the drain pipe where you can’t get at them, fed by all the various edible ingredients that go down inside it. There’s not much that you can do about the state of your drain, other than

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to keep pouring bleach and that would be a waste of money and bad for the environment. But as long as you’re aware of this hazard and keep the sponge you use on your dishes from laying at the bottom of the sink where germs can jump on it, and always clean all dishes, pots and silverware with hot water and soap, all should be OK. Cleaning your oven is important for a few reasons, one of which is if there is too much grease build up along the walls, you could start a fire next time you use the oven. Some ovens are self-cleaning, meaning there is a dial that you turn, the oven locks and starts heating up until it gets so hot that it literally burns the grease off so that the residue is easily cleaned. If you don’t have a self-cleaning oven, there are products sold to do the job. Read the instructions carefully because these give off noxious chemicals and you want to limit your contact with them.

You clean your flatware but then put it in a drawer that might be anything but clean. Yes you only put clean items in there but if you take a careful look you’ll quickly see that it probably needs cleaning. If you use utensil trays that can come out and be washed, that will simplify this chore immensely.

Lampshades end up being dust collectors, partially because they’re out in the open and also because the heat from the light bulbs seems to attract dust.

You can vacuum them or use a lint brush.

TV screens attract dust, because of the static electricity they give off, and fingerprints. Modern TVs, LCDs and Plasmas, are easily damaged. If you’ve saved the instructions, read them before cleaning. If you haven’t, make sure never use a household cleaning product, or use paper towels. Dry dusting them with a microfiber cloth is safe. If that doesn’t work and you feel the need to spray on some product, consult your manufacturer so as not to damage your TV. The same is true of computer and laptop screens.

The Bathroom

Bathrooms are associated with water, not to mention steam from a shower or bath, so because of the high humidity it’s one room in the house where germs and mold congregate. There are also lots of crevices, like the grout between tiles, where they can hide out. So while bathrooms are usually small, they present special problems and demand that you be thorough. On the other hand, bathroom are made to be water-resistant, at least to some extent, so you can go to town cleaning a bathroom without worrying too much that all the water you use will damage anything.

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If you make it a rule to clean the shower walls after every use, either with soap and water or a special product made for this purpose, they’ll stay cleaner and won’t present you with a horrible chore on cleaning day. At the very least try to rinse down any walls that have soap or shampoo on them.

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If you have a stall shower, which tends to stay more humid, towel dry the walls to keep mold at bay. If you leave the stall door open so that air circulates, that will also help.

In a bathroom it’s wise to use a cleaning product with disinfectant properties. For the floors either use a mop or go down on your hands and knees with a sponge. Even if you vacuum to pick up hairs and other dirt, you still want to wipe the floors with something wet that will disinfect. Use a sponge or rag to clean around the sink.

If you see mold (black stuff) growing in the grout around tiles, use a cleaner that says it gets rid of mold. You may need to use an old tooth brush to scrub the mold away after allowing the cleaner to work. (Read the label to see how long it may need to sit before you start scrubbing.) These products are not good to breathe so make sure that you leave a window open and if you’re very sensitive, wear a mask. A quarter solution of bleach and water will also work and probably cost a lot less.

Bathtubs can be tricky depending on what they’re made of. If they’re made of porcelain enamel then you can use the same product that you use on the floor. But tubs made out of fiberglass or stainless steel require special treatment and you need to consult with the instructions that came with it. money saver

If when moving into a new place you see that the tub isn’t porcelain, check with the landlord or current tenant on the best way to clean it. Keep in mind that if you damage the tub by using scouring powder, you may be responsible and asked to pay damages when you move out. If you’re not sure whether or not whatever cleaner you’re using might do damage, test some on a small, out of sight area and wait and see what happens.

If you have a rubber mat at the bottom of your tub to keep you from slipping and if you don’t remove it after every use, it’s a good place for mildew to grow. If that happens, soak it in a solution of one part bleach, three parts water.

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Drip Stains

Do you have a blue green stain around the drain of an enamel tub? That’s a sign of a constant drip. The first thing you should do is have the drip repaired or else the stain will keep coming back. Once that’s done, apply a paste of borax and lemon juice, let it sit a while and then scrub it away. There are also products made for such purposes like Lime Away and CLR. Just be careful as these products are powerful and can damage both the wrong surfaces and you!

Caution If you ever get the crazy idea that mixing two cleaning products will produce better results, just make sure that you read the ingredients and don’t mix one containing bleach with another containing ammonia or you’ll get your clock cleaned.

Hair

Because people comb, brush and wash their hair in the bathroom, loose hair can be a problem. Those that fall on floor can be vacuumed or swept up, but those that go down the drain may gather and cause clogs. (See Chapter Ten on plumbing to understand why this occurs.) A wire hangar that you unbend can sometimes be used to snake down into the drain to loosen the clog. You can also buy a “snake” a special long wire that can go deep down into a drain to push through whatever is clogging it and then easily be pulled back out. Or else you need to buy a chemical drain cleaner like Draino or Liquid Plumb’r. You pour some down the drain, wait for the period described in the instructions and then pour hot water down the drain. If one treatment doesn’t do the job, try again.

F Y I To keep hair from going down the drain and causing clogs, put a shower hair strainer over the drain which will catch most of the hair, especially longer hair which do the most damage. Then all you have to do is clean the strainer after every shower.

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TIME saver

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There’s a special gizmo, called Zip It, that can really help cleaning drains, particularly the shower drain. It’s a long plastic strip with reverse teeth that you push down into the drain and as you pull it back up, it brings with it the clumps of hair that were down there. It’s relatively cheap at Home Depot or some other hardware store.

Caution If you’ve used drain cleaner, it doesn’t work and you call the plumber, make sure to let him or her know what you’ve placed down the drain. These chemicals are potentially dangerous, especially to someone who might be lying down under a sink when they spill out.

Of course these drain cleaning products won’t work if the problem isn’t a clump of hair or old makeup, which dissolve under the chemical attack. You may have dropped a hard object into the drain, in which case you’ll have to do some excavating. See Chapter Ten for what to do, or call a plumber.

The Porcelain God

Cleaning a toilet bowl may not be a pleasant job but it’s definitely less gross if you have the proper equipment. Start off buying a toilet bowl brush, which comes in its own little container that allows you to have it stand next to the bowl at all times. You’ll feel much better knowing that this particular implement does only the job it’s intended for. There are products made especially for toilet bowl cleaning, however pretty much any cleanser thrown in the water will work, unless you have very hard water that leaves stains that have nothing to do with what you put in there and are very hard to remove.

Allow the cleanser to soak in the bowl a bit before scrubbing with the brush to loosen any stains and then flushing.

Caution If you want to keep the germs in your toilet bowl from spreading far and wide in the rest of the bathroom, before you flush, lower the toilet lid. Each time you flush, droplets of water that are carrying germs get thrown into the air and wind up all over your bathroom. But if you close the lid, that won’t happen. Your toothbrush will thank you.

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money saver

They sell products that you hang in the toilet tank and make the water blue.

Such products probably have some cleaning properties but in the end, you’re still going to have to scrub the bowl at least once a week.

Once your cleaning product has had a chance to get fully activated, use the brush to clean the inside of the bowl, including under the rim. Rinse the brush as you flush and put it back in its container. You can use paper towels, or perhaps a sponge dedicated to the toilet, to clean all the other surfaces.

If you have tough mineral deposits that won’t scrub away with a brush, turn off the water to the toilet, flush so that the toilet bowl empties, apply a product that dissolves these minerals and then attack the mineral deposits with something stronger, like a pumice stone or sandpaper. Just be careful that you don’t scratch the enamel of the bowl.

Mirror

To clean the mirror it’s better to use a glass cleaner that won’t streak. Never use soap and water as that will definitely cause streaks. A product like Z’Fogless Spray can keep your bathroom mirror from fogging up after you take a hot shower.

Window Washing

If you have new windows, those that fold in, it is a lot easier of a chore than if your window only go up and down. But washing windows is never an easy job, in part because if you don’t do a perfect job, the streaks you leave behind can ruin your efforts.

F Y I Window washing tip: If you wipe the inside with a horizontal motion and the outside with a vertical motion (or vice versa) if you leave any streaks, you’ll have an easier time figuring out which side of the glass they’re on.

It’s best to use a product made for washing windows because those will leave the fewest streaks. And a microfiber cloth will also help to insure that you get the best results. Some people are advocates of using old newspapers but it turns out that newspapers don’t use the some process to apply ink that they once did so that modern newspapers are ill suited to window washing.

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One way to make this chore a little less onerous is to do only one room at a time. That way it is a manageable job.

Bed Making

What’s the point of making a bed when you’re only going to unmake it when you go back to bed? That’s a common philosophy among young people but in most cases when they’re living with their parents they have room to spread out so their bed can stay messy and not really affect them. But when you’re living on your own the likelihood will be that space will be at a premium and having a large chunk of your limited space be an uncomfortable and unsightly lump of bedding all the time will start to get under the skin of even the messiest of individuals.

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Psychologists have found that making your bed can actually make you happier. Making your surroundings neat reduces confusion and helps you to get a jump start on the day.

But while there’s no rule that says you have to make your bed every day, at some point your sheets are going to get soiled, or you’ll want someone to share your bed with you and you don’t want to appear to be a slob, and so you’re going to have to “make” your bed with fresh sheets.

When it comes to putting on clean sheets you have two options. The first is to clean and dry the ones you have on the bed and put them back.

The second is to have a spare set (or two) and put one of those on the bed, which gives you a greater window of time when it comes to cleaning the first set. Having a second set of sheets may be important both for those times when someone who will be sharing your bed is coming over that perhaps you didn’t expect or you soil your sheets and it’s 2 AM and doing laundry is out of the question.

Buying Bedding

Perhaps you already have one set of bedding and need another or maybe you’re just starting out and don’t have any. Here are the basics.

The first thing you need to know is the size of your bed. The standard sizes are single, full (also known as double), queen and king.

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On thin mattresses, such as those found on sofa beds, the “right” size sheets might not fit exactly but will probably do. If it really annoys you to have sheets that are too large you can look around and find sheets made for narrower mattresses.

Many college dorms have extra long single beds, meaning you have to purchase special sheets that won’t ever fit on any other bed. If you plan on bringing sheets that you purchased ahead of time, make sure that you know the size of your dorm bed or the sheets you bring might not fit.

Before you even consider sheets, you may want to look into buying a mattress cover. Mattress covers are thicker than sheets and are there to protect your mattress from getting stained by anything that would soak through the bottom sheet if that’s all that’s covering your mattress. Since sheets are subject to being potentially stained by a variety of bodily fluids, not to mention spilled drinks, etc., it’s not a bad concept to protect a mattress with an absorbent covering that can be washed if it gets badly stained, particularly if it’s a new mattress.

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If a mattress cover has stains that won’t come out you don’t have to sweat it as it will always be covered by a sheet.

Sheets come in two basic varieties and unless you want to give yourself extra work or like the idea of making your bed using so-called hospital corners that make the finished product so tight that a quarter will bounce off of it the way soldiers are forced to, you should get one of each. Bottom sheets that have elastic around the edges, particularly at the corners, are much easier to get on and won’t slide off as easily either. They’re called fitted sheets because they fit tightly around the mattress, and they stay in place rather than bunch up underneath you, which can be very uncomfortable. Top sheets are bigger as they go over whomever is sleeping and then get tucked in at the foot and at the sides. But again, if you want to make more work for yourself, you can use a top sheet as your bottom sheet.

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Sheets come in a variety of fabric. The more polyester in your sheet, the less wrinkled they’ll be when they come out of the wash. If you’re fussy about appearances, pure cotton sheets might have to be ironed after washing.

Flannel sheets don’t feel cold to the touch in winter while silk sheets feel, well silky, which to some people has an added erotic quality.

So putting on the bottom sheet, if it’s fitted, is simply a matter of pulling on all four corners, the last of which will be the most difficult. In fact, if you haven’t done a decent job centering the first three corners, you might not be able to get the fourth corner on at all. How easy this process will be will depend a bit on the thickness of your mattress. The thicker the mattress the harder it will be to put on, but in no case should it be very hard assuming you start off correctly.

Caution While you might be tempted to make your bed with bare feet, the odds of your kicking one of the bed’s feet during the process, and experiencing a fair amount of pain, are pretty high so don’t say you weren’t warned.

When you have the bottom sheet in place, smooth it out as best you can as you’ll be sleeping on it and even if you don’t have the sensitivity of the fairy tale princess with regards to that damned pea, you still might find sleeping a little easier on a smooth bottom sheet.

Next comes the top sheet. Most top sheets have a large hem at the top of the sheet, not that it really matter which end goes on top except for appearance sake. Spread the top sheet over the bed. If it’s blanket weather, lay the blanket on top of the sheet. The top sheet will be longer than the blanket, so you fold the top over the blanket just below where your pillow sits. You then lift the bottom and end corners of the mattress and fold the ends of both the top sheet and blanket under the mattress, and then do the same for the sides. How careful you are with this process will add taughtness and if you really have the urge to bounce quarters off your bed, then you have to learn how to make the so-called hospital corner. You can look up the instructions on line because it’s likely fewer than .1% of you will go to the trouble and so it’s not worth the page space describing the process.

Pillows get placed over the sheet and blanket. If there’s a coverlet of some sort, that can get pulled over the pillows, or not.

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Caution Don’t forget that pillows get pillowcases. If the cover on your pillow has a zipper, put the zipper end in first so it won’t be exposed and risk cutting your face.

Decorative Touches

Your sheets and pillow cases are all supposed to match. If you want to get fancy you can throw some sort of coverlet over the whole shebang that should be of a matching color. And you could also add a matching bed skirt, cloth that gets placed around the edge of the bed to cover the box spring. Some people put a sheet over the box spring but since it doesn’t get dirty from sleeping on it, and that third sheet would have to match the other sheets, unless all your sheets were pure white, this would add a lot of extra work to bed making. A bed skirt solves this issue, adding a decorative touch that needn’t be changed unless you wanted a new look.

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How often you need to change your sheets depends on several factors, most having to do with personal choice. Clearly if you get all sweaty in bed during the summer you’d want to change the sheets more often than in winter, especially if you’re covered head to toe in flannel when you sleep. Once a week is probably average though if you wait another week or two the only person who’ll notice is you. After that your sheets may start to give off various signs that scream “Wash me.”

While there few downsides to being a bit sloppy when making a regular bed, assuming you don’t have any guests coming over, if you’re sleeping on a fold out sofa bed, then you have to be careful to tuck all the sheets and blankets carefully out of the way or the bed will grab them and rip them when you open and close it.

Garbage

Garbage was never a fun job but at least it wasn’t complicated. Today, because of recycling, taking out the garbage is more of a science than a simple chore.

Since each locality has a different set of rules, you need to check in with the

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local department of sanitation to find out what you need to know to get rid of your trash legally.

Depending on where you live you also might need to know when to throw out the garbage. In large apartment houses that usually isn’t a problem as there is staff that handles the actual putting the garbage out on the curb.

But if that is your responsibility, then you have to know when the garbage is picked up, and different types of garbage might get picked up on different days.

Caution If you have some rotten food, you may not want to throw it out right away if it means that it will be sitting in the garbage can for days stinking up the kitchen. If you keep it tightly sealed in the fridge, at least you’ll keep the smell contained. The time to put this type of trash in the can is when you’re actually taking the garbage out of the house.

Truth is the world is drowning in garbage so anything you can do to lessen the garbage you make is appreciated. Start with getting some permanent bags to carry groceries and other stuff you buy so that you can turn down the plastic bags stores offer. Buying fresh produce is not only healthier but reduces the need for packaging that goes into the garbage. And going paperless in terms of statements you get from utilities, banks, etc., will cut down on your contribution to your local sanitation engineer.