Here's some inspiration for painting: http://www.bloglovin.com/viewer?blog=3914813&post=1065873317 The after is still a tiny, tiny kitchen, but I'd much rather work in it than in the original!

First, we need a picture. It does sound pretty hideous, but you also say you have lots of doors and drawers, so perhaps painting it would be worth it? If painting it and addressing the countertop wouldn't leave you with a semi-functional space, then it's not worth doing. If spending a week painting and fixing up the counters would leave you with a space you could stand for the next couple of years, then I'd think it's worth it. Personally, given your description of it, unless it's scheduled to be remodeled in the next month or two, I'd start painting. It might also be worth playing around with what you'd do if you could remodel it. For example, if you'd basically keep the same layout, or if the ovens would be in the same place or the same size, then it might be worth ordering a new one (or checking out the ReStore for a used one). Spending an hour baking pizza sounds miserable! If you have a ReStore around, you can get some amazing deals on appliances. It's pretty shocking what some people will rip out. I had a friend who worked in one, and she said they'd regularly get in new-ish, great-condition appliances. If you're up for posting a picture, I'm sure I'm not the only Hive member who'd love to give some suggestions for how to make it livable!

I always leave at least one light on. I noticed a few years ago that when I go for walks, it's obvious that some homes are definitely unoccupied during the day. It's less obvious on a bright, sunny, summer day when it stays light later, but in the winter or on a gloomy day, a house with no lights on looks unoccupied and seems like an obvious target for a break-in. I kind of imagine that given a block of homes where 2/3 have no lights at all on, they'd choose one of those to break into, instead of one of the few with lights on! I also run the dishwasher and the washer while gone.

I'm not Lynn, but I can tell you mine, which is about 5 minutes, if that! First I cleaned the bathroom the normal way. The next day, I took time to look critically at it and see what already made it look not as clean. That helped me decide what I needed to do daily. It may vary for you, but for me, I needed to vacuum the floor and dust the surfaces because we have a carpet that sheds like crazy. My daily routine: 1. Vacuum the floor QUICKLY. I'm not aiming for perfection. I focus on the areas that accumulate hair and dust, but I try to more-or-less cover most of the floor. I use a dustbuster that I keep under the sink. (30 seconds) 2. Swish the toilet with a tiny squirt of body wash or shampoo. We always seem to have ones no one likes, and I use them for cleaning. DON'T FLUSH. (15 seconds) 3. Spray toilet rim and seat with cleaner. I keep it under the sink for this purpose. Wipe it off with toilet paper. Drop toilet paper in toilet and flush. (30 seconds) 4. Put a small drop of body wash in the sink. Wet a sponge, and use the body wash to quickly scrub the sink. If you really do it every day, it takes no time at all. (30 seconds--at most!) 5. Use a rag and your spray cleanser to wipe off the counters. Use the damp rag to polish the faucet and handles. Glance around for any other places that need wiping (for example, in one bathroom, I always have to wipe under the hand towel because it gets spotty really fast). (60 seconds, half of which is putting away stuff that shouldn't be on the counter) 6. Use your body wash-covered sponge, to give the tub and shower walls a quick scrub. Rinse. (I keep a cup under the sink for this purpose in one bathroom; the other has a hand shower, which makes it even easier.) (90 seconds) 7. Use the damp rag from step 5 to wipe the edge of the tub and polish its faucet and handles. (30 seconds) 8. DONE! In the bathroom I use in the morning, I skip step 6 and just do it a few times a week while I'm in the shower.

I keep a scrubby sponge (one with a sponge side and a scrubby side) in the shower. Every few days, I squirt a little of a disliked shampoo or body wash (I keep a small bottle of it in there for this purpose) on the sponge and give the walls and floor a quick scrub. I also had a hand shower installed, which makes rinsing the shower much easier. Before the hand shower went in, I kept a plastic cup in there with the sponge and icky shampoo. I find that cleaning the shower this way makes it much, much easier for me. I don't have to climb in fully dressed and try not to get wet, and by doing it a few times a week, it never gets very dirty, and the cleaning goes much faster. Get a good vacuum. We finally got a canister vacuum for the main floor, and it is so much easier than our upright that I can't believe it. The end of the canister vac slides easily under furniture to get lurking dust monsters, and I can just plop that same end on the upholstered furniture and give it a quick once-over to remove pet fur. That's a lot easier than having to pull the hose out of the upright and find the right attachment to do that. I also find that I do the stairs way more often because I'm not trying to lug the heavy upright up the stairs and trying to keep it balanced so it won't fall on top of me! Try to notice one neglected thing every day and take it on. It might be a drawer that needs to be cleaned out or an area that needs cleaning. I usually take a wastebasket and a bag for donations over to where I'm going to work. Most of these projects take me 10 or 20 minutes, but they make a huge difference in my outlook on life and my house. Keep a "donate" bag or box going at all times. I find it handy to keep it near the laundry, so I can throw outgrown clothing in it right as I pull it out of the dryer. Some people drop those bags off as soon as they get full; I prefer to gather up 5 or 6 and then call for a donation pick-up. Having a pick-up time scheduled inspires me to do even more decluttering, and that always makes me feel better and the house look better!

I think you may have figured out what was happening. I'd never seen that before this morning. Weird! I'm glad it's not permanent!

Something has changed, and it's not for the better from my perspective! I used to be able to click on the notifications icon in the top right, and a small window would open in that corner with all my notifications visible. Now it seems to direct me to a new page, which is annoying, and I had to click "mark all as read" or something to get it to stop showing a red number over the notifications icon. Is anyone else finding this really annoying?

I don't think I've ever met someone who's homeschooling for religious reasons. I know a couple of homeschoolers who happen to be religious, but that's not their motivation for homeschooling. There are lots of unschoolers here, but I do know several families who are academically inclined. I even know a few families who are both unschoolers and academically inclined!

This. I work to remember that we all have our own struggles, and most of the time slights and annoyances are not personal. That person who wants all your paperwork now but won't respond for weeks after she gets it? Maybe she knows that the sooner she gets it, the sooner it will make its way through all of the bureaucracy there. The person who gives hours and then asks you to call first may be trying to save you a trip because she could be busy at times or called out of the office. Yes, there are all sorts of incompetent people who can't give a reasonable answer to a question. Sometimes they may be like that out of laziness; sometimes it may be that they aren't aware of what they don't know. People have a lot of limitations--intellectual, emotional, situational, etc.--and we can rarely know with any accuracy what's going on with someone else. I've found that being kind and patient works a lot better for getting what I need from people who seem obstructionistic, and it leaves me feeling better as well.

I have Adblock Plus on my browser, and I haven't noticed any problems with the boards.

According to Wikipedia, Costco is the second largest retailer in the US, with 451 locations there. I think that's pretty national, though I know some areas are distant from one.

I looked up our city's garbage rates, and you can get 65 and 95 gallon cans here too. The 95 gallon ones are almost $100 per month! We don't have a can anywhere near that size--ours is about 20 gallons. Our recycling pick-ups are free, and we pay a smaller amount for yard waste (including food collection). I recently called to get a second recycling bin because our first was always full, and they delivered this ENORMOUS rolling can. I think it must be the 95 gallon size because it makes our old recycling cart look small--and I used to think that one was huge!

We used 1-800-got-junk once, but I wouldn't use them again. They charged us $200 to get rid of two old lawn chairs (so very lightweight) and a small amount of other stuff. When I'd called they'd said $75 (which already seemed high, but I had a tiny car and needed the stuff gone), but the price changed a lot when they got here, even though the items they were picking up hadn't changed. Now I either ask our handyman to dispose of stuff using his truck or I borrow a neighbor's truck to do so myself.

It never occurred to me that some people would pay for garbage via property taxes. It also didn't occur to me that some (many) places would provide 60+ gallon cans! Where I live many people, including us get by with 20-gallons or 12-gallons of garbage per week! It's roughly $1 per gallon in our city, and extra garbage rates are more than $10 per bundle. It would add up really fast if I tried to clean out my basement and throw it all away! I added a few new poll option, and an other button because now I know I'm forgetting all sorts of situations.

The thread on getting organized to move got me wondering. Where I live, I'd never throw donatable items out in the garbage because I'd pay a fortune in extra garbage fees. How common are those fees? Can you throw furniture out and have the city take it away, and how much would that cost you?

:svengo: Oh my goodness! Where do you live that people keep their houses so cold? Most of the houses that I go in around here are 68-72 in the winter. 60 sounds very, very cold to me for an indoor temperature!

If someone can't be bothered to clean up the clutter before listing pictures are taken of their house, then I would worry that they also couldn't be bothered to do needed maintenance while they lived there. I might still look at the house, but I'd be primed to be suspicious of their level of care for the house.

Yep. Amazon Fresh is a lifesaver sometimes, like when we've all been sick and don't want to go to the store but need enough stuff that I don't want to just ask a neighbor to grab a few things for us. I also love it when we're coming home from a trip to an empty fridge late at night--it's nice to be able to order before we return and know that when we get up the morning after our trip, there will be groceries on our door step. I know what some of you have said about wanting to choose your own produce, etc., but we've always been happy with the quality of what they've delivered.

For years, my DH felt like he had to do the lawn himself, but he really didn't have the time to do it, and if he had time, he wanted to be able to relax and enjoy the yard, not mow and edge it. He HATED the idea of paying someone, so he (and sometimes I) would go out a bit too infrequently and mow it with a falling-apart mower. One day I hit the end of my tolerance, asked the yard guy who was doing a neighbor's yard at the time to do ours too, and I've never looked back. It is SO worth it, and where I live it costs more than $60 a month. My DH complained until the day he came home and saw the yard looking perfect because the yard guys had just left. Then he realized how much better of a job they do compared to us, and he decided it was worth it. My yard people are mowing as I'm typing, and while I still hate writing those checks to them, I won't give them up unless forced to!

Yes here. It seems to be worse in the spring through fall and better in the winter. Benadryl was actually making it worse for me. I'd get worse hives if I didn't take the Benadryl for a day or so. I use Atarax (prescription) now, and I don't have the rebound effect when I haven't taken it for a while. It also seems to help more with the itching, which leads to less scratching, which leads to fewer hives. When it gets really bad, I find that taking Claritin makes a big difference for me. After the first dose or two, I can drop to one every 36 hours and still have much less dermatographism. Claritin does nothing for my other allergies, but it makes a huge difference for the hives.

Wow! I had no idea, and I had a $40 credit!

I had another thought on Negin's fading issue. A lot of slabs are dyed, and those dyes are not necessarily stable when they're in contact with solvents like vinegar. It would be nice if customers were warned when buying dyed granite, but right now, they're usually not. To give you an idea of what that damage might look like, here's a picture of a counter that was bleached by prolonged contact with Lysol.

They do have signs like that in Washington state, but I don't know if I've seen it in other parts of the US. Regardless, you should still be able to take him into the men's room by calling out first as others have said. :grouphug:

Wait. What do you mean by mirroring? I have a macbook from a couple of years ago, but it has the lightning connection. I bought this cable that costs about $5 and use it to connect my laptop to my tv. To watch a show, I find it online (hulu, huluplus, netflix, prime, etc.), hit play, and then hit the "full screen" icon in the corner. Voila, I have my shows in full-size on my television. Is that what you mean?

Negin, I'm wondering if your counters aren't really granite. There are a lot of stones that are called "granite" but aren't really, and some of them are susceptible to damage from acids. Would you be willing to post a picture of your counter and the area where you have the damage? I'd also suggest posting on the kitchen forum at gardenweb. There are lots of people there willing to give advice on kitchen counters, and I've learned a ton over there.