The Experiment

I'm a terrible house wife. I'm not that great of a cook and I hate cleaning. It's not that it disgusts me or I'm averse to manual labour - I just don't like doing it. It always seems like something else is more important so I delay, delay, delay until we are struggling under mountains of clutter and windows with fingerprints all over them.

I finally convinced Jeff that we need to hire help, just someone to come in every other week for a couple hours to do the things I hate the most - cleaning the bathroom and kitchen (and I really don't like I'm alone in this). I did some research into cleaning agencies and individuals and was *shocked* at how much they were going to charge to clean our teeny tiny home for a couple hours. Much to my disappointment this was going to turn into another DIY project.

Using Clean Mama Printables as a guide I made a really easy to accomplish 'Weekly Cleaning Checklist'. I could have chosen to purchase any of her awesome documents, but I'm a DIYer at heart and couldn't resist trying my hand at it in Excel.

Each day focuses on a different room (kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms, front room and den) and tasks include washing the floors, dusting, cleaning the litterbox and doing the laundry. These are all tasks that when crammed into 1 day seems like too much, but if you stretch them over a week it's not that bad.

And because I didn't want to go through any extra paper than normal I took the document to Staples and got them to laminate it for $1.50. Using a dry erase we check off each task at the end of the day and wipe it all clean at the end of the week. It's perfect!

We've been using our Checklist for a couple weeks now and I have to say, it is quite pleasant to come home to a clean home every day and not have to worry about doing it all on the weekend, but I still hate cleaning. I don't think any fun checklists will ever cure me of that!
Anyone have some fun tips to make cleaning less of a chore?? I'm very open to suggestions!

Basement 1/2 Bath: The Reveal

Despite how crazy frustrating it was to paint the stripes in our basement bathroom (check out that saga here), I am totally thrilled with the results. We managed to turn a boring, basic bathroom into a chic and sophisticated powder room without spending a ton of cash.

Because this is the basement bathroom with no windows I wanted it to be bright and warm (not dark and dank). Orange and yellow seemed to be a naturally cheerful combination and the gray added a touch of style.

Just because this is a bathroom doesn't mean it has to have typical bathroom art (florals or seashells).We went with a couple unique and quirky pieces for visual interest.

Before + After

There you have it, classy style on a budget!

Cost Breakdown:

• white paint - free! (old owner left it behind)
• Chinchilla White (gray) paint - $5 tester pot
• orange hand towel and facecloth - $10 (on clearance from HomeSense)
• large painting - $40 (on sale from local decor store)
• lightbulb print - $11 (from Etsy shop Rococco Co)
• frame - $8 (from Value Village)
• toilet paper dispenser and garbage can - $30 (from Home Outfitters)
• soap and lotion - free! (christmas gift from the in-laws)
• TOTAL: $104 (for a completely new look!)

Hide & Seek

If you live in Toronto, appreciate leather goods and have never heard of Tandy Leather Factory then you are in for a treat. I first heard about them through Style North, an awesome Toronto based blog I read, and as luck would have it they were having an amazing sale at the time. $99 for gigantic hair-on hide rugs. $99! When I saw the promotion on their website I really didn't believe it and rushed down to check it out. Normally rugs this size sell for around $500. IKEA sells hide rugs for $300 but the quality is hit or miss. Luckily, Tandy had tables full of all different kinds of hides, they had the traditional black/white, sable coloured and we picked out a lovely exotic for our 'in progress' living room...

{So soft and purdy}

They seem to have sales quite often and offer so much more than just rugs. Any sort of leather working tool or kit you could possibly dream up and the girls there were super nice and helpful with all our care-related questions. There are a couple scars on the hide {which is why they were sooo deeply discounted}, but you really can't tell unless you get on your hands and knees and look for them, which I hope none of our guests ever do!