Check out my new Knobs!

So I don't know about you guys out there, but every apartment that I've ever lived in has had the same bathroom faucet. You know the cheap Delta one with the see-through knobs?  They look like this:

Which is fine probably for the first two months you own it, and then they tend to start to grow stuff inside those pretty plastic knobs! And then it's not so pretty...  I've always assumed that there was no way you could actually clean inside them, and cursed whoever decided that was a practical design for a bathroom faucet!  Seriously?? Who thought this was a good idea?

But then, some friends of ours were nice enough to give us their old bathroom faucet to use for Emma's playkitchen, and I decided that it was not ok for Emma to play with something that had mold growing on the inside of it.  So I googled.  (Thank God for google, I honestly don't know how I would get anything done without it)

And it turns out there a tiny plastic cap at the top of each knob that COMES OFF!  How did I not know this????? All you have to do is to take a phillips head screwdriver, and gently pry the small plastic piece off the top of the knob.  There are even small indentations that make this task easier.  Then once that small plastic piece is off, you can take another screwdriver and unscrew the whole knob from the faucet.  That way you can submerge it in the cleaning liquid of your choice (I just use plain old white vinegar and a little baking soda)

Then the only problem that I was left with, was the fact that another genius over at the Delta bathroom faucet factory decided that putting a tiny mirrored piece of cardboard (?) in the plastic lid would be a good idea and there's no way to clean under that, without wrecking it.  (Mine just crumbled away actually, they were that old and gross)

It looks like this:

Please excuse the blurry pictures, we've got really crappy lighting to work with here on the NorthShore today

 You can't really see it in the picture, but there's all kinds of crud stuck in front of that mirrored piece, being magnified at the top of my now otherwise pristine faucet! 

This is where magic late night inspiration struck!  I could take those mirrored pieces off and replace them with small circles of fabric that matched her playkitchen!  Then put the new shiny faucet back together and call it a day.   So here's how it looks now:

Isn't that super cute?? I felt like a genius when this idea actually worked :)  Don't you love that feeling?

So of course I also had to clean my bathroom sink and replace the mirrored piece there as well.  Hope the landlord doesn't mind too much!   For my bathroom sink, I used a simple blue curtain material with a little bit of shine.  I didn't take a picture of the knobs assembled in my bathroom, but here's a blurry late night picture of my new knobs!  (oh man, there's a sentence I never thought I'd type!)

note the hubby working hard at cleaning grime in the background!

So there's my cleaning tip for the year! This could really help lengthen the lifetime of your bathroom hardware, and the best part is that you could change the fabric anytime you choose!  So if you are re-decorating your bathroom, you could change the fabric in there as well.  Or you could get really fancy and cut a piece of your own glass to put in there, and that would look pretty darn classy!  And for a kid's bathroom, you could go crazy and put really bold fabric choices in there like I did for Emma's new faucet. 

So what do you think?  And tell me honestly, did everyone know about this except me?  Or is this taking you guys by surprise as well?

 Happy Cleaning!

Why I love PBS

     I don't know about you, but I love it when my apartment is clean.  This pretty much rarely ever happens around here. As anyone with an 18 month old will tell you, it is nearly impossible to clean when they are awake!  There are only a few ways that I ever manage this feat.

 Method 1:  PBS.  Seriously, thank the Lord for a channel that shows educational cartoons at pretty much anytime during the day.  This is how I cleaned my kitchen this morning.  Hooray for Sid the Science Kid!  Hooray for Peep!  And most of all hooray for mommy knowing what these shows even are....

Of course, I can't just plop peanut in front of the TV all day long and still feel like a good mother. But I honestly do not feel bad about a show or two while mommy does the dishes, or runs downstairs to do laundry.  I know there are people who are totally against this, but I am not one of those mommies.  Although I have recently decided that Adam and I should not watch any of our shows in the evening before Peanut goes to bed because she is starting to understand a whole lot more and repeat things!!!  CSI or Family Guy may not be the best choice for her anymore....

Method Two:  Get her involved in the cleaning.  If mommy is sweeping, then Emma is swiffering.  If mommy is wiping the kitchen table, then Emma has a baby wipe in hand and is taking care of the cofee table.  Of course if mommy is vacuuming then all bets are off, and  Emma is standing on the couch screaming like I'm hurting her.  (We're working on this one...sigh)   Of course, this has it's drawbacks.  My neat little piles of dirt are often swiffered away all over the floor, and I have to summon a lot of patience in order to not scream and throw a fit.  After all, they're never too young to encourage cleaning right??? I'm really hoping to have a neat teenager some day. (Go ahead and laugh at me, I deserve it)

Method Three:  Food, food and more food.  And this one only works if she is buckled into her booster seat.  And if this happens to be mealtime then it does mean that I have chosen to clean over making myself any sort of good lunch, and will probably have to settle for either waiting for her afternoon nap or snacking on whatever I can grab while she's not looking.  Am I the only one who can't eat in front of her children without having to either share or endure full out tantrums in front of the refrigerator?

(this picture is from July of last year, so cute!)

And that's pretty much all I've got. Those are all the tricks.  And now you can see why my apartment isn't always as clean as it should be.  So how and when do you manage to get your cleaning done?  Let me know if I'm missing out on some good tricks!