Stinky

I've noticed lately that my house smells musty. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the dogs, dust buildup in places I can't easily clean (like the curtains and couches), and that I'm lazy when it comes to emptying my compost bowl. We cool the house in the summer by opening all the windows and sucking in fresh air with fans and that surly brings in lots of dust. I dust most of the horizontal surfaces in the house about twice a month (used to be weekly but that was before Eddie came along!). Davis is very dusty, probably due to the agricultural fields surrounding us.

I hate that nasty dirty-dishes-left-in-the-sink smell so I almost always do the dishes after I'm done cooking. Luckily Eddie's cloth diapers don't stink NEARLY as bad as disposables do. Our cloth diaper pail seals out stink completely when it is closed. I don't care what kind of "genie" you have, soiled disposable diaper stink is ALWAYS evident. I take out the bathroom trash every night after Anthony leaves so the bathroom won't stink.

The smell in my house is not offensive (to me anyway) and is only noticeable (to me) when I come home from someone else's better-smelling house. Eddie's daycare smells soooooooooo good...like flowers or something. I assume Cassie uses some delicious-smelling cleaning products. I should ask her, although as a rule I try to avoid artificially fragranced laundry detergents and other cleaning products. I've always wondered what other people use in their homes when they smell good...it is probably scented cleaning products so I'll never be able to match it.

I should look into natural extracts to gently scent some of my cleaning products...

Last time I was at Costco I bought a giant sack of baking soda and I started using it today to deodorize the carpets before I vacuum. My plan is to also sprinkle it on the couches and then vacuum them, too. But I'll need Dave's help with that since it'll be tough to turn the couches on their sides so I can vacuum the back cushions that are attached to the couch.

I've also decided it is time to wash all the curtains in the house since fabric holds stink pretty well. Luckily only one room has silk curtains so I should be able to launder them here at home.

We considered not having cloth curtains and just getting blinds for every window--but then we realized how expensive they are and what a pain it would be to dust them and changed our minds. I made all the curtains and it was definitely cheaper, even though we had to buy the curtain rods. Plus I can toss them into the wash instead of dusting each and every blind.

Anthony is taking a nap in the dining room so I can't go into the garage to switch the laundry over. My living room curtains are waiting in a heap to be washed...