The_Red_Hare's Profile

Same problem here: our downstairs bath (the one with the working shower...) has a serious mold problem. However, this seems to work wonders: cheap-but-nifty spray bottle filled with <wait for it> VINEGAR.

Regular, old pantry-worthy vinegar. Doesn't matter if it's cider or white (though I'd veer away from red wine vinegar for obvious reasons). Spray liberally on the mold areas and let it sit for five minutes or so. Wipe off and toss the rag/paper towel into the trash; take that trash out of your home.

Vinegar is inexpensive, plentiful, green and even though the smell is sharp, it dissipates relatively quickly and it won't eat your grout or tile material.

Good luck!

"When you work on your home, you are working on yourself."

Out of your entire post - oh, and the line about the need to have your heart break in order for change to take place (at least that is how I'm interpreting it) - the work on home/work on yourself line has come and taken a seat in my heart. Thank you.

A little over three years ago I inherited a house (and everything in it that lived there for 40+ plus years. The keepings of someone else's marriage, their travels, photographs, ephemera, kitchen tools, clothing, sewing kit, etc.). My benefactors had no children and, sadly, no remaining relatives. I was out of work at the time, and moving the half hour into new territory and a new home was exactly the adventure I could manage. Or so I believed.

We, Coob (chip off the old block, my 'tween' daughter) and I, moved their things around to make room for ourselves, then we stopped. Really, I stopped. And stopping allowed overwhelm to move in with me and despite all I imagine and want to change and do, I have been stalled in that house for the better part of three years. I have been afraid to get rid of their things, their belongings, in essence their life. Who will know them if their things are gone? It is paralyzing.

None of this has amounted to me working on either the house nor myself. We, the house and I, are both frozen. But not for much longer... today, I'm beginning to thaw with hope.

Work on the house = work on yourself.
Thank you :)

No matter if it's "good" or "bad" or over-/underwhelming, it is what it is: someone else's home. You don't have to like it but you don't have to degrade it either. It is a home that is beloved to it's owners and that is what shines through. We should all love our habitats this much, in whatever manner of attention-giving is best suited to our personal quirks and foibles.

On the fence myself, and cooking for a mere four, this year I'm using the PF cornbread bag but adding fresh mushrooms, breakfast sausage, sweet onion, maybe a shallot and fresh herbs. The truckload of butter arrives Wednesday ;)

PF can act as a decent canvas for whatever else you add - well, that's what I'm telling myself this year.

Luckily, driving home from Maryland to Long Island, I caught a segment of this radio piece on NPR. (Probably one of the few times I've been happy to sit in traffic.)

A week or so later, on the road again, I caught another piece.

The subject is fascinating, to me, and the inner life and history captured my attention. Someday I'd love to hear the entire project, and read or see the written and photographic materials.

But somewhere other than my car ;)