commeca's Profile

Cat boxes: People, the problem is not the feces; they dry up and are almost odorless after a day. It's the pee - it never dries totally. I do not use clumping litter. I use old fashioned clay litter Use LESS litter and change it more OFTEN. I see litter boxes with eight inches of litter in it - the urine odor is the worst. and those boxes are damp the bottom three inches. It's worse in humid climates.

The box surface itself begins to reek, so removing "clumps" is not effective. Just dump the contents of the soiled box into a plastic trash bag and discard. Don't use strong detergents for washing out the box, just mild dish detergent will do. It takes about five minutes, guys, just do it. No sprays, or gimmick, or this new machine I see that "automatically" disposes of it somehow. It's very little work.

If you have a cat who likes to kick litter, go to a restaurant supply store and get bus boxes - those big deep, gray plastic containers the busboy uses for dirty dishes. They are made of very sturdy plastic, won't scratch as easily and last forever. Their sides are twice as high.

It's not the cat's fault when a house smells like dirty catbox. You try not flushing your toilet for four days and see how that works.

I agree, grab a good old dresser when you see it. With these caveats: take out each drawer and look in the crevices for bug evidence and under the piece. - roach and bedbug traces are easy to spot. If drawers do not slide out easily, think again if it is a piece you'll be opening and closing frequently

My take on this: I would have looked at that basic dresser and just painted it another solid color to suit my decor and maybe changed out the hardware. the knobs on the re-do seem too small for the drawers but perhaps that's an illusion as they are now the same color.

If I saw it in its present re-done state I'd make sure the drawers matched the body and probably remove the stripes and paint it that nice gray again! I'd put big fat bun feet on this piece if it needed it but I don't think it does. It wasn't "hideous" before, just a good basic piece and probably solid wood instead of cardboard and that fake compressed stuff. this looks like Better Homes & Gardens, circa 1965. Orange is so "Mad Men"!

I have never used "window film": but vote for it for the front door. It would be a shame to conceal that graceful long oval. The side lights can have classic "sash curtains" and the damage would be minimal for the hardware. Has no tenant ever put any privacy material up on this door? I can't imagine that unadorned glass looking in on the living area especially at night. There are rods that "curve" but not to that degree.

Elegant and inviting, but the practical Virgoan side of me wonders along with some others: How do you make the bed? Even when you pull it away from the wall, there is precious little space between the end of the bed and the dresser shown. I have a twin bed in the guest room which has to be placed along the wall and I confess I just sort of fling the covers on and half-tuck them on the wall side. and I can do that by standing on the floor - with a double you'd have to be ON the bed to tuck in the far side. But I love the colors and the coziness. I can understand a philosophy that values style and appearance over "practicality", which can be boring. You just have to want to take that trouble.

Mu feeling: a dark stained wood floor "grounds" a room. In our 1860's Italianate I did "blonde" floors, the first time around. It was, well, undistinguished. Lots of light pours in here, and we have 12 foot ceilings. Next time around I did a dark stain and the grain certainly shows. yes, all the cat hair does too, plus flour in the kitchen, crumbs from sandwiches, and footprints and lint and dust. But I still love the crispness of dark floor next to the white woodwork. In a more contemporary house I like pale, bleached or pickled floors and we did that in a beach house (imagine tracking sand in on coffee-colored wood floors!), but that medium kind of honey blonde color - doesn't make a statement for me. Oriental rugs look smashing against the dark stain.

I keep writing about my wonderful steamer but I can't imagine life without it. Just point that nozzle at the greasy, waxy gunk and it melts away with a quick swipe. The detergent tray never completely dries out and soap gets clotted in there. My machine also has some deep crevices where the top fits on and that gets gunky.

Saying you don't have to clean your washing machine because hot water and soap go in it, is like saying you never have to scrub your bathtub....

I even clean my oven with my steamer - and I'm a baker. I do not sell steamers, but i should!

I would add: do not cut the beef in "small pieces". They shrink as they cook. Pre-cut beef for stew in supermarkets is way too small. Most French recipes say cut into 2 x 2 inch pieces, which of course depends on the muscle divisions, but I aim for pieces at least that size. Browning is the key as you emphasize, and it takes time and makes a mess but without it, the flavor isn't there. I also brown bones with the beef and simmer them along, they add flavor.

I add at the end of cooking a beurre-manie to thicken the sauce. As for fish sauce adding to the beef flavor, yes: Worcestershire sauce originally had anchovies as one of the main ingredients, adding a subtle, salty kick to beef dishes. I think the current version lacks this, however, and seems just sweet to me. I presume you mean Asian fish sauce?

Where did you put that "cheese course"? I hope not at the beginning of this dinner!

Bragging that you can get three times as much in a closet with those skinny velvetized hangers seems to be working at cross purposes here. Someone gave me 100 of those hangers for a gift - I put them in the charity bag after two weeks. They work only if you are hanging a lot of things like t shirts and sweats. They ruin the hang of a jacket and made lines in the shoulders of anything else - even a t shirt. And they were that "name brand" from TV shopping.

I use padded hangers for good sweaters and dresses, thick plastic hangers for t shirts and shaped wooden hangers for constructed jackets and coats. Sure you can jam those thin hangers in, but in what kind of shape are your clothes when you tug them out? I have notches in my hanging rod to allow space between items. I have a permanent shopping bag in a deep drawer where all my charity giveaways go and I make that trip every six weeks or so, trying to do it within the season of the clothes being given. I used to take things to a consignment shop but frankly it's too much hassle and they "lost" some of my better things. We all have too much Stuff, and I'm finding it's a full time job thinking about how to pare down and simplify. I go on shopping fasts occasionally: I buy nothing for 30 days except food, gas, and necessary prescriptions. Sometimes we only buy things because we're wandering in a store and see it - didn't know we wanted it until there it was! Gotta have it!

My biggest decorating mistakes: Ah , the terrible paisley sofa. Some time ago, thought I wanted a Ralph Lauren look in the living room. I ordered the sofa in a dark paisley, and it arrived when I was out of town. When I walked in the house I was shocked. It was exactly what I ordered but it looked like a big scab against our walls. I hated that sofa. I spent a lot more money bringing in other things to blend in with it. "Fortunately" after a disastrous fire we were able to dump it. It was SO 80's. Part of me resents the fact that we are programmed to accept certain looks which we then reject. I want to have classics that don't look dated but of course after 10 years one does have to re-do fabrics and freshen up the joint.

My other big decorating mistake is having my entire house exterior painted the wrong color. again, out of town and when I drove up and saw our big old house painted a kind of sickly yellowy buff instead of the crisp linen beige I had ordered, I was literally sick. My dear husband said "paint it again"-- bless him.