Tag Archives: cleaning

Jun5

Oh Boy! (with sarcasm)

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Oh Boy! (with sarcasm)
Oh Boy! (with sarcasm)

Look what just arrived, right when I needed it!

I’m trying to get excited about cleaning like I am about crafting. It’s a hard sell.

I’m hoping new cleaning products will get me enthused. I’ve bought a spin scrubber and a power mop. (That’s what the mop pads are for. The disposable ones are a lot to put in the landfill.) I also ordered some cleaning products; vinegar, baking soda and Murphy’s Oil Soap.

I got a crevasse brush with my spin scrubber. What a bonus! Here I am, preparing to campaign against 16 years of lint in the bathroom ceiling fan vents.

Yes, I’m serious about that. Some of that “lint” is most likely insulation from the attic!

Cost is a factor I’m bargaining with myself over. I could pay somebody to do this, but I could also pay myself in craft supplies!

I had a cleaning service at the townhouse in Charlotte. I paid them $150+tip every two weeks. Picking up for them was exhausting, and they went through my house like a tornado, often breaking things. I told their boss I thought they were too hurried, but they always had time to make roses and bows out of my toilet paper. By doing it myself, I save $300/month and toilet paper! I might be able to buy a kiln, someday!

Time is another bargaining tool. These spotless toilet sides and corners took me 45 minutes.

In exchange, I’m allowing myself to watch SaraLovecraftLive

while I write this post. Now, that aggravates me, because I should be able to watch Sara without permission!

Aggravation does not lead to motivation. Maybe, I’ll stick to cost as a motivator. I’ll get back!

Jun4

The Great Glycerin Experiment

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The Great Glycerin Experiment
The Great Glycerin Experiment

I’ve said before that I hate cleaning a gel plate. I decided to clean this grubber while I watched PMartist Studio on Tuesday.

I used hand sanitizer, baby oil, a lint roller and packing tape. I also used a lot of elbow grease. There was still scant smudges of paint on the plate.

During the stream, someone mentioned oil soap in relation to cleaning stencils. For some reason, that made me think of glycerin, and I have lots of glycerin soap melt from making melt and pour soaps.

I dug out a couple of cubes. I misted the plate with water, and started “skating” a cube around.

Using paper towels, the remaining paint tended to come up much more easily than with hand sanitizer or baby oil.

Yesterday, I placed a Walmart delivery order and included a bottle of liquid glycerin.

I tried a few drops on the plate. Again, using a paper towel, I was able to get the very last crumblies of paint off the plate. After it dried, I rubbed baby oil all over the plate and massaged it in. I’ll let it rest until tomorrow.

The lighter areas are just air bubbles under the plate. The plate is lying on a desk top made of solid surface counter top. This is what it looks like bare:

You can see that the gel plate is clean and almost transparent.

May27

Better Brayer Cleaning

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Better Brayer Cleaning
Better Brayer Cleaning

I had old chunky white paint hardened on my brayer with no Murphy’s Oil Soap to soak it in. I remembered Tim Holtz saying recently that you could use hand sanitizer to remove acrylic paint. I rubbed some on my brayer, let it sit a couple of minutes, and started rubbing it with a paper towel. I could tell the white was coming off the green layer underneath, but then a strip came off (shown above.)

I kept applying and rubbing and in some cases, whole sections would peel away. I could use just my bare fingers.

It was getting late and aa large section was being stubborn. I applied a thick layer of sanitizer and left it to sit over night.

This morning, I found that the only thing that happened is the sanitizer had evaporated and the stubborn spot would not budge.

I set back in to applying, rubbing and peeling and finally got the brayer as clean as new, even the ends! The End 🤭