In Labor on Labor Day

Not THAT kind of labor. It was literally Labor Day for my husband and me yesterday May 1 as we did a general clean-up of our apartment. Unfortunately, since we’re only renting the place for another year, we really can’t do some renovations or major sprucing up to make it picture pretty for Real Living magazine, just like my friend and former neighbor Frances’s pad. Oh but I don’t think I can ever keep a stylized pad like theirs. Hehe. We’re just simple folks.

Anyway, our place was already fully-furnished when we got it. We just brought in our LCD TV and some small kitchen appliances. We admit, our nest isn’t exactly best-dressed. But for now what’s more important is that it’s clean and organized enough that I can still navigate my kitchen even when I’m blindfolded. I’ve always been Ms. Tidy when it comes to housekeeping but lately due to tons of work, I’ve become sloppy. So yesterday, we did what we had to do – CLEAN THE HOUSE.

Our 80 square meter 2-BR loft-style condo now is more challenging to clean than my single-life abode which is about 30 sq. m smaller, but what I love about our new place is that I have a spacious kitchen/dining area to work in. The windows are large so there’s a flood of natural light in the room.



I love my new kitchen and all my prized gadgets. My favorite yellow Kitchenaid mixer obviously is the pièce de résistance of my “culinary playground” so the whole area is (almost) color coordinated around it. Then my mom recently gave us a new Cuisinart coffeemaker and that has been my hubby’s favorite toy in the kitchen. This is already our 3rd coffeemaker in just a year of being married. (Yes, we are coffee-holics!) And we swear by this brand’s brew! Now we know why it’s expensive. My husband and I say that it’s only a matter of time ‘til we purchase our first espresso machine.

Thanks to our family Wi-Fi, I don’t need a permanent work station for my laptop. I can blog from bed, from our black leather couch, but most of the time, I do my writing on the kitchen bar counter.

It’s really a delight for me to see my husband doing household chores. He’s not exactly the “homemaker” type, if you know what I mean. But that was before. He’s getting into the game now. :-) Before, I’d get worried every time I had to be out of town for a couple of days because I’m sure to be greeted by a dusty floor when I get home. My husband is such a klutz when it comes to household chores but I definitely give him the crown for ironing clothes. To be honest, I don’t do a lot of pressing. For my personal wardrobe, I’ve always leaned towards picking jersey and other non-wrinkly fabrics.

But that’s about it for him in the housekeeping turf. Everything else is my domain. For cleaning the bathroom, I swear by Mr. Muscle. It really melts the grime faster than all other brands I have ever tried. Since I’m in the cleaning mood, I’ve been poring over the pages of Martha Stewart’s Home Keeping Handbook – one of the very first things that my mom gave me before I got married last year. Speaking of Martha, I personally think she’s better in home keeping than in baking or cooking. She’s got that OC perfectionist personality in her that just screams like white ceramic tiles. Alderson Federal Prison sure was lucky to have the Queen of Clean scrubbing their toilets.



Cleaning by the way can be a nice bonding time for husbands and wives. Joseph and I really enjoyed our Labor Day date. But if cleaning’s not your thing you can always hire a professional cleaner. I hire my friend’s cleaning company to shampoo our mattresses and carpets because that’s something I can’t do. But for everything else, as long as there’s the vacuum cleaner, the mop, the duster, the broom, the rags, and all my favorite cleaning chemicals, it’s Mrs. Palarca literally in labor!