Cleaning The Scariest Room In My House

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to tackle cleaning a room that I had ignored for way too long.  A room I wish would just clean itself or go away.  As a matter of fact, I hadn't touched this room since before Maise was born in November.  It was so disgusting that I would close the door because I just didn't want to deal with it.  I knew it would take hours to clean. It is the scariest room in my house. Well, scary for me anyway.

You see, we are in the process of finishing our basement.  With all the animals we have, we wanted to have a small room specifically for them.  It is where all the food, and supplies will be kept.  We don't keep these things in the garage or the barn because out here in the country you tend to have a high probability for unwanted vermin mucking about. 

In the meantime it looks like this:

It looks terrible right now but it will be really nice when it is finished.  It will have nice cabinetry, a designated place for the litter box, food bins, etc.  But to be perfectly honest,  this is Brody's room.  Brody, our incredibly cool, incredibly spoiled cat.   And he is the cause of all my angst in this room.

I bet you are thinking it is the litter box.  Nope, I actually am very anal about cleaning that out daily.  Actually, our Brody is the messiest eater in the entire world.  Seriously, I have never seen a cat who makes a bigger mess when eating like this cat does...

Yes, that is right.  Brody shakes his head when he eats to break apart his food. In the process he gets food EVERYWHERE.  The entire table and items on it are caked with it!

It is even all over the walls.  Yuck!

If you know anything about wet cat food, it dries hard as a rock.  And this is when I begin to get twitchy.  Since cleaning this is such a pain, I tend to just avoid it until I can't avoid it anymore.  I had to find not only a good way to clean this nastiness, but a solution for future maintenance.

But first, the cleaning. This was a heavy duty job.  In the past, I would break out the a chisel, Soft Scrub, 409, rubber gloves and a mask. But I knew this was a job for my trusty Get Clean products.   

First, I filled the sink with hot water and a tablespoon of Basic H.  Then I threw all the items from the table into the sink to soak for a few minutes. The food just slid right off.  Since the walls are just drywall, I couldn't get them wet so I had to sand the food off.

Next, I grabbed my Basic H Degreaser and sprayed down the table.  Then I scrubbed the table with Scour Off and enjoyed the smell of cherries.  This stuff is my current favorite cleaning product.  It does all the heavy work with minimal elbow grease and smells like cherry bubblegum.

It was amazing how easily the food came off. Just a few minutes and the table looks like new again.  Easy peasy! 

No gloves, no mask.  And the best part is knowing my animals no longer have to walk or breathe in the toxic cleaning chemicals I used to use.

Now to the maintenance. I decided the best solution was to tape a cheap vinyl tablecloth to the wall and drape it over the table.  The wall is protected, and since they are only $1, I can just change the tablecloth out when it gets dirty again.

This is a temporary solution. Once the room is finished we will have to come up with a more permanent plan.  But we will cross that bridge when we come to it.  

Until then, I feel cleansed! Now, cleaning this room will be a breeze thanks to my Shaklee cleaning products.

And Brody is happy too.  Ah, the things we do for our animals!

What are your worst places to clean? 

To get your own non-toxic, environmentally friendly cleaning products, go to my Shaklee store HERE.