Those of you who have been reading for a while know that I clean every day. EVERY day. Sometimes it feels like a bit of a chore (pun totally intended), but I like that I am able to break my cleaning tasks into bits and pieces so that I don’t have to spend one entire day cleaning the house.

What I don’t like is when I grab what I think is bathroom cleaner and find myself spraying carpet cleaner in my sink.

At my house, we store our cleaning products in a cabinet in the laundry room. Even when we kept them under the kitchen sink in our old house, there was never enough space to have the labels of all the bottles facing forward. All of the cleaning product bottles are wider than they are deep, so I end up having rows and rows of products. I couldn’t see what is hiding in the dark spaces behind the first row, and I was always grabbing the wrong product since they are all packaged in similar white bottles.

That also explains why I currently have three bottles of Clean Shower, which I really don’t even use.

One evening, in a stroke of brilliance, I grabbed a Sharpie and changed my life.

I wrote the name of the product on the spine of each bottle so that I could fit more bottles across a row. Now, I can see what each bottle contains, and I only have two rows of bottles instead of four! No bottle gets to have the luxury of hiding from me and my trigger finger.

This may be an “uh, duh” moment for you, but it sure was an “a ha” moment for me. I hope this tip works for you as well as it works for me!

My vacuum cleaner doesn’t suck.

Literally. It doesn’t suck.

I left my DH at home alone during Spring Break while I took my son to visit my parents. I came home to a vacuum cleaner with no suction. Tom says that he’s tried to fix it (and he’s handy!), and he says there’s nothing that can be done. I’m not sure what kind of mess he was trying to clean up when it broke, but something tells me that I don’t want to know.

Here’s my problem – I need a new vacuum STAT that is just the most wonderful vacuum cleaner EVAH. I have a messy 3 year old, two dogs, a long-haired cat, and a husband who manages to get metal shavings and drywall dust on the floor (don’t ask). I need a vacuum cleaner that will tackle all of that and come back begging for more. The vacuum we had was one we bought on a whim at Lowe’s after the last one broke (hmmm…see a trend here?), so we didn’t put much research into it…and it didn’t perform up to my standards.

We do have an iRobot Roomba, which I think is pretty much the greatest invention ever. However, “White Circle,” as Zack calls him, can’t handle the big messes. I usually just turn him on when we are leaving the house so he can pick up the little bits of dirt that accumulate throughout the day. He’s been having a rough week trying to replace the Big Boy vacuum cleaner, so I think he needs a break. The dog hair alone is about to strangle him. Poor White Circle.

Oh the other hand, his little brother, “Blue Circle,” has been performing brilliantly. I really love that I never have to mop.

Anyway, I really need YOUR help in trying to help me pick a new vacuum. What vacuum cleaner do you have? Do you like it? Hate it? Want to marry it? Does it have an attachment to clean stairs? Does it work well on carpet and tile? And are Dysons really the end-all-be-all of vacuum cleaners?

I can read reviews online until I’m blue in the face, but what I really need is reviews from real people like you who have kids and dogs and husbands and know what a vacuum really needs to do. And if it can be bought at Bed, Bath, and Beyond with a 20% off coupon, that’s all the better.

GAH! Help! My quasi-OCD is really getting the best of me here and I just want to clean, clean, clean…because I can’t!

What works for you? Help me out and then visit We Are That Family to see what other dilemmas you can help solve this week!

PS- The winner of The Five Dollar Challenge will be announced soon! I’m still working my way though all the entries, and I am blown away by each link I click on. You people are amazing! I think Martha Stewart should really have us on her show, don’t ya think?