Right! If you’re frugally calculating and pinching your pennies like so many of us are now, you’re probably living off Wendy’s, Del Taco, or Jack in the Box’s super cheapo menu or living off Ramen noodles or Mac and Cheese, on a daily basis. I actually ate pizza for the third consecutive day today (had it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late night snack), for freak’s sake! Honestly, I’m all cheese and meatballed out! You might even be purchasing meat and the like from the last chance sale portion of the frozen section. So what if the ground beef is a bit on the brown side and looks a bit poorly and knackered? Nothing but a good bit of freezing will help and prolong its contents past the expiry date! You could also be febrezing the crap (or using your own mash –up of baking powder, water, vodka, and fabric softener) out of your clothes or generously applying loads of lovely cologne or perfume on them, so you don’t have to wash your laundry as much. Whatever it is that you do to save is all fair game, but thought I’d extent a few tips on maintaining the light fixtures around your place. Light fixtures require a bit of maintenance, but would prove to be worthwhile. You maybe saving and budgeting, but your place doesn’t have to look like you are!
Tip #1-Routinely Check Your Light Fixtures
(Example of fixtures –chandelier, pendant light, bathroom lighting, and etc.)
Run a check – What you’ll need: Reason
*Your eyes To make observations with
*A piece of paper To jot notes on
*Pen/pencil To write down observations
So you got nothing to do and you’re sitting on your lazy bum this evening, flipping through crappy boob-tube shows. Why not get off your touché and quickly check your lights? It’s relatively simple. All you need to do is switch the suckers on and see if lights pop on. Check your chandelier/pendant lighting, bathroom lighting, outdoor lighting (really do check these…no one wants to trip or fall down a flight of stairs visiting you), and lamps. If they don’t switch on, make note of it, so you know what needs to be repaired and replaced.
Tip #2 Preparation
Preparation – What you’ll need: Reason:
*Ladder (or some form of one) To stand on (while cleaning)
*Newspaper/Junk mail To protect floor from dirt and drip/cleaning
* Plastic bags To cover light bulbs with
*Bucket/bathroom bin To soak outer portion of light fixtures in
*Cleaning products To clean fixtures
*Cloth/Socks To wipe fixtures
*Duster (or some form of one) To clear away dust and webs
***Note: If you don’t have one – you can make one!
To Make a Duster:
*2 Wire Hangers
*2 Paper towels
*Newspaper (torn into strips)
*Twists (to secure napkins with) or bubble gum wrappers
Once you’ve make your observations, you can move onto preparation. You’ll need to make sure you have a ladder to use. If you don’t have one, ask your friends or neighbors to borrow one. If you don’t, I would suggest a chair, but I would be extra careful using a chair, especially if your floors are heavily carpeted. You could lose your balance quite easily and hurt yourself. You can also, push your dresser table out where the light fixture is, so you can stand on it and clean. If you still don’t have a solution, I would check your local grocery store. They sometimes throw out these sturdy red or blue crates, you might be able to ask for.
You would need to spread some newspaper around the area and put some aside for cleaning purposes. Don’t have enough newspaper? Utilize that pile of unwanted junk mail! Actually, you should use more of that junk mail; put it on the floor, and save some of that newspaper for cleaning and dusting! Better used this way that flooding your mail box.
The next thing you would need is plastic sandwich bags, cleaning products, a duster, and a bucket. The plastic bags are meant to cover the bulbs with, while cleaning. If you don’t have plastic bags. I’d use socks to cover the bulbs with! A bucket would be needed to soak certain portions of light fixtures (for example, crystal pieces off your chandelier). If you don’t have a bucket, I would empty out my bathroom bin and use that instead.
Cleaning products are needed to clean off the grime and dirt. If you don’t have the money to buy proper cleaning products. Care 2.com has a few home- made recipes for you to make.
Next, you will need cloth to wipe with. If you don’t have cloths to use, use your socks (the inside portion). If the sock monster has gotten to a few pairs of your socks like it has mine, then by all means, put those things to good use! Simply cut the sock along one side. Walla, you got a rag!
Lastly, a duster will be needed to clear away all that gunk before wiping anything. Don’t have a duster? No problem! (Remember those fun projects we all had to do in grade school?) Get two wire hangers and straighten them out. Keep one of them straight and make the other wire hanger into a skinny V shape. Wrap the end of the straight hanger around the middle of the V shaped hanger. Grab some of that unused newspaper and cut some long strips out. Take two napkins and secure them with either twists, tape, bubble gum wrappers (tie the napkins in) or gum. Get creative and use whatever you have! Secure the newspaper pieces onto the V shape portion by tying them to it. Dampen the newspaper strips a bit.
Tip #3 Cleaning
Turn fixtures off before attempting to clean. Use a duster to clear out those disgusting cob webs. (Special note: Don’t venture too closely to the light fixture if you used gum to secure it = you duster might get stuck). You can twirl the cleaner to pick up dust and webs. If you need a better way of clearing stuff away, use one of the socks to wipe up.
After that, you would need to cover the bulbs with the material set aside for this portion of the task. Be sure to spray onto the cloth or sock instead of directly at the fixture. If your fixture is made of crystal (like some chandeliers are), you might want to detach the parts and put them in the bucket/bin of warm water and a bit of cleaner (requires more attention and time). Use one of your socks as a wash rag. Gently wipe the fixture, while occasionally beating the sock against the newspaper on the floor to get rid of excess muck.
Next, you would need to pull fixtures out of your bucket/bin and set them on top of a piece of junk mail to dry.
Use the rest of the leftover newspaper and (dampen it a bit) and go over the areas you went through with your sock and let things dry. After the fixture pieces have dried up, put them back into place.
I can assure you, your light fixtures will be a sparkling spectacle and if you schedule time to clean them every so often, you won’t have to work as hard cleaning them!
Roguestatus 
