[FitGirlyGirl]

My husband and I are attempting to adopt from the foster care system. The first session of our homestudy just got scheduled for this Sunday at 12:30. There will be 4 sessions total. One of the really important things is to make sure your house, yard, and vehicles are clean. The house is currently pretty clean, though we will be doing additional cleaning the next 2 days, of course. The yard needs a little work and DH's car will have to be cleaned up a bit. I would like to ask for help from my fellow 3FCers on a list of commonly forgotten things to clean in a house/yard/cars. So, if there is an area that you often find yourself or people you know missing when they clean, please list it in this thread. I want to make sure we don't miss anything. Thank you for your help.

[mandalinn82]

I am sort of cleaning OCD, and the messes that bother me most that people tend to miss are:

1. Baseboards (they collect dust and grime - wipe them up with either a rag and some cleaner or a Magic Eraser)
2. Lightswitches, appliance handles, and cabinet doors (fingerprint and smudge magnets - a Magic Eraser works like a charm on those, too)
3. The floor around and base of the toilet. Ick.

[bargoo]

Make sure the top of the stove and outside of refrigerator are clean. For the car , clean windows and hose it down everyday so it doesn't look like you just drove through a dust storm. I have been through the adoption procedure and recall just being sure the house and baby were clean. Don't recall doing anything extraordinary.

[ade903]

Dust off of ceiling fans. Funny story (for me, my mother was mortified): we were having a huge family party (birthday....graduation..something). The kind that you clean ALL week for. So we were all having a good time. A few of us were at the dining room table (the fan was on). A balloon got loose and it went up and the ribbon caught the fan and a HUGE dust bunny (more like a dust COW) landed on my mom's cousin's plate. She was disgusted. I just laughed it off. You can bet our ceiling fans are spotless. Good luck!!!

[sheramama]

I work with a lot of kids who are in the system.

-Make sure that there are outlet covers on the electrical outlets
-All chemicals for cleaning and such are either on a very high cabinet or locked with a child lock (sharp objects also)
-If you have any toys and children's books, make sure they are clean and in designated places
-knick knacks should be placed up high

--They will be looking for safety too, not just clean

Good luck!

[FitGirlyGirl]

mandalinn - lightswitches (and people who don't clean theirs) drive me nuts and I can see the baseboards being missed, but people somehow miss cleaning around the toilet? Ewwww!

bargoo - outside of the fridge is already on my written to do list. I know that it is one that I often forget. I clean the inside and the top of the outside, but somehow frequently forget the rest of the outside.

ade - That is funny about the dust cow. It made me cringe for your poor mother though.

sheramama - We have taken care of the basic safety stuff already. We have not child-proofed the house yet because the way they do it here is that during this first visit he will give us a list of things that we need to childproof. Some are obvious to me, like the outlets, chemicals, sharps, etc., but I have no idea if they will have ones that are not so obvious on the list. I am also hoping that he can give some suggestion on what type of child locks will work best on the type of cabinets we have, so for now I am waiting on that part.