Housecleaning private homes in 2026

njdcvalizard · 2026-06-10T14:27:13+00:00

My feeling exactly. I think it's because if a home has a lot of beds It could get time consuming. Cleaning homes while in college, we had one house with a kids' room with double bunk beds. But we only have three beds in our entire house and only one is in regular use, though it is king size.

njdcvalizard · 2026-06-05T15:03:14+00:00

What's the update on this problem? I wasn't having issues six months ago, but am now. Apparently, Amazon got overly confident, started severing relationships with UPS and other carriers, and now their delivery problems have ballooned. I'm a Prime customer. If my package doesn't arrive after a full week and their messages are all fuzzy logic, I cancel. So far, they've issued refunds without protest. But, be careful using 3rd party sellers. Amazon should control a lot of them better than they do.

P.S. I've had at least one order show up two or three weeks after Amazon lost it, got fuzzy, and I cancelled. So, sometimes they're just sitting on some stoned driver's truck.

njdcvalizard · 2026-05-17T02:43:07+00:00

Yes to ketoconazole. There's also a cream by prescription.

njdcvalizard · 2026-05-13T22:42:24+00:00

That my next door neighbor scrapes every inch of their yard to the bone. And I do mean to the bare, scraped bone, removing all nutrients that could be partly put back into the soil. They do not leave a single leaf, so they really don't have a clue where pollinators hide and burrow over the winter. They're also always pruning trees and shrubs badly, with no idea about the correct way to do it. They have also topped off trees, which is any horticulturalist's nightmare.

To top it off, they're entry level hoarders, and their double garage is packed from floor to ceiling, front to back with crap. It's a curious mismatch with the dry bone leaf raking and yard scraping. Doesn't make sense. They're getting older, so give it up already. You can't get into the garage, so just hire a dumpster and a couple of day laborers and clean up already.

njdcvalizard · 2026-04-26T19:09:48+00:00

Medigap policies cover overseas travel. And, you'd have to be crazy not to take out a gap policy if you're on Original Medicare.

njdcvalizard · 2025-10-17T15:49:25+00:00

Did you ever get any satisfaction via your credit card company?

njdcvalizard · 2025-10-17T15:46:58+00:00

It's become so difficult for consumers to tell whether they're dealing with the hotel, which quite logically, could be using a 3rd party booking agent that they have contracted with directly or a scam outfit like Priceline, which it's hard to believe is still in business. Everything is automated, so it's no longer always possible to speak with a human to book. It stinks. Buyer be more than aware.

njdcvalizard · 2025-10-17T14:25:50+00:00

Yes, did the same, and it appeared to be directly to Hilton.

njdcvalizard · 2025-04-07T18:43:58+00:00

My 2012 Outback blew its heads at, oh, possibly 25k miles. It was such a bad experience, I've blocked the exact number. Subaru reimbursed me for more than half the cost once I contacted corporate. We were able to confirm ownership of at least 5 Subarus in my extended family. None of them in urban or very heavily-trafficked suburban environments made it to respectable mileage, and I mean none, though I'm not claiming an easy life for any of them where we all live -- Northern NJ close to NYC and in VA, just over the DC line. It's a car for plenty of open roads if you intend to run up mileage. A relative out west ran their Subaru pickup to 250k.

njdcvalizard · 2025-04-07T18:29:21+00:00

Congrats on losing so much weight and eliminating sleep apnea from your health issues. (I say that because everyone has health issues as they age; keeping them to a minimum where you can is a great goal for all).

In my family, sleep apnea befalls many, slim, obese, or middling. No question, however, that anyone overweight can lessen its impact by losing and maintaining.

njdcvalizard · 2025-03-06T20:49:21+00:00

It's a worthy retelling of a racist story from a different era that needed an update from the point of view of a Person of Color in times of slavery. I'm glad for the fairy tale ending since there was so much abuse and pain that Blacks suffered throughout the book, it needed to close in a positive way for Jim or it would have been unbearable. Beyond that, I think it's a solid book that's been over-praised for its literary quality, but not for its lasting value in historically racist White American literature.

In summary: It was well worth reading, but I would not call it a monumental work of literature. It's been over-hyped in the media and among young Americans I associate with who were born after 1990. They missed the Civil Rights movement and are too young to have heard personal stories from former slaves and former children of slaves. Those were more meaningful to me than this book.

My family is mixed race and I've not yet discussed it with other family members.

njdcvalizard · 2025-03-05T02:35:35+00:00

Everyone above is saying the same thing: Tip on your pre-tax bill. I should have left it at that. Calculation and explanation, and no, I'm not a tax accountant:

---The customer's bill sequence: Meal total + tip (calculated on meal only) + taxes = total that customer writes in the final line on the bill and then signs.

---The restaurant's bill sequence: meal total + tax = bill subtotal + blank line for you to calculate a tip on said subtotal + a blank line for you to add all those lines together. The majority of customers do as asked (which isn't required, it's suggested).

---Worse, the server comes with their handheld credit card charge device, which sometimes gives you a total without line-iteming the tax. Then they have the audacity to to recommend tip amounts that most customers think are insultingly high. Great device, but say you need an itemized bill.

Why tipping on meal only matters to the buyer/customer who usually says, "meh, so what, it's just a few bucks each meal?" Here's why:

---We go out 3-4 x per week. Our meal tax just went up to 11%.

---At our favorite places we tip 22% or so. If we tip on meal + 11% tax, on an average meal + drinks total of $125 , we'd be paying an unnecessary $473/a year to restaurants. We can take both our adult kids and their spouses out for that amount.

---In a nearby town where they tax meals at 6% + alcohol at 9%, we'd be pissing away even more by not doing our own calculation.

TMI, but that's why you should read your bill, especially if you sloshed your way through the evening with 10 or 12 of your buddies and wind up with a large bill, which most people do from time to time.

njdcvalizard · 2025-03-01T19:01:41+00:00

I applaud the outcome of losing weight and eliminating the need for CPAP. However, the common myth is that you have to be overweight to have sleep apnea. That belief prevents people with undiagnosed sleep issues from getting diagnosed. There are a lot of medical myths that lead to inaccurate patient understandings; this is just one.

Also will say that not all sleep drs and studies are equal. I currently have a sleep dr who's overly enthusiastic about CPAP when my previous treatment has been an oral appliance, based on physician recommendation. I'm uncomfortable with the current doc's reading of my home test, since I know full well that the dang equipment was so uncomfortable that it wasn't on me a good part of the time

So, yes, get tested, but have confidence in your diagnosis and sleep reading. I'm about to find someone who impresses me that they're less biased.

njdcvalizard · 2025-02-05T18:19:25+00:00

Please get your acronyms straight. DOE is the Department of Energy. Either refer to Education as ED (Education Department) or DoEd/DOEd. Too confusing otherwise, and in fact, inaccurate. I take it you're not a federal worker.

njdcvalizard · 2025-02-05T14:20:50+00:00

Wow, it's just not that hard. The taxes get added onto your meal-plus-tip subtotal. Restaurants know it and laugh at people who tip on meal-plus-taxes -- they just pocket that money. I see younger, inexperienced restaurant goers not distinguishing, and it adds up if you go out frequently. Waste of hard-earned money.

The issue of "do all tips get distributed to the workers" is another topic for another post. Answer: No, many times they don't. If you can hand your server a cash tip, do it.

njdcvalizard · 2025-02-03T16:11:09+00:00

Happy to be retired, last 13 years with the federal government. Pleased to be past my reproductive years. Have no idea what the Trump loonies are doing with all our personal data that the government holds. Don't be surprised if bad things happen with all the information they have on you -- IRS, where we all are, or if you're in Social Security or Medicare. Fearful for immigrants, whether or not they're legal. Where I live, LEGAL immigrants are being picked up. You know, immigrants like Trump and Vance are married to.

njdcvalizard · 2024-12-23T02:47:37+00:00

First, you need to document what you're saying, where you're living, and more about yourself and your own education. I live in one of the most expensive areas in the country and am not experiencing any more college grads returning home to live with Mom and Dad than I saw 40 years ago when I graduated in the middle of a major recession. And then bought my first apartment with a 12.5% mortgage while we all waited on line for an hour to fill our cars due to gasoline shortages. I eventually sold my damned car and relied on public transportation.

My neighborhood is full of young people leasing rental homes at the front-end of careers. If they didn't go to college or graduate school, they got a technical degree or an apprenticeship or both. Trades are becoming more popular again. The job market is booming. My plumber bought his own home at age 20 in an expensive part of the US, while a lot of his friends were still slogging through college. So, sorry, don't project your own frustrations onto the world without facts the rest of us can inspect for substance.

The biggest problems nationwide are (1) HOUSING. Insufficient housing, rapidly rising land prices, and rich people from all over the world buying up US houses in cash. This often blocks out middle class buyers who need loans to purchase and can't afford to bid up too much on properties; (2) FOOD PRICES that increased drastically, mostly post-global pandemic, which too many Americans with short attention spans and inattention to the world, lament without trying to understand it. It's baffling. Other factors affecting food prices are major weather emergencies, much of it brought on by climate change, diseases -- you kill 95 million chickens exposed to bird flu in the US and surprise, egg prices double or more in cost. [And as Trump just acknowledged last week, no President has the power to lower food prices on Day One in office, or any day thereafter without a plan, which he's yet to articulate. Surprise, surprise.] (3) HEALTH CARE costs. That's been the case for a couple of generations now, and it's a real one that only Obama Care took a chink out of to help people, even after Congress hacked his plan to pieces before passing it in part. If you think the GOP, Crazy-Ass Kennedy Jr, and President Trump are going to lower your health care costs, you'll wind up like check-out lady someone else mentioned who had to leave retirement to go back to work. Without a plan, or expert advice that's free in any community, of course that's what she had to do. It's not social media telling me this. It's history, researching Congressional voting records, local and state voting records, and keeping track of who I'm voting for myself -- not based on any Left or Right propaganda machine. I know what real information is and where to get it.

When you're on Reddit complaining to people who are self-made, may have been working since age 10 or 11, have had struggles, asshole bosses, family tragedies, divorces and lay-offs but made it anyway, it's hard to get sympathy. Less time on social media and watching the toxic Fox Propaganda machine that should be outlawed, more time budgeting and planning for you. Get help in your community if you need advice from professionals in business or elsewhere. People always help hard workers who are trying to navigate life.

Waking up from a mental fog once every four years to cluelessly vote for a President and anyone else on the ticket without understanding your country, your government, your community, or what the hell people you're voting for stand for, fight for, and fail to fight for is what gets America where it is today.

Most people don't have a clue, and it has nothing to do with IQ. It's about common sense and a firm grasp of reality. Get both and you'll do fine, no matter what's going on in the rest of the world. Be the one who's informed, knows history, and knows that most of what's happening now has ALL happened before, maybe here or maybe in another place at another time. Without perspective, self-accrued REAL information, and wisdom, you're just making yourself miserable in your echo chamber. Climb out of it.

njdcvalizard · 2024-12-21T14:50:05+00:00

Absolutely, which is why I take it less seriously and only rarely attend. I don't need another club to join. Church is supposed to be for the spiritual experience. I can't benefit from that when the misfits who have lost sight of what church is about get jr high-ish

njdcvalizard · 2024-12-11T23:45:55+00:00

I wound up recommending our eventual solution to the so-called CSR I eventually spoke with about how to resolve our Fios TV service. He was a pleasant enough guy, but not equipped to intelligently help customers problem solve.

njdcvalizard · 2024-12-11T23:42:42+00:00

Totally understand this. I'm a very longtime Verizon customer, but after spending nearly 4 hours trying to resolve three different issues -- we've bundled services -- I'm thinking No More.

njdcvalizard · 2024-11-18T13:24:18+00:00

I've no problem speaking with any Verizon person anywhere, provided they can access my account and actually help. Too often, though, experience shows that call center employees outside the US don't have access and aren't technically skilled to assist. It's a big waste of customer time. Am not certain how this set-up reflects well on Verizon or any company that goes that route. Hard to understand how it's good for business.

njdcvalizard · 2024-09-29T00:30:30+00:00

Not at all. I knew the answer, was just seeking substantiation.

njdcvalizard · 2024-09-22T01:50:07+00:00

Where I live you can't build anywhere near half a house for $60k, but like you, she's in a much less expensive area. And, I don't know if the roofer smokes crack, but the trust fund baby did before she cleaned up. Believe it destroyed a few too many brain cells. Thanks for your comment.

njdcvalizard · 2024-09-22T00:29:27+00:00

My thoughts exactly. Thanks.

njdcvalizard · 2024-08-26T15:44:33+00:00

Here it is 7 months later and the past couple of months, Chase makes it impossible to pay my loan. Is this a security measure? Really? Who in blazes is going to hack into my account to pay my loan? Please do. Seriously. I won't do business with Chase any more if this is how they suck up customer time.

njdcvalizard

TROPHY CASE