I'm going to say something a bit shocking, so you may want to sit down for this. I have a baffling obsession. I love cleaning my bathroom.

You read that correctly -- I love cleaning my bathroom. That chore everyone supposedly hates! No, I haven't recently suffered a concussion. I enjoy the whole thing -- swabbing the toilet bowl, scrubbing the tub, making my tile sparkle. I actually look forward to it. Here's why.

While staying at a good friend's house a couple of weeks ago, we were getting ready to turn in for the night, so I went to put my empty wine glass empty glass of water in the sink. I noticed there were a few more dishes in there left over from dinner -- and I wasn't sure what to do about them.

You see, I'm one of those people who has absolutely no problem leaving dirty dishes piled in the sink until the next morning, but I know not everyone is able to go to bed without tidying up. To be polite, I asked her whether she wanted me to load the dishwasher, and to my delight, she laughed and rolled her eyes.

It turns out she's just like me and thinks there are more important things in life than having a perfectly clean house.

Well, I don't know if it's because I sent a text message that she'd missed some spots, or if it's because she's dealing with some personal problems, but my housekeeper has up and disappeared.

After the first week of panic, and the second when the realization hit that I was going to have to locate a mop, the dust has settled (so to speak), and I found out something pretty shocking about myself.

There's nothing I love more than a trip to the store to splurge on all things home. Whether it's a new organizer for my desk or a fresh pair of curtains to brighten up my living room, sprucing things up is a definite mood-booster. My guilty pleasure, though? Cleaning products. I know, it's lame -- but it's always fun to try out new brands and stock up. And the fresh smells?! I love.

With that said, cleaning products can certainly get expensive. By the time I've grabbed everything I need to tidy up my bathroom -- it's not completely out of the question to be $50 in the hole. Which is what brings me to my latest quick fix: Good 'ol baking soda.

But really, it's shocking how many different ways us normal folk can use a can of Arm & Hammer to clean surfaces in every room of the home. Check out these 5 surprising ways baking soda can clean your home:

For the most part, I'd say my house is pretty clean and organized. I detest clutter, have an addiction to Swiffering my floors, and am fortunate enough to have some help come in and do the heavy cleaning a couple of times a month. It's important to me that my house be comfortable and inviting, and to me that means clean.

My minivan however ... oh what a different story that is. Attempting to keep that thing clean is one of my greatest failures in life ... or at least the most evident. There are crumbs in the crevices, trash that seemingly grows itself in the back row, and fingerprints and some strange film covering my windows most days. No matter how hard I try -- and implore my kids to try -- I open that handy automatic sliding door and unveil a den of chaos and uncleanliness. It's embarrassing to say the least.

So that's why when I heard about the latest feature Honda is offering in its new minivans, I was blown away. It's almost as good as a self-cleaning car.

This is a sponsored post by Scrubbing Bubbles.

Hi! It’s Mindy here, from Scrubbing Bubbles. I know that busy moms have to make time for so many important things during the course of the day -- and that cleaning the bathroom doesn't always make it to the top of the priority list! I’m here to show you how you can keep the bathrooms in your home clean in minutes a day, with just a little bit of prep. These are my secrets for bathroom touch-up cleaning!

There are many things I look forward to about spring: Warmer weather, daffodils popping everywhere, longer days with more sunlight. But one thing I'm never excited about is spring cleaning. Everyone's talking about it right now, and it's kind of giving me a headache -- mostly because I know my home really needs it.

So fine. Spring cleaning, SPRING CLEANING. All right already. I'll do it, but I'm not gonna like it. If only there were a website with lots of pretty pictures to motivate me... Pinterest to the rescue! Here's some inspiring spring cleaning Pinterest boards to follow if you're like me and need help getting started.

One of my huge pet peeves is lending out dishes and storage containers of mine, only to never see them again. No matter how big I write my name on them or how diligent I am about trying to retrieve them, I still end up losing them by the dozen. As frustrating as that is, however, I would much prefer to sacrifice a few rather than encounter what one man did when his sister-in-law returned his casserole dish after Thanksgiving.

First of all, it took her four months to get it back to him. That might have been excusable, except for the fact that it was dirty. Like, REALLY dirty, with half the sweet potato casserole it contained still in it -- FOUR MONTHS LATER. You can imagine the horrible, moldy mess that might be, right? Well, you don't have to just imagine, because the dude posted this picture of it on Reddit. Oh yes, he did.