apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

anything by blue six (aquarian-angel.com) or on the naked music label (naked-music.com) helps me to keep moving and then chill.

I turn on Fred - XM channel 44 - and clean to the sounds of obscure 80's bands.

I normally crank the cheesy pop music while cleaning. The new Justin Timberlake album has been in heavy rotation during spring cleaning this year. Queen, David Bowie, The Beatles, and Beck are others that are in regular rotation.

I listen to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and anything loud with lots of screaming really (workout music works too, though sometimes it's too cheery, depending on the state of my bathroom) so that I have a musical equivalent of how I'm feeling right then to accompany all the cursing and sweating I'm doing.

There's nothing like matching the music to fit the task. I've developed a new appreciation for bluegrass and delta blues while mopping the floor.

When I was a kid, my mom's cleaning album was Chris Isaak's San Francisco Days. I used to run for cover when I heard it come on, but these days it makes me remember how much fun it was to scramble during the last song so we'd be done when it was over!

I listen to music sometimes when I clean, but since I usually find myself catching up on chores on Saturday mornings, I wind up listening to NPR radio shows like "This American Life" and "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!" Every now and then, I might put in a movie--usually one I know by heart so that I'm not constantly watching the screen. Ocean's 11 is fun, particularly if you run the commentary.

The soundtrack to Strictly Ballroom makes gliding across the floor with a broom soooo much more fun.

THE STROKES! 1st impression of earth... so energetic

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. I love how all the songs vary which makes it more interesting when cleaning.

harlie-- i do the same thing! saturday i wake up earlier and do chores while listening to Ira Glass (swoon!) and i let myself sleep in on sundays. otherwise i just put my iPod on shuffle and listen to whatever comes up...Talking Heads, Will Oldham, Shins, Shout Out Louds, Bodies of Water, the Mika album is a total guilty pleasure...

After working at the Gap for a few years, I got in the habit of getting the list home and playing it while working. It made time pass by so quick, because in my head I wasn't working, I was at the gap. lol After a while (I changed jobs) I moved to a few other cds. Top picks:

1. Buddha Bar Collection (about 30 bucks each, but so worht it.
2. Hed Kandi's The Mix Series. Nonstop, so I don't stop.
3. Anything rock/pop, but I've noticed that hiphop makes it a lot easier to drift off, start dancing and forget that I'm doing housework. lol

more often that not, i listen to jay'z- "hardknock life"... :) i also love lauryn's miseducation and usher's confessions....

It may sound strange, but Fiona Apple's "Extraordinary Machine" is really good to clean to...and I listen to Frou Frou "Details" and Coldplay pretty much anytime I'm alone in our apartment, whether it be cleaning, cooking...you name it! Singing along at the top of my lungs is also a requirement :)

This American Life...or my iTunes on shuffle.

I have a whole cleaning mix set up on iTunes that I let shuffle while I scrub, mop, and dust. It boils down to a lot of Justin Timberlake, Talking Heads, and energetic New Wave.

Astrud Gilberto.

Nikka Costa is great to dance/clean to. I adore her "Everybody Got Their Something" - it's impossible to not dance when listening to it!

I usually listen to continuously-mixed MP3 mixes that I put together with mixing software once or twice a week. Latest mix from last night: Soul II Soul "Joy"; Sounds of Blackness "Optimistic"; Legacy of Sound feat Meja "Happy", Alanis Morissette "Crazy" (Claude Le Gache Mix); Jamiroquai "Space Cowboy" (Musaphia & Mayhem 2006 Reconstruction Mix); Simply Red "Fake" (Love to Inifinity Club Mix); Lighthouse Family "High" (Vocal 12" Mix); The Farm "All Together Now"; Alphaville "Forever Young" (Extended Dance Mix). A bit cheesy, but all higher BPM choices to keep your tempo up.

Two words:

Scissor Sisters.

The Beach Boys!
My playlist starts at Help Me Rhonda and includes You're So Good to Me and Wouldn't It Be Nice.
Singing badly at the top of my lungs is essential to dish washing fun.
Guaranteed to make you happy.

A few of many choices, depending on my mood:

The Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense
The Ramones: It's Alive
The Mighty Blue Kings: Meet Me in Uptown

Anything with some spunk to it... The Jets, We are Scientists, The Strokes.

astrud gilberto
hell yes, gretchenkjer

Pink Martini "Hey Eugene"....makes me feel so elegant

....Or anything by Rufus and Chaka Khan

i think i'm the only one that doesn't like listening to music while i clean! but i don't listen to music much anyways. but especially not when cleaning.

beck, white stripes, pumpkins, and kings of leon.

oh and LOTs of Flaming Lips.

and talking heads first and foremost, duh!! how could i forget to mention!!

tony b i just re-watched stop making sense for the billionth time last night- i just absolutely love david byrne.

I'm always alone when I clean, so this is the time when the embarrassing music comes out. And for a semi-cool twenty-five year old woman, this means music I REALLY shouldn't love. Poison. White Snake. What can I say? This is also the time of my music snob shame: the Kelly Clarkson and the Justin Timberlake make appearances...

i actually like to listen to spoken. i have 1 radio show that i really like. it's 3 hours long, so i can listen to it w/o sitting on my butt.

Blur
Queen
Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell

The Brandenburg Concertos by Bach.

I'm quite fond of Moby's "Everything is Wrong." Fast-paced, dance-able, and the album is only 40 minutes or so long, so the cleaning flies by.

Tina Turner at full volume. The energy in her vocals helps to energize me as I clean!

My guilty pleasure? The soundtrack from The Committments.
It's a good thing that the vacuum is a little loud, because I sing along to all of those soul oldies.

Anytime I am cleaning up or cooking, I always seem to listen to “Jehro” and “Federico Aubele”. Maybe a little mellow at times, I think it’s nice light cleaning music. :-)

Beatles loud.

i like nelly furtado

Housework by The B-52's

(Kate Pierson/Tim Rollins)

I am doin' my housework
Got no time to fool 'round
I am doin' my housework
Cleanin' up and I'm gettin' down

It'll be so clean
You can eat off the floor
You can eat off the wall
Or anywhere at all
'Cause I'll make this place
A party pad for two
And I'm not stoppin' 'til I do

I'm so tired of this vacuum
Need a man to help soon
Don't need a man to make a move on me
I need a man to move in with me

Don't need a man to treat me mean
I need a man to help me clean

Someone who's heaven sent
Someone to help pay rent
Someone to share dreams and wishes
Someone to help me do the dishes

Housework
Housework
Housework

Girl Talk

punk punk punk

My 80s pop mix (which is funny because I was just a little kid in the 80s): Blondie, Billie Idol, Madonna, the Smiths ... so long as it's fast-fast-fast- and loud.