A. Ready

Do you ever feel like your domestic help is calling the shots rather than you? Over on UrbanBaby.com, a mom is concerned about her cleaning lady's profligate use of supplies and avoidance of "green" products. The cleaning woman, in fact, requests specific non-green cleaning agents, and her employer complies despite concerns that the fumes may affect her baby.

Washington Heights is not everyone's ideal nesting spot, but few would deny that Riverside Drive has its charms, even at the northern end of the island. This week's no-fee rental is a renovated two-bedroom, one bath offered by Goldfarb Properties at Mandel Court (920 Riverside Drive, at 162nd Street).

The end-of-year Manhattan real estate sales reports issued this week, along with the media response (both conveniently compiled by CurbedNY here), were a bit discombobulating. Sales volume was indisputably down, sales prices were up year-over-year and down from the third quarter, and--depending on the source--the overall market itself was stable, flat, up or down.

Look past the lack of staging and observe that this one-bedroom, one-bath apartment on a prime Brooklyn Heights block (24 Monroe Place, #8C) has the advantage of both location and pre-war charm. The windowed eat-in kitchen has been recently renovated, and the apartment has three closets.

Despite the rather high $1,185/month maintenance, there is no doorman. But the building has a live-in super, an attractive roof deck, and bike storage.  

Did you know that vodka can remove ball-point pen stains from white leather upholstery? We did not, and there are a number of other cleaning ideas that caught us by surprise in ApartmentTherapy.com's collection of readers' cleaning tips.  Use rubbing alcohol to keep your butcher block shiny and grime free.