diff --git a/src/class_singleCleaner.py b/src/class_singleCleaner.py
index d92a37ec..e5512e7c 100644
--- a/src/class_singleCleaner.py
+++ b/src/class_singleCleaner.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import threading
 import shared
 import time
 import sys
+from helper_sql import *
 
 '''The singleCleaner class is a timer-driven thread that cleans data structures to free memory, resends messages when a remote node doesn't respond, and sends pong messages to keep connections alive if the network isn't busy.
 It cleans these data structures in memory:
@@ -27,21 +28,21 @@ class singleCleaner(threading.Thread):
         timeWeLastClearedInventoryAndPubkeysTables = 0
 
         while True:
-            shared.sqlLock.acquire()
             shared.UISignalQueue.put((
                 'updateStatusBar', 'Doing housekeeping (Flushing inventory in memory to disk...)'))
             for hash, storedValue in shared.inventory.items():
                 objectType, streamNumber, payload, receivedTime = storedValue
                 if int(time.time()) - 3600 > receivedTime:
-                    t = (hash, objectType, streamNumber, payload, receivedTime,'')
-                    shared.sqlSubmitQueue.put(
-                        '''INSERT INTO inventory VALUES (?,?,?,?,?,?)''')
-                    shared.sqlSubmitQueue.put(t)
-                    shared.sqlReturnQueue.get()
+                    sqlExecute(
+                        '''INSERT INTO inventory VALUES (?,?,?,?,?,?)''',
+                        hash,
+                        objectType,
+                        streamNumber,
+                        payload,
+                        receivedTime,
+                        '')
                     del shared.inventory[hash]
-            shared.sqlSubmitQueue.put('commit')
             shared.UISignalQueue.put(('updateStatusBar', ''))
-            shared.sqlLock.release()
             shared.broadcastToSendDataQueues((
                 0, 'pong', 'no data'))  # commands the sendData threads to send out a pong message if they haven't sent anything else in the last five minutes. The socket timeout-time is 10 minutes.
             # If we are running as a daemon then we are going to fill up the UI
@@ -53,29 +54,20 @@ class singleCleaner(threading.Thread):
                 timeWeLastClearedInventoryAndPubkeysTables = int(time.time())
                 # inventory (moves data from the inventory data structure to
                 # the on-disk sql database)
-                shared.sqlLock.acquire()
                 # inventory (clears pubkeys after 28 days and everything else
                 # after 2 days and 12 hours)
-                t = (int(time.time()) - shared.lengthOfTimeToLeaveObjectsInInventory, int(
-                    time.time()) - shared.lengthOfTimeToHoldOnToAllPubkeys)
-                shared.sqlSubmitQueue.put(
-                    '''DELETE FROM inventory WHERE (receivedtime<? AND objecttype<>'pubkey') OR (receivedtime<?  AND objecttype='pubkey') ''')
-                shared.sqlSubmitQueue.put(t)
-                shared.sqlReturnQueue.get()
+                sqlExecute(
+                    '''DELETE FROM inventory WHERE (receivedtime<? AND objecttype<>'pubkey') OR (receivedtime<?  AND objecttype='pubkey') ''',
+                    int(time.time()) - shared.lengthOfTimeToLeaveObjectsInInventory,
+                    int(time.time()) - shared.lengthOfTimeToHoldOnToAllPubkeys)
 
                 # pubkeys
-                t = (int(time.time()) - shared.lengthOfTimeToHoldOnToAllPubkeys,)
-                shared.sqlSubmitQueue.put(
-                    '''DELETE FROM pubkeys WHERE time<? AND usedpersonally='no' ''')
-                shared.sqlSubmitQueue.put(t)
-                shared.sqlReturnQueue.get()
-                shared.sqlSubmitQueue.put('commit')
+                sqlExecute(
+                    '''DELETE FROM pubkeys WHERE time<? AND usedpersonally='no' ''',
+                    int(time.time()) - shared.lengthOfTimeToHoldOnToAllPubkeys)
 
-                t = ()
-                shared.sqlSubmitQueue.put(
+                queryreturn = sqlQuery(
                     '''select toaddress, toripe, fromaddress, subject, message, ackdata, lastactiontime, status, pubkeyretrynumber, msgretrynumber FROM sent WHERE ((status='awaitingpubkey' OR status='msgsent') AND folder='sent') ''')  # If the message's folder='trash' then we'll ignore it.
-                shared.sqlSubmitQueue.put(t)
-                queryreturn = shared.sqlReturnQueue.get()
                 for row in queryreturn:
                     if len(row) < 5:
                         with shared.printLock:
@@ -96,27 +88,23 @@ class singleCleaner(threading.Thread):
 
                             shared.UISignalQueue.put((
                                 'updateStatusBar', 'Doing work necessary to again attempt to request a public key...'))
-                            t = (int(
-                                time.time()), pubkeyretrynumber + 1, toripe)
-                            shared.sqlSubmitQueue.put(
-                                '''UPDATE sent SET lastactiontime=?, pubkeyretrynumber=?, status='msgqueued' WHERE toripe=?''')
-                            shared.sqlSubmitQueue.put(t)
-                            shared.sqlReturnQueue.get()
-                            shared.sqlSubmitQueue.put('commit')
+                            t = ()
+                            sqlExecute(
+                                '''UPDATE sent SET lastactiontime=?, pubkeyretrynumber=?, status='msgqueued' WHERE toripe=?''',
+                                int(time.time()),
+                                pubkeyretrynumber + 1,
+                                toripe)
                             shared.workerQueue.put(('sendmessage', ''))
                     else:  # status == msgsent
                         if int(time.time()) - lastactiontime > (shared.maximumAgeOfAnObjectThatIAmWillingToAccept * (2 ** (msgretrynumber))):
                             print 'It has been a long time and we haven\'t heard an acknowledgement to our msg. Sending again.'
-                            t = (int(
-                                time.time()), msgretrynumber + 1, 'msgqueued', ackdata)
-                            shared.sqlSubmitQueue.put(
-                                '''UPDATE sent SET lastactiontime=?, msgretrynumber=?, status=? WHERE ackdata=?''')
-                            shared.sqlSubmitQueue.put(t)
-                            shared.sqlReturnQueue.get()
-                            shared.sqlSubmitQueue.put('commit')
+                            sqlExecute(
+                                '''UPDATE sent SET lastactiontime=?, msgretrynumber=?, status=? WHERE ackdata=?''',
+                                int(time.time()),
+                                msgretrynumber + 1,
+                                'msgqueued',
+                                ackdata)
                             shared.workerQueue.put(('sendmessage', ''))
                             shared.UISignalQueue.put((
                                 'updateStatusBar', 'Doing work necessary to again attempt to deliver a message...'))
-                shared.sqlSubmitQueue.put('commit')
-                shared.sqlLock.release()
             time.sleep(300)