“Dusting is a good example of the futility of trying to put things right. As soon as you dust, the fact of your next dusting has already been established.” ~ George Carlin
I’ve told you before that I’m a slob. I’m not ‘dirty,’ but housekeeping is not my life. I have so many wonderful things I want to do. Cleaning and dusting are almost NEVER at the top of my priority list – unless I have guests arriving. :0)
I use any excuse to avoid cleaning. I can simply ignore things for a time. It’s a good thing my husband is a ‘champion-ignorer,’ giving me a lot of slack, a good thing ALSO because he almost never does any of the cleaning himself. It’s my belief that if you live somewhere, you have a responsibility to try to keep it clean. Are you spouses and children listening out there?
Field Vibe
I’m either a total mess or ready for “House Beautiful” to come and photograph. Maybe I’ll catch the dusting-enthusiasm bug that might be flying around.
I spent several days going through everything in my art room. This was brought on by necessity, not any ‘cleanliness’ or high organization motivation on my part. I’m a slob and I tend to stash things. The shelf just above the counter top in the above picture ‘gave up.’ The supporting brackets failed, and I found the shelf hanging at half mast, having dumped its too-heavy load on the counter below and all over the floor.
I ordered new brackets and I moved everything to other areas so we could put the shelf back up. Then the first priority was to get heavy things down from the remaining shelves all over the room and make sure they were relocated to bottom shelves or in low cabinets, with the rest of any weight distributed as evenly as possible.
The second priority was to throw away as much as I could. I’m a pack rat and I agonize when I think of something that would be perfect for something I’m trying to make and realize I have thrown it away. I forced myself to get rid of a bunch of stuff which will go out in the trash today. I actually ended up with some empty parts of shelves!
There is a certain point, though, where organization can go too far. The only time my art room is truly ‘neat’ is when there isn’t anything going on in there. I guess I have to have some ‘mess’ to be able to function. :0)
So, the ‘reorganize-the-art-room’ project is now officially finished for now. It will always be a work in progress. I’m trying to continue to go through things as I play in there to see what else should go.
I’ve started work on another wood burned sign, and I have received some key chain blanks, and they will get some attention very soon.
I’m trying to rehydrate after another session trying to get the center section of our entertainment center clean.
I freaked out when we moved one end of our 48 inch TV out to try to set up to install the YouTubeTV and finally admitted defeat. The sight was appalling to say the least.
There are at least a gazillion wires running all over the entertainment center. If I could REACH to clean behind the TV, I would be afraid the process of cleaning and vacuuming would unhook something or mess it up. (This morning while I was cleaning I barely touched the clock and it turned off.) There are no words to describe how much dog hair had accumulated, as well as the dust that blows through up here on top of our ridge line.
I’ve been working since I finished my post to you this morning. I’ve rested for 10 minutes in between sessions, except for a longer one when we ate lunch; but, otherwise, I’ve been moving things and cleaning under and behind, first with the whisk broom, then the vacuum, and finally Swiffer Dust & Shine spray and cloths. I just finished vacuuming the carpeted areas on the first floor (our office, the foyer, and the living room) and will do one more session to vacuum the tiled areas ( two half baths, the dining area, the kitchen, the pantry and the utility room.)
I’ve logged 2511 steps so far today, even though MOST of what I’ve been doing involves being up on a ladder, stretching as far as I can to get to the very back of the shelf, moving stuff from one side to the other, etc, as I clean, and then getting down on hands and knees for the three bottom shelves of the center section of the entertainment center. The center covers the whole wall of the living room. I only tackled the center section today. The other two sections will have to wait until another day.
The work has involved ALL my muscles, made me strain to get up and down the ladder, made me almost laugh as I strained to get down on my hands and knees and then up again – followed by vacuuming the whole first floor -a good, thorough workout for this old lady. I will try to do at least a short yoga stretches session this afternoon to try to stretch out and relax as much as possible.
Chair Table – BeforeChair Table – After – One ViewChair Table – After – 2nd View
I am definitely in the running for ‘worst-housekeeper-on-the-planet’ and I’ll continue to show you – embarrassing though it is – examples. I’m not ‘dirty,’ but I tend to do a lot of stuff at once, like reading several books at the same time, and the ‘stuff’ piles up.
Most of the things on my chair table actually belonged elsewhere and had gravitated to the table over a period of time. I’ve also won championship stars for ‘IGNORING’ and ‘PROCRASTINATION,’ two things that aid and abet my ‘worst housekeeper’ title.
Every once in a while the chaos finally gets on my nerves and I decide something is my project for the day. Right now I’m amazed at how much SPACE I have on my table. Monster Cat even looked at me in amazement when she walked around on it last night, big-eyed, obviously wondering where everything went.
SO – today I bask in the glow of having a pristine table beside my chair in the living room, and will choose from a myriad of other candidates for my cleaning out-cleaning off-re-organizing efforts.
I’ve told you before that I’m a slob. No amount of good intentions seems to change it. I’m either ready for Good Housekeeping to come photograph – and woe betide anyone who messes anything up – no cooking going on – etc., or it’s our ‘regular’ house status, where the above sign is true.
Sometimes I can simply ignore the problem. When the hairballs start being wafted across the floor by the air conditioning vents, some of them trying to grab your leg as you pass, it’s time to vacuum. Amber, our 95-pound yellow lab, is the major contributor to showing how bad a housekeeper I am. I’ve tried using a ‘defurminator’ tool on her to preemptively collect hair she will shed. I’ve even tried running the vacuum tool over her back, though she really didn’t like that. More frequent baths don’t help, either. She walks through a room – sometimes right after I’ve run the vacuum AGAIN – and sits down. The hair scatters as she plops down, carried by the breeze.
So at the top of today’s list is vacuuming the tiled areas on the first floor AGAIN this morning and the carpeted areas AGAIN this afternoon. If this would STAY done at least ONE day, I wouldn’t get so hostile…
I have about 10 minutes to relax with a cup of coffee before it’s time to make our lunch. Just in time – after getting the beef stew ingredients in the crock pot for our dinner and just after I’ve pretty much gotten the kitchen clean. The crock pot is going. The dishwasher is going. And now, after lunch, I’ll need to do what I can to clean it up again. This is why I’m such a slob. When things are clean, I just want to stand and admire them. When things are not, I want to ignore them and do something else.
The pest spray guy will be here between 3 and 5 this afternoon. He usually hits the earlier part of the time frame, so I’ll have until about 3 to try to move things off the floor so that he can have a chance to do a good job spraying for us. We’ve been doing pretty well on bugs this year, but I REALLY don’t want to ever worry about scorpions in the house again after being stung by one in our bed several years ago. It still gives me nightmares and makes my skin crawl.
HighlandLakes.com
Added to this, I saw an article about a “Red-Headed Centipede” that really got my attention. When we first moved here, about a hundred years or so ago now, I was sitting in my recliner watching TV. All of a sudden I detected movement on the wall next to me. A CENTIPEDE was crawling up the wall! EEEEWWWWWW! I don’t remember if it was red-headed, blond, brunette, or what, but I freaked out. I insisted the pest people come out the next day and spray for EVERYTHING, including elephants, and have had them come quarterly ever since. Since they’re really good, we hardly ever have bugs that we can see in the house. Every once in awhile, we’ll find a dead one in the paper traps the man leaves in good places.
Got to run fix lunch. Hope you’re having a fine day!
Since the heat index is creeping up, (115 today) – I’ve been working on choosing an area to if not make ‘wonderful,’ at least improve – by throwing away stuff, re-arranging what’s left and doing deeper cleaning.
Today’s choice was our dining area. We have a huge Lazy Susan in the center of our glass dining table. It was overflowing with meds we decided to try and then lost interest in, plus do-dads of all flavors, plus…. It was completely filled and the area AROUND the Lazy Susan was filling up, as well. We had SO much ‘stuff,’ it was making it harder to clean the table. I decided that today was the day on the dining area table and the top of the buffet next to it.
The next area to be tackled is what we call, “The Go-Out Table” where everything in the world (give or take a FEW things) go to live. (You can see it in the background of the upper picture of the dining area.) It’s a mess. I have studiously ignored it due to laziness and ‘other priorities,’ but it’s getting to the point things will start avalanching soon.
I’ll see if I can at least get started on that before I’m planning to mix Killzall and spray for more weeds around 5pm today. Wish me luck?
This vent is on the wall in the kitchen. It’s about 18″ square and is between the kitchen wall and a central ‘shaft’ that goes down to the basement and is between the kitchen and a wall in the living room. A complicating factor is that it’s almost at ceiling level, so I have do to the cleaning up on a ladder.
It’s like there was a steady gale or breeze that goes through the house. I don’t know why this vent is a magnet for every bit of dirt and fuzz on the planet, but it is what it is. The fact that it’s in the kitchen makes the dirt and fuzz also be permeated with cooking oil residue, or other sticky stuff, and of course, our dog Amber’s hair is everywhere in our house, no matter what I do.
I started with the portable vacuum with the brush attachment. Then I soaked a micro cloth with bleachy cleaner. A scrub brush, more cleaner, over and over, and then rinse after rinse after rinse with clean micro cloths. Then dry.
It looks better now, which makes me feel like less of a slob, but won’t ‘stay’ done. I’m trying to designate one spot like this each day, figuring I’ll get to everything in time…
A couple of days ago I began a deep cleaning of our master bathroom. This includes a room with countertop and double lavatories, a whirlpool tub, my walk-in closet, two open closets for supplies, and then another room with a toilet and shower. I found myself also cleaning the guest room bathroom at the same time, thinking that, as I concentrated on one part or another, I could use the same cleaners and get both rooms at the same time. Today I’ll tackle our tub and then the baseboards and floors of both. Wish me luck!
My other project for today is another pruning of my tomato plants.
The long planter seems to be doing well, although there are a few branches that need to be pruned. The ‘niche’ planter beside the house is looking ‘bushy,’ so I’ll need to give it a bit more attention. The idea of the careful pruning is that you get more yield when you get rid of the extra leaves and branches that are taking energy from the main stems that produce the tomatoes. I’ll try to do that today, too.
I also wanted to share the elephant ear planter.
So far, it’s doing well, even though we haven’t gotten the 2nd line for our irrigation system yet. I’ll check it today to see if I need to water by hand.
I’m feeling like “Ms. Grumpy” this morning, in that our plight of being stuck on top of our ridge line continues. We are still unable to find anyone to spread the big truckload of crusher dust. I’ve left our name and phone number with JoesDriveways.com, plus HomeAdvisor, two of the online home worker finder places, hoping that 1) someone calls me back, 2) we can afford the services, and 3) the person can come soon. Fingers and all other appendages are still crossed. Of COURSE it’s rainy today.
Yesterday I finally finished going through the pantry shelves, throwing things away, cleaning and reorganizing what is left. (I won’t go into detail about a can that ‘exploded’ in the back, leaving a mess that had congealed, or the little bitty bugs I vacuumed up and then sprayed for. All is clean now.
CNBC
We just finished gathering our trash, both for the week plus what I’m throwing out from the pantry. We’re acting as though we’ll be able to get it down to the bottom of the driveway tomorrow. Hope springs eternal.
VectorStock
I’m trying to choose something in the house to tackle each day, particularly because 1) the rain seems to be with us forever, 2) we are stuck up here, and 3) I want to feel as if I’m accomplishing SOMETHING each day. There are MANY things needing attention from which to choose…
The pantry is coming together finally. I’ve spent several days in there, trying to make sense of things that we’ve been stashing wherever there was room. Since it’s a walk-in pantry (one of our priorities when we built our home about 35 years ago), there is a lot of room to stash before attention is seriously needed.
This is the ‘supplies’ side of the pantry. It holds kitchen and bathroom supplies, cooking supplies and appliances, cleaning supplies, medicine, etc.
I tackled this yesterday. I hate to admit that I found some cans that had failed on the bottoms, making a mess, expired foods, boxes of food that were old or failing, etc. I cleaned it all out, threw out a bunch, cleaned the shelves and reorganized things so they’re easy to see and access. This was the part my husband noticed yesterday. :0)
This is the area I’m planning to attack today. I have boxes and a loose organization, but again, things have been stashed. Some things need to be tossed, due to age or non-use. I want to organize better, so I can find the things I’ve purchased for particular recipes, as well as figure out things that I need for the new Mediterranean form of cooking I’m starting. I’m hoping that this project will wrap up today. I’m loving the clean smell as I enter the pantry now.
“Scattered to isolated downpours will continue through our Thursday.” – our weather website says. It’s quite dark and rainy outside right now. A GREAT day to stay inside, warm and dry. :0)
Today I’ll concentrate on more ‘recognized’ forms of exercise, since yesterday morning was spent helping my husband change from snow to regular tires on the truck and the only other exercise was yoga. I’ll try to do better today, getting in all my online exercises, plus elliptical and yoga during the day.
I’ll also catch up on cleaning a bit, since the hairballs from Amber are starting to reach out and grab our ankles as we walk by. Hopefully, I can do all the 1st floor tiled areas, and then get the carpeted stuff, too.
No cooking tonight – main meal salad.
I did watch the tomato pruning video again yesterday and went out to see what was what on my plants. I was very conservative, mainly cleaning up the branches that were touching the dirt. I’ll tie the plants to their supports probably this weekend. So far, so good. I didn’t see any clear suckers yet, so I left things alone for now.
A. A. Milne – E. H. Shepard – Winnie the Pooh – DreamsQuotes.com
Yesterday I started trying to once again clean up my art room. A lofty goal, and one that I occasionally actually DO. More often, I START – find something wonderful – and then spend the rest of the allotted time playing. :0)
We converted a third bedroom into my art room years ago. My husband built shelves that go all the way across one end of the room for supplies. On the other end of the room, he built more shelves. On the window side I have two tall sets of shelves…
Then there is the closet which has built-in shelves on one side and a plastic set of shelves on the opposite side.
I have two counters, one long table, and my drafting table.
My art room is a place that allows me escape. Alone time. Time to nurture, to dream, to experiment, to play.
Right now I have to tell you that it looks like a bomb hit. I am working to at least be able to walk through without falling over something or having to move a bunch of stuff.
I’ll do a bit more in there today. Maybe I’ll actually get something cleaned off!
Tuesday my husband and I went hunting for new carpet for our first floor and new floor covering for our porch. We were lucky enough to be able to compromise on some carpet and I got free reign on the porch!
They are planning to install this the first week in May. For the past three days I have been trying to move things off the floor and out of moveable furniture. They will move the furniture and put it back, but only if each piece is EMPTY. Ugh.
I’m lucky that since we just had the work done on our porch, I am down to the essentials out there. It will be a quick matter to move the table, chairs, and small corner of ‘stuff’ out on the deck.
The carpeted area is not nearly so simple. For example, we have TWO 4-drawer file cabinets and ONE 2-drawer file cabinet in the office. I had to move all the files elsewhere so that they can move the file cabinets. We also have ONE 6-shelf piece of furniture, ONE 3-shelf, and TWO 2-shelf pieces of furniture. That’s for starters in the office….
Yesterday I moved all the files into TWO huge rectangular laundry baskets on the floor in the dining area. Today I emptied the 6-shelf piece and will soon start carrying drawers in my desk up the stair to keep in my art room.
This is all good exercise, but it really wears me out fast. I’m also appalled at all the DIRT under and behind the furniture that has sat in the same place for years…
It’s a good thing that I have a good amount of time to get this done
I have never been “Suzy Homemaker,” but I should really be shot for being such a lousy housekeeper. :0(
Drafting Table When I’m Working – 1Drafting Table When I’m Working – 2
When ideas are coming fast and furious, rattling around in my poor brain until I’m dreaming of them, it’s a relief – and so much fun! – to spend time zipping from one idea and medium to the next, shoving things out of the way enough that I can keep playing.
Every once in a while, though, the adult emerges and looks – appalled – at the mess I’ve created once again. The stern taskmaster says that I MUST clean things up before starting anything else.
I went upstairs several days ago. intending to at least START with the tractor in there, but got some ideas for new magnets and I simply gave in to the need to play. I had a GREAT time, got the magnets finished, priced them yesterday and put them into the basket I take back and forth to my local booth in town.
I then listened to the taskmaster and decided to at LEAST get the drafting table cleared off.
Drafting Table Cleaned Off – 1Drafting Table Cleaned Off – 2
My plan is to continue my cleaning efforts up there today. at LEAST getting another table cleaned off.
Two days ago I went to my art room full of good intentions to clean things up and organize. I’ve been reasonably productive lately, so things are really a mess. :0)
I started with my drafting table because that’s where I do most of my work. As I cleaned it off, I got some ideas for new magnets to make for sale in my booth in Rags & Roses. The cleaning stopped as I started gathering the things I wanted…
Raising Children Network
Today I will go up and see if I can actually finish cleaning off the drafting table, as well as tackling more of the art room…
Full disclosure – if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you already KNOW what a slob I am, and along with that, a lousy housekeeper. I decided that my current project will be cleaning up my art room – AGAIN.
The only time my art room is clean is when I’m not in there and have no current art projects going on. I have some images I took for my shops on Etsy, and they look really good. But nothing is happening in those images. :0)
I started cleaning in here this afternoon. I decided to start with my drafting table. I made a bit of progress, but then got caught up in a new idea for painted magnets. I started rummaging around, gathering things to try my new idea.
Under here is a drafting table, believe it or not.
And under here is a nice work table.
My art room has actually looked worse before. Sometimes it’s a challenge to walk from the door to the drafting table. :0)
Tomorrow I’ll show you more of the cleaning project, plus progress on the new magnets!
It’s 44, bleak and rainy here this morning. A wonderful time to be inside and dry, with a cup of coffee, family, and lots of animals.
My lap has been like Grand Central Station, first with 95-pound-Amber wanting to get up in my office chair with me as I type, (we have hugged three or four times already today) then each of 2 cats – Abby and Smoke – and sometimes both at the same time!
Today’s project is to repurpose the shelves in the guest room. There are still a few books on the shelves and a stuffed closet (my off season clothes and extra bedding, etc. I’m going to try to make things more organized and accessible while doing some good cleaning.
I don’t have to cook today! I don’t MIND the actual cooking – it’s the ‘figuring-what-to-have-for-dinner’ problem always hanging over my head that gets to me. Since we have been getting lots of HEALTHY frozen meals from REAL FOOD and STU’S CLEAN COOKIN’ in Greenwood, I only cook on the weekends, simplifying my life considerably. Today we’ll have the 2nd half of the chicken fingers meals we enjoyed at Lunch Bunch Friday plus more of the sausage/egg/cheese bake I made yesterday.
Yesterday I vacuumed our first floor tiled areas (kitchen, pantry, two half-baths, dining area, and utility room) and I got an entire dog’s worth of hair along with the usual stuff. With our temperatures getting cooler, I am HOPING that the dog will decide that she NEEDS her hair to stay warm and quit tossing it on the floors with abandon.
I hope that YOUR Sunday has lots of sunshine and happiness. If not, stay safe, warm, and dry.
Amber is a very boisterous 3-year-old, 95-pound yellow lab. Her hair is short, but just as we are about to go into cooler weather, she is driving me nuts shedding hair! She is happy, healthy, and seems to shed an entire dog on a regular basis.
Yesterday is a typical example. I vacuumed our first floor, appalled at the huge amount of hair accumulated in the vacuum. I cleaned out the vacuum canister and then showed my husband – who had to be reminded that this wasn’t an accumulation over several times of vacuuming – I got it all with ONE session of vacuuming.
I then went up to tackle the second floor, starting in our bathroom and bed room. I have a smaller vacuum up there, but FILLED IT UP with the vacuuming of the two rooms!
I will finish the job today, with the guest room, guest bath, my art room, the 2nd floor hallway, and the stairs.
I am definitely not Suzy Homemaker, and I’m a slob, but I vacuum an average of twice a week and this accumulation seems over the top.
I am thinking of giving Amber a buzz cut. She has a coat we bought her for cold weather. She hates it, but that may be the price she has to pay for shedding whole dogs of hair cavalierly…
I’ve been upstairs in our master bathroom most of the afternoon. I have filled half a leaf bag with things I’m throwing away. I have things I can donate to others. I have gone through ONE of the floor-to-ceiling shelves, pulling everything out and going through, deciding what needs to be done. I have cleaned the shelves and put things back. I have taken things downstairs to be thrown away. A bag of things is by my office chair to be added to the donation list. Other things have been moved elsewhere.
My husband won’t be able to tell I’ve been upstairs or done anything. It will probably take me through the weekend to finish going through the second set of floor-to-ceiling shelves, medicine cabinet, and then clean the bathroom. THEN my husband will mainly notice that our counter top looks neater and that the rugs have been vacuumed.
I’m lucky that he DOESN’T notice a lot of things. Lots of people would go crazy with all the STUFF we have, or the fact that I’m such a lousy housekeeper.
Having him finally notice a difference when I’ve been cleaning for several days is good enough. :0)
The combination of zipping into my art room, doing a project, and zipping out again, plus having other projects take priority, resulted in a mess in my art room.
I just got some new wooden earring blanks that I have ideas for, but decided that my art room deserved a good straightening up and cleaning before I started something new. As you can see, things are in a mess.
I spent quite a bit of time there this afternoon, and think I did enough good that I can begin the new earrings tomorrow with a clean conscious. –
Amber’s feeding station is a pretty well-designed heavy rubber/plastic? thing that is in two parts – the upper part that holds the water and food bowls, and the lower tray part. Amber is creative, though, and immediately decided that she would take the upper part (the whole thing – full of water and food) away to ‘somewhere else.’ This led to my husband screwing it into the wall.
This was really gross, with dog hair, white water dental hygiene additive residue, dog slobber, etc. I was able to get the tray out from under the screwed-in top part and scrubbed it in the kitchen sink. I tried to unscrew the top part, but the screw wasn’t in straight and I was afraid I would mess up the whole thing trying to get it out. I just brought all the cleaning stuff to the station and did the best I could.
It isn’t perfect, but at least I’m not cringing when I walk past – several times a day – now.
PROJECT # 2
My kitchen is a busy place in our house. I try to clean as I go, but it gets to the point where I need to scrub the stove, scrub the sink, move everything off the counters, etc. Today was the day.
The only problem with all this is that now I don’t want to mess it up! :0)
We call this the “Go Out Table” because we stage things we need to take with us for errands, etc. It also houses my husband’s diabetic supplies. Under it is a bin with stuff going one way or the other from the booth in town I rent with my friend.
As I’m embarrassed to show you, it becomes a catch-all for a lot of other ‘stuff,’ to the point the stacks may decide to topple and slide off any minute.
This was today’s project.
(I had to slip my work on it in because my husband’s project was in the basement and he wanted my help there, too. )
My husband’s question was, “Where did everything GO?”
Now we can pick something up when we leave the house without an avalanche. :0)
The cleaning out of the aquarium today resulted in its designation as ‘project of the day.’ We changed from a more regular filter system, like you can buy at Walmart, to a more expensive, fancier type filtration system. It came in a lot of parts with three different things acting together as the filter. I got a bit intimidated while reading the directions, so I asked for my husband’s help.
At least half an hour later, we finally had the filter ready to go into the tank. We put it aside while we did the regular clean out. I like the fact that the majority of this filter system is on the outside of the tank, giving the sweet fish more room to swim around. If you look carefully at the top of the picture above, you can see (above the blue) the outside of the filter.
This picture gives another view from the other end of the tank. You can also see the filtered water going back into the tank. When we got it back together, the top didn’t fit anymore, so my husband took it out to the shop and cut off part of it to make it fit. There are three filters in this one: a foam piece on the bottom, then activated charcoal, and then a bio filter of a bunch of pellet like things you put into the provided mesh bag. You have to work to get these rinsed and into the filter. This filter is made to handle tanks from 5 to 20 gallons. Since ours is a 5, this should be MORE than adequate to do the task.
You change out each part of the filter at a different time. We’re supposed to replace the foam filter every two months, the charcoal every month, and the bio filter every three months. (I have the directions on the table beside me so that I can mark my calendar with when each thing is supposed to be changed.)
So far, I haven’t seen any reaction from the fish – yea or nay. I really hope that this new style of filter keeps the water cleaner for longer.
So the aquarium clean out and filter installation turned out to be the project of the day today.