Tag Archives: cleaning

October 20, 2024 · 2:50 pm

Almost Finished

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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.

Okay. One more session…

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August 21, 2024 · 11:00 am

Day’s Work in 2 Hours

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I’m just now back at the computer after errands and chores.

We went to two grocery stores, then got our mail on the way back. We carried things in and put everything away.

I then got the makings of chili in the crock pot for tonight and then cut up a humongous Honeydew melon my husband grabbed. It took three large storage containers to hold all the chunks.

Then we cleaned up and started the dishwasher. WHEW! That’s a lot for these years-challenged people.

Now I’m resting, drinking both ice water and coffee at the same time. I know, it’s weird, but I need the coffee to stay awake until I can fix and eat lunch and then I’ll take a nap. I need the ice water to re-hydrate and cool off.

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The rest of the day, once lunch stuff is cleaned up, will be devoted to fun stuff.

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July 3, 2024 · 8:54 am

Wednesday 7-3-2024

Kay Oliver-Pinterest

As I sit here at my computer, I’m hot even THINKING of our heat index of up to 112 from around noon until 9pm this evening. I really hope we won’t be this way all summer, though my husband is pleased he hasn’t had to mow the grass.

I’ll get out when I get back from my haircut and a couple of other things to see if we have ripe tomatoes to bring in. The tomato suckers that are sitting on my dining area table are still alive, though really droopy. If they continue to live, I’m scheduled to transplant them to the outdoor planter around July 15th. If I have to start over, it’s well worth the effort, though I’ll try a bit different technique.

Vecteezy

Since we are basically staying inside these days, I’m trying to tackle some cleaning and reorganizing issues. Yesterday I spent about an hour reorganizing a couple of areas in the master bath, getting things put away and cleaned up for the first time in a while. I also vacuumed the tiled areas on the first floor (pantry, kitchen, dining area, two half baths, ‘foyer’ to the living room) and later vacuumed the carpeted areas of the first floor (living room, office, foyer), getting a whole canister full of Amber hair. Honestly, I’m amazed this dog isn’t completely bald with all the hair she sheds. My husband thinks I’m a fanatic about vacuuming, but is amazed/appalled when I show him the trash can after I’ve cleaned out the canister each time I vacuum.

I read this morning where a bunch of people here were without power from around 8pm until about 12:30am yesterday after someone hit an electric pole with their car. All electricity was restored by 6am this morning, thank goodness. The news didn’t say anything about the person who hit the pole, but I hope they are all right. We were lucky that we weren’t affected by the outage.

I hope that you have a wonderful day ahead, and that you enjoy our glorious 4th of July holiday tomorrow. Stay safe and cool.

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January 14, 2024 · 9:53 am

Balmy 9 Degrees

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Our local weather station in Fort Smith is listing 1 degree now, but OUR thermometers are showing 9, so we’re breaking out the swim suits and are preparing to enjoy the balmy weather.

I feel guilty when I whine, so suffice to say this cold is unusual for Arkansas. We’re dripping water so hopefully our water pipes don’t freeze. With snow predicted to start at noon and continue through tomorrow, my articulate comment is “UGH.”

My husband asked if I would make my hamburger casserole, so I’ll do that today. Unbelievably, our dog, Amber, is still shedding at a fantastic rate, so I’ll put vacuuming the tiled areas on the list for today, as well.

I’m planning to spend part of the day in my art room, experimenting and scheming, if not actually trying to produce something with my new wood-burning (pyrography) tools.

Another thing I was forced to notice, since we’re running water in the bathrooms and keeping the cabinet doors open, is that I need to clean out the under-the-cabinet areas in the two half-baths on our first floor. They are embarrassingly jammed full of ‘stuff’ that I’ve been ignoring for far too long. With the doors open, I can’t ignore them now, so that will go on the list for today, too.

I hope that wherever you are today, you are safe and warm, doing something fun with your day.

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March 1, 2023 · 10:18 am

Happy March 2023

Filling the Jars

Happy March! Celebrations are going on in the Lewis household that February is gone for another year and that the start of spring isn’t too far away.

We’re in for a BUNCH of rain and possibly severe storms starting today and running through Friday, with a flood watch. Since we live on top of a hill, if we make it through the thunderstorms, gusty winds, and hail, we’re good. :0)

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I’m doing laundry, changing bed linens, vacuuming and other exciting stuff today. Right now we have lots of happy looking daffodils all around the yard, so it looks like our yard is celebrating, too.

This is an older photo, when we covered the boxes with tarps. This year we used fabric weed control cut to length and held down with bricks. They have lasted all winter and through the thunderstorms and gusty winds so far.

I’ll get serious about figuring what I’d like to plant in my garden this year. I’m hoping for lots of lettuce and spinach plants for sale soon. Also sweet onions of some type. Tomato plants, of course, radish seeds, celery plants transferred from buying bunches at the store. I’m thinking about trying some herbs on my kitchen divider this year. It’ll be fun to start digging in the dirt again.

I hope that this first day of March is a beautiful one for you.

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February 21, 2023 · 9:18 am

Tuesday 2-21-2023

Cheezburger

We picked up our truck yesterday around 2pm. It was a delight driving it home because there was NO noise when I put on the brakes. NONE. :0) We had to have the rotors replaced on the front, but they said the back ones were fine. We have new brake pads all around. A new lease on life!

Today will be a quiet one with nothing we HAVE to do, other than pull the emptied trash can back up where we can tether it to the pole. We are due for thunderstorms tomorrow and don’t want the can to blow away. My husband scoffed at me when I mentioned that, but then had to admit we’ve learned the hard way about gusty winds here. Our 200+ pound robot has been blown off the side of the driveway and it about killed us to get him back up where he belonged. We now have a chain around his neck, tying him to poles front and back so he jut LEANS when the wind hits him just right. Straightening him up is enough of a job.

Women’s Health

A shout-out this morning to my dear friend Marsha. She has started walking each day and is ordering a pedal-type exercise thingie to use every day in order to build up her muscles and make her stronger. I know how hard it is to make the decision to move more and not let aging take your quality of life. Harder still to actually DO it every day. Walking and pedaling for her – yoga, elliptical and weights for me. We’ll encourage each other to keep it up. GOOOOO, MARSHA!

I’m trying to deep clean something each day. I’ve just finished the kitchen now, and today I’ll scrub the two half-baths on the first floor. I’ll try to contain my excitement. :0)

I hope your Tuesday is a really nice one.

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February 19, 2023 · 10:07 am

It’s Sunday 2-19-2023

Ala Hamdon – 500px Blog

Happy Sunday!

It’s beautiful here in Arkansas today – 50 already and sunny, with a high of 67 forecast. I’ll take it and enjoy every minute!

This has been a productive week for me.

  • I lost 4 pounds this week, although no celebratory balloons yet. This is the loss of pounds I had GAINED over the past two months or so, so until I get into new territory, I’m just quietly pleased I’ve finally come up with an eating plan that seems to be working – at least so far.
  • I finished getting our tax stuff together. I’ll call first thing tomorrow to make sure they are open (President’s Day) before we make the trip to Ft. Smith, but we plan to leave it with our tax guy.
  • I’ve been spending time in my art room, working on a couple of projects and having a good time.
  • I’ve been cleaning some things in the house.

Also, in the “Big Relief” category –

  • My husband has ordered a used PC already assembled, that we hope we can use in the shop. After pricing the parts needed to rebuild one of the computers we had, we found out it was cheaper to do it this way. Hooray!
  • My husband suggested that we could have someone else change out the brake pads in the truck, rather than our trying to do this ourselves. Our appointment is tomorrow at 10:00. Hooray!

I hope today is a good one for you, too.

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June 10, 2022 · 10:46 am

Rethinking Cleaning

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I’ve admitted to you that I’m a slob. I can make really great excuses for why my house is a mess, but I know that gets old, even if I get more and more creative…

I ordered a book called, “The Lost Art of House Cleaning – How to Clean using only 3 products for only $20 per year!” The book is by Jan M. Dougherty. I received it yesterday and read about 3/4 of it. I’ll finish the first read today.

So far, I like her “PATH” idea, where you move only in one direction, (top to bottom, back to front, left to right – depending on your ‘handedness,”) making sure whatever you’re doing is clean before moving to the next part, dividing the room into ‘slices,’ so there are stopping points where you can rest or stop and continue at another time. I also like the idea of not trying to reorganize stuff as you clean. I’ve found how distracting and time-consuming that is, making you exhausted before you get to the real cleaning. I’m going order and gather some supplies and then will try this. I’ll report back to you. Even if I don’t follow every suggestion, several of her ideas make sense, so my work will be more efficient and my house will be cleaner.

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March 18, 2022 · 9:11 am

Ah – Rain!

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It started raining last night and is still raining today.

I got my early spring garden planted, so I’m really happy about the rain, even if we drown going to Lunch Bunch today. :0)

Two days ago I got some leaf lettuce, spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower plants in my raised bed, square foot garden. Yesterday I planted to bunches of red onion sets. I don’t have the irrigation timer installed yet, so I was really glad to see we were expecting rain last night. The garden is started! I’ll probably plant some radish seeds, plus more lettuce (my husband likes me to try head lettuce) if we can find it, but basically, the early spring garden is in. (This photo shows three of the six planter boxes. I took it before I planted the onion sets.)

I’m looking forward to seeing my friends for Lunch Bunch today. It’s a big moment of ‘normal’ in a chaotic, scary world, and I treasure it, and my friends. We’ll probably stop at Real Food on the way home to see if we can find some goodies to bring home.

Since working outside isn’t in the cards today, I’ll concentrate on cleaning some of the inside. Most of what I vacuum up is dog hair. You would think Amber would be completely bald by now.

I hope that you can stay safe, warm and dry today.

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October 10, 2021 · 10:34 am

Thoughts on a Sunday 10-10-2021

Sara Pawsey-Pinterest

It’s a gorgeous day today. Sunshine and 72! I’m enjoying it now because we’re supposed to get severe storms from about midnight through 4am tomorrow. Hang on to your hats!

I’m heading out to our shop as soon as I finish talking with you. I’m going to try to finish side 1 of the Wonder Wart-Hog mailbox decoration. I don’t know if it will pass muster with my husband, and this is one of his favorite comic book characters. I’ll just do the best I can and then take him out to the shop later to see if I should keep going or if I should get the paint off, mark it again, and start over. Time will tell.

I’m not sure what else is on tap today. I should probably do some house cleaning –

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The above is SO true for me. Out to the shop!

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November 7, 2018 · 12:03 pm

Sand/Water Blasting and Bulldozing…

Sun Sentinel

Actually, although I DO sandblasting on glassware and tools in the shop, and water blasting on the deck, concrete, and more, I am using the kitchen sink and cleaners for today’s project of scrubbing out all our trash containers, putting in trashcan liners (as I SHOULD have long ago) and putting things back together.

I’m getting several messages from this project –

  • I’m spending much of the day doing something I COULD have avoided if I had put trashcan liners in all the containers when they were clean, umpteen years ago
  • Scrubbing out trash cans is a LOT of work
  • Putting the clean trash cans with fresh liners back gives me good exercise – particularly the ones that belong upstairs
  • We have a LOT of trash cans! Since I’m scrubbing them all, I’m counting – and we have 21 trash cans inside this house!

I have SIX remaining to scrub, line, and put back.

If I still have energy, I’m planning to clean out the double cabinet area under the kitchen sink. (Can you imagine – things tend to fall out of there whenever I try to get something!)  :0(

With these two projects for the day and my 35 minutes on my elliptical trainer, I can feel good about my activity level today.

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July 3, 2018 · 3:48 pm

Defurminating the Dog

Amber is miffed at me because we went out onto the screened porch with a trashcan and a ‘furminator’ tool and I proceeded to try to thin her hair. She’s been panting like crazy in this heat even with plopping herself into her kiddie pool almost every time she goes out. I even gave her a cookie after she had taken all she was going to tolerate, but she’s still miffed.

furminator

This started when I was watching the news today and Amber sat down on her bed which is right under the TV. She plops, rather than sitting more elegantly, and this resulted in a cloud of hair flying in all directions.

After getting 1/3 of a large trash can full of hair today, I’ve decided that we’ll try to do this at least every other day. Even though I’m not winning any popularity contests with this, it will make her more comfortable and it will help MY mood. I’ve been vacuuming a LOT (for me) and each time end up with a canister full of dog hair and YUCK from our floors. Maybe I’ll feel that I’m making more progress in this as we thin Amber’s coat a little.

Meanwhile, she looks at me, huffs, and lays her head down again – on the floor because she can’t fit into Molly’s bed. :0)

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January 8, 2018 · 1:06 pm

Out With the Old….

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I’ve been working in my dining area and kitchen for parts of 3 days now, trying to purge/reorganize/clean. I have now done

  • the window sill
  • the top of the buffet
  • the dining table
  • the divider top between the kitchen and the dining area
  • the kitchen counter tops

It’s amazing how much ‘stuff’ accumulates around here. I swear to you that there is some hanky-panky and things are reproducing when we’re not watching. What is helping me on the counter tops is picturing my husband with too many plastic bags in each hands fighting with the dog when he’s trying to bring in a load from the car and plopping the whole bunch down on a part of the counter top. I’m trying to make sure that there is nothing breakable, “spillable,” or “dumpable” on a good part of each area, having learned the hard way that no thought will be given as the bags come plopping down. In this effort I’ve relocated a lot of things and gotten rid of the rest.

I’m enjoying a rest now and then I’ll tackle what we call the ‘go-out’ table (holding things we want to take with us the next time we go to town) which unfortunately also acts as a dumping table.

The remaining project for today will be trying to make sense of my hats and scarves in the utility room. This is more complicated than it sounds because nothing can be down low, due to the cats. Nothing can be high, because then I can’t reach them, and hard decisions will have to be made on which things should be given away…

As I move through the house, though, I’m feeling better about being in better control of my space. I’m getting rid of a BUNCH of ‘stuff,’ relocating some things that should live elsewhere, gathering things that I’ll donate to the library or the Veterans Thrift Store, and things being easier to clean when there are fewer THINGS.

I’m hoping that this urge to get my things in better order will continue. It’s quite unusual for this old broad, so I’m doing a bunch of it as quickly as I can…

 

 

 

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