That sounds great @Graven Image ! Hope that goes well for you. We had big problems with excess furniture too, stored in our garage and on our front porch, which looked terrible. Once it was all cleared away, I felt so much better mentally. I'm working really hard now on not acquiring things that are going to contribute to clutter and start weighing me down again. I am sure it will be good for my budget too, eventually.
I couldn't help wondering whether it was the throws or the dogs which you washed often; and (rather more alarmingly) which you were going to turn into loose covers ...
Glad to hear @ChastMastr that there are folk around helping you out! I am doing better with the dishwasher loading and managing to run that before bed, which makes for a much more pleasant morning start. Today is my "big" housework day with bins, recycling, cat litter changing and all.
Where we live plastic shopping bags have been phased out and even though this is a good thing, it means we'll have to start buying bin liners for the first time in about 6 years. I am still working through the last of the hoarded bags, but the day is coming!
Today I've dealt with the cat feeding station. I've managed to wipe the skirting board at the bottom of the wall. The spilled cat biscuits have been cleaned up and the mats that the bowls sit on have been wiped. I've swept all the spilled biscuits from the floor and cleaned all other slops in the general area. I am sure in a day or so it will look as though I've done nothing, but it looks good today!
I've rushed out and retrieved the empty garbage post collection and have topped up the bird's water, if I can get to the vacuuming and sort out the dinner plans, I'll be ahead of the game today!
Mr Lamb is out of state, and the house has never looked better (well, bit of hyperbole there, but still....) I am hoping to mount a sneak attack on the garage before he returns, and see how long it takes him to realize that he can now find all his tools.
Mr Lamb is out of state, and the house has never looked better (well, bit of hyperbole there, but still....) I am hoping to mount a sneak attack on the garage before he returns, and see how long it takes him to realize that he can now find all his tools.
My house is also much tidier when Mr Nen's away . He has still not commented on the amazing state of his immaculately folded t-shirt drawer so I don't know whether he is pleased with it or seething about it - it's probably best to find out which before I proceed .
Right, I've loaded the dishwasher, emptied the food waste bin, cleaned the bathroom, the scullery and the kitchen-diner, emptied the roomba (twice), hauled furniture about - all in 21°C and sticky with it. If ladies only glow, then I'm glowing like a pig.
And I've got a vaccie arm (though not AFAICT any of the other side effects).
No Clean Ing here for a few days. Mr Boogs is tiling the kitchen. It's six months since the kitchen was finished - it's taken this long for us to choose the tiles! 🙂
Friends are picking me up tomorrow for an afternoon walk… So, on the off-chance they might wish to step into the house for a moment, I spent two hours dusting, polishing, swabbing and hoovering.
After all that, I bet they just honk the car horn to signal they are ready to go… Still, the house looks delightful and I feel like I have had a workout too, so it is all positive 🤣
Like @Lamb Chopped and @Nenya my house is vastly tidier when the NE Man is away.
In fairness, it's partly because I simplify my meals, so there is less cooking and fewer dishes / pans etc to wash and put away, and that helps.
Whenever he goes away, after I've dropped him off at the airport / train station I come home, tidy / dust / polish our living room, then sit down with a cup of coffee, gaze around and say, out loud, with satisfaction, "It's going to stay tidy until he gets home! For the next x days, every coffee drunk in this room, will be drunk in a tidy room!"
I must admit, the fact I have 2 teenage piano students visiting the house on an almost weekly basis in term time, and often out of term time as well, does motivate me to ensure the basics of living room and music room hoovering and dusting, along with bathroom and kitchen cleaning, are done weekly, at least.
Though, it does take overnight house guests to trigger the deep clean mode for all rooms including the spare room and an inability to stop coughing (which means the dust has built up) in my bedroom.
@ChastMastr I have regularly reused the same plate all day if I'm having non-messy meals saving the washing up for when I've got sufficient to justify filling a bowl of hot water!
When Mr RoS is away for a few days I wash-up once a day, carrying plate cup and utensils forward until after my last meal.
I was going to say "unless I have had fish" as I think that plate should not hang around for long. but, as my main meal is eaten in the evening it will still be only the one lot of washing up
I too stripped the bed and put a wash on first thing. Changing the bed linen does not involve turning the mattress as it is impossible for me. Bed is now airing. Must remember to remake it sometime before bedtime.
Mugs are a problem. If I don’t wash and scrub it straightaway, tea stains set and are hard to shift. My favourite mug, given by a very special pupil when she left school, is chipped and faded, but seems unbreakable.
Traditionally Saturday is cleaning day. It dates back to my working days, but now if I get to the weekend and haven’t done some essential cleaning, it gets done on Saturday morning. Anything non- essential can wait for a long time.
It would take a team of carthorses to turn our mattress.
For breakfast I juiced some apples, a nectarine, a quarter melon, a lime and a tangerine. The juicer has to be dismantled and rinsed off immediately as fruit pulp is the sort of thing you can stick elephants to the ceiling with.
I've tottered round to the shop for weekend bits and pieces, and I'm wondering about tackling the hedge.
Speaking of greenery, I take it nobody's local council can afford to weed the pavements? Some stretches round here are like meadows, and the gutters are practically wildlife corridors. I fear it will all rebound in the winter when the drains get blocked.
Our pavements are similarly be-weeded. I keep the bit in front of our house weeded, partially because further along the street one neighbour makes merry with weedkiller and I don't want him to have any reason to take his watering can of weedkiller anywhere near us.
Weedy pavements and kerbsides here too. I keep it tidy, but can’t help thinking I shouldn’t have to take a hoe to the kerb.
Off out for a walk with friends in a wee while, having had no other exercise so far today (busy with some editorial stuff this morning, but at least it is done and the rest of the weekend is mine). Fine walking weather today: 18-19C, broken cloud with sunny intervals, a wee bit of a breeze.
I think councils have been told to use less pesticides, including herbicides. They don't have the money to employ people, so the pavements just get greener.
"a tidy house" is still a phrase with theoretical meaning only, as far as I'm concerned
Mr Lamb is out of state, and the house has never looked better (well, bit of hyperbole there, but still....) I am hoping to mount a sneak attack on the garage before he returns, and see how long it takes him to realize that he can now find all his tools.
Careful with that. Mrs Gramps attacked the utility room to donate some extra tools I had lying around to the Habitat for Humanity Store. She didn't say anything, and I did not notice--until I needed one of those tools for a project. Let's just say it was not pretty. Now I have to go out and replace those tools.
I must admit, the fact I have 2 teenage piano students visiting the house on an almost weekly basis in term time, and often out of term time as well, does motivate me to ensure the basics of living room and music room hoovering and dusting, along with bathroom and kitchen cleaning, are done weekly, at least.
Though, it does take overnight house guests to trigger the deep clean mode for all rooms including the spare room and an inability to stop coughing (which means the dust has built up) in my bedroom.
@ChastMastr I have regularly reused the same plate all day if I'm having non-messy meals saving the washing up for when I've got sufficient to justify filling a bowl of hot water!
My mother once wanted to pull a surprise party for Dad's birthday. When he got home that evening, he changed his work clothes for a sports shirt and pants, then he waited. Finally, the guests started to show up. Dad was not surprised. Mom could not understand how he knew what was going to happen. Turns out she deep cleaned the house before the party, and he noticed.
Mr P had at least 3 of everything you only need one of. It became a standing joke as we sorted his study and the garage. Some things you might want two or three of ( eg for different rooms) he would have about 8 or 10. I have now enough candles, batteries and torches for many power cuts.
Mr P had at least 3 of everything you only need one of. It became a standing joke as we sorted his study and the garage. Some things you might want two or three of ( eg for different rooms) he would have about 8 or 10. I have now enough candles, batteries and torches for many power cuts.
People just don't seem to understand some people need three of everything so they can be sure they have the right tool. Just because I had one hammer with a metal handle, does not preclude me having another handle with a wooden handle. Just because I had one crescent wrench does not say I don't need another. I tried to tell Mrs. Gramps one was in metric, the other was imperial--I don't think she believed me.
Oh well, I still love the person that has shared my bed for 46 years.
I must admit, the fact I have 2 teenage piano students visiting the house on an almost weekly basis in term time, and often out of term time as well, does motivate me to ensure the basics of living room and music room hoovering and dusting, along with bathroom and kitchen cleaning, are done weekly, at least.
Though, it does take overnight house guests to trigger the deep clean mode for all rooms including the spare room and an inability to stop coughing (which means the dust has built up) in my bedroom.
@ChastMastr I have regularly reused the same plate all day if I'm having non-messy meals saving the washing up for when I've got sufficient to justify filling a bowl of hot water!
Oh, um, I'm talking about after breakfast with dried egg yolk and sausage grease and maybe hot sauce or salsa, and all that sort of thing, in a big ol' bowl. As long as it's not something like mayonnaise, which could spoil. But I'm still trying to stick to clean plates/bowls more now. Being kind of isolated recently has not helped me with that, but thank God, I'm less isolated now that I can go out and stuff.
@ChastMastr I have regularly reused the same plate all day if I'm having non-messy meals saving the washing up for when I've got sufficient to justify filling a bowl of hot water!
Oh, um, I'm talking about after breakfast with dried egg yolk and sausage grease and maybe hot sauce or salsa, and all that sort of thing, in a big ol' bowl. As long as it's not something like mayonnaise, which could spoil. But I'm still trying to stick to clean plates/bowls more now. Being kind of isolated recently has not helped me with that, but thank God, I'm less isolated now that I can go out and stuff.
Really glad you're less isolated now! I'm probably more careful than most about food related hygiene for various reasons, (easily upset digestive system, hatred of rodents, supporting catering students through the theory for their food hygiene certificates being three of them) but I'm well aware there are other matters domestic that will get left in periods of busy-ness or ill-health of any variety which would bother other people significantly. We each do what we have to do to get by.
I do have higher standards for food than, say, dusting. As you say, innards, which if not irritable, are certainly easily annoyed. Living with someone with highly compromised immune system. I always segregate preparation surfaces and utensils for meat or fish, and vegetables. I wear vinyl gloves in the kitchen (though this has more to do with dry skin than hygiene). One thing that absolutely turns me is the slightest trace of butter in a jar of spread - say Marmite or marmalade (wipe the knife already).
Kitchen towel and tinfoil* are your friends.
*not just lining roasting tins or trays, but enclosing food: fish in a parcel, or chicken in a tent - keeps in the juices and the flavour.
*not just lining roasting tins or trays, but enclosing food: fish in a parcel, or chicken in a tent - keeps in the juices and the flavour.
We're no longer sure that food cooked in foil is really a good thing to eat. We've adopted the practice of wrapping the food in baking paper before it gets its foil.
My understanding is that acidic foods shouldn’t be in contact with aluminium foil (especially if heated), because some small amount of metal dissolves into the food.
On a similar principle, fatty foods should not be in touch with some plastic films because some of the chemicals from the plastic, being oil soluble, may leach into the food.
I once lost a large Dundee cake, a handmade gift from a friend, which I wrapped in foil, put in a cake tin and hid in a safe place for consumption on a special occasion.
I forgot about it.
The 'safe place' was in the depths of one of those cupboards that is formed when two runs of kitchen cupboatds meet at a corner. The kind where one stores those items very rarely required, and to get to them it is necessary to empty the shelves immediately accessible, and be able to bend sideways at 90degrees while kneeling. It was over two years before I next burrowed into the depths, and even when I unearthed the tin it struck no chord.
When the contents were unwrapped the foil had visibly dissolved into the surface in places, but the friend made wonderful cakes, and I had been married to Mr RoS for long enough to have absorbed his waste-not, want-not philosophy, so I just trimmed about half an inch from every surface and we ate it.
It was still moist and delicious!
That was nigh on 40 years ago, and whatever damage it may have done to our systems has long become just part of the mix of ailments that life has bestowed upon us.
(I do not feel the need to know how far into the cake the dissolved foil might have spread, any more than I need to know how far the mould spreads invisibly down into a jar of jam, or into a block of cheese - just a bit into what the eye doesn't see is where I'm ready to stop cutting.)
A few years back we went to a celebration of some friends' Big Wedding Anniversary and one of their daughters had lovingly saved the top tier of her own wedding (some years before) cake for enjoying on that day. Unfortunately it was, in both taste and texture, like sawdust.
Sorting at Casa Nen has come to a temporary halt as I've had other - more appealing - things to do, but let it be known I'd never dare to so much as suggest something in the garage or shed (or the several cupboards in the utility room which have been taken over by Mr Nen's things) is surplus to requirements.
Just because I had one hammer with a metal handle, does not preclude me having another handle with a wooden handle.
I realise that this was a typo, (and I do understand and relate to what you're saying) but just wanted to say I do love the imagery of 'another handle with a wooden handle'....like Jeremiah's wheels within wheels, here we have handles for handles!😃
Husband has several sets of socket sets and other tools. I think at one point we had many duplicates due to stuff getting lost in our disaster of a garage. Now that we have adequate room for a workshop space, stuff is now stored in boxes, with all specific "job" stuff together and other tools hanging on wall-mounted pegboard so at hand and easily seen. Husband has added some lights as the garage does not have a window near his work area and also wall mounted son's old TV so he can quickly look up videos for reference if it's a job he's not done before.
Comments
It’s like Game of Throws round here. I have managed to pass on the glut of cushions though…
We use throws to protect the furniture due to dogs. I wash them often.I'm thinking of making them into loose chair covers, to look neater.
I'll see myself out.
Where we live plastic shopping bags have been phased out and even though this is a good thing, it means we'll have to start buying bin liners for the first time in about 6 years. I am still working through the last of the hoarded bags, but the day is coming!
I've rushed out and retrieved the empty garbage post collection and have topped up the bird's water, if I can get to the vacuuming and sort out the dinner plans, I'll be ahead of the game today!
My house is also much tidier when Mr Nen's away
And I've got a vaccie arm (though not AFAICT any of the other side effects).
It has been a bit sticky today - even my North-facing office was warmer than enough.
Good job, some days that is all I can do.
Hoovering, dusting and cleaning the bathroom, not so much ... 🙃
After all that, I bet they just honk the car horn to signal they are ready to go… Still, the house looks delightful and I feel like I have had a workout too, so it is all positive 🤣
In fairness, it's partly because I simplify my meals, so there is less cooking and fewer dishes / pans etc to wash and put away, and that helps.
Whenever he goes away, after I've dropped him off at the airport / train station I come home, tidy / dust / polish our living room, then sit down with a cup of coffee, gaze around and say, out loud, with satisfaction, "It's going to stay tidy until he gets home! For the next x days, every coffee drunk in this room, will be drunk in a tidy room!"
(Am I the only one who’s done this? Don’t get me wrong, it was useful when my mobility made dealing with dishes harder…)
Though, it does take overnight house guests to trigger the deep clean mode for all rooms including the spare room and an inability to stop coughing (which means the dust has built up) in my bedroom.
@ChastMastr I have regularly reused the same plate all day if I'm having non-messy meals saving the washing up for when I've got sufficient to justify filling a bowl of hot water!
As Quentin Crisp said, wash dishes only after fish.
I wouldn't go that far, but I do always think: Is a plate really necessary? Would kitchen towel do? Which for anything not wet, it often does.
So far - 9 am - I've changed the bed linen (king-size mattress weighing several tons) and put the sheets and towels on to wash. Now, breakfast!
I was going to say "unless I have had fish" as I think that plate should not hang around for long. but, as my main meal is eaten in the evening it will still be only the one lot of washing up Indeed, or the chopping board if one has been used in the meal preparation.
Mugs are a problem. If I don’t wash and scrub it straightaway, tea stains set and are hard to shift. My favourite mug, given by a very special pupil when she left school, is chipped and faded, but seems unbreakable.
Traditionally Saturday is cleaning day. It dates back to my working days, but now if I get to the weekend and haven’t done some essential cleaning, it gets done on Saturday morning. Anything non- essential can wait for a long time.
For breakfast I juiced some apples, a nectarine, a quarter melon, a lime and a tangerine. The juicer has to be dismantled and rinsed off immediately as fruit pulp is the sort of thing you can stick elephants to the ceiling with.
I've tottered round to the shop for weekend bits and pieces, and I'm wondering about tackling the hedge.
Speaking of greenery, I take it nobody's local council can afford to weed the pavements? Some stretches round here are like meadows, and the gutters are practically wildlife corridors. I fear it will all rebound in the winter when the drains get blocked.
Off out for a walk with friends in a wee while, having had no other exercise so far today (busy with some editorial stuff this morning, but at least it is done and the rest of the weekend is mine). Fine walking weather today: 18-19C, broken cloud with sunny intervals, a wee bit of a breeze.
"a tidy house" is still a phrase with theoretical meaning only, as far as I'm concerned
Careful with that. Mrs Gramps attacked the utility room to donate some extra tools I had lying around to the Habitat for Humanity Store. She didn't say anything, and I did not notice--until I needed one of those tools for a project. Let's just say it was not pretty. Now I have to go out and replace those tools.
My mother once wanted to pull a surprise party for Dad's birthday. When he got home that evening, he changed his work clothes for a sports shirt and pants, then he waited. Finally, the guests started to show up. Dad was not surprised. Mom could not understand how he knew what was going to happen. Turns out she deep cleaned the house before the party, and he noticed.
Mr. Lamb routinely can't find the tool he wants, and is forced to buy a replacement (I don't say anything. I have my own faults.).
I expect to come up with about five of everything, except when there's six.
People just don't seem to understand some people need three of everything so they can be sure they have the right tool. Just because I had one hammer with a metal handle, does not preclude me having another handle with a wooden handle. Just because I had one crescent wrench does not say I don't need another. I tried to tell Mrs. Gramps one was in metric, the other was imperial--I don't think she believed me.
Oh well, I still love the person that has shared my bed for 46 years.
Enough of a rant.
Oh, um, I'm talking about after breakfast with dried egg yolk and sausage grease and maybe hot sauce or salsa, and all that sort of thing, in a big ol' bowl. As long as it's not something like mayonnaise, which could spoil. But I'm still trying to stick to clean plates/bowls more now. Being kind of isolated recently has not helped me with that, but thank God, I'm less isolated now that I can go out and stuff.
Really glad you're less isolated now! I'm probably more careful than most about food related hygiene for various reasons, (easily upset digestive system, hatred of rodents, supporting catering students through the theory for their food hygiene certificates being three of them) but I'm well aware there are other matters domestic that will get left in periods of busy-ness or ill-health of any variety which would bother other people significantly. We each do what we have to do to get by.
Kitchen towel and tinfoil* are your friends.
*not just lining roasting tins or trays, but enclosing food: fish in a parcel, or chicken in a tent - keeps in the juices and the flavour.
We're no longer sure that food cooked in foil is really a good thing to eat. We've adopted the practice of wrapping the food in baking paper before it gets its foil.
On a similar principle, fatty foods should not be in touch with some plastic films because some of the chemicals from the plastic, being oil soluble, may leach into the food.
I forgot about it.
The 'safe place' was in the depths of one of those cupboards that is formed when two runs of kitchen cupboatds meet at a corner. The kind where one stores those items very rarely required, and to get to them it is necessary to empty the shelves immediately accessible, and be able to bend sideways at 90degrees while kneeling. It was over two years before I next burrowed into the depths, and even when I unearthed the tin it struck no chord.
When the contents were unwrapped the foil had visibly dissolved into the surface in places, but the friend made wonderful cakes, and I had been married to Mr RoS for long enough to have absorbed his waste-not, want-not philosophy, so I just trimmed about half an inch from every surface and we ate it.
It was still moist and delicious!
That was nigh on 40 years ago, and whatever damage it may have done to our systems has long become just part of the mix of ailments that life has bestowed upon us.
(I do not feel the need to know how far into the cake the dissolved foil might have spread, any more than I need to know how far the mould spreads invisibly down into a jar of jam, or into a block of cheese - just a bit into what the eye doesn't see is where I'm ready to stop cutting.)
Sunday. How's it going?
Sorting at Casa Nen has come to a temporary halt as I've had other - more appealing - things to do, but let it be known I'd never dare to so much as suggest something in the garage or shed (or the several cupboards in the utility room which have been taken over by Mr Nen's things) is surplus to requirements.