Category: Homemaking

Reworked

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Barbara has been doing an occasional series on laundry.

Laundry is one of those chores that we do one way and we stick with it. Even when our system isn’t working well for us, we stubbornly stick to that system.

I freely admit to being a slave to my laundry system, which hasn’t worked well for us since we moved into this house. That was in 1998.

Our old home was compact, with no wasted space, but not much to spare either. The utility closet (big enough for furnace, water heater, washer and dryer and nothing else) was just inside the front door–in the dining room. I had room for one laundry basket on top of the dryer. So laundry got done and delivered to the bedrooms, to be put away. I had no choice–there was nowhere else to put it.

Then we moved to this house, which has a laundry room in the basement. Since I had always folded the laundry right there by my dryer in the old house, I did the same here. But it was so easy to fold the laundry and place it in a laundry basket–one for each family member.

Five laundry baskets take up an awful lot of floor space in the basement.

And by the end of the day, I would forget to hassle nag remind my kids to carry their laundry baskets upstairs and put their clothes away. So they’d go to the basement to look for stuff, and rummage through the baskets, and I’d get annoyed because they had unfolded all the neatly-folded laundry.

It wasn’t working for me. It wasn’t working too well for them, either.

So I tried something different–which, for me, is a big step. The only time I willingly try something different is when I’m cooking. I stepped out of my Laundry (Dis)Comfort Zone. When the dryer was done, I dumped everything into a basket and took it right upstairs. I folded it on my bed and delivered the folded things to everyone else’s beds. Now when they get home from school there is laundry on their beds, to be put away. There are no baskets cluttering up my basement floor, full of tumbled clothes. There is no “Mom, where’s my (insert name of article of clothing here)?” There are no mad rushes to the basement downstairs to find that missing piece of a uniform.

I deliver as I go, and it’s amazing how much better I feel about getting that done. The only thing I need to tweak is what happens to the Lonely Socks, since I’m no longer in the basement to utilize the Lonely Sock Clothesline.

It feels so good to retool a system and have it work out so much better!

So On Target

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I love the Zits comic. Even though my teenage son is away at college, I can relate to so much of this.

Like today’s installment.  I AM THAT MOM.  And it’s wearing me down.

You might have to click on the picture to view a larger version.

Neat and Tidy

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Here’s my MESSY desk as it usually looks!

My desk is always a mess. I think what I really need is one of those desks the size of a twin bed; failing that, one with a hutch on top of it that reaches about as high as I can without leaving my chair. I’m a visual person, so I like the stuff I need to be on top of the desk and easily at hand.

Since I don’t have my desk in a room where I can shut the door and hide the mess, but rather in the family room, right by the front door, where anyone who walks in can see just how cluttered my desk can be, I knew that I had to do something about it.  But there’s just nowhere to put all the things I like to keep within easy reach.

So I started hunting around for a desktop organizer that would leave me enough room for my laptop, iPod speakers, planner and coffee cup.   And I found this cool organizer at CSN Stores:  the Safco Products Three-Way Radius Front Corner Organizer.  You can set this organizer three different ways on your desk, depending on the space you want to create.  Assembly was required, but it took only about 15 minutes and required NO tools:  the whole thing is put together with glue-coated pegs that needed only water to activate.  (I did find a rubber mallet useful to get the larger sides inserted all the way.)

Nice and neat!

This desk organizer has space for everything!  I tried it all three ways before I decided on the way it fits my desk best, and if I ever move this desk to a different space, I can adjust the orientation of the organizer to fit that location.  There’s room to keep all those little things like Post-it pads and iPod cords, and a flat surface on top where I keep my phone when it’s charging, a little jar of candy, my mug of small change, and the cup of chore sticks, which deserve a post of their own.

I’ve got a neat desk now, and it’s pretty easy to keep it that way!

Full disclosure: I was provided with a credit to CSN Stores and chose this product for my review. I was not compensated for the review in any other fashion other than the free product.

What I Need Right Now

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I crave routine. I really need it, and I miss it.

The lack of routine is what drives me crazy about summer vacation. That, and the lack of quiet. I need a good deal of both of those in order to keep my sanity about me.

This school year, I haven’t managed to get the routine working yet. The kids have been in school 2 1/2 weeks and things have just not calmed down. Every so often, the non-routine of my days gets to me and I have a meltdown moment.

I’m wondering if this is all a reminder to me that when I put others’ needs ahead of my need for routine, the whole world will not come crashing down around me. The dishes might not get done until 10 PM. The ironing will be pushed back another day…and another day…and maybe even another. (And my ironing will be pushed away completely, since I’m wearing sweatshirts on these cooler days, so no one can tell if I ironed my t-shirt!)

So maybe, those times when my routine is interrupted by the needs of those I love and care for, I can work in a new routine, and offer that interruption for the intention of the one who needs me most right then.

With Apologies to Laura Numeroff

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I’m living one of those “If You Give a Mouse A Cookie” stories.

We have thermal drapes in the family room, hanging on the dreaded Tranverse Rods–the kind of curtain rods that have this little rope pull, and if you yank the rope in the right direction, the curtains open (or close.)

If you yank the rope too hard, the little plastic thingies that attach to the back of the curtain rod break off and fly across the room. Pretty soon your drapes aren’t hanging on by much.

So I went to the store to get replacement plastic thingies. I admit that I was hoping that I couldn’t find them. This way I could justify spending my whole freelance-writing paycheck on a new curtain rod and ring clips for my drapes. Unfortunately, I found the plastic thingies. I bought 3 dozen (this window is about 12 feet across, so there are a lot of hooks for the drapes.)

So, with my apologies to Laura Numeroff, here is my story.

If you buy replacement plastic thingies for your curtain rod, you’ll have to take the curtain rod off the brackets to install them.

As you take the curtain rod down from the brackets, you will drop a screw. It will fall behind the couch.

After you move the couch to retrieve the dropped hardware, you will notice that the sheer curtains between the drapes and the windows are awfully dusty. You will decide that as long as you’ve got the drapes down anyway, you might as well wash the sheers.

When you put the curtains in the washing machine, it’s not a full load. So you will go back upstairs and take down the living-room sheers as well, and put them in the washing machine.

Heading back to the drapes, you will decide that you can’t hang dusty drapes over clean sheers. You will remove all the pointy metal hooks so you can wash the drapes next.

As you remove the pointy metal hooks, you will poke your finger. You will need a Band-Aid. Then you will notice that some of the pointy metal hooks are missing. You will remember that you had spare hooks from the last time you took down the drapes.

(You will try not to think about how long it has been since you took down the drapes.)

You will rummage around in your “spare parts” stashes in the basement. You will knock a package of light bulbs behind the water heater. You will remember that you have more light bulbs that you just got at Shop Rite and need to put away.

After you find the bag of spare pointy metal hooks, you will put all the other pointy metal hooks in the same bag. You will gather up all the drapes, which no longer have pointy metal hooks stuck to them, and put them next to the washing machine.

Then you will sit down to install the new replacement plastic thingies. You will find that they slide in easily from the end of the drapery rod. You will also find that they get caught on the remnants of the old plastic thingies that broke off when someone yanked the rope too hard.

You will try various tools in an attempt to remove the pieces of the old plastic thingies. Nothing will fit. You will go hunting for your Swiss Army Knife, which you took out of your purse before you went on vacation, because you didn’t think it would pass through security.

And finally, you will finish installing the new plastic thingies, put the drapery rod back up, hang the clean sheers, stick the pointy metal clips into the clean drapes, and put the drapes back on the rod.

And you will curse the day that you chose such terrible window treatments.

Power to the People

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This evening as I laboriously covered Middle Sister’s workbooks in contact paper (per her teachers’ requirements) I received a phone call from some political survey. They had a captive audience in me at that moment.

I answered the usual questions like “if the election would be held tomorrow, would you vote for the incumbent or the challenger” in the race for governor of my state. I rated my trust level of the various candidates on certain issues on a scale from 0 to 100. For the record, nobody got 100 on anything.

And then I was asked a question that quite surprised me: had my labor union contacted me and encouraged me to vote for one candidate or the other?

“I’m a homemaker,” I replied. “I don’t belong to a labor union. And if I did, I wouldn’t let their opinion of how I should vote influence my vote.”

After I got off the phone, I started wondering what it would be like if homemakers did have a labor union. It’s not like we get paid or anything (not in money, anyway.) What kind of circumstances or events would inspire the Homemakers’ Union to stage a strike?

Interesting…

An Encouraging Word on a Busy Day

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Today was one of those days when this “stay-at-home mom” wasn’t home much. I took Little Brother to the library. I zipped to the Dollar Store and CVS to pick up a few necessities (sidewalk chalk among them, because it just isn’t summer without an abundance of sidewalk chalk). I picked up some Chick-Fil-A lunch. I took Little Brother to the pool, and encouraged him as he practiced his swimming and then cheered for him when he passed his swim test (he’s allowed in the Big Pool now without me–yippee!) After dinner I delivered Big Brother to cross-country practice and then took Little Brother to Middle Sister’s basketball game, where I cheered for her team and provided first-aid necessities when a team member got injured.

At home, I did manage to get 2 loads of laundry hung on the line, bathrooms “swished and swiped,” dinner cooked, served and cleaned up, and my writing for the day done.

I was despairing over getting stuff done (or more correctly, not getting stuff done.) And then a friend of mine sent me a link to the 50s Housewife blog. I was curious so I followed it–and I found this: “Someone Has to Do It”.

Then I realized I didn’t do that badly today after all. It was a busy day, but a good day. Much as I love to be home, sometimes my vocation takes me out of it–to the pool, the library, the store, the basketball court. Those things are important too, even when they prevent me from cleaning the floors (which seriously need some cleaning!) Now go visit the link. We all need that kind of encouragement.

Homemaker’s Lament

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Boy, have I gotten behind on certain household chores: namely, mopping the floors. It’s not like there is a huge amount of floor to mop, but for some reason I dread this job. It’s a bath and a half, a very small foyer and a small kitchen, so probably we are talking about less than 200 square feet that need mopping.

But it was time. I couldn’t sweep under the kitchen table because of some mysterious and unreported spill. Another unreported spill took place by the one-foot-length of counter space between the stove and fridge. I have my suspicion on what that was, but whatever was spilled under the table remains a mystery–and it took a long time to scrub up, too.

Now what I want to know is: why are there whole sunflower seeds in that unreachable space behind the toilet in the powder room? If I know whom to blame, I know who gets to scrub that spot by hand after school, since the mop just can’t quite get it.

Homemakers R Us

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I have this refrigerator magnet that says “Dull Women Have Immaculate Homes.”

No, it’s not a Mother’s Day gift-gone-wrong. I bought that thing for myself more than ten years ago. It makes me feel better, because my home is not immaculate. I like watching Clean House because I know that I am not that far gone.

Today I followed this chain of links: Ebeth posted about Erin’s post about Jen‘s post about Totally Together Journal, which is a fairly new homemaking website, and which I actually do follow.

Following all the principles is another ball game. There are only 7:

Number 1: Make Beds Right Away
Number 2: Do One Complete Load of Laundry
Number 3: Empty All Garbage Cans
Number 4: Keep Your Kitchen Sink Empty
Number 5: Clean Up After Yourself and Help Children Do the Same
Number 6: Bathroom Wipe-Down
Number 7: Before Bed 10-Minute Clean Up

but somehow those can get away from me. And the worse, of course, is the second half of number 5. Sometimes even the first half of number 5.

I don’t do too badly about cleaning up, but I do tend to leave signs around that I’ve been through. When I vacuum, the chairs I’ve picked up stay on top of the table until they’re needed again. When I mop the bathroom, the wastebasket stays in the hall until two days later when I get tired of walking out into the hall to toss a tissue. Unfortunately, my kids have inherited this behavior–in triplicate.

Granted, Little Brother is big enough to do some vacuuming (with a handheld vac) but he isn’t coordinated enough to be able to “tangle up the cord” when he’s done. Actually, he tangles it up just fine. He leaves the whole mess in the middle of the room where everyone else trips over it until I come along and wind up the cord neatly and put away the vacuum.

I love reading about home organization and systems for keeping a clean house. But the road to a clean house is not paved with good intentions. If it were, I’d have an immaculate home.

At least I can console myself with the fact that I must not be dull.

Lost–and FOUND!

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I’m taking a break from tearing apart the family room. I’ve been searching for a few things today.

First, the remote control to the DVD player–missing at least 10 days. Found that.

Second, Middle Sister’s magenta water bottle (soon to be MY magenta water bottle since she has decided she likes my turquoise water bottle better. I really don’t care as long as once we straighten this out, NOBODY ELSE drinks out of MY bottle. I’m territorial that way.) Found that.

But now I think it’s time to call in the Big Guns. Yes, St. Anthony, I need some help. Little Brother has lost a good half-dozen of his Bakugan toys, and another little boy who was playing here last week lost one of his. I swear there’s a black hole somewhere in my family room.

The upside is, all that “detail vacuuming” is getting done while I search.