Two Hours to Tidy

 Today I had two hours--one before picking Annie up from ballet and one after sitting with Finn and plotting out classes for next year--to work on our garage, which had turned from Reasonably Tidy Storage Space to Complete Pit of Utter Despair. 

I didn't think I'd get it done!  But by the time I closed the garage door last evening, order was restored (okay, except for Mr. P's workbench, but we'll get to that!).  

Call me an oddity, but I find that there are few things I enjoy more than taking a mess and putting it all to rights.  I just love the entire process: arranging, tossing, organizing, purging, sweeping, tidying.  It's so satisfying!  And yesterday I had done our fridge, which sorely needed it after weeks of neglect due to my running back and forth to Charleston.  It took about two hours there, too--and then I made pumpkin muffins, banana bread, rosemary-chipotle spiced nuts, spinach squares (yummier than they sound, I promise) and almond butter brownies (ditto) from all the bits and pieces I found that needed to be used. 

In fact, I think washing all those dishes took longer than it took to clean the garage!  But it was all good work, and now once the basement is tidied up, I'll feel like I've gotten my home back into shape!

And one more thing that I've discovered: Annie keeps her room immaculately tidy if she is permitted to go into it with an audiobook and listen to stories while she works.  She can spend hours on this.  Her room has gone from total disaster (last year) to being neat as a pin (this year) and the difference is Beverly Cleary!

Cleaning a Tiled Shower

 I just love our new tiled shower (my first-ever experience with tile ownership), but I was daunted by how to clean it. I'm not sure why I was daunted, but it was something about the crystal-clear glass doors, the hard well water, and the grout.  

Ages before the shower was done, I'd already purchased a squeegee for the shower. My neighbor, who is a professional housekeeper (she cleans huge, expensive houses) said that the best way to keep the glass door free of soap scum and water spots was just to use a squeegee* on it after every shower.  So from the very beginning, we have diligently used that after every single shower, and let me tell you: it works!!!  I went for months without actually having to clean the doors because, well, they were squeegeed every day. They were crystal clear and clean, even with our hard water.

The other little practice I implemented was to protect the polished chrome.  Our sink faucet gets water spots easily, so I decided that if we didn't let water dry on the chrome, we wouldn't have to worry about water spots.  So after a shower, we also wipe down the chrome in the shower until it's perfectly dry.

This may seem like a lot of extra work, but the whole thing tacks less than two minutes onto each shower, which is well worth it to me. And it means I can go for much longer between deep-cleanings, which is a great timesaver.

The grout and porcelain tile, which intimidated me, I was able to tackle with the help of Cheryl Mendelson and this grout brush. I basically used a vinegar and water solution and scrubbed the tile and grout, and nothing horrible happened. In fact, it got clean!  Whew. Our tile man had said that I couldn't hurt it, but I was still scared.  But now I think he may be right!

When I deep-clean the shower, I use the vinegar/water solution on the tile, and the most magical shower door cleaner ever. The girls who help me with my house introduced it to me and it really is magic.  It's a combination of Dawn and vinegar. It works. They don't clean my bathroom; I do that myself.  But they use it on our basement bathroom shower doors, and it's great.

Our children's bathroom is on tap for a renovation sometime in the next year or so.  I think I will choose an aged brass (unlacquered would be ideal, but it's probably way outside our budget) and a shower curtain, because I will not expect my children to keep chrome polished and a door sparkling clean.  This is real life, after all. :) 

*As an aside, isn't this a satisfyingly funny word? I think so.  Squeegee!

Home Life Help: Four Efficiency Tips

Now that my husband is officially in remission (insert all the praises and hallelujahs and joy, which I continue to have all the time!!!!), we have slowly returned to a more "normal" life.  Once he returned to work in January, the children and I settled into a school and lessons/co-op routine that was more structured than the laissez-faire approach we had taken for part of the fall (but still not that structured--I like a lot of flexibility). 

With all of that, I realized needed to manage housekeeping with more efficiency. 

Now, before I get into my tips, let me say this: efficiency is not my goal in homemaking or life. I'm naturally fairly efficient and organized, but in my opinion the only reason to be efficient is in order to foster relationships.  I'll gladly do "inefficient" things when they feel right (for instance, I often handwash dishes because I like it, although it's not as efficient as using the dishwasher, and I love hanging out the laundry, and I don't try to squeeze every second out of my day--I had enough of that when I was practicing law).

Efficiency, taken to its extreme, becomes exploitative, as Wendell Berry points out. And care is often quite inefficient.

Still, certain systems do help me manage my life more efficiently, which then opens up my life to doing lovely, inefficient things like sipping tea on the deck while reading a book! 

So here are a few things that I have found helpful recently:

1) Laundry twice a week.  Since my first baby was born I always did a bit of laundry every day except Sunday (and I would wash laundry on Sunday when it needed washing!).  My babies wore cloth diapers most of the time, so that alone was a staggering amount of laundry. Add to that spit-up, two parents who exercise a lot, toddler accidents here and there, and plenty of playing outside (usually in dirt!), and we had a lot of laundry to wash! 

Now that my children are older and a lot tidier, I realized I was just running on a laundry hamster wheel by doing some every day. It never felt "done" and I nearly always had to remember to switch it out, fold something, put something away, etc.  I realized that in this season of life, that's a pretty inefficient way to manage our laundry.

So I changed my approach. On Mondays and Fridays we are usually home all day, so those are my designated laundry days.  I'll wash all the clothing, towels, and rags that need to be done, and then do 1-2 loads of sheets.  Sticking with it all day long and meeting the end goal of finishing it by bedtime is SO satisfying!  This week I left clean sheets in the dryer for a few days because I didn't have to fold them and put them away, so I didn't! But they were clean and dry, and that felt "done" enough for me.  I love this approach to laundry. It works great for us right now, and my family isn't coming to me and saying "are there any clean socks?" or "I'm out of tee-shirts!" 

2) ClickList shopping.  When I first heard of this I thought it was a nice service for the elderly, disabled, or for new moms.  I didn't even consider doing it for me because I'm an able-bodied human who can easily walk through a grocery store, and my children are no longer babies or toddlers.  But earlier this year I surveyed the week ahead and realized I needed that extra hour in my week.  I made the grocery list the night before and was pleased to see that I could clip coupons while doing the online shopping.  I wasn't sure I wanted a stranger picking out my produce or perishables, but I thought I'd give it a shot.  

I was pleasantly surprised by the entire experience!  It was super-efficient and my produce was perfect (they even got the avocados right which stunned me).  They didn't have one item that I had on my list and substituted it with a higher-priced item, but they only charge the lower price when they do that.  Also, my grocery bill was much lower than normal. I never thought of myself as an impulse shopper since I stick pretty faithfully to my list, but as it turns out, I think I do add things to the cart--often things I think we might need.  

 Once the farms are open for business, my grocery store trips slack off.  I do enjoy grocery shopping sometimes and like walking through the aisles, looking at things, and in our small community it's also a social hour :), so I like those things, but on weeks when we are pressed for time, I appreciate being able to use ClickList. 

3) Streamlining the children's chores. In our days before cancer, my children had a fairly extensive morning chore list.  I dropped that during treatments and recovery because I simply didn't have the mental wherewithal to manage chores, and they just did the most basic things (bed, teeth, hair, shower). I decided that we needed to get back to chores, but I realized that most of the things on their morning lists were things that did not need to be done daily.  Do I really need for my daughter to empty the bathroom trash cans every day? No.  Does my son really need to wipe down the bathroom sink every day?  No.  So their morning chores are bed-making, grooming, and pet care.  Then after school, they have *ONE* chore per day to do.  Each day is different.  This keeps it not overwhelming (one chore doesn't take long), helps them not feel bored with doing the same thing over and over again, and ensures that things get done on a solid routine.  I am so happy with this approach! I also have one or two afternoon chores per day, and we all take Sunday off. 

4) Kitchen helper.  Possibly the most genius idea that ever entered my brain, the "kitchen helper" has made my life infinitely easier.  I decided that my children are, at 11 and 8, quite old enough to be genuinely useful in the kitchen.  So each night I alternate having a kitchen helper.  The kitchen helper's job is to set the table, help with any sous chef tasks while I cook, clear the table, help wash and dry dishes, and do any odd kitchen jobs that need doing in the evening.  This has cut my time in the kitchen at night by half, I think!  Even Annie, who is still unable to do everything, helps a lot!  

While the kitchen helper works, the other child tidies up the living room and dining room areas and makes sure things are neat for the evening.  That way after kitchen cleaning is done, we can all relax.  

*               *             *

Those are the new changes to my life that have helped me.  There are other things I do, too, like stack my errands/plan them carefully, cook ahead/make freezer meals, and try to use certain pockets of time wisely, but I've done those things for a long time, and these four tips are new to our family.  But they are reaping so many benefits that I wanted to share them in case they help anyone else who may be re-thinking along similar lines.

Now, to go watch the fireflies rise in the pasture......

Peace in the Home: Five Tips for Managing Housework

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a bit about how meal planning helps foster peace in our home (and in my mind, honestly!).  Around that time a good friend of mine had asked me how I manage life, in terms of managing housework, and I wrote her a lengthy email, but I think I can condense it into five basic tips. 

But first I must say: I don't keep a "perfect" house.  Although I love looking at photos of, say, Sophie Paterson interiors, that will never be my home for many reasons.  I love living in a house that is unique and full of books, creative activities, projects, kitchen creations, etc.  Do you know what?  Books, creative activities, projects, and kitchen creations all edge us into messiness!  So we have to develop habits to keep those messes under control, but I'm also not usually going to fret about a little mess here or there. Visual clutter drives me crazy, so I do try to keep it to a minimum.  I consider my house "clean enough"--we function very well, we are happy, and when unexpected guests drop in, I'm not dying inside at how cluttered or dirty my home is.  It's home!  And it's lovely. 

At various times in the past, I have had a "cleaning schedule" to keep (like vacuuming on Wednesdays, cleaning out the fridge on Tuesdays, etc.) but I no longer do that. It's a great idea, though, if you feel it will help you keep the house clean!  

If you are like me and have secret clean freak tendencies that are in opposition with a comfortable family life, remember Proverbs 14:4: "Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox." We only have our "oxen" (children) for a limited amount of time in life.  Before you know it, they'll be grown. Children and husbands are a blessing.  I'd much rather have a home that needs constant tending and tidying than one that is perfectly clean but empty!  

And one more caveat: if you have 3 kids under the age of 5 (actually, any kids under the age of 5!!), a newborn, a chronic health issue, a husband with cancer, or other extenuating, stressful circumstances, give yourself grace. Do the best you can do every day, keep things as simple as possible (this may deserve its own post) and make peace with the fact that you have done your job to the best of your ability.  Loving your family is always more important than mopping the floors. 

So here are my five tips for managing housework (with an optional bonus tip at the end):

1. Embrace routines.  Routines bring order and predictability. The more habitual a task is, the easier it is to accomplish.  (I talked a little about this here.) A simple morning routine helps pave the way for me: making the bed, quickly cleaning the bathroom, tidying up the basement bathroom (this means cleaning out the litter box), pet chores, tossing in a load of laundry if necessary, and cleaning the kitchen after breakfast.  Sometimes I putter around tidying up too, if the house needs it.  My evening routine is more streamlined, and mainly focused on cleaning the kitchen up completely every night, looking after the animals, and finishing up the laundry.  Everyone's routines will be different, but establishing predictable routines is so helpful in managing housework. 

2. Recruit children.  I wrote about this in August, so I won't re-hash it all here, but I believe children are great helpers and can make maintaining a home much easier.  My own children are champions at tidying.  My daughter is a pro at pillow-plumping!  They take care of pets and chickens, make their own beds, tidy and wipe down their bathroom, sometimes help in the kitchen, take out the trash, etc. I don't have a set chore schedule for them right now (other than the expectation of grooming and making beds in the morning). Instead, they help out where I ask, which works for us for now. But having a routine set of morning chores is a good idea. With encouragement and kindness, children can develop into really amazing helpers!

3. Chunk housekeeping tasks together.  I do this a lot. It's very efficient! I used to try to space my housecleaning out over each day of the week, but as life has changed I've found that it's a bit easier for me to find a spare hour or two every few days to just clean whatever needs cleaning.  This could be mopping, vacuuming, washing windows.  I often clean out the fridge or freezer while I cook supper (I did this last night, in fact, and inventoried the things in our freezer, making little lists of meals we can make from food we already have over the coming weeks).  While the soup simmers, I can take a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to my kitchen cabinets.  When I feel like our dining area needs attention, I'll do a quick dust and change the tablecloth, maybe re-arrange plants.  When we got our living room ready for the Christmas tree, I vacuumed the room thoroughly (we were moving furniture anyhow!) and did some dusting.  Basically I try to look at the tasks that need to be done, and group like tasks together, to organize housework in a logical way that makes sense to my brain. 

4. Simplify and tidy as much as possible. If you can stay on top of clutter, that's really most of the battle in housework. It's so much easier to run the vacuum, dust the surfaces, and wipe down the bathroom if there's not clutter everywhere to deal with first.  Train yourself as much as you can to pick things up and put them away throughout the day. Reflexive tidying helps so much!  (But don't become compulsive or rigid about it; clutter is sometimes a normal part of life.) 

5. Remember the goal. What is your goal in housekeeping? Mine is to create a home that is comfortable, welcoming, orderly, cozy, and friendly;  that serves as a place to develop our own unique, God-given interests and talents; and that is beautiful in its own way.  My goal is not perfection.  If I want to see perfection, I can google it, but I want to live in a place that is more relaxed and natural. 

And finally, the bonus tip:  If you are overwhelmed and have sufficient disposable income, hiring housekeeping help can be such a boon.  I do not recommend this if your family lives paycheck-to-paycheck.  But I *do* recommend it if you have sufficient room in the budget and if you're short on time. You don't need to use an expensive, professional cleaning service, either.  I have two sweet previously-homeschooled girls who come to my house every other week and help me.  Because they live with their parents and have few expenses, they charge much less than a franchised cleaning service would (yet still over double minimum wage!). They are very fast and efficient. I hired them almost two years ago during a particularly busy time, when I realized I needed to outsource something and couldn't outsource education, childcare, cooking, life management, budgeting, or gardening. But I could outsource a little bit of cleaning!  (I struggled with this at first, but now I'm simply grateful to have their help.) During my husband's battle with cancer this year it has been especially helpful to have them coming every couple of weeks. They do not clean my whole house, but they do take care of some of the bigger jobs, and the children and I clean a lot and maintain things in between times.  It's so helpful to me during this season of life. 

                                                *                                     *                                 * 

So those are my best tips on keeping house: embrace routines, recruit children (if you have some available! ;)), chunk tasks together, try to stay on top of clutter, and remember why you are doing this.  And, if it works for your situation, consider outsourcing a few jobs.  

And most of all, remember that where there are no oxen, the manger is clean. Embrace the oxen!  They make life fruitful and happy and joyful, and are infinitely more important than a perfect home. 

Children and Chores

This post is a follow-up to the post I wrote on Monday about the habit of daily chores.  When I wrote that post, I included a section on chores and children, but then realized I had too much to write, and needed to allow "children and chores" to be its own post!

Unfortunately the word "chores" often has negative connotations.  I once heard a parenting guru say that in her household, she never had her children to chores because she considered it too coercive.  Her line of thinking appeared to run along the lines of: I want my house clean, but I don't need to burden my children with that, and I can't do it all, so if I can't manage it, I'll reconcile myself with living with chores undone. She wanted to give her children choices, including the choice to say no to doing chores.

I considered this for a couple of weeks, letting my children off the hook while I thought through her perspective.  I finally rejected it soundly and comfortably as a principle that simply isn't right for our family.

First of all, I think chores are beneficial because they are a vehicle for teaching self-discipline.  And self-discipline, or self-governance, is a quality that I consider essential.  

There are a couple of things I repeat to my children often.  One is that there is no substitute for hard work.  No matter how gifted or talented you are, no matter how lucky you seem to be, no matter how wealthy or privileged you are, at the end of the day I believe there is no substitute for simply getting down to business and working hard. 

The other thing I repeat often is "the best thing you can learn to tell yourself is NO." My children giggle when I demonstrate this point by pretending to talk to myself ("But I want to eat five doughnuts for dinner tonight!" "NO!" or "But I want to take all month off from washing the dishes!" "NO"!).  My children see the humor in the things I want to do, but they also see how doing those things--not saying "no" to myself--could cause serious repercussions. 

Second, chores teach children skills and give them training in running a household. Don't scoff!  As someone who was NOT trained in this way at all, I can attest to the enormous struggle it takes to learn how to manage a home from scratch. I barely knew how to do anything when I got married.  I once famously went to blend vichyssoise soup and didn't realize you have to put a lid on the blender.  True story.  The learning curve was steep for me, and I want my children to learn these skills at a much earlier age. 

Third, they help the child feel helpful!  Children love to be helpful.  If we are rude or unkind or weigh them down with far too many chores, they'll lose the desire to help. (I also think it's essential to say "thank you!" when they do their chores well.)  But it just feels good to know you're helping out.  People like to feel like they have something to contribute.  Self-efficacy is important in the development of a healthy human. 

Finally, they teach teamwork.  I don't hand my children a list of chores and then dash of to eat truffles in front of the television.  They see me working hard, and they know their hard work contributes to the well-being of our entire family.  We work as a team to accomplish our goals and meet needs around the house.  

Now if you have a rosy picture of children who thank me every day for giving them chores and do their long list of chores with a happy heart, please don't be deceived.  We are a real family!  But I do see that my children are growing into helpful people who often work on their own accord.  My son helped me unload plants out of the car tonight without my asking him, and my daughter cleaned her bathroom yesterday just because she felt like it.  Do they sometimes groan and resist their chores?  Sure.  But I just respond kindly and firmly, and they know the expectations we have.

We also change things depending on our family's needs and the season.  My children don't do the exact same chores all year round.

Motherhood can feel overwhelming at times because the tasks truly never end.  There is always laundry to wash, there are meals to make, there are messes to clean up.  I'm a proponent of getting children on board with these chores because children are genuinely helpful--just don't expect too much too soon. It takes time to learn to do chores, and some children are absent-minded while others are on top of things (I have one of each in my household), but both types of children can learn to do chores and help out around the house. And believe me when I say that if your children know how to tidy the living room, clean the bathroom, and take out the trash, your life will feel more manageable! 

New Year Productivity

As always, the new year has ushered in a spurt of major productivity.  We were in Charleston for the better part of a week; before we left, we took down the tree, I deep-cleaned and reorganized the pantry, and I purged/tucked away many toys (our children's rooms are so much easier to keep neat now....I'm loving that).  Now I'm working on deep cleaning and re-organizing the basement, which includes the schoolroom, play/TV room, bathroom, storage/mechanical closet, laundry room, and laundry closet.  It was a mess. I'm close to done with the schoolroom and today I cleaned out the laundry closet.  You don't really know how gross a closet gets until you take everything out!  I went pretty wild and even mopped the floor with a bleach mixture.  Ahhh. 

Today I've also done hours of food prep in the kitchen because tomorrow afternoon we plan to have a little British tea party for Annie's birthday!

And also today: SNOW!  I couldn't handle more than 15 minutes in it (I was under-dressed, not realizing how low the temperature had dropped), but I got a good run down the hill on the inner-tube-sled. So fun!  My children, on the other hand, went out to play twice. 

My goal is to finish the basement completely before we start our new school semester.  The rest of the house is in pretty good shape and doesn't need much in the way of organizing.  We plan to start Tuesday, but I may delay our start by a couple of days in order to achieve the peace that a fully cleaned and organized space brings. 

When I'm not cleaning and purging and laundering and organizing, I'm watching "The Crown" (preferably on the elliptical trainer) and reading (in the bathtub!).  Very cozy indeed!

Monday: Making Things

Today was a day for making things, after we did school (it's so interesting when the accidental intersections happen: our literature book this year is Pilgrim's Progress, we are reading about the first Thanksgiving this week, *and* today in history we read about the Crusades, and the pilgrims who made the journey to Jerusalem!). 

*one batch of experimental laundry soap

*one batch of homemade deodorant

*one pot of rosemary-white bean soup

*a batch of biscuits

*pie crust (for spinach-mozzarella quiche tonight, and apple pie on Thanksgiving!)

*batch of gingerbread

I also hung laundry out on the line, this time in very cold weather.  A hat, a wool coat, a scarf, and gloves are necessary, but the wind and sun do the trick.  Line-drying clothes makes me so happy.

And finally, I deep-cleaned our bedroom and bathroom, which culminated with scrubbing the floors on my hands and knees (the only way, in my opinion, to get a floor really clean).  Those rooms are clean! now.  

I'm ready for a hot bath and my flannel nightgown!!

Laundry Day

Our dryer is broken.  (When your sheets come out of the dryer smelling like smoke, that's a bad sign.)  Yesterday I took a retractable clothesline that my husband gave me a couple of years ago, found his drill, found screws that fit the drill, figured out how the drill worked, and installed that clothesline!   One end on the tree; one end on the post.  I have the prettiest view and love going outside to hang, check, and collect the laundry. 

I love the smell of laundry dried outside.  

The dryer can stay broken for all I care!  Although my husband reminded me that we do get a lot of cold and ice and snow and stuff. He's right; but for now I told him not to stress about fixing the dryer, because I love my new clothesline!  

Removing Hard Water Spots from Shower Doors

For most of my adult life, glass shower doors have been the bane of my domestic existence.  We live in an area with very hard water, and we have a water softener, but if the salt runs out, the water runs hard.  I also don't think the water softener does its job all the way.  I can remove soap scum from the glass shower doors, but the little bitty hard water drops (you know what I mean, if you struggle with this) were impenetrable by even the most obnoxious cleaner--Scrubbing Bubbles.  I always try to use homemade and nontoxic cleaners, but nothing seemed to touch my shower doors.

Recently I saw a recommendation for dawn + vinegar, so I tried it yesterday. It works! I used an entire quart jar of homemade cleaner on our basement shower doors (I just poured, splashed, and scrubbed it on) but now that I know this works, I'm going to invest in a high-quality spray bottle for this stuff.  Next time I won't use an entire batch, either--this will be a great maintenance cleaner. 

Here's the method:

*Heat 2 c. vinegar in a microwave-safe container (or you can heat it on the stovetop). I heated it for about 2 minutes. 

*Pour this into a jar, spray bottle, or squirt bottle, and then add 1 c. blue Dawn dish soap. (Some recipes call for a 1:1 ratio, but you don't need that much!)

*Shake.  Then spray/pour/squirt onto your shower doors. I let the solution sit there for a few minutes while I did other things, and then I went back to start rinsing and wiping it off.  

It worked great! I had to scrub a bit here and there (the worst spots were at the bottom of the doors), but many of them just sort of disappeared without any scrubbing at all.  I had to do a lot of rinsing with clean water because the Dawn makes things very sudsy and slippery--I just used a clean bucket of water and a cup to pour all over the shower doors.  It was messy but I was working with what I had! 

And now I go into the bathroom to look at the doors whereas before I avoided that bathroom because of the doors.  So, there you go! 

A Clean Garage

On Memorial Day my husband and I spent all day cleaning out the pit of despair garage. 

The garage is a unique area in our house because it's the only one I can't actually organize by myself.  It doubles as a workroom for my husband's mad scientist projects (he's making a CNC router from scratch from his own design, for instance) and the tool situation is staggering.  I don't know what the majority of tools are, where they should go, or whether to purge them. So because we were both home together on Monday, with no other obligations, I suggested we tackle the garage.  

The work went quickly--but we still worked from around 10-11 am until 6pm! I had to take two Advil that night because I was so sore.  But the garage is in great shape.  As I was finishing up, I kept thinking "I have more to move back in here" and finally realized....no. I didn't have more to move back in....the garage was really cleared-out, cleaned-up, and tidy!

I'm glad because messy spaces cause me anxiety--especially spaces I can't clean up by myself. So whenever I went into the garage--to take the recycling, to feed the dog, to get something out of the freezer, to get my gardening tools--the anxiety-o-meter within would ramp up a few notches.  Not anymore.

(And I will say this: now that my children are a little older, this type of work is easier than ever.  I remember eras when I couldn't get more than 30 minutes of work done without needing to pick up a baby or toddler, give them fresh entertainment, put them down for a nap, etc.  Annie and Finn spent all day yesterday playing outside, riding bikes, blowing bubbles with homemade bubble solution, etc. So if you have tiny children and a disorganized garage, take heart! It will get easier.) 

  

We did not thoroughly organize my husband's tools.  We did group them roughly by type and put them in specific spots, and I plan to work with him to organize everything soon....right down to printing labels.  As we were sweeping and finishing on Monday, my husband turned to me and said "you know, you're just really, really good at this."  He told me several times how much he could not do it by himself and really appreciated my help.  I think this is the difference between his visual-spatial-engineering-math-genius brain and my more linear, sequential brain.  Anyhow, I do love to organize and was glad to help him.  

Now the challenge: keeping it this way.  Will let you know how that goes......

Polishing the Silver: A Tip

Tonight I took it upon myself to polish our silverware.  We use our "nice" silverware every day because I cannot stand the idea of having a set of unused, gorgeous flatware in a closet somewhere.  So yes, I do have to hand wash it, but it is totally worth it to open the silverware drawer and find that warm glow shining back at me.  (And it is not sterling silver, but is only silver-plated. It is still beautiful!)

The set we have is from my husband's grandmother, and my cursory research dates it to 1953. The pattern is "White Orchid," which is perfect for me because I love orchids.

Daily washing and drying keeps the silver well-polished, so I only need to polish the set once or twice a year (and even then, it's only minimally tarnished--so lightly tarnished that I doubt anyone else would notice but me).  

The tip that I have is to use latex medical gloves!  I do not like to use my regular kitchen gloves because they are so thick; the thinner medical gloves are perfect for keeping the silver polish off of my hands, but allowing me to do a great job getting the silver well-polished.  And then I can just throw them away--which is perfect because they are pretty gross after polishing all the silver.

I find that polishing the silver is like ironing your clothes or shining your shoes. These are jobs no one seems to want to do, and our culture generally regards as a complete waste of time, but to me they are the perfect domestic tasks: they aren't done every day, they provide instant results, and the end result is deeply gratifying!

Facing the Giant

Finn loves the story of David and Goliath and asks me to read it to him frequently.  Well, yesterday I entered Finn's room to face my own bloodthirsty giant: cleaning up.  Although I like to stay on top of cleaning tasks, Finn's room had been neglected because last week we were out of town. (It gets cleaned every Thursday; typically Finn and I do it together.)  There were toys, clothes and papers scattered across the room as well as 'nature' items--random rocks, pieces of bark, etc--his treasures--in various spots and lots of stray legos.  He's an artist, so the quantity of paper alone is staggering! And we had not been faithful picker-uppers at nighttime this week.

I dove in.  My modus operandi for cleaning a room that is way past due is to declutter first by going counter-clockwise around the room and ending in the center. This keeps me focused on one bit at a time, and keeps me from feeling overwhelmed. After that is done, I pull out the vacuum and go crazy with it: furniture, valances, window frames, floors. I even did inside his dresser drawers (I switched out seasonal clothing while I was at it.)  Make sure the sheets are fresh and the bed is made.
When we read our bedtime story last night it was so refreshing to sit in a clean and tidy room again.

Next up: the basement!! It needs some love.

The Work of My Week

I currently have two young children who are with me at home all the time, one dog, one cat, and one fish...and an excellent husband.  Here's my weekly housekeeping routine! (It does tend to change from season to season.)

Monday: Laundry.  Quick-dust main room (living, dining). Vacuum first floor.  Wipe down inside of fridge.  Mop kitchen floor.  Prepare for Tuesday's outings.  Bath, face mask, manicure. 

Tuesday: Marketing and errands.  Windexing.*  Write letters/thank-you notes.

Wednesday: Laundry.  Tidy up basement. Vacuum and mop basement and dust one area. Clean basement bathroom. Paperwork (filing, to-do list, correspondence).  Prepare for Thursday's outings. 

Thursday: Change sheets on all beds. Clean the children's bathroom. Pick up children's rooms and quick-dust one of them.  Sweep off and tidy deck, patio and porch.  Bath, face mask, manicure, pedicure if needed. 

Friday: Laundry. Quick-dust our bedroom. Vacuum first floor. Projects! Lesson and menu plans. 

Saturday: Wash work clothes and church clothes, if needed. Prepare food for Sunday, if desired.  Set out clothes and prepare for Sunday breakfast. 

Sunday: Wash makeup brushes, water houseplants, wipe down fridge exterior and oil cutting boards.**

****************************************************

*Windexing means I choose one door or window to clean each week. This saves me from having to do all the windows at once--an overwhelming task. 

**I save my very favorite tasks for Sunday.  I typically don't really do much in the way of housework on Sunday, but I consider these chores 'fun' so they are my Sunday treats. 

Every month or so I scrub down the outside of the kitchen cabinets and do other little random tasks like wiping down doors and doorknobs, wiping down the stairwell, et cetera. I don't assign a schedule to these tasks...I just try to hit them when I can. 

The beauty of having a routine is that it is liberating! If you skip a day you know that next week you'll get back to it; conversely, you can easily turn off the cleaning switch when that day's tasks are done.

And I'm not a perfectionist; I'm very comfortable with "good enough." The Flylady is right--housework done imperfectly is still a blessing.  So do what you can and don't stress!

The Work of the Day

"Laura and Mary helped Ma with the work. Every morning there were dishes to wipe. Mary wiped more of them than Laura because she was bigger, but Laura always wiped carefully her own little cup and plate. 

"By the time the dishes were all wiped and set away, the trundle bed was aired.  Then, standing one on each side, Laura and Mary straightened the covers, tucked them in well at the foot and the sides, plumped up the pillows and put them in place.  Then Ma pushed the trundle bed into its place under the big bed.

"After this was done, Ma began the work that belonged to that day.  Each day had its own proper work.  Ma used to say: 

"Wash on Monday, 

Iron on Tuesday,

Mend on Wednesday,

Churn on Thursday,

Clean on Friday,

Bake on Saturday, 

Rest on Sunday. 

"Laura liked the churning and the baking days best of all the week." 

--Little House in the Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder