Ooooh, that’s not so great for anyone who doesn’t sleep fully clothed. My husband sleeps in his skivvies and has the kind of body chemistry that discolors fabric. I change the bottom sheet (and top sheet, and pillow cases) once a week, but it really needs it by that time.
I also disagree with an earlier tip to wash sheets in cold water to make them last longer. Beds are full of dust mites, and hot water kills them. Killing them is good. I always wash towels in hot water, too. And the mattress pad. And the pillow covers.
On that topic, though… there are some sources that will sell you sheets individually, not in sets. Since the bottom/fitted sheet tends to wear out long before everything else, keeping a couple spare ones on hand will save you having to replace everything else too. There used to be Wamsutta sheets sold like this at Bed Bath & Beyond; also Pottery Barn’s basic sheets come this way.
Wrapping celery in aluminum foil extends its life amazingly long. We’re not big celery eaters, and I’ve thrown out a lot in the past. But by wrapping it tightly in foil, I’m pretty much assured that it will be good when I need it a week later. There is a limit to how long it will keep, but it’s longer than in a plastic bag or container.
I’m another fan of lots of dishtowels. Paper towels are for cleaning up after the dogs or for making a sandwich on, cloth towels and dish cloths are for cleaning and hand wiping.
And never underestimate the usefulness of clothes pins. They can be used to close chip and pretzel bags, cereal bags, frozen foods - really anything in a bag. My pantry shelves are the coated metal, and I just clip the clothes pins along the edge of one shelf. Easy to find, easy to put away.
My personal best tip - have a bi-weekly cleaning service. We hired 2 sisters who come in on alternate Mondays and do the jobs I hate the most - bathrooms and kitchen floor - as well as the usual vacuuming and dusting. To me, it’s well worth it, since I work full time and I don’t want to spend my weekends cleaning. Plus we’re doing our part to stimulate the economy! I used to think it was an extravagance, but for us, it’s a nice treat twice a month.
If my wife is cleaning house, I check her forehead for a fever. She doesn’t do housework!
I do cleaning in a large industrial plant. One piece of equipment that I use at work I also use at home. The backpack vac!
I use it for everything from “sweeping” our hardwood floors to dusting the walls and ceilings ( live in an old house with plaster and board walls ). With a different attatchment, I can dust off the furniture and other things.
Dont know about you, but i will hurl if i eat more than 2 or 3 strips of bacon … too much fat, and I have issues with pig products [for a while I couldn’t eat any, thanks to some meds I was on, but going off and detoxing from the drug made it possible to actually eat small amounts of pig now]
All this talk is making me feel horrible. I have two dogs that shed the equivalent of five chihuahuas every day, an eight month old baby whose favorite past times are squealing and spitting up down your shirt, over your cleavage and into your bar, and a husband who never picks up his stinky socks. I have dog hair and dirt tracked all over my house, on my sofa and love seat. Both bathrooms are filthy. There’s dust everywhere, toys, baby clothes everywhere. My husbands office looks like a tornado hit it, I expect to see a witch riding by on her flying bicycle anytime now. I have tons of clothes that need to be washed and folded and put away.
I think I’m going to breakdown and hire someone to clean.
Either that, or I’m just going to breakdown. I don’t know which.
Shave your dogs if possible, gets your husband to stop being disgusting, pick up after yourself, and get someone to do the heavy cleaning weekly. And get one of those Dyson vacuums.
A breakdown is totally justified under those circumstances. And then maybe your husband will figure it’s cheaper to hire someone to clean, and easier to pick up after himself.
When you take clothes down off the hanger, don’t put the hanger back where you got it…put it down at the end of the rod. That way, when it’s time to do laundry, you have a bunch of empty hangers hanging there in a group, easy to grab and go, instead of having to go through the entire closet looking for empties.
When I’m ready to use it, I lay the package on a cutting board and slice it (package and all) in half. That gives me smaller strips of bacon which will fit in a smaller pan, without hanging over the edge. It’s also already open and easy to pull out as many half-strips as I want. I put both package halves in ziplocs to store.
When sweeping the kitchen floor, I run a hose from my shop-vac into the kitchen and lay it on the floor (I have an extra long hose, and the vac is right outside the door in the garage). The shop-vac runs, out in the garage, while I sweep stuff over to it. This is a good way to collect the dog-hair clouds which seem to float just above the floor. Our regular vac tends to chase them (I suspect the outflow actually blows them away from the vac).
Spend the money and get a housecleaner. Really. It’s cheaper than a divorce or lawyer fees for when you finally breakdown and strangle hubby with his own socks. You don’t want your baby growing up with momma in jail, do you?
You know what? You guys have totally convinced me. I’m going to call a house cleaner today. I’ve only once had one come in, and I felt so guilty. I felt like, I should be able to take care of my own home. I think I need help just to get caught up, and then hopefully keeping it clean will be easier. Thanks all!
Clockwork jackal, get the housecleaner, it is such a gift to yourself. And you can get them to just do the things you hate, and give you more time to do the things you don’t mind so much.
My hint is for making lunches for kids. Each kid has 5 ziplock bags, with their name and the day of the week on it. On Sunday night I get out everything that needs to go in a lunch, except fruit and veggies and pre-pack their lunches. So their juice boxes, crackers, rice cakes, cheese sticks, yoghurts what have you get tossed into the ziplocks. Plus a note from mom XOXOXO.
The filled ziplocks live in a plastic bin in the fridge. Then in the morning (or even the night before) I make sandwiches and cut up the fruit and veggies and toss everything into their lunch box, and the empty ziplock goes back into the plastic bin to wait for refilling next Sunday.
Next level will be putting out all their options on the table Sunday night and letting them assemble their own lunches for the week.
I used to think it was an extravagance, but for us, it’s a nice treat twice a month.