When we moved into this house a year and a half ago, we did a massive GET RID OF STUFF – we were downsizing by nearly 50%, so we had no choice. And then after we got into the house, we did a further GET RID OF STUFF since it turned out we had even less space than we thought we did. And then not too long ago I did a massive GET RID OF STUFF for my clothes, which made enough room in the closets for the first time since we’d lived here (excluding seasonal stuff, obviously, that gets rotated through the attic). So my problem is not so much too much stuff as simply being too damn lazy to put it away.
One thing I’ve discovered that does help clearing out enormously is freecycle. While I’m usually too lazy to actually put stuff in the car to take it to a charity to donate, with freecycle all I have to do is put up an email, and people just show up and take the stuff away. Minimal effort for maximum results. So I do recommend it to those who aren’t freecycling already.
I’ve decided that this week I will do a few basic daily cleaning tasks – make beds, wipe out sinks/toilets, pick up my desk, clean the kitchen sink and counters – and then I’ll tackle just one room, starting with the dining room, which we don’t use for a dining room; I turned it into a sewing room. We’ve actually cleaned the room out three times since moving in; each time we’d declutter another room, it would all get moved to the dining room, and then we’d have to dig our way out from under. I’m hoping that fourth time’s the charm, if I can keep it straight from here on out.
So that’s my goal this week: Four daily chores (that take about five minutes total) plus decluttering one room. And I promise never to be chirpy.
Last night I redid my weekly chore list and zone calendar and posted them on the fridge. The front of my fridge looks a lot better without all the junk that was on there–it was getting covered with weird stuff. There’s still stuff there but now you can see it. So, we’ll see how long it will take for the chore list to become invisible to me, just like the post-it I stuck on my mirror that said “Do sit-ups”–I put it right where it would block my reflection, and it still became invisible when I got used to it.
So today my chore is to clean the bathroom. Only I have to work today and take the kids to swim lessons, and I’m not sure when it will actually happen. But since we’re having people over for dinner tomorrow, it will have to get done within the next 36 hours.
What I find fascinating is that some chores are easy for some people and impossible for others.
For example, the two chores I never have trouble with are doing the laundry and scrubbing the bathroom. I get enormous satisfaction out of both. Scrubbing the bathroom is easy if you let the cleaner sit on things for ten minutes–and then everything goes from grimy to sparkly in five minutes flat. Laundry ditto, my dad once yelled at me for leaving a swimming suit and towel in a locker over the weekend, causing them to mildew Ever since then I’m mortally afraid of mildew, so everything goes from the washer to the dryer immediately, and come on–who doesn’t like to handle stuff fresh out of the dryer? Warm, soft, good-smelling. Then I fold right away because it’s so easy, so mindless, and yet so satisfying.
Now. Washing dishes on the other hand. Hate it. Have to decide whether things go in the dishwasher or are hand-washed. Have to decide what order to hand-wash things. Have to figure out how to get baked-on food off. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it.
I also hate mopping floors. The mop just pushes the dirt around. Big piles of sodden dust form, long strands of hair get dragged about and stick to each other creating ROPES of hair, and then the darn floor is wet and unusable for thirty minutes. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it.
Would appreciate tips about how to make these two chores more do-able.
I used to work for a cleaning company, and one thing they taught me was to never mop floors. Like you said, the mop just pushes the dirt around. Plus, the water gets dirty, then you’re using dirty water on a dirty mop to push the dirt around.
It takes a little more effort, but I clean my floors by hand. Even if you just use a spray cleaner (whatever you want to use, even windex) and paper towels, your floor will be cleaner. While you’re cleaning, your floor stays much drier and is usable faster.
So how should you clean your floors, ideally? With a rag? Soap and water? Commercial cleanser? Tell me how I ought to do this, because my mopping looks like crap and that’s disappointing considering I actually did it.
I’ve found that there’s nothing to beat hands and knees for cleaning floors. I use a spray cleaner and then wipe it up with a sponge. There’s really no other way to clean a bathroom floor, with all the nooks and crannies. For the kitchen, I do use a mop, but I rinse it out very frequently and very thoroughly under running water in the sink, not a bucket, so that the dirt actually gets washed off, not just pushed around. And I still do the hands and knees thing around the edges or anywhere there’s a particularly dirty spot.
I am a good girl. I revised my cleaning plan, after looking through the house, to start with the master bedroom before the dining/sewing room; but I did my quick clean of bathroom sinks and toilets, and kitchen sink and counters, and then spent nearly an hour really de-cluttering the bedroom. Came up with two bags of trash, and improved things remarkably. It’s still not done, but it was a nice feeling to have the room looking good when I was done.
I’m in. The problem is, this is the place that uses up most of the time I should be doing the stuff that doesn’t get done. So, seriously, somebody remind me to get off of here and get something done when you see me, please.
I think I’m cleaning the bathroom tonight, and putting laundry away. The goal for every day is to get the dishes done before I go to bed, so I’m not leaving anything in the sink. That’s the habit I want to establish.
The longer term, like for the week, is the living room, and sorting out all the papers that are floating around, things like mail and things to file.
I am more and more grateful that my husband handles all the paperwork and filing. The only paperwork I deal with is the annual tax stuff. All the day-to-day bills get opened, sorted, and filed immediately by him. It’s amazing; today I needed to find a phone bill, and voila! I could open his neat hanging file drawer and there it was. Whereas if it was up to me, it would all be tossed in a basket somewhere.
The way we did it was with 2 clean rags (more if you have a large kitchen floor like dangermom). The first rag you use with a bucket of hot soapy water, which you empty and redo periodically so you aren’t using dirty water, and you scrub your floor with that. Do a small section, then use your second rag to wipe and dry your floor. It works good to fold your dry rag, so you’ve always got a clean side to switch to. You can use whatever cleaner you prefer; that one is up to you. You could even use whatever you’d choose for mopping.
Today sucked. I don’t have a washer or dryer, so I took my laundry over to my mom’s. Six loads and 8 hours later, I’m home. That’s all I got accomplished today, and I still haven’t put any of it away yet. I hate laundry
As often happens, it comes down to a trade off on time vs. money.
Laundry at Mom’s: free, one ordinary washing machine, one ordinary dryer. (Assumptions) Total time: X loads multiplied by the length of a single wash cycle plus the time to dry the final load. In your case, six loads and 8 hours. (I’m guessing there were breaks in there for meals and whatever.)
Laundry at laundramat: must pay, large number of washers of various sizes, large number of dryers of various sizes. Total time: the length of a single wash cycle of the slowest machine size you use plus the longest drying time of any load. In your case, that would be something like 45 minutes for a big washer plus 40 minutes for dryer with the big load of towels & jeans.
IOW, you could be done in 90 minutes instead of 8 hours, assuming you can scrounge up enough quarters.
Meals were eaten while the machines were going, and I’d stop what I was doing to go switch things around. Sadly, the drying times were just longer than usual; she has an old machine that isn’t really in tip-top shape.
There are laundry rooms on the property where I live, but I’ve got a lack of quarters at the moment, so mom’s it is! Most weeks it isn’t so much, but I’ve been slacking big time. After I get paid I’m going to start stocking up on quarters, so it won’t take so long and I can do things around the house while they’re going.
Here I am, 2 hours later, and still haven’t put any laundry away. Slacker slacker slacker.
This is gold! I use Microsoft Outlook, the same I have as at work. So now whenenver I’m home surfing the SDMB, I get pop-ups from my MS-Agenda reminding me to put out the garbage, water the plants (both once a week), or change my contactlenses (once a month). I can put my monthly cycle in there too. Future appointments, even those a year ahead, tasks that need doing in the garden once a year, too.
I also use Outlook e-mail to make reminding e-mails to my fiance, which I then set on “postpone sending untill specified time” So I don’t have to remind myself to remind him.
Oh, and Sunspace? One word: Ikea ! They have very good furniture solutions for organizing and living. If your apartment needs a low-cost, but very good make-over in Swedish design, go to the Ikea near you.
BTW, how did the dress make-over work out for you?
I’m going to stick with my once-a-week cleaning schedule that I tried to follow last year. Weekday schedules are just too crowded for anything more than minor daily “keeping neats.”
So this weekend I will:
*change the catbox litter (fortunately this is only a once-a-month job)
*clean the kitchen, including the floor and not including the inside of the fridge
*TAKE OUT THE TRASH FOR THE LOVE OF LITTLE APPLES (it’s been piling up for about, oh, a month and a half. I’m going to need the use of the neighbors truck for this trip to the dump.)
*Fight the good fight against shedding season, or sweep the house.
Goal: Start taking out the trash once a week so it doesn’t pile up like this.
Dishes: they get put in the dishwasher immediately, if they go to it. If it’s only a few pieces, rinse by hand; if not, use the rinse program. Pots get filled with water while they wait to be washed. If they’re from cooking water-based (pasta, soup) there is no need, but if it was oil-based or there’s stuck stuff, add a bitsy of soap.
Dishwasher gets done as soon as it’s reasonably full and emptied ASAP (avoids someone adding his dirty dish by mistake).
Mopping: you have to use a broom first. See if you find one of those pails with the long handle, for some reason they seem to be rare outside of Spain. Did you know that the mop is a Spanish invention from 1953? Something as easy as “stick a handle to the rags you use to mop the floor” and nobody had thought of it!
Newspapers work well to create a “walkway” over the wet areas. They don’t start sliding away until the floor is dry. Don’t use glossy paper: depending on the quality of paper and inks, it may both slide and dye your floor.
I’m not sure if “pail” is the right word so I looked for an example.
This is the webpage of a plastic molding company which makes, among others, recogedores. The ones I mean are the second-last picture. I’ll never understand the point of using a broom standing up and then having to bend down to push the dirt onto the pail…
The broom is for taking out the big things and much of the dust. The mop, for taking out the rest of the dust and of course it should be changed as many times as needed.
You wash wooden floors? :eek: faintwake upmake sure none of her relatives sees a post talking about washing wooden floors We don’t wash wooden floors, only sweep. Only wood that gets washed around my house is wooden kitchen implements.
Today I’m batch cooking and doing laundry. I will wash the dishes that I left in the sink before I do the laundry, so that I don’t come home to a messy kitchen. When I come home from the laundromat, I will put away the laundry. I hate putting away laundry.
My husband came home and looked at the bedroom and said, “Oh dear, the only mess left in here is my stuff!” Which wasn’t that bad – just a basket of laundry he’d done that I didn’t know if it was clean or dirty. He’s very good about not being a clutterer; 90% of it is mine, alas. (He’s great about washing dishes, sorting paper, and taking out garbage, for instance, so I don’t have to worrk about those tasks – which is good since they’re all ones I’m awful at!)
So today my tasks are:
Daily – make bed (done!), clean sinks/toilets/counters, desk (5 minutes total)
Fold laundry in baskets in bedroom and put away
Go to gym – doctor’s orders, in preparation for some upcoming surgery, so I’m alternating housework days with gym days. So tomorrow I’ll spend an hour on the house instead of 15 minutes.
That’s totally doable. And chipping away one room (or part of one room) at a time, I can see this actually happening!
