Housework begone!

If you have a Siamese cat, this would be great for dusting high shelves. You could get a wet version for kitty kitchen counter surfers, too!

 

Clean house in winter

Article on how to clean a feather doona.

Simple, doesn’t cost much, and similar to what I do for my doonas. (Duvets).

After you get out of bed, air your doona and mattress. I usually leave bed-making until about the time that I leave the house so the bed gets at least an hour of being aired. (Hey, it’s also a kitty playground while the kitten jumps around the pillows and doona! )

Article on keeping stainless steel taps etc. shiny in the bathroom. Instead of baby oil, I use a wax-based polish like Mr Sheen, sprayed on a soft cloth and then rubbed on the taps.

 

Moving house

New flat, new kitchen. Seen here in its pristine, pre-cooking condition. It’s an induction cooktop and I have no idea what to do with one of those. I’m vaguely competent with gas cooktops, ok with electric ones, and this, well, it’s all new to me. Looking at this reminds me I must chuck out more rubbish from my current kitchen cupboards. 

Rule #1 of moving house: Don’t move rubbish. Rubbish goes in the bin and you do not pay removalists to shift it from one place to another.

Rule #2 of moving house: Keep the kettle on the kitchen bench; don’t pack it away. You will be the removalists’ friend if you provide them with cups of coffee or tea and biscuits. Thinking of that, don’t pack away the coffee and tea!

 

Tomorrow – open for inspection!

Why yes, we are having our 5th open house tomorrow. I can’t believe how fast time flies.

The house is looking close to immaculate. I write a to-do list on Fridays or Thursdays. Mine includes the following:

Empty rubbish
All newspapers to the recycling
Hide wastepaper baskets
Fresh towels in the bathrooms
Flowers for living room
Sweep steps and back deck
Tell cat to behave herself.

 

Moving house and finding a real estate agent

I have chosen a real estate agent and signed a contract with her agency.

Choosing an agent is hard. I recommend seeing 3 agents from different agencies.

I also went to open houses run by different agencies to see how agents ran their open house hours. I have to say that there were a couple of agents that I wouldn’t trust to sell a dog kennel. I could see heaps of good points that they should have pointed out, they needed to be polite and friendly without being overly friendly, and to take the opportunity to assist potential buyers. One agent looked like he wanted to get back to playing a game on his iPhone, while another would have rather read a newspaper.

I had no idea how much newspaper ads had gone up in price – it’s horrifying! To be frank, I rarely look at the newspaper real estate section nowadays. I go to online domains such as allhomes.com.au, which is the website of choice for Canberrans seeking property. Plus there’s the national websites. Needless to say, I am spending money on a good photographer and and the agency will be putting photos on these websites.

I am still in the major decluttering phase. Items that have to go out of the house to make it seem tidy but are considered utterly valuable by DD have now gone into Grandma’s garage. I am very grateful for her help with this.

Then there’s the garage sale. I am excited and nervous about it. It’s going to be this coming weekend. I really, really hope we can move lots of items. Lots and lots. Especially books.

I have some helpers coming this weekend for painting and curtain help. Yay! I have to get out the sugar soap and wash some walls before then and knowing my physical limitations, I will be cautious and take my time doing that. I notice that I need to do some sanding on a couple of walls, too.

Then there’s the hardest bit. Might not be the hardest bit for you, but it is for me. I have to find MATCHING paint for the walls and doors. Oh boy.

 

Moving house – nervous

Looking at an April settlement date for the new place. This means getting off my butt and finishing off all the darn things I have to do to this house in the suburbs. Had one interview with a real estate agent earlier this week. Another one today. Will make a decision tomorrow about which one I’ll take on.

I’ve contacted my solicitor re conveyancing. Left a message with a house cleaner and a carpet cleaner. Family coming next weekend to assist with painting which means I have to sugar soap the walls and do some sanding back before then. Just as well I have no social life.

 

Decluttering the back shed

Back home after a weekend away and I’ve started my holidays – just a short week.

Of course, the way to celebrate bright winter sunshine is to put on a coat and old shoes and enter the dark cave of stinkiness, um, the back shed, in order to get through more darn boxes of who knows what.

Well, there was a reward for my persistence. I found a vase that I’d been looking for (never unwrapped after we moved here in 2002) and a Staffordshire cat which was given to me as a birthday present by my employers in London in 1992. I’d been looking for that cat. No wonder I couldn’t find it – the box was clearly marked “Vases”. Memo to self: put better labels on boxes when we move next year. *Detailed* labels.

I also found balsa wood tulips (for the person who never remembers to put water in vases), and a copy of The Kama Sutra for Cats by Burton Silver. The tulips can go to the charity shop, ditto the glass bowls and paperback books from another box. If I’m serious about removing the clutter from this house and sheds, I’ve got to be ruthless about unwanted, unneeded possessions.

 

Dashing past

Things are hectic here. Two loads of washing done after coming home from work. One load in the clothes dryer (school clothes I should have done on the weekend but completely forgot). DD has been washed, dressed in pyjamas, fed, read to, done spelling with and lots of kisses.

I have about 2000 words to write by Thursday on fanfic, not to mention several articles I have to speed read.

There’s a pile of washing up, thanks to the dishwasher that decided to cark it a couple of weeks ago. My study is piled high with boxes because I did a half-arsed tidy up of the family room.

I have 3 pairs of tracky daks to hem for DD (who are these gigantic children they were made for?) and also have to wash, dry and hem two pairs of jeans for me. I have to mend a pair of black pants for work – darn seams coming apart after one wear. Pathetic standard of finishing.

Somewhere in that I have to find time to do my rehab exercises, try to calm my mind and spirit before going to bed (ADD means meditation is rarely successful) and then the mad day starts again.

Love!

 

Housework – Not for Wusses!

That would be my slogan if I had to advertise how good it is to share housework with your spouse or partner or kids.  Many hands make light work, for starters.

But I should add that I’m not advocating that people have to do everything at once. Some things you’re great at, other things you can train your partner to do, oops, I mean encourage your partner. I’m not keen on dusting or vacuum cleaning so those were DH’s jobs. (Yeah, I have to do that all now.)  His extra height and vested interest in a dust-free house because of sinusitis and allergies meant he did a far better job than I did.

Nothing new in the new book Spousanomics, then. I am already cringing at the title. I mean, Freakanomics was pretty awful, Parentonomics slightly better, but Spousanomics turns me off at the cutesy, let’s-jump-on-a-bandwagon title. Ah, the economics side is stressed by using a love heart turned into a pie chart – OMG I can barely bear it.

The authors, Paula Szuchman and Jenny Anderson, cite comparative advantage as a reason to not split chores 50/50 with one’s partner. Basically, you take on the household chores at which you are relatively better than your spouse, rather than taking on all chores that you’re good at. So if you’re both good at emptying the dishwasher, the one with the superlative skill will get the job. The better one while use their time more advantageously while producing a better result.

If you have kids, you’ll need to re-negotiate. Trade-offs, all that sort of thing. And work out which battles are worth it.

OK, go and buy the book, or get it from your local library. If you find a heap of better arguments in it, please post them here.

 

 

Sock Wars

Rose is Rose

How do socks end up without their pairs? I put two in the wash, and somehow only one makes it to the clothesline, or only one makes it from the clothesline back into the house.

The other day I found that I had only washed one of each of the pairs of socks. Somehow there were naughty socks playing hooky in the bottom of the clothes basket in the laundry, hiding from me by sneaking behind the woollen jumper which I should have washed in December (oops! It’s January 28!).

DD’s socks do the same thing. I’ve got one bright pink Barbie sock. Now honestly, the second sock can’t be hiding with that sort of colour.  Mind you, DD has a tendency to take off her socks at school or childcare and I don’t find out there’s a missing sock until we get out of the car at home.

Much as I work on my own organisational skills, I know DD needs some skills of her own. It’s a long, long path.