Even the Laundry

Photo credit: Womanhood with Purpose Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/womanhoodwithpurpose/posts
/672428669502707

There's a Facebook group that I follow called A Farm Wife where the administrator posts each day something she calls "Celebrating the Daily Ordinary" where a little thing we may be taking for granted is called out with gratitude.  One day it might be indoor plumbing, or that we have vacuums (instead of having to tie straw to a stick to sweep out our kitchen) or readily available electricity coming into our homes to power lights, appliances and entertaining toys.  You know, the things it's easy to overlook because they are just part of the everyday ordinary stuff of life.

Laundry needs to be celebrated, too!  Did you know that taking care of the laundry is even something God asks of His people?  Take a look at Exodus 19:10-11.

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes,

And be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai."

I think it's interesting that Moses was asked to tell the people to sanctify themselves (cleanse the inner man) AND to wash their clothes (cleanse the outer man as well) in preparation for meeting the Lord.  In Church, and sometimes just in life generally, we spend a lot of time talking about the status of the inner man and about how concerned God is with the condition of our heart... as in how well we loved and cared for our fellow man... but we shy away from discussions about taking care of ourselves feeling like that is being selfish and unGodly.

But... if you take a literal look at the Lord's words in Mark 12:29-30 when He was asked about the greatest of all the commandments, He says:

"And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these."

Love thy neighbour AS THYSELF.

Part of loving yourself is taking care of your body, your home, your clothing... whatever your physical surroundings may be.  And God just told us that it's important to Him.  Very very important!

As a child I was taught a song to remind me not only about when to do them but that they were important details to take care of each week:

Saturday is a special day.

It's the day we get ready for Sunday:

We clean the house, and we shop at the store

So we won't have to work until Monday.

We brush our clothes and we shine our shoes

And we call it our get the work done day.

Then we trim our nails and we shampoo our hair

So we can be ready for Sunday.

(words and music by Rita Robinson, 1920-2011)

We always sang it 'wash our clothes' instead of brush them but the point is, we got things done during the week, and especially on Saturday, to be ready to spend Sunday - our Sabbath - with the Lord.  Isn't it wonderful to think about all our mundane daily tasks this way?  Doesn't it help to elevate them and give the things we do in the home a more proper importance?  We are doing them to prepare for our time communing with the Lord and being refreshed and re-energized by Him.

Something to think about... celebrate the ordinary daily things in life.  And do them, even the laundry, with enthusiasm!

I Am Not A Vacuum Murderer!

Remember awhile back I said I'd killed our vacuum?  Derek, claiming "I told you I'm not very handy" ran right out and got us a new one.

Ok, so I went along and helped pick it out and I really, really, really like the new one.  I love that the canister lifts off so you don't have to fight the whole beast up and down the stairs to vacuum them. I actually like it a lot better than the old one.  But that's beside the point and I digress...

You see, I didn't really kill the old one.  Yay!  I am not a vacuum murderer!!

(In my my mind I say that in my best Richard Nixon impression.  Apparently I'm either really weird or easily amused because I imagine it to be quite hilarious!  I'm going with easily amused, ok?)

Before pushing the old one out to the curb I decided to give it one last shot and started cleaning up the filter and checking for a clog in the hose and stuff like that.  Thought I'd done all that at the time, but I guess in my frustration that night I missed some stuff.  Turns out, it wasn't broken so much as terribly dirty inside.  Cleaned up, it works just fine.  In fact, it sucks the dirt and hair right up.  It really sucks!

Wouldn't that be an awesome tagline for a vacuum commercial?  I always thought Dyson should use it when they have that hottie Aussie guy on there carrying on about the strength of their brand's suction power and he's lifting a bowling ball with it.  Wouldn't it just be fall-off-your-chair funny if at the end of that silly monologue he said, "Dyson... our vacuums really suck!"

Photo courtesy of hoover.com

No, my resurrected vacuum isn't a Dyson.

It's a Hoover.

A Wind Tunnel one made to handle pet hair.  Something we have abundance of...  I don't know if it would pick up a bowling ball or not.  And I don't have one to try that and find out so it's going to have to remain one of life's great mysteries.

This one might be a slightly newer model, but mine looks pretty much the same.  And it gets the job done.

I really hate having to admit this because now I'm going to get no help with the steam cleaner I've been begging him to unclog since... oh, October!  I've been holding out on principal.  But I guess I might as well give that up now, too, and just take care of it myself.

This vacuum does really suck!

Forgotten Skills

Photo credit:  Village Green Network

One of the Facebook/Blog pages I follow started this morning off with these words:  "Amazing how a decision to start growing your own food cascades into so many different things in your life. New friends (invaluable support), baking your own bread, making your own taco seasoning, making your own laundry soap. The list goes on and on..."  (Karen Taylor of Old Pa Farm) Not sure my list of mostly forgotten skills would look exactly like that but the words and sentiment got me thinking about how many old and [by many people] forgotten skills I use in my day.  Some things I do because it's how I learned to do it growing up and some is a conscious choice for either thrift or to leave an environmentally softer footprint on the Earth.

I garden.  Most years I do anyway.  And I will be when this coming Spring finally gets itself underway.  In the past I've used much the same methods I learned from my Dad - organic for the most part but willing to bring in a chemical for limited use if I found myself dealing with a pest I couldn't otherwise control.  In the past, I've hired someone to rototill the ground but this year I'm going to experiment with creating permaculture beds.  That's something I'm pretty excited about!

I preserve garden produce for later use.  This summer I want to make red and green salsa, dilly beans, apple pie filling, applesauce, spaghetti sauce, garlic preserved in vinegar, sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, refrigerator dill pickles, strawberry freezer jam, frozen diced tomatoes, and several dried herb blends.

I cook from scratch.  Well, sometimes.  I admit a lot more boxed stuff has slipped in during the past 18 months.  It's been a time of big adjustments that affect all parts of my life and that's part of the reason that real cooking has fallen by the wayside.  It's something I laugh about now and then, but Derek loves the TGI Friday's(TM) Tater Skins from the freezer isle and would eat them 3-4 times a week... I about had a heart attack right there in the frozen food section when I saw the price and started making them at home.  Mine are so much better he tells everyone that they "are the bomb!" And I want to get back to even more real cooking over the coming months.  One of the first things I plan on doing is getting my sourdough starter going again and making our bread.

I make many of my own cleaning products.  Again, I've slipped a little in doing this but getting back to it more and more.  I've found that I can make my own product that is very effective for much less money. Some of my forays in cleaning products have been laundry soap, dryer sheets, and a concoction (I hope I can replicate) that did an awesome job getting puppy stains out of our carpets.

I create things.  For Christmas I made Derek an afghan in his favorite sports team colors and since we have serious lack of bedding (thanks, in part, to puppy chewing) it's been helpful in keeping him warm on some of those unusually cold nights we've had lately.  Over the last year and a half I also made some of the items we've gifted for birthdays and Christmas, cards, our potholders and some of the decor on our walls.  Several items have used recycled or re-purposed materials.  I love that it saves money, but even more I love that it is unique, kind of quirky and very personal.

I do my own home repairs and upgrades.  Inasmuch as it's safe and I have the skills to do a reasonably good job, I do my own repairs and upgrades.  A recent example was replacing a burned out breaker in our box.  Calling an electrician would have run around $100.  A few friends telling me it was an easy do-it-yourself job and a Youtube tutorial later, I did it myself.  The new breaker cost $11.84, including tax.  Money savings aside, it was a powerful feeling when I flipped that switch and everything worked!

I get to know my neighbors.  For me, a sense of community is important.  I am a naturally friendly person and I like finding people nearby who can share information and skills and, sometimes, garden tools.  Besides, being sociable is a good skill to have... so many of us suffer from nearly unbearable loneliness these days.  I also want to try and barter for things I can't do on my own like get our one neighbor who co-owns a dog grooming business with his daughter to cut the dog's toe nails.  I've talked to him a number of times about gardening and learned that he's diabetic and baked goods won't appeal as a trade off... so I'm hoping this summer to woo him into a barter arrangement with lots of fresh garden-ripe tomatoes!

Could I do more?  Sure.  Will I?  In time, probably.  I've already started a list of upgrades and additions for the 2015 garden...

I Love Saving Money

I am not brand loyal to very many things when I shop.  That's not a criticism for those that always buy the same specific brand of any particular product, just a statement that I don't.

Bounty, Scott, Viva... they're all paper towels.  All going to be used for the same lowly purpose.  (At my house right now, that purpose is primarily cleaning up puppy accidents!)  Similarly Charmin, Angel Soft or another brand of 2-ply is ok.  Left to my own devices, I will choose whichever one is cheaper that day.  Think about what it's for... why flush the extra dollars?

Photo credit: http://www.drugstore.com

When we brought the puppies home, we knew we needed something to clean up accidents.  Derek reached for Resolve.  A can like this lasted about a week.  At our local grocery store, the price is $5.49.  Being a cheapskate, I didn't want to pay that much again so I looked for a coupon but I didn't find one so I looked for it at the Dollar General next to the grocery store.  They don't carry it.

But I still needed something to clean up spots on the carpet.

What to do?  What to do?

I kept looking around the store and found a store brand clean up product that said it would eliminate pet odors.

For $2, I figured it was worth a try.

If it was crap, at least I wouldn't have wasted much of our very sparse funds.  And if it did the job, I'd look like a freaking genius for trying it.  High reward - low risk.

Premium Stain & Odor Remover

And after a week of using it... I like it.  I definitely think it's doing the job it is intended for.  The stains come up very easily and the house doesn't smell of urine or feces when you walk in.  Right when you are using it, it doesn't smell as perfumy as the Resolve does and it's a liquid you squirt on instead of a foam.  But it's getting the job done, I'm not big on perfume smells and I honestly can't think of even one good reason to get hung up on the foaming/non-foaming difference.

I recommend Dollar General's Premium Stain & Odor Remover for anyone who has pet clean up needs and wants to save a few bucks!

Genius.

Clean Up Day

I'm sure there is an annual clean up day in many communities around the world.  But for those of you who, like I did, find this a  strange new idea... clean up day is a designated day where you can haul junk to the curb that doesn't fit your every week trash can and the municipality comes around with a big truck to gather it up and haul it away.

We have such a thing in Salt Lake City!

Each year, a few weeks ahead of time, the City mails an over-sized postcard telling us the date of pickup, when it's acceptable to start moving trash to the curb and a reminder of the rules for what can be in our junk piles.  The dates rotate through all of the neighborhoods so everyone has a chance sometime during every year between March and October (I think).  We never know until the postcard arrives if our clean up day will be early in the spring or late in the fall.

When I moved here from rural Southeast Idaho, it was my first experience with a clean up day and over the years I've observed this ritual with many different emotions.  First was curiosity; almost overwhelming curiosity.  Then came a sort of disgust that the same people could accumulate so much junk year after year.  Later, I felt a bit of satisfaction as I joined the many roving 'curb shoppers' and scored some lawn furniture, planters, canning bottles and an antique dining table.  Some years I've felt relief as I had an abundance of trash that needed to be hauled away.  Other times I've sat inside and watched in utter amusement as car after car stops out front to rifle through my trash in search of their treasures.  In fact I'm watching someone out there right now!

This is my contribution for Salt Lake's Spring Clean Up 2012.  There's some rubble from tearing down the old patio structure in the back, a few odd pieces of dry wall from some minor remodeling in the basement, carpet scraps from the downstairs bedroom and a broken picnic table.  Long gone are the old metal electrical box and a couple of lengths of pipe... those are the prizes for the curb shoppers as they can be scrapped for cash.

Today is the day the truck begins in my neighborhood.  Most years, my pile gets picked up on the first day.  I'm kind of hoping to be a little farther into the cycle this round because there's still junk I'd like to add to the pile.

And I will keeping adding to it until I see the City's trucks headed down my street!

My Cleaning Schedule

You might remember from my early mid-January post about setting goals, I mentioned that devising a good cleaning schedule and doing it was one of the things I was working on this year.  So far that's been going pretty well.  I think this schedule works for me:

MONDAY - Master Bedroom
Change linens and make bed
Dust furniture and lamps
Dustmop and spot clean the floor
Clean tub, toilet, shower and sink in main bath
Sweep and mop floor
Take trash to garbage can
Wipe tile, picture frames and mirror as needed
Dishes into dishwasher
Run dishwasher as needed
Wipe stove top, counters and sink
Water houseplants
Get dirty clothes to laundry room
Do laundry loads as needed
Put clean clothes away

TUESDAY - Upstairs Guest Bedrooms
Change linens and make beds (if the rooms have been used)
Dust furniture and lamps
Dustmop and spot clean the floor in bedrooms and hall
Clean toilet and sink in Jack & Jill bath
Wipe mirror and shelves as needed
Take trash to garbage can
Dishes into dishwasher
Run dishwasher as needed
Wipe stove top, counters and sink
Get dirty clothes to laundry room
Do laundry loads as needed
Put clean clothes away

WEDNESDAY - Living and Dining Room
Make bed
Vacuum area rug and furniture
Dustmop and spot clean floor
Dust furniture and lamps and chandelier
Sweep front entry and shake doormat
Dishes into dishwasher
Run dishwasher as needed
Wipe stove top, counters and sink
Get dirty clothes to laundry room
Do laundry loads as needed
Put clean clothes away

THURSDAY - Kitchen
Make bed
Polish appliances
Clean inside of fridge and freezer as needed
Clean inside of microwave
Clean oven as needed
Dustmop and spot clean floor
Trash to garbage can and cans to street
Dishes into dishwasher
Run dishwasher as needed
Wipe stove top, counters and sink
Get dirty clothes to laundry room
Do laundry loads as needed
Put away clean clothes

FRIDAY - Back Entry and Downstairs Bath
Make bed
Sweep back entry and shake door mat
Sweep stairs and spot clean
Clean bed and bath as needed
Plan menu for next week and write a grocery list
Dishes to dishwasher
Run dishwasher as needed
Wipe stove top, counters and sink
Get dirty clothes to laundry room
Do laundry loads as needed
Put away clean clothes

SATURDAY - Family Room and Craft Room
Make bed
Sweep and spot clean floors
Vacuum area rug and furniture
Dust furniture and electronics
Grocery shopping
Plan business/finance activities and blog posts for next week
Dishes to dishwasher
Run dishwasher as needed
Wipe stove top, counters and sink
Get dirty clothes to laundry room
Do laundry loads as needed
Put away clean clothes
1-2 periodic cleaning jobs  (wash curtains, clean fireplaces, wipe ceiling fans, etc.)

That's about it.  My house is never perfectly spotless, but it is very livable and comfortable.  Most days I can be done with my cleaning chores in around an hour, excepting the time clothes are in the washer and dryer.