Savings achieved in daily household routine
joyfulguy
21 years ago
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Terrapots
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19 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
daily support - march 24 thru march 30
Comments (61)Hi Everyone! I'm glad to report I stuck to my plan last night - only had one light beer and one fake beer and 2 med slices of pizza. Drank a huge glass of water too. Ending this week I'm still ahead having 20 bonus point left for the week. I've almost recovered on the scales from last weekend - tomorrow is my weigh day. Planning ahead is worth it. No, I did not get all of the snow moved. I can now see out 1/2 the window. With the temps warming this week, I will be throwing more snow on the drive to melt and will continue to do so until I can get through my patio gate to the back door and clear the front window snow bank. I can only do so much and have to wait for the snow to melt before I can toss some more. It's good exercise and fresh air - so I don't mind. Waiting for my swimsuits to arrive in the post (ebay) - going to start playing in the pool at the nearby sports center. Planning on walking there one way and probably busing back now that the sidewalks have been clear. Any water activity really has helped me in the past tone up and get rid of flab. It's also a treat for me. Dodi, I've only been through your area once on our holiday driving down to Boston area - beautiful is an understatement! I can understand why you drive to town to do your walking! Raeanne what were you working on? I'm going to check out August Rush on the internet. We watch movies at home so I may have to wait. Where is Lake George? Besh do you have any other children? They grow up so fast. Marci what is on the agenda for next week - any time for yourself in there? Milkdud would you please send some of your heat my way? I wanna garden so bad it's driving me nuts. I can smell the snow melting. Yes, it has a particular smell. How is Aubrey today? Hey John it's great to have a man's perspective on all of this journey. What do you do to relax after work? NhSuzanne - what neck of the woods are you in to have as much snow? Let's go visit Milkdud! DeeMarie - what type of work do you do? Are you still feeling refreshed from your holiday? I loved working on projects in my career - I'm an administrative junkie at heart. Patti congrats on your weight loss too - trying to find your post on it but I keep getting lost! Can you update me please! After rereading the posts - I think my crock pot is getting hauled out today. I can't believe I see so many of them in charity shops all the time. There was a smaller one available last week and a bunch of tall mason jars which I'm thinking of returning on Monday to pick up. I have a craving for lima beans and crock pots do them justice. QOD: What was your first childhood toy that you claimed as your 'buddy? Mine was a stuffed, butt ugly monkey. I traded a toy tractor with my foster brother for it. We were moving from Ontario to Manitoba. My foster brother needed special care that was not available in the military camp we moved to. It broke our hearts to part with Brian. I was so creative I called him Monkey. Monkey had many surgeries in his life, many baths and finally disintegrated in my late 20's to the point of no return - may Monkey rest in peace. Let's make today count! It's sunny -3' and going to a balmy +2'C (34'F). Might have to do some snow tossing! Cheers, Peggy...See MoreCleaning routines...anyone?
Comments (23)My cleaning "profile" is probably closest to Ginger's. This is definitely a YMMV situation--for me, cleaning a bit every day just doesn't work. I really need the satisfaction of looking around, at least once weekly :), at a clean, shining tidy house. I have learned though that the little daily cleaning routines help greatly for liveability. So our daily routines are: Morning and evening quick tidy results: All dishes washed, left in drainer, sink and countertops clear (husband does most, I wash anything random left over) Bathrooms wiped down, all grooming stuff put away (I do during 5-minute tidy before leaving work and before going to bed) Public areas of house tidy-no clutter lying around (Me during tidy times)* *Kids responsible for gathering and putting away their things, though I have to remind them, they don't do it automatically Trash in kitchen emptied daily, after dinner. My son does it. On a weekly basis I prefer, when I'm doing my own housecleaning as I am now, to use a block of time to try to get as much as possible done. I divide into "wet work" ie bathrooms and kitchen and "dry chores" ie tidying, dusting, mopping, vacuuming, changing linens etc. So I use my caddy and do both bathrooms: Scrub bathtub, including bleach misting any visible mildew in the bathtub tiled area. Wipe down top of shelves Clean toilet with comet/brush followed by bleach mist Clean sink with Soft Scrub, followed by Windex wipe. , Windex is incredible for leaving a fantastic shine/sparkle on tile, chrome, glass etc in the bathroom. I Windex the soap dispensers, tile top of windowsill etc. Ammonia/water mop floor Change trash bag in wastebasket Take out bath rug, exchange for clean one (bath mats are washed weekly) Kitchen: Wipe down all countertops with Soft Scrub, followed by Windex (tile counters) Take apart plastic dish drainer, bleach clean Clean stove including drip pans, wipe surface with, yep, Windex Clean microwave Sweep and mop floor General: Dust furniture Sweep and dust mop wood floors Sweep and mop tile family room floor Vacuum carpeted areas (area rugs in DR and hallway, wall to wall carpet in bedrooms) Change bed linens Straighten up office desk area Sweep front entry way (outside front door-small tiled area) Sweep back patio Periodically: Wash entry way mats (every couple of weeks) Polish brass mailbox VERY periodically :): Clean windows with Windex--spring cleaning chore is to enlist kids' help and wash all exterior windows. Oye, what a job. CLean refrigerator-hate this and don't do it regularly Wipe down walls where I can see visible smudges and stains. I've never been one to 'wash' my walls; can't actually see the point of that. Wipe down doors as above-periodically I repaint my french doors that lead to backyard as they get grungy with stains and bug juice. Pressure clean patio-son loves to do this. Teenage boys and hi power jets of water, what a combination! There are other tasks but as noted, I'm not real good at the in depth old fashioned spring cleaning type things. Ann...See MoreLet's Talk Organization & Routines
Comments (14)Online banking is just a wonderful service. No stamps, no worry about checks lost in the mail, you can set up "recurring" payments that you want to pay the same every month or do One Time Only checks. You have an easy to access record of all paid checks. Believe me, I've had a few disputes settled by printing out my paid checks.As far as household organizing, a good idea is Do It Now. If you see dirt on your kitchen floor, clean it now. don't wait and let people and pets track through it. A "Flylady" approach helps. Keep your sink clear of dishes, do laundry daily, think of your house having a "center" (your kitchen sink) and clean from there outwards. I read Flyladys website, even bought her book. I don't agree with everything (like wearing lace-up shoes) so I use what I like and ignore the rest....See MoreWhat's your laundry routine?
Comments (44)blfenton -- IMO people use too much soap, and it gets left in the wash. Softeners just add more goop. The white vinegar gets any remaining soap out. I put 1/4 cup Tide Free in the soap dispenser of my front load and 1/4 cup white vinegar in the 'softener' dispenser. Liquid detergents and 'softeners' have the liquifiers and preservatives common to all liquid soaps and lotions. (Without these, the contents would grow mold and solidify.) These additives can build up in the washer. I don't want to spread goopy 'softener' onto my freshly washed laundry, and I do want to get all the soap out. I think I learned to tear the dryer sheets in half from the KT! I also leave my front load washer's door and dispenser slots open a bit to dry out between uses. You can test for residual soap. Next time you have a load of towels, don't put any soap in the wash water. If you see suds once the agitator starts, that's soap coming out of the towels. A soap-free towel feels soft out of the dryer. One with soap left in it feels stiff, and it won't absorb water well when you dry with it. I do darks last because I pretreat stains with Oxi-Clean. That can be working while I run sheets, then whites. We re-use bathroom towels. We're *clean* when we dry off, and towels dry completely on towel rods in the bathroom. (Two of our rods are directly over floor heat registers. I'd take credit for planning that, but it was just luck.) We do change wash cloths, but dry them before adding them to the laundry basket. If you dump used towels and wash cloths into a hamper, don't they get smelly? I've never washed *every day*, even when DS was living at home. Doing laundry today is such a big *nothing*! I grew up helping my mother with a small capacity wringer washer in a dark basement. We pinned up wash on clotheslines -- in the basement in rainy weather and out in the back yard on a whirligig in good weather. I carried many a load of heavy, wet wash up the basement stairs. (We did have a laundry chute with openings in the kitchen and upstairs bedroom hallway.) "Pre-treating" in those days was scrubbing with Fels-Naptha bar soap on a washboard while your feet froze on the cold, wet basement floor. There was also bluing and starch water -- and tons of ironing. My mother had a mangle for sheets, but there was still plenty of stand up ironing before the easy-care fabrics of today....See Morespewey
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