Category Archives: cleaning

Not the Regular Rubbish

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It is about 10 days since I last emptied the small rubbish bin in the kitchen.  This week it is lined with an empty corn chip packet and most of the usual culprits are still there – a rice cracker packet, cheese wrapper, toothpaste tube, an empty mayonnaise bottle and so on.

Every week there seems to be some ‘one off’ items and this time is no different.

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On the weekend I cleaned out the drawers in the vanity in the bathroom.  Of course, this is not the first time I have cleaned and decluttered the drawers in the vanity unit.  This post is from about 12 months ago.  If you look carefully you will see the nail polish in one of the photos.

Anyway, the 3 bottles of nail polish have gone in the bin.  They came to me via Freecycle over 10 years ago and I have used them intermittently for my toenails – I have never painted my fingernails as it was not compatible with my work.  I last did my toenails just before Christmas and at that point decided that I would not do them again.  The cotton cloth was used with the nail polish remover so it is going, too.

The other item in the photo is a globe from the headlight of GMan’s ute.  It had stopped working so needed to be replaced.  GMan was able to remove the old one, buy a new globe and install it.  It is good to be able to tackle these type of jobs ourselves.

Cleaned for Christmas

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It is now one week until Christmas. This year we are hosting Christmas lunch for my family.  They will be arriving from near and far on Thursday evening and Friday.  Some will be staying with us and others in accommodation just a few kms away.

This weekend I have written numerous lists and managed to cross off a few things and I feel relatively organised.  The menu is planned, necessary ingredients bought apart from fruit and vegetables which I will do on Friday, gifts bought and wrapped and the outside of the house cleaned.

We usually try to wash down the Colorbond wall of the house twice per year.  It is now looking clean, fresh and ready for guests.

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The hardest part is the back wall which is quite high and requires the use of the mobile scaffold.

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The table which GMan painted recently is in position and Ready for Christmas lunch.

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I have also cleaned most of the windows in the living room and am hoping to get a few others done as well this week.

How are your Christmas plans coming along?

The Time It Takes

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Well, it has been a while since I wrote a proper blog post.  I have been busy in the real world as things seem to speed up towards the end of the year.  At least some of it was of our own making as we chose to go to Adelaide for 3 nights about a week ago.

I managed to have the housework pretty well up do date before we left last Saturday but I have not had any free time since arriving home on Tuesday evening to an almost empty refrigerator and the prospect of long days at work for the remaining 3 days of the working week.

It would have been easy to say that I had no time but it really was a matter of making time.  Have you ever considered how little time it actually takes to do some of your regular household tasks?  It only takes me about 6 minutes to hang out a load of washing and about 2 – 3 minutes to get a load of washing off the line.

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So, during the past 5 days I have managed to unpack a suitcase, do a couple of loads of washing, including hanging, bringing it in and folding, plan and prepare meals as well as getting myself to work each day.

Things I do to create time where there does not appear to be any include preparing at least part of the evening meal for the following night while dinner is cooking, putting a load of washing on before I go to work, wiping over the mirror and vanity when I get out of the shower.

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Housework does does not need to be an enormous undertaking.  By doing a little bit often you can keep things humming along with very little time.  Other jobs that take a couple of minutes are unloading the dishwasher, wiping down the sink, cleaning a single shelf in the refrigerator, dusting a polishing a table and so on.  Every small task that you can slip into your routine is one that does not build into an overwhelming project.

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Did you notice the one thing I have not mentioned?  Ironing!  I need at least an hour of clear time to get stuck into a pile of ironing and make it worthwhile.

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How do you arrange your housework into the time available?

Another Weekend

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Well, Sunday evening has rolled around yet again in the blink of an eye.  The weekends are simply not long enough for me to achieve everything I hope to do.

Some weekends are more productive than others and I am pretty happy with what I managed to accomplish.

All of the washing and 95% of the ironing are done.  Why 95%?  The iron decided it was time to die when I only had a few items left.  So, one of my jobs for this week will be to buy a new one.

I have planned our menu for the week, bought fruit and vegetables, swept and vacuumed the floors as well as doing some painting on the verandah.

GMan and I went to the computer shop to buy a new tower for the desktop computer as the other one had been deemed as unrepairable.  The new one should be ready next weekend.

Apart from sanding and painting GMan managed to do all of the mowing so he has been busy, too.

However, the weekend was not all work as we went to the movies in Maleny on Saturday evening to see, ‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople’.  It was both funny and sad in places and I really enjoyed it.

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Keeping it Clean

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While I do not have huge areas to declutter or sort out there are always ongoing jobs to do.  Some are so small that they are barely noticeable but 5 minutes can literally make the difference.

My clothesline is 5 parallel lines under the verandah.  Every few months I wipe down 4 of the lines with a damp cloth to remove any dust and grime.  The last line does not get done because I have 12 hanger holders positioned along the line.

Yesterday I took the hooks off because I was washing a couple of sets of sheets and needed the extra hanging space.  I realised the hooks were very grubby and the line was filthy.  I wiped the line thoroughly before I hung the white sheet on it and then washed the hooks.  A quick soak in some warm, soapy water then scrubbed with an old nail brush before I spread them out to dry.

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Once the sheet was dry I replaced them on the line and hung out the next load which included plenty of items to dry on hangers.

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A few minutes well spent to keep everything in working order.

Patience Pays Off

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A few weeks ago I wrote this post about cleaning up the workshop area downstairs.  One of the photos showed the old kitchen cupboards which we had been using as storage in this area for the last 7 years.  We decided that it was time for them to go as the chipboard was all breaking up and we had eliminated enough stuff to longer require them as storage.

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GMan cut the shelving into smaller pieces and broke down the cupboard shells and drawers.  We only have a half size (120 litre) wheelie bin so we filled it with the cut pieces each week for 4 weeks.

Now it is completely gone.

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The alternative was to pack it into the ute, drive 20kms to the nearest rubbish dump and pay about $15 to dump it.  The end result is the same – it goes to landfill, which is not ideal but there is really no alternative for this sort of thing.  However, we managed it at zero cost to us because we chose to take our time and dispose of it bit by bit.

Nothing Matches…….

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……..but at least it is tidy.  The workshop area contains a mish-mash of storage cupboards and shelving.  It does not look particularly pretty but is effective.

Yesterday was the last day of our long weekend and GMan decided to continue his goal of clearing up downstairs.  On Saturday he had swept and water-blasted the open concreted area under the house so yesterday he turned his attention to the workshop area.  I do not have any ‘before’ photos but here are a few shots of the end result.

The dismantled cupboards in the right-hand photo are from our old kitchen (renovated 7 years ago) which were repurposed as temporary storage.  They are now destined to be rubbish as the chipboard is all breaking up and we simply no longer need them.  GMan will cut them into smaller pieces and gradually dispose of them via our regular rubbish collection.

Cupboards and shelves were re-arranged.  Worn-out or useless rubbish were discarded.  Items no longer required were listed on Facebook Buy/Swap/Sell sites.  Bits of wood were cut up for firewood.

The area is by no means decluttered completely but we have got rid of some stuff, made sure similar items are stored together and generally know what we have.

As always, it is a work in progress but it feels good to have taken another step towards keeping only those things that we really need.

Luxury of a Long Weekend

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Thank you for your kind words after my last post and patience while I collect my thoughts.

This morning I woke and lay in bed contemplating the unusual situation of 3 days at home (it is a long weekend here in Queensland) and no commitments.  That is right – nothing, nobody, nowhere.  We had no plans.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love catching up with family and friends, entertaining and going places but it is such a novelty not to have anything planned.

The weather is cool and humid with showers of rain threatening.

GMan and I began by taking the outdoor table downstairs to clean it in preparation for painting.  Next, we have cleaned all of the concreted area under the house – swept, vacuumed and cleaned with the high-pressure water spray.

After using the outdoor vacuum cleaner GMan discovered that the filter bag was falling to bits.

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I decided that I could make a new one which appears to have been a success.

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Here it is attached to the lid of the vacuum cleaner.

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There are lots of other things we can work on and there will be more about those in upcoming posts.

I hope you are having a safe and relaxing weekend wherever you are.

Built for a Purpose

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A very quick post tonight in between trying to catch on on some housework.

I brought the washing in this evening and folded it on the laundry bench.  Now, that may not sound very exciting but I was inspired to take a photo to show you.

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While the bench was not totally clear – a few things in one corner – it was adequate to fold a load of washing.  That was my plan when we had these cupboards built not long after we moved in.  The reality is somewhat different.  There always seems to be a bucket with something soaking in it, handwashing to be done and a myriad of other things.  I end up doing the folding on the spare bed or lounge and neither option is good for my back.

I am definitely going to try to keep this bench clear so that it can be used for folding clothes on a regular basis.

A Cleaning Plan – Or Not?

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Some people work to a plan for cleaning.  It could be vacuuming on Monday, dusting on Tuesday and so on or a room at a time.  Perhaps a schedule of things to do on a weekly or monthly basis.

I do not follow any set routine but tend to do things as required or more importantly, when I have time.

Today was one of those completely unexpected cleaning moments.  I was hanging out washing and noticed that there was some debris in the peg bag which hangs on my laundry trolley.  So I tipped all of the pegs into a bucket of soapy water and washed them.  Then I emptied all of the dirt and a mud wasp nest out of the bag and washed it, too.

Here are the pegs spread out to dry on an old towel.

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You can see how much the fabric has faded even though the trolley and bag are always on the verandah out of the weather.  The buttons were red originally as can be seen from the back of the button.

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The bag replaced on the handle of the trolley and filled with pegs.

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Some of the cane on the handle of the basket is broken and I am trying to decide how best to mend that.  I will write a blog post about that when I get around to doing it.