Category Archives: Homemaking

Spot the Difference

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The more progress you make in the quest to streamline your home and keep only the things that you use or love, the less spectacular the changes may be.

Here is an example.

I recently cleaned and sorted the cupboard in the vanity unit.

This is the ‘before’ photo.

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Some would say that it is fine, however, I knew that it was not as I wanted it and there were things that I needed to sort out.

I removed everything from the cupboard and wiped over the shelves.

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These things did not go back.  The small shampoo and conditioner are being used.  The large unused container of hand sanitiser has been discarded.  I discovered that it had an expiry date of 2011.  I bought that as a ‘just in case’ but it turned out to be a wasteful exercise.  Th barely used hairspray is going to my daughter – I never use it.  The tube of ‘toddler’ toothpaste has been discarded as the grandchildren are no longer toddlers.  The remainder of a box of Panadeine Forte has been discarded as it had expired.  Empty packet is in the recycling.  Tablet packaging, old toothbrushes and cough lozenge packets are in the rubbish.

The ‘after’ photo.

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Not a great deal of difference but I can now see exactly what is there to be used.  The biggest difference is in the re-arranged crate.

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I could actually downsize the container that I use but I do not have one suitable at the moment and I am not about to rush out and buy one just now.

Flexibility is the Key

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Menu planning, like any other plan, has to have a degree of flexibility built into it otherwise you are setting yourself up for failure.

In this post I listed my menu plan for the week up until last Friday.  Everything was going well until midweek when I found that I needed to attend a funeral on Friday, therefore, I would not be home at 3pm to put the potatoes in the slow cooker.  I also knew that we had a relatively small window of time for dinner as we were going to the movies that evening.

Since the weather was hot, I decided that an antipasto platter would do nicely so this is what I put together when I arrived home.

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There is a selection of fruit, vegetables and cheeses.  Dried apricots and raisins, fresh pineapple, walnuts, olives, carrots sticks, strips of capsicum, cherry tomatoes as well as goats’ cheese and cheddar.

I also made some gluten free mini pancakes rather than opening a packet of rice crackers.

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We did not eat all of the pancakes so I had some for my lunch the next day.

The great thing about this kind of meal is that you do not need a lot of anything so it is perfect for using up little bits and pieces.

The baked potatoes is back on the menu for tomorrow night.

Completed Chairs

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GMan has been steadily working on assembling the chairs and now they are all done.

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Before he put the final one together, I grabbed the seat and traced around the seat.  This is now going to be the pattern for making some seat cushions for the chairs.

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We are planning on painting the existing table.  The most likely colour is red so I am thinking of perhaps using striped fabric which includes some red for the cushions.

I hope to be able to show you the completed dining setting before too long.

A 15 Minute Job

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Sometimes it is difficult to find time to do anything much more than the basics – washing, ironing and cooking – done when I am busy at work.

However, tonight I managed to start and finish a small job in just 15 minutes.  I cleaned, tidied and sorted the drawers in the bathroom.  There are 4 drawers in the vanity unit but one is empty and I save that so that it is available for guests to use if they wish.

One drawer has GMan’s stuff, one is mine and the bottom drawer has the hairdryer so extra mini soaps and spare toothbrushes.

Here is my drawer before I started.

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There does not appear to be much difference once I had cleaned it  but a couple of things have gone.  It is a good opportunity to review what is actually in the drawer so that I can remind myself to use it.

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I did not photograph the other drawers before but here they are – clean and sparkling.

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Finally, I have finished the makeup that I wrote about recently.  These have been tossed in the bin and I am going to buy new lipstick, mascara and blush tomorrow.

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The cupboard in the vanity unit is the next thing on my hit list but not tonight.

Living Life

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No blog posts for 5 days!  What have I been doing?

I have been doing the routine things that keep our life ticking over day by day and week by week.  This has been interspersed by a couple of interesting diversions.

A couple of weeks ago we managed to go to IKEA on a busy day trip to Brisbane.  Our mission was to buy some new chairs for our outdoor setting.  We bought 8 chairs as the table we have is quite large.  GMan has made a start on assembling them and did 2 the other night.  This is what they look like.

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The old ones are the director-style chairs and they are impossible to keep clean as our cat believes that each one of them is his bed and they end up covered in grey cat hair!  I plan to make removable cushions for the new chairs so that we can have padded seats with the benefit of being able to easily remove and store them when not in use.

I have mentioned before that I menu plan our evening meals.  It is difficult to emphasise how much easier this makes shopping for and preparing meals.

Here is my plan for this week.

Saturday – Dahl with brown rice and steamed carrots and broccoli

Sunday – BBQ eye fillet with sweet potato chips, roasted beetroot in caramelised balsamic and crumbled goat’s cheese and green beans with red wine viniagrette and toasted sesame seeds

Monday – Vegetable quiche (adaptation of zucchini quiche) and salad

Tuesday – Tumeric chicken with brown rice and salad

Wednesday – Stuffed mushrooms with side salad

Thursday – Hamburger patties with home-made tomato sauce, fried mushroom and onions and salad

Friday – Baked potatoes topped with refried beans and cheese plus salad

Salad will be lettuce, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and capsicum with the addition of cheese on Tuesday and Thursday.

Sunday’s meal was actually lunch as we had guests.  It put a lot of restaurant meals to shame.

I had time this morning to prepare the mushrooms before I went to work so all I needed to do when I arrived home was to microwave them until cooked then top with a little extra grated cheese and finish them off under the griller.

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Any plan needs to be flexible and menu plans are no exception.  I try to make choices based on our activities and needs but sometimes those change.  I cook the baked potatoes in the slow cooker for 4 hours so I would need to be at home to turn it on at about 3pm.  This was going to be OK as I planned to work from home on Friday, however, I need to go to Brisbane and may not be home by 3pm so I have decided to make that meal for Sunday and we will have an antipasto platter and salad on Friday as we need to eat fairly quickly before heading out on Friday evening.

Retirement Planning

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As with everything else in life, nothing is certain when it comes to retirement – redundancy, illness or even death can interrupt the best of plans but it is important to have a plan.

GMan and I plan to retire from full-time paid employment in about 3.5 years so it is still some time away yet.  We have worked hard to get to this point and have a financial plan that is coming together.  Our goal is to be able to live a comfortable existence on our terms.

This post is not about superannuation, investments or even travel plans – although we do give that quite a lot of thought.  It is about forecasting future needs and changing circumstances.

I was thinking about this yesterday as I folded and put away clothes.  GMan does not generally wear a suit to work but his attire is mostly business shirts and trousers. However, the dress code seems to have become increasingly casual over the last 10 years.  He no longer wears ties every day and even the shirts that are worn in his workplace are less of a business shirt and more of a hybrid business or casual item.

So, how much of this will be worn once he walks out of the office for the last time?  This is where the planning comes in.  It seems ridiculous to think that we could be left with 3 or 4 pairs of trousers and 8 – 10 business shirts that may never be worn again in a few years time.

I have decided to try to keep track of approximately how long a shirt lasts.  I think it is around 3 or 4 years.  About half of the shirts GMan wears now also double as shirts for dressier non-work occasions.  I hope that any future purchases will also fit this category and they will not be redundant when no longer required for wearing to work.  Keeping the number of shirts to the minimum (6 or 7) is also a goal.  This will give me very little leeway when it comes to washing and ironing each week.

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Even socks can be considered when reviewing clothing needs.  The front row of socks in the photo are mostly the ones GMan wears to work – black, grey or navy but they are rarely worn with casual outfits as he tends to mostly wear lighter colored trousers and often different shoes and thicker socks.  Some of these socks are very nearly at the end of their life.  Some have been darned several times.  I think he could get away with not replacing them and keep wearing the remaining ones.

Why the focus on GMan?  What about my own clothes?  I am in the fortunate position of wearing very similar clothes for both work and casual wear.  However, I have taken note of those items that are worn more at work and will be less inclined to replaced those styles in the next 3 years.  I will also consider how any future purchases will fit into a post-employment wardrobe.

I can visualise how easily changes of lifestyle or circumstances could result in a build-up of clutter if steps are not taken to identify and remove those things that are no longer used or useful.  This is particularly evident as children grow up.  Think of the things that are considered essential for a baby who is less than 12 months old.  Are any of them still relevant 5 years later when are going to school?  While it is reasonable to keep large items such as a cot or high-chair for subsequent children, there is no logic in stashing piles of baby equipment and toys in the garage or attic.  Pass them on to someone who can use them now.

What is your life-stage?  Are you planning for change?  Do you have stuff that is no longer relevant to your life?

A Replacement

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I have been nursing my set of electronic kitchen scales along for some time now but they finally died on the weekend.  In my opinion an accurate set of scales is essential when you cook from scratch.

Today, GMan and I went to buy a new set.  After looking in Target and finding nothing we went to Myer and bought this one.

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The regular price was $99 but they were reduced to $77.  This may seem like an extravagant purchase but they have a 15 year guarantee and can weigh in grams, ounces, fluid ounces or millilitres.  The bowl is an added bonus.

Stocking Up

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I have spent today in the kitchen but most of it was not preparing meals.  It was about making and bottling jam and sauce.

There were 6kg of cherry tomatoes squirreled away in the freezer ready to make sauce and today was the day.

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The recipe for the sauce is here.

Next up was the 10kg bag of onions I bought yesterday.  I set 2kg aside for a friend and then sliced and diced another 7kg and have packed and frozen them.  I decided to turn the last kilogram into onion jam and the taste test indicates that it has been successful.  The recipe I used had carraway seeds in it so I bought some this morning when were shopping.  I have never bought carraway seeds before but if it looks as though I will be making onion jam in the future I will definitely get some more.

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Finally, I made some plum jam which is GMan’s favourite.  It turned out better than the batch I overcooked last year which was closer to toffee than jam!

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The recipe is very simple.

1.5 kg plums
1.25kg sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup water

Place in saucepan, boil until setting point is reached.  The stones can be removed with a slotted spoon during cooking.

Tip:  Count the plums before you start so that you know how many stones you are trying to remove.

I also made another batch of spreadable butter.  Here is the recipe.

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The only problem with cooking all day is that I did not get the ironing done!  However, we do have ironed clothes to wear to work tomorrow.

 

 

Hen House

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In 2013 I wrote this post about a chicken coop we had bought.  While it has been quite successful it has succumbed to the weather over time.

Once we had completed the run we decided that we would really prefer to have a hen house that we could access by walking in to it.

There had been much discussion about how we would make this a reality so last weekend we set to work with our salvaged and recycled materials from the old hen house and other projects.

We worked flat out for 2 days and there was no time for taking photos so there is no record of it under construction.

Here is the finished structure.

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There will be covered garden beds around 2 sides.  I plan to grow greens for the chickens to graze on but have it covered so that they can only nibble them once they grow big enough that they are through the wire.

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This is the view from the vegie garden.  It is not open to the garden although that is the effect in the photo.  There is chicken wire on the front side of the hen house.  We are considering adding a roll-down clear vinyl blind to use in very wet weather.  There are a couple of old ones which we do not use that are still on the verandah.

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The interior with water and feed dispensers as well as a nesting box which we salvaged from the old coop.

There are still a few minor enhancements that we will make but the major part of the project is complete and the chickens seem very happy with their new home.

 

Running Repairs

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Both GMan and I have have some really old clothes which we wear when we are gardening or doing other outdoor jobs.

Last weekend we were busy building a new hen house and we both managed to cause some damage which necessitated some mending.  After the clothes were washed today I set about repairing them.

Here are the ‘before’ shots.

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I ripped a 3 cornered tear in the back of my cotton trousers.  They are very thin and some would say they are not worth repairing.

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Gman’s patched trousers had a different problem – the stitching of the crotch seam below the zip gave way.  I think the thread had just worn out.

Here is a close-up view.

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I started with my trousers and placed a patch on the inside using double-sided iron-on interfacing.

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Zig-zag stitching over the tear plus around the edge of the patch and the job was complete.

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This is the view from the right side.

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For the crotch seam I sewed a seam from the wrong side and then 2 rows of stitching from the right side.  Like many of my mending jobs, it won’t win a prize but it is effective and extends the life of the garment.

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Do you mend clothes?