Some Hints for a Happy Life

Please do not look to me or to this blog for amazing organizational hints. Because I'm not one of those truly amazing women who will keep a management binder and then ACCOMPLISH the tasks she sets out for herself. I stink!!

I will literally set out to dust and vacuum the house. Sounds like it can be done in one day, easy enough. Oh, but to DUST this room, first I must get the laundry out of the way. Then I have to move everything around so I can dust. Then I have to let the dust settle for a bit (no, really, I do... I find it discouraging to dust something and look back 30 seconds later and see DUST again. You know it just fell a second ago.)

Oh, but NOW all the bedding is dusty!!! I'm starting some laundry, but see more laundry in the washer. And the dryer. And on the floor. Sigh.

Then I've gotten involved in straightening out a kitchen drawer. This pile goes upstairs, this pile goes downstairs. I will leave the "upstairs" pile on the dining room table and the "downstairs" pile on the desk. I'm busy right now.

Oh, back to homeschooling.

Oh, I need to start lunch soon..

**ring, ring**

No, I'm not answering that. I know better.

OK, the upstairs pile has gone upstairs but I can't put it away in this drawer without organizing it first. Now I have another pile to go downstairs to the kitchen and another pile to go to the basement...

Oh, forget it, I'm shoving it all in the kitchen drawer and dealing with it later!! Yes, there is a toothbrush there still in the wrapper but I just don't care at this point. I just saw a bunch of bills that need to be paid... But I've moved my stamps somewhere in my last cleaning spree ...

I really do work hard all day, but by the time I get around to vacuuming, only one room is done. I check my phone message four hours later to discover I've missed a really important phone call. I stink! If I *only* had the magic "ADHD" bug I could do all this with a lot of energy. I don't really believe in the label as a medical diagnosis, but maybe more as a description of how some children operate. Not me. I lose steam by the end of the day and haven't gotten anywhere!! But I do have some household hints anyway, for what it's worth...


Strange Household Hints

Use a nail brush by the sink for dirty nails, but also for the twisty parts of the tops of baby bottles and the inside rims of soda cans. Then when you wash these items afterwards you know the gunk is really gone. Of course, clean your nail brush as well after use.

Use a used (non poopie) folded disposable diaper to get the dust bunnies out from under furniture. I've find sweeping and vacuuming are less effective than this method, which makes the hair and dust "stick" to the paper fabric. You only really need to do this when it looks like there's a frothy wave creeping out from beneath the furniture, so that you really feel like you've accomplished something. Plus you're recycling the diaper (sort of) by putting it to a new task. I'm actually much more ecological using the disposables. With the cloth diapers, EVERY TIME the child goes to the bathroom you have to wash the diaper, the clothes AND the kid AND the car seat, bedding or (insert name of difficult-to-wash or bulky item here). Forget it. That was my "moneysaving idea" with the first child and it turned out rotten.

Use Post-it notes as bookmarks. The Post-it sticks to your place in the book and will not fall out like conventional bookmarks will. They're not as pretty as the standard bookmarks, though.

Use a baby wipe for hands after visiting thrift stores, hospitals, and gas stations on the interstate where washing one's hands might actually give you more germs than leaving them alone. I hate hand sanitizers because I feel like I'm just smearing the dirt around rather than at least wiping it off.

I've heard this hint in other places, but used fabric softener sheets really do remove pet hair from furniture.

So what do you think of my household hints? Maybe they're a little too honest, and you won't read this blog while you're eating next time.

Blessings!

Mrs. C.