Keeping it Real

One of the lovely (or not-so-lovely) things about our online “life” is that we can portray only the best and only the prettiest parts of our real life. Our houses are always clean, the children are always dressed and happy, and all of the meals for the week are planned. It is easy to get caught up in maintaining that rosy, perfect picture, afraid to admit that we truly are human and don’t really have it all together.

  Earlier this week on a Facebook group I’m a member of, a thread “Worst Housekeeping/Housecleaning Confessions” was started. It was such a blessing to me to read through it and see that I wasn’t the only one(!) who didn’t have a spotless house. I’m not the only one who struggles to stay on top of things, yet has laundry piled high waiting to be washed and a fridge that needs to be cleaned out.

So when you feel overwhelmed, remember you aren’t the only one who has sat down and cried your eyes out because of the state of your home and because you feel like a failure as a homemaker. The real world and real life are messier and more disorganized than blogs and Pinterest would lead us to believe.

A trick that I’ve learned to help me when I have the housecleaning blues is to do one thing in each room that is noticeable. That gets the ball rolling and there is a difference (even if it’s small!) in each space. For example: in my bedroom, I’ll make the bed. In the living room I’ll make sure the couch and coffee table are straight. Little things like that will help me see where I want to go and give me motivation to get there.

I am a huge list maker. I make lists for everything. And I make lists when I clean. Checking things off of a list gives me an adrenaline rush (I know, I need to get out more) and sometimes my lists are ridiculous, depending on how airheaded I am that day.

I have also started using a timer extensively, thanks to the FlyLady. It is amazing to me how much I can get accomplished in 15 minutes of focused cleaning. I highly recommend doing this. In her book Sink Reflections, she gives the following “formula” for cleaning with a timer:

Set a timer for 15 minutes and work as fast as you can in one area until the timer sounds. Don’t get distracted and move until time is up. Set the timer for another 15 minutes and move to another area, even if the first isn’t finished—you can come to it later. Continue in this manner until you have cleaned for 3 sets of 15 minute intervals (a total of 45 minutes.) Set your timer for 15 minutes again and take a break.

This method has really worked well for me, even if I have to go back to an area a few times to finish it. I’ve found, however, that 15 minutes of focused cleaning is usually almost all that I need for most areas.

Just checking in…

So, where have I been? This little blog has been silent for a couple weeks, not intentionally though. I’ve been busy being a wife, homemaker, seamstress and babysitter. With everything going on I had to let something go and writing—though it pained me to be away—was something that I could let slide.

 

We had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend that began with a graduation party for a dear friend and ended with a BBQ at my parents’ home. When we came home from all the festivities we discovered that our upstairs neighbor’s drip pan for their A/C unit had overflowed and soaked one of our bedroom walls and part of our carpet. Thankfully the damage is not such that we will have to move. The repairs will be minor and fast, praise the Lord.  As soon as I discovered the dampness I put fans blowing on everything, and things were nearly dry when the carpet man got here. Thankfully we didn’t need new carpet padding, he checked everywhere for dampness and it was fine. I did get some of my carpet steam-cleaned ;) Now I’ll have to go rent a steam cleaner so it will all look nice ;)

Hopefully the sheetrock and painting repairs will be just as simple and painless.

Last night I learned how to do something I’ve never done before. When Jacob worked at his old job (an electrical supply company)  he did a variety of things, one of which being building terminal boxes.  Since he left there was no one there to build them, and it is cheaper to build them in-house than order them. They called Jacob last week and asked if he could start building the terminal boxes for them again as a contractor  and last night he built half of the needed order for this month. I got to help and actually did two all by myself.

My absence from blog land has not been intentional, though until things slow down a little, I can’t guarantee how much I’ll be here.

Til next time,

Rebecca

Carpet Cleaner--from your pantry

Earlier today I found a recipe for carpet cleaner (on Pinterest, where else?!). I had been needing to buy some carpet cleaner for a few coffee spots and a place or two by the front door.
 I saw the recipe and decided to try it before I bought any from the store. I'm always open to expirements :)
 Guess what? It really worked! And it was so inexpensive and easy--barely any elbow grease and it was quick.
I am completely sold on it and never have to worry about running out of cleaner again. Yippee!

CARPET CLEANER:

First, sprinkle the stain(s) with BAKING SODA and rub it in a little. Let set for 10 or so minutes. Vacuum up the baking soda, then mix:

2 cups of warm water
1 T. white vinegar
1 T. dishwashing liquid (I used Dawn)

Sponge onto stain generously and scrub. Let dry and say goodbye to stains :)

Note: I haven't noticed any vinegary smell--which was really the only concern I had with the mix.



Also check out the following recipe for Homemade Fabric Softener

Febreze and Charcoal

It is probably a good thing that we don't have any little ones yet, as my latest smoke smell battling strategy is a tad messy: charcoal.
 Last night after church Jacob and I made a Walmart run for charcoal and more Febreze and a few more candles. We took the couch all apart and I'm airing the cushions out on the porch today, and I've been saturating his recliner with Febreze every time I think about it.
 Things are getting better and you can only smell the smoke when you first walk in the door--it nearly knocks you off your feet, but it only takes a minute to get used to it.
Hopefully the charcoal will help absorb more of the smell. We have about 6 aluminum pans full of charcoal scattered throughout the apartment and Jacob place some in the return air vent of our A/C. So we shall see.
 We are having the in-laws over for supper tonight and I'm going to fry chicken. Hopefully it will lessen the smell, not multiply it :)

Just call me Smokey the Homemaker

Last Thursday I decided to make gumbo for supper. To some, gumbo in hot weather is unthinkable but I had to have some. I didn't really want the smoky, burnt smell that roux leaves in your house afterwards, especially since it is very hard to get fried smells gone from our apartment, so I bought some Tony Chachere roux mix. (It was great by the way, and it has no MSG or other things like that.) So, hurrah! no burned smell that will take days to disappear.

Or so I thought....
  Supper was delicious, and we decided to always use the roux mix. About halfway through, we realized I'd forgotten to put okra in it. Jacob loves okra in gumbo and I'd bought some especially for him. No problem, I'd just put some in and let it simmer on low and we could eat more later. (It is impossible to make a small pot of gumbo.) So I did.

  We had some errands to run after supper and we looking forward to more gumbo when we got home.

 When we were almost home--nearly four hours later--I realized that I had left the burner on under the gumbo!!!!!!!!! I had completely forgotten that I had turned the stove back on and so had Jacob.

 I expected fire trucks to be in front of our apartment when we got home but there were none. There WAS a smoky smell we could smell when we got out of our truck.

  We unlocked and opened our door and smoke billowed out. I ran to the stove, grabbed the pot and headed to the porch with it. There was smoke everywhere. We opened every door and window and turned on all the fans. It was awful.

I began cleaning and mopping and dusting, doing anything I could think of to try and lessen the smoke smell. Thankfully my wonderful in-laws showed up with box fans, carpet powder and Febreeze and we were able to make it til the next morning.

 Needless to say, all of our furniture is saturated with the smoke smell, not to mention our clothing, bedding, pillows, carpet--everything! 

 First thing Friday morning I went to the store and bought all kinds of smell-good stuff. I'm sure the cashier was amused at the wide array of candles and air fresheners that I had in my basket.

 I have never had anything quite this big and challenging to tackle before and I must admit when I woke up Friday I just wanted to cry and go home to Mama. I felt (and still do to a degree) so overwhelmed. If we were in the country, or had a yard, I would simply take everything outside and let it air in the sunshine. Mattress, sofa, recliner, etc. I did take our pillows onto the porch and some of our blankets and let them air.

 All this was made worse by the fact that we were leaving Friday evening for a mini-vacation to our deerlease with Jacob's parents. I had planned to spend Friday packing and preparing to leave. Now I had to re-wash everything that we were planning on taking with us. That meant towels, clothing, and bedding. Our suitcases were smokey. Everything was smokey and our home was a disaster area.

 It was good that we were able to get away from the smoke for a few days. We needed to get away anyway and the smoke incident made us appreciate our trip even more. Retail therapy (shopping!) helped quite a bit :)

 Everything is still smoky, and I have been cleaning ever since we got home. It's getting better, but I think a lot of it is that I'm just getting used it. :( Someone is going to lend us an air purifier so that should help and I'm going to send several of Jacob's suits to dry cleaner's this week and the rest next week.

  What I have I learned from this little ordeal? ALWAYS check the stove before you leave. Even if you know it's off, look again. And just because you use roux mix doesn't mean you won't have to deal with a smokey house.

 We are so thankful that the Lord protected our home and it was only smoke and not fire we are having to clean up after. We don't know why the smoke detector didn't go off, and I'm going to check the batteries today.

 So, if you have any suggestions on how to combat smoke smell, please, please, please, comment and share them with me.

Link to a Natural Homecare blog

Check out this great article on natural cleaning products.

It is from the blog Crunchy Con Natural Health and Cosmetics  by Elissa Pickle. She has some great ideas and I can't wait to try some of them out.