REALLY Lazy Homemaker

Sorry guys, I've been slack in updating.  I'm just trying to live up to my name. LAZY Homemaker, right?  It's all ticking over nicely here though.  We have a clear dining table (never happens), the hallway is still clear and I look forward to every Thursday as it's laundry sorting day.  I have no life.

I'm going to try out a homemade tile cleaner soon and do before and after pics on our scuzzy dirty tiles!  So that's something for you to look forward to at least.

Our First 'Peek At The Week' Completed!

I mentioned in a previous post that I was using organisational printables from I Heart Organising, in particular, the 'Peek at the Week' one to organise us week by week.

For each day there was a mixture of weekly, monthly, fortnightly and bi-annual tasks on there (there's only a couple of bi-annual tasks per month anyway).  The blue pen is for weekly tasks, green for quarterly and bi-annual tasks, black for monthly tasks and red for fortnightly tasks.  Ignore the green for defrosting chicken.  That's by the by.  

I love this printable because it has room for writing other bits and bobs down, plus a little weekly meal jotter with a mini shopping list space too.  Once I have everything written down it makes so much of the stress of ~~life~~ disappear!  If I glance at the board every morning and see what I have to do, that's what I have to do.  For instance, this week's Peek at the Week has a couple of days off (tonight being one of them), and I think Sunday.  Even the days when we're doing a task, it doesn't take all night.  And things are always easier to keep on top of once you do them regularly.  

I used to clean the bathroom when the mood took me (never) and it always took AGES and drove me mad.  Now it's on a Wednesday, weekly (it was on Tuesday but Rob has a long relaxing soak on a Tuesday and I think he was getting a bit perturbed by me standing over him and waiting for him to get out of the bath so I can clean it).  Now cleaning the bathroom is one of my fave things EVER (I'm serious), I have such a good routine and doing it weekly keeps it actually sparkling.  Mad, eh?  Cleaning things regularly keeps them CLEAN.  Who knew?!

(Shout out to Rob for doing most of the things on this list by the time I got home from work.  YOU ROCK!)

Organising Bedsheets! Thrilling!

With our towels itching to get in their new towel rack, we thought it best to organise our Ottoman in our main bedroom, which currently contains a mish-mash of towels and a million bedsheets, pillowcases and duvet covers.  We separated them up and I got to ironing the bedsheets.  Well, I ironed three sets then got really bored and just ironed the pillowcases.  I saw an amazing pin on Pinterest where you put the bed set into one pillowcase so you can find the sets easily.  Apparently my mum has been doing this for ages!  Hark at her!

Hey! We're going to I-kee-yah!

We've been busy little beans today!  The cats woke us up at 6am for their food, standing on our heads and chewing our hands, fun! So after an Alka-Seltzer for Rob and some granola and a cuppa for me, we set off mega early to Ikea to buy some bits! We were one of the first ones in the car park which meant we had time for a cheeky Ikea breakfast before browsing and then shopping!

I wanted a wheeled rack for our towels, and a shoe holder for our hallway.  We also ended up buying picture frames, three sets of bedding, a new coffee table, a door mat, a toilet roll holder, a soapdish and a soap dispenser.  They were all things we really needed though..... Kinda.

Rob put the shoe organiser together and the hallway's already looking so much better to me!  Now all I have to do is deep clean the floor using a chemical free cleaner which is pretty much just white vinegar and water, I'll add a couple of drops of essential oil or washing-up liquid too.  I want to see my face in that hallway floor and I won't rest until I do!

Here's the link to the chemical free household cleaning recipes, and some pics of our hallway, and one of our gorgeous new coffee table that I want to run away and marry.... don't tell Rob.

[ Non-toxic cleaning solutions! ]

One Week To A New Closet... Wardrobe... Whatever

I have some wardrobe staples. They include three worn-to-death pairs of jeans, countless random tee-shirts and some very worn out Adidas shelltoes, with a hoodie or a cardigan maybe. I don't really wear much else. I have a few pretty dresses but always end up wearing the same thing, and definitely wasn't getting the best out of my MOUNTAIN OF CLOTHES (see above).

I found a great link on Pinterest below: One Week To A New Closet, that I undertook last month and it worked great guns. I've still got to do the 'Get Creative' and 'Get Organised' bits but for the most part, I'm there. I got everything off my clothing rails and out of my drawers and set to work.

First I wanted to put away my winter clothes (and my height-of-summer barely there string vests and boob tubes, there will be no need for those this year judging by recent weather), so I got a suitcase and put all my woolly huge jumpers inside to be tucked away until next winter. This freed up loads of space straight away - things are looking good.

Then I became ruthless. I separated all the clothes I hardly wear, that don't fit, that don't suit my style anymore, and I donated them all. I have some jeans that saw me through uni and fit me amazingly.... when I was in Uni. That was ten years ago Lol. Give it up. Getting rid of all the stuff that wasn't needed anymore was SO satisfying and gave me a smug glow.

Then with the items that made the vicious cull, I followed the instructions to the letter and colour coded my stuff. I started with skirts, then dresses, then long sleeved tops/jumpers/hoodies, then coats, all colour coordinated in ROYGBIV of course. This is all stuff I wear rarely so they're on the back bedroom clothes rail.

On my main bedroom clothing rail I put sleeveless tops (regular vests included), then tee-shirts, then cardigans/shirts (anything that you have to button up), then trousers/jeans, then my work pants and shirts (mmmmmm uniform). All the vests, tees and cardigans are in colour order too which makes it easier to pick out, say, a plain tee shirt with a colourful cardigan, whereas before I would just grab the first thing to hand without thinking about it.

I also have a real issue with THROWING CLOTHES ON THE FLOOR. It's gross but I never put things away.... until now. I got to thinking as I stood with a barely-worn tee-shirt in my hands, if you hang this back up right now.... then it's done. It was light a lightbulb exploding in my head. "If I do things in the moment, I WON'T have to spend all weekend clearing a mound of half-worn clothes and washing things I don't need to. Huzzahhh!" Maybe other people have had this worked out since, oh, BIRTH, but this is a big thing for me. I love my new tidy wardrobe!

Source: shopruche.com via Lol on Pinterest

Our Bathroom

So, this is our bathroom, before and after. When we moved in the previous owner had just left everything as it was, shampoo, soap, towels etc. Crazy! We ripped everything out (bath,
toilet, sink, all the tiles and floor tiles too) and my husband, dad and uncle spent a glorious weekend re-fitting the entire bathroom like total champs!

Cleaning tasks for the bathroom include:

• wash bathmats and hand towels weekly
• deep clean the sink, windowsill, bath, showerhead and loo weekly
• sweep and mop the floor and empty the tiny bin fortnightly
• clean and polish the toiletries stand, toothbrush holder and soapdish monthly
• wash the shower curtain in the washing machine, and wash the walls every six months

We still need to paint the ceiling and re-seal it a little bit round the edges (as seen in the pic of the shower), I also want to re-paint our main bathroom door and re-hang it. That's on our projects list which is becoming as unwieldy as a gigantic sword (that was my husband's analogy).

THE LIST!

So as I embark on this organisational life journey, I thought I might start with something I love: lists. I am technically the world's most organised person, it's just when it comes to applying that organisation in the real world, I seem to fall short.

But I excel at lists. I really do. Anything you want, I will list the crap outta that bad boy. When packing for holidays or festivals, I write out lists involving clothing (sub-listed into t-shirts, trousers/shorts, hoodies, accessories), toiletries (sub-listed into make-up, daily essentials, nail polishes etc).

And then end up wearing one t-shirt and a pair of jeans, no nail polish and the same make-up every day. But the thought's definitely there!

For my homemaking list, I thought of some headings and then went, room-by-room, around my house listing things that need doing:

• One-Offs: for things that are fairly major and would take up maybe half a day or more/less, that wouldn't need to be done again, possibly ever. Stuff like GETTING THE BLOODY DISHWASHER FIXED (ahem), painting assorted skirting boards and door frames/radiators that we've ignored for far too long, odd jobs in the bathroom (hanging loo roll holders and hand towel holders), and fixing my precarious Jenga-esque wobbly clothes rails.
• Major Projects: this is stuff like opening up our chimneys so we can have open fires for next winter (a long unrealised dream for my husband Rob), re-tiling and re-painting the kitchen, finding and installing major shelving in our front bedroom, and re-plastering and painting our grotty little haunted house bathroom alcove thingy.

Then I went on to specific cleaning and everyday tasks that will need doing:

• Bi-annual tasks: such as cleaning and polishing our tiled hallway floor, defrosting the freezer, washing our shower curtain, and many more.
• Quarterly tasks: this includes shredding mail, hoovering our upstairs couch and main front room couch, washing and hoovering our cat's beds, washing the bathroom walls, and then some.
• Monthly tasks: like sweeping and hoovering our front bedroom, cleaning the oven properly (and the microwave nooo00000ooo), inputting our gas and electric meter readings which we ALWAYS forget to do.
• Fortnightly tasks: sweeping and mopping our tiled floors, sweeping and hoovering our wooden floors, sorting out our mail and filing it away (a personal fave of mine - I'm actually serious), and loads more.
• Weekly tasks: this one is hideously long, but I'm hoping that set out over a week with other tasks lumped in, I won't notice. Most of the stuff on this task list is stuff like cleaning the bathroom thoroughly (another serious fave), dusting, doing Thursday laundry and putting away dry laundry/ironing (noo0000oo), and general sprucing.
• Daily tasks: this is layman stuff but cleaning out the kitties litter boxes twice daily, fresh water for said kitties, wiping down all kitchen surfaces and washing/drying up.

I've found some free printables that have enabled me to set out my weeks in an orderly fashion and laminated them in case of emergencies/wild parties/hangovers that might crop up meaning that tasks have to be shifted onto another day. I am particularly partial to the amazing free printables over at I Heart Organizing, which can be found on their printables page.

I looked at A LOT of printables and kept coming back to these as they are blank, but still categorized and relevant for me. I've mainly incorporated their 'Peek at the Week' and 'Family Projects' printables into my mission.

A lot of the other printables I saw were great and really extensive but had things that didn't matter to me one iota, such as cleaning ceiling fan blades and AC vents. Yeah, I live in the UK, there is no shortage of cold air, thanks.

This is a test, do not be alarmed

Just testing out the picture uploader. If it works that will mean I've only wasted two hours trying to download and figure out some free photo editing software. Yay me!

Hoover Schmoover

Recently I've become extremely inspired to start making my house a well-oiled, neat and tidy, inviting, stylish, inviting home. At present it is, for want of a better term, a state.

It's not filthy. It's not dirty or even grubby or unclean. It is full. It is busy. "We have pockets of 'busy' that threaten to take over the whole house", as my husband would say.

I want to use this blog to document my attempt at making my house tidier, more oganised and more home-ly so I can get the best out of it and take pride in coming home and resting in amongst our tidy fabulousness instead of thinking "that pile of stuff is going to fall on me, no one will be around, and I will die, trapped forever under a pile of Empire and iD magazines, and they will say 'I imagined she would go like this'."

Whether or not I succeed is anyone's guess, but hey, at the very least you're going to get to see pictures of a slovenly lazy girl's house, so that in itself will be a bit of a thrill, right?

Hmm.