Putting the Spring into Cleaning

Let me start by telling you that I’m a bit of a neat freak. I love a tidy, organised house and often hover over my kids when they’re eating a crumbly biscuit or shove their toys back in the box the moment they’ve finished playing. Actually, that looks really bad written down, but I can’t help it. It’s like an involuntary twitch triggered by the sight of mess. That said though, I’m not so bothered by a bit of dirt or dust, particularly if it’s hidden under something or at the back of somewhere.  Strange or what?

Anyhoo, lately I’ve become aware that there are a few cleaning jobs which really need dealing with (we have the filthiest oven you can imagine and it’s not even two years old) and I thought whilst I’m at it, I might as well go the whole hog and do a proper spring clean. So, here are my top tips for getting the job done.

First off, you probably need to set aside a whole day or maybe even two, depending on your house. Ideally you should also aim for a time when nobody’s home as there’s nothing worse than la famille walking in and instantly wrecking the joint. Makes me want to shout when they do that.

That sorted, you’re free to crack on. For me, a spring clean is about tackling the otherwise neglected tasks, rather than a more elaborate version of your weekly housework. It’d be an idea to make a list of what needs doing. Mine looks like this:

*Clean oven (Lord knows what I’m going to use to do this – suspect it will need hardcore chemicals sadly)

*Empty kitchen cupboards, chuck away out-of-date food (usually something random like dessicated coconut or suet), then clean and air inside before refilling

*Defrost and clean fridge/freezer (such a boring job, but the whole thing works so much better when it’s done, right?)

*Vacuum under sofa and beds (this means shifting heavy furniture, so you may need a hand)

*Wash cushion covers on sofa (I mean scatter cushions, not the main ones you sit on – our sofa has in fact only been properly cleaned once in six years and I can hardly remember what the actual shade of it is)

*Wipe paintwork and be free of those mucky fingerprints

*Clean windows (the window cleaner does outside, but when that’s done it just shows up  how grubby they are inside)

*Wash/dry clean curtains (to be fair, this is unlikely to get done, just too much hassle)

Now, no-one said that this was going to be fun, but imagine how nice it’ll feel when it’s finished and you can forget about it for another year. Heck, looking at that list makes me realise just how much of a slattern I really am <blushes>.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We decked the halls yesterday (well, the living room anyway). We normally hold off for another week or so, but this year we’ve embraced Christmas early. M’s performing in her Year One nativity thing tomorrow which will no doubt leave us with a lump in our throats and a tear in our eyes. What is it about little ‘uns singing Christmas songs? I’m welling up just thinking about it…

Thrifty Thursday: Half term on a budget

M breaks up for half term this afternoon so we have a week plus an extra day of ‘fun’ to look forward to. Anyway, as it’s Thrifty Thursday, I thought you might like to hear some of my ideas for filling the next few days without spending a small fortune.

I think the activities fall into two main categories – Home and Away. Within these categories, there are the sub groups: Free, Cheap or Pricey. Obviously this post isn’t about spending big money – that’s very easy to do without any help – so we’ll forget about anything which is too expensive and concentrate on free or cheap stuff.

Let’s kick off with Home:

I suppose this will depend on the ages of your children. Mine are almost six and 19 months respectively. Quite a large and sometimes un-bridgeable gap. I tend to tailor things around M (the big one) and then let K join in as best she can. Here are some things to have a go at:

Baking/Cooking – easy recipes such as fairy cakes or pizza – include a trip to buy ingredients and you have a morning or afternoon covered

Messy time – I hate getting paints/glue out, but the kids love it and so long as you’re prepared for the mess, this kind of thing can keep them busy for ages. There are some great websites with art/craft ideas. This can incorporate anything from finger painting or papier mache to play dough or collage making.

Halloween  – pumpkin carving and spooky dress ups. M likes to go the whole hog and put on a show complete with handmade programmes and posters.

Bulb planting – just about still got time for this and it combines fresh air with a nice wholesome task – result!

DVD and popcorn – okay, so not so much an activity as a chance to chill out, but nothing wrong with that.

Indoor den – make some form of tent or teepee and let your kids set up a den inside. Again, this can lead to all kinds of role play games.

And moving onto Away (by which I mean out of the house rather than abroad):

Visit the local park – great time of year for an autumn nature trail. Use their finds to fuel their craft activities – leaf rubbing/printing, twig collages etc… Older kids can use a digital camera to take pics for an autumn project or make a mini film.

Musuems – here in York, we have lots of museums and quite a few are free or offer reduced price entry to locals.

Autumn picnic – you could combine this with a trip to the park (in fact I recommend that you take a packed lunch wherever you’re going.  It’s only recently started to dawn on me that this is the way to save £££)

Local library – always great for your kids to get ‘new’ books and often there are free or cheap actvities taking place during school holidays

Bike ride – if your kids are old enough to ride along on the path next to you then this is a nice way to get some exercise. In our case, M will ride on the pavement and I’ll take K in the child seat on the back of my bike. There are lots of cycle paths where we live, so this is perhpas easier here than in some other areas.

So, there you have it. A few thrifty ideas. We’ll try to do some, if not all, of these activities and I’ll let you know which ones are best. In the meantime, tell us know what you’re up to. Happy half term!

Monday Makes: Lavender Bags

Here we are, the much anticipated lavender bags. If you read my review of Sew! by Cath Kidston, you’ll know that this is one of the lovely projects from that book – the easiest one I’d say.

Anyway, you can make these by hand or use a sewing machine. You’ll need:

(per bag)

Template drawn onto greaseproof/tracing paper (I used the heart one here)

2 x 20cm squares lightweight fabric

Matching thread

15cm length of ribbon or tape (optional)

35g dried lavender

Fading pen

Sewing kit and/or machine

Firstly, place the two squares of fabric back to back and then pin on the template. Draw round using a fading pen, then cut out leaving an extra 1cm or so seam allowance. Remove the template then pin the two hearts back together and stitch all the way around the line, leaving a gap of approx. 4cm on one of the straight edges. Remove pins. Now trim the seam back to around 5mm and make notches around the top curves of the heart (this makes the seams lie flatter). Press back the seam around the opening and then turn carefully inside out, so that your fabric is now facing outwards. At this point you can use a teaspoon to fill the bag with lavender. When you’ve done that you’ll need to slip stitch the gap (this is where mine started to look a bit amateurish – need to practice that I think).  If you want to add a hanging loop, then fold your length of ribbon in half and stitch neatly to the top of the heart. Et, voila!

I’d say you can knock one of these up in about half an hour if you have no interruptions. I’m planning to perfect these and make lots of them.

Putting it off

Today’s post is inspired by my much postponed attempt at defrosting my freezer. Try not to be envious, but I really am living the dream here.

We’ve had the fridge freezer for about 18 months and in that time it hasn’t had a defrost. It got to the stage recently where every time we got something out, the sheer volume of compacted frost and ice made it impossible to close the door and we needed to wedge the kitchen bin against it so it would shut. Anyway, it was as near to empty as it ever gets so I finally switched it off this morning and it’s now creaking and cracking and melting away all over the kitchen floor. Main thing is it’s being dealt with. At last.

This got me thinking though, about all of the other jobs and chores which I put off and put off. Here are but a few:

Cleaning inside cupboards (which means emptying cupboards first)

Anything which involves buying a replacement part or special product

Washing/cleaning curtains

Washing/cleaning duvets

Anything which involves getting someone else in to do it

Sewing missing buttons back onto clothes

Sewing name tapes into clothes (is this the worst job ever?)

I think the common thread with all of the above is that quite often they can be put off as, by their very nature, they’re not life or death matters. Perhaps if there was the threat of something terrible happening if I didn’t do a certain chore, then I would be more inclined to action it sooner. As it stands, the worst that would happen if I didn’t wash the curtains would be that the neighbours might think we were a bit sluttish or, most likely, they wouldn’t even notice.

Right, well, I’m off now to write a shopping list, safe in the knowledge that when the food comes home, it can be stored in a lovely, frost free freezer. That is a most satisfying feeling <smug>.

Which chores do you put off?

De-clutter or die

I hate clutter and I can’t stand mess. It comes, I think, from growing up in an untidy house. It wasn’t a tip, but nor was it neat. It used to drive me mad (a strange thing for a kid to get worked up about I know) and I was always vaguely embarrassed when friends came to play. My mum’s motto was “take us as you find us” which would have been fine if we were to be found in a pristine state, but we never were. Anyway, that was then…

Fast forward  a quarter of a century and I’m now mistress of my own home (more or less) and I like it spick and span. Not very cool, but that’s how it is. Our house is pretty small, so keeping it tidy is a challenge as ‘stuff’ tends to build up very quickly. I try to train my daughters to clear up after themselves with varying degrees of success. M isn’t good at it. She hates tidying and has to be cajoled. I ask her if she’d like to live in a mess and she isn’t bothered, but I reckon that’s because she’s never had to. K, on the other hand, is pretty keen to put things away despite only being 18 months old. She must take after me.

I don’t really have a strategy as such. I like to tidy as I go (or as other people go). If it gets bad for whatever reason, I find it very therapeutic to have a good sort out. When my home is tidy, I’m a much happier person. Do I sound like a nutcase, by the way? A little tip which I learned from a Mumsnetter is ‘never leave a room empty handed’. So, if you’re en route from the living room to the kitchen, pick up that used coffee mug and stick it in the dishwasher. Not so easy to think of an example of what you might bring back from the kitchen, but you get the idea.

The key to it all is storage of course. Having a place for everything. We have a place for most things in our house and things which are homeless usually finish up in the bin before too long. I’m hardcore like that. On the storage front, I’m in a bit of a quandry at the moment as I’m searching for a shoe rack for our newly redecorated hall. The current one looks scruffy and gets in the way. In a perfect world, we wouldn’t need to keep shoes in the hall, instead we’d have a boot room where all footwear could be deposited. Until that day, I’ll continue my quest for a nice little cupboard.

Tell me I’m not the only one who likes it tidy. What’s your home like?