Deja Vu

It's déjà vu all over again. -Yogi Berra

It seems like this house has been on an every-other-week cycle of sick-recovering-sick-recovering. And most amazingly, it's been Mommy who's been down for the count more than anyone else. (And we aren't talking sniffling, sneezing, etc. We are talking full-out stomach sickness, twice.)

I am totally learning how to ask for help from others. Getting over the guilt of having to call family members home from work to do "my job"...not so much. 

There are a number of growing edges for me in this situation: 

• There is no choice but to let the housework go.
• I must accept help from others without being able to quickly reciprocate. It's fascinating how I display this pattern of having to "even the score" with those who assist me. Like I'm afraid they will reject me if I need too much.
• My boys really can rise to the occasion when Mommy struggles to do more than lay on the floor. I was so impressed with their emotional IQ on this. (More in a future post.)
• I've been reminded again that I cannot keep running on fumes, and maybe a 9pm bedtime isn't cool, but it's what I need right now.
• We must wield the bottle of hand sanitizer as a mighty anti-germ-warfare weapon every time we get in the car from an errand or play date.

Allow me to share with you my new triage plan for personal sanity in times following illness:

Deal with the dishes
I get really grossed out thinking about what grows on the dishes that accumulate on the counter during these spells of illness. The first thing I tackle is unloading and reloading the dishwasher (washing hands often) and cleaning the counters and table.

Gather laundry
More heebie-jeebies lurk on towels, dishcloths and clothing (especially if your kids are snotting on your shirt...and don't pretend that never happens in your house!) I at least try and wash everything on hot and dry it, even if it sits in baskets for a few days before being put away.

Sanitize
Finally I wipe down all the bathrooms and any surfaces that we tend to neglect--doorknobs, light switches, remotes, etc. because heaven knows you've been stumbling around and watching more TV than usual.

Rest
Just step over the clutter and go to bed. It will be there in the morning!
(And for whatever reason, it's just easier to clean when there's daylight.)

So what's your game plan when sickness has thrown your household into chaos and confusion?



Today's disclaimer: For those of you familiar with the roots of déjà vu, I do not believe in reincarnation.

Take That, Nasty Laundry Stains!

I am so excited to share some cheap and easy stain-busting tips with you today!

But first, a question: If you are over the age of 25, do you still own any clothing that you wore in high school? I'd love to hear what you've saved!

I am officially 10 years out of college (ack!), and I have discovered a handful of items that have stuck around through years of thrift store cast-off sessions. I owe this in large part, I believe, to our front-loading washer. I'm amazed at how gently it treats my clothing.

Now I'm finding that other issues arise besides clothing that wears out. I (ahem) have outgrown a few things, others go out of style, and many others develop stains. I am not a graceful athlete and apparently, not a graceful eater, either.

And just why is it that stains never seem to show up until after they've been stored for awhile?

Well, without further ado, here are some stain remedies that have successfully rescued my family's clothing*:

Baby Spit-Up Stains
Soak the afflicted items overnight in a mixture of oxi-clean and water. If there are kids or pets around, be sure you soak in a container with a tight-fitting lid. Wash as usual, then hang in the sun to dry.

Berry Smush Stains
Boil a kettle of water. Turn the article of clothing inside out and pour the hot water over the stain from back to front. Launder as usual. Yes, I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but it does work.

Grease and Food-Based Stains
In this case, the sooner you treat, the better. Don't even bother to pre-treat if you are dealing with kids' clothing. Just take the item to the kitchen sink and hand wash with liquid dish soap. This got ketchup out of my son's ivory shirt sleeve just the other night. Wash as usual. The ingredients in the soap that get rid of grease on your pans also get rid of grease on your clothes. (Which is a good thing when you stand too close frying bacon.)

Sweaty Armpit Stains
Eww, gross, right? How many men's undershirts get tossed because of this? Well, this is actually a problem because of deodorant buildup more than sweat. I just tried this on a white linen shirt that's been in storage (last summer I was wearing maternity clothing). It was not only yellowed but had sparkly grit in the seam.

Lay the shirt on a white towel or countertop that will not stain or bleach. I used my cultured marble bathroom sink. Combine equal parts baking soda, water and hydrogen peroxide. Brush into the stain with a clean toothbrush and let sit for 15 minutes. Consider brushing from the inside and outside of the shirt, and getting into all the creases of the seams. Wash as usual and tumble dry or hang in the sun for additional bleaching.


Well, there you have it. I hope you can save some of your favorite items with these inexpensive and green stain-treaters! And what you can't salvage, maybe you can make into rags.

*These were all attempted on regular wash-and-wear clothing. I make no claims about special fabrics like silk and suede. If you have kids, are you really wearing that anyway?

LOVE this!

Imagine overnight company is coming in two hours...here's how to do a burst of cleaning. Hopefully it means the rest of the family is either helping or is out of the house somewhere!

Gloves, Hats, and Mittens, Oh My!

It's been snowing off and on all day today. I was glad to spend some time with my oldest son playing outside this morning. There is something so peaceful about a snowfall. My favorite part is that it's incredibly quiet and reminds you to slow down and savor the change in routine. And snowstorms are one of those few sacred times in our modern era where you are allowed to cut back on obligations and just stay home with family. So precious.

So after all the fun of sledding and making snow angels, forts and snowballs, you come in and have all sorts of clothing to deal with: hats, gloves, boots, scarves and other stuff strewn all over the house in various states of wetness. Yuck! Kind of takes the fun out of it.

May I suggest the following ideas (none of which really apply to my house at present)?

• Have a laundry basket or other container available for things that are wet or dirty enough to require a washing. Encourage family members to drop things in here as they shed layers.
• Set up a drying rack or improvised clothing tree (a.k.a. folding chair) near a heating vent or fireplace for the items that are merely damp.
• Set out an extra throw rug or plastic mat near the door as a safe place for boots to dry. Keep this around until the snow melts and salt is no longer being tracked in.
• Use an over-the-door shoe organizer to corral small items for easy grab-n-go next time. This includes hats, earmuffs, scarves, gloves, etc. and will help keep paired items together. Consider assigning a row to each family member, making sure that kids items are closest to the bottom where they can reach them. At the end of the season, make sure everything still has its partner, and pack the whole thing away until next winter.

Upstairs, Downstairs

(Hi, I am back! After several rounds of antibiotics-necessary illness in our house, and everyone finally getting close-to-enough sleep, I am finally trying to resume normal posting. So far 2012 is not as productive as I had hoped. Anyway, thanks for your patience.)

No, the title of this post is not referring to the fabulous British sitcom, cool as it is. I am, however, referring to the items that inevitably seem to wind up on the wrong floor of your home. At my house, this means diapers, laundry, mail/papers, dishes, and toys that migrate faster than you can say "boo," especially when you have a two-story foyer and it's *so fun* to throw things over the railing (if you are two)!

The other night, my darling husband was out playing volleyball, and the kids were in bed, so I spent about two hours just rearranging things in my house. The orderliness of my bedroom is now unmatched! I grabbed a handled basket and just starting tossing in everything that needed to go up or down. I tried to continue working on decluttering one room at a time, but had to make several trips to unload/put away.
After that was done, I filled the basket with things that needed to go back into my older son's bedroom and left that outside his door so that I could handle them next day. I find myself doing this more and more often. I am thankful for a piece of furniture outside the boys' rooms, where I can put two stacks of laundry or toys. At least items are somewhat sorted and ready to go back where they belong, since one or both are sleeping when I have time to fold laundry or declutter.

I am vowing to try and keep up with this project, keeping the basket handy so that when I tidy up at the end of each evening, I can toss everything in and carry it up. Items that need to go downstairs are placed on a corner table at the top of the steps so I can easily grab it on a trip down the next morning.

How do you deal with the constant up-and-down? Do you have a system like this for stuff that needs to go in and out of the car? I'd love to hear it!

No More Stinky Towels

Having guests for the holidays? Want to give your linens a refresh without having to buy new ones? (White sales don't start until January.) Here are a few tips:

Wash towels on hot. Though cold water saves energy--I just learned that 90% of the energy used to wash clothes is for heating water--hot kills any bacteria hanging out in the towels. This is particularly important if colds are circulating in the family.

Put vinegar in the bleach dispenser and at rinse time. Not only does vinegar remove buildup from soap or oils, it revives the fabric and make your towels fluffier. It should also take care of any sour smells, which are usually more of a problem in the summer. Don't use liquid fabric softener, which just layers the towels with a petroleum-based product that eventually builds up and can be a breeding ground for more bacteria. Plus, some folks will be irritated by fragrance. Which leads me to my next point.

Dry smart. Use wool dryer balls, a clean tennis shoe or clean tennis balls to keep the towels moving in the dryer, reducing drying time and further fluffing them. Be sure to find out if the time dry or the sensor dry is the most efficient setting on your dryer. If you have time, clean the dryer vent which leads from the back of your dryer to the outside of your house. Getting rid of built-up lint will definitely speed your drying time!

Do you have other tips for how to freshen your house for guests? I'd love to hear them!

Tidbits

I'm initiating a new type of post today, called "Tidbits." This format will encompass miscellaneous updates or thoughts that don't really warrant their own full-size post.

•  I ran into my friend Erin over the weekend. She was pleased to tell me that even though it's been a year, she's completed her recipe project. She typed up and organized her recipes in binders. Each type (Dessert, Vegetable, etc.) is separated by a pocket divider. The recipes she hasn't tried yet go in the pocket until she deems them worthy of filing. Way to go, Erin!
• The cleaning list I shared in my last post is really working out. I will confess that I don't get every item done every week (remember I am 35 weeks pregnant and have a teething two-year-old). However, I think I was pretty lax before and now going over stuff that is still relatively clean goes very quickly. It took me the better part of two hours to really clean my fridge last week, but it was soooo worth it. De-cluttering the doors of magnets and hanging stuff really makes for a clean appearance, too. 
• I've learned something about laundry. Since I've been a domestic engineer, I've found myself running loads of laundry every other day or so, often mixing towels in with another partially full load. This week, I tried waiting till I had several full loads. While I can't explain it, it seems easier to do multiple loads at once. I doubt it's going to take much discipline to wait, especially once the baby is here!

Five Tips for Maxed Out Moms (Link)

Check out this post (and giveaway) from Karen Ehman. I really appreciate her encouragement to do what's next, not what is easy. It's also very guilt-reducing and refreshing to hear her say that she doesn't scrapbook!

Closet Switch

Ah, May is here, and it was 80 degrees yesterday. Time to put away the winter clothes. Ugh.

Do you dread the seasonal closet switch like I do? You know, hauling bins of clothing up from the basement and sorting, washing, and packing away the stuff that has been in your closet. Of course, the coming addition to our family means that I had to haul out the maternity clothes, too, and pack away the summer stuff that already doesn't fit to make room in my dresser and closet.

So this year I decided to do it right and went and bought four more storage bins--one for overflow sweaters, one for my son's outgrown clothing, one for clothes he has yet to grow into, and one for my husband. I was proud of myself for thinking ahead and writing down the brand and size that I needed. If there is one thing I've learned from this dreaded project, it's to try and have bins of the same size and brand, with sturdy lids. Even if they are the same size, different brands make different shapes and that makes them frustrating to stack. You just have to label them since they all look alike.

Normally, this would also be the time when I carefully review what I didn't wear much, what didn't fit, and what I was just plain tired of looking at; that stuff would be donated at the thrift shop. However, since I don't know what my post-baby shape will be, I'm hanging on until fall. Then I imagine I'll be getting rid of a lot of things! (I realized that one of the shirts in my closet is still from high school. That's thirteen years ago. Maybe it's time to say goodbye?)

I once read a great tip about how to decide when it's time to part with a piece of clothing. The author suggested that you start the season with all your hangers turned around (so the hook came toward you instead of the wall). As you wore an item and rehung it, you then hang the hanger the right way. At the end of the season, you could honestly assess what you didn't wear at all by looking at the hangers. I'll confess I've never done it--possibly because I don't have too much trouble parting with things--but I like the concept a lot.

What do you do that makes this project easier? I need ideas since I haven't perfected the process.

ps-Interestingly enough, my pastor talked this week about Americans being overfed and overclothed. This whole post is testimony to that. And, if you are one of those folks who doesn't have to switch out their closet because your closet is big enough to hold all your clothes, I don't want to know about it!

Room by Room: Laundry (Products)

Ah, the smell of fresh, clean laundry. There's nothing like it, right?

Well, unless you get that fresh scent from hanging your clothes and sheets on the line, you may want to think again about why it smells that way. (There's one particular baby detergent that makes me sick to my stomach because of the artificial fragrance they use.) The more I get away from using mainstream cleaning products, the worse the others smell.

I've been saddened to learn that a lot of commercially available detergents use things like optical brighteners to make whites look whiter, and can also contain a host of carcinogenic ingredients. A lot of fabric softeners coat your clothing with chemicals and the dryer sheets are polyester, so once you throw them away, they don't really break down.

Here are a few more eco-friendly products that I've checked out in the past year or so, which you might want to give a try:

My wool dryer balls

• Seventh Generation detergent and biodegradable dryer sheets
• Maggie's Soap Nuts
• Dropps Baby Laundry Detergent (what I use on my son's cloth diapers)
• Wool Dryer Balls (I just received these as a Christmas gift courtesy of my mother-in-law!)

Finally, I can't entirely vouch for objectivity of this article, or find out enough about the financial ties between organizations, the information about dioxane is interesting. I keep hoping the Environmental Working Group will come out with a database like their Cosmetics Database, where you can learn the ingredients and relative safety of a large percentage of cosmetics and toiletries.

Room by Room: Laundry (Troubleshooting)

Today's entry includes a hodge-podge of information abut laundering your clothes and troubleshooting some common problems.

Room by Room: Laundry (Pre-Sorting)

Confession: I love doing laundry. I always have, even when I was a teenager. Perhaps it has something to do with sorting, folding and putting away, all of which feels organized. Or maybe it's the fresh smell of clean fabric. Whether you enjoy laundry, or merely tolerate it as a necessary chore, I hope today's tip will save you some time.

Consider getting a laundry basket or dedicating a bin of some sort to laundry in each bedroom. Also, have a few extra in your bedroom. (I don't want to get in a habit of suggesting you need to buy "organizing supplies", since that's not usually necessary. Repurpose a storage tote, canvas bag, etc. to save money.)


Here's what I do with my five baskets:

• Whites
• Darks
• Towels and rags
• Delicates/dress clothes
• One basket in my son's room for his laundry, which I don't separate by color. His dirty towels and washcloths go in here.

We simply put clothes in the right basket as we take them off. It gives me quick visual so I only have to launder full loads (eco-friendly). I will combine loads if I'm close (say, adding towels in with whites) or adding my son's clothing to a load of darks. Plus, I can fold and return clothing using the same basket.

What's really great is that I can do laundry throughout the week when I see that it's accumulating.  No more mountain of clothing to sift through on Saturday morning. That's precious family time nowadays!