Poo on you, lottery; Mom learns how to clean stuff
Somebody else won the Washington state lottery on Saturday, all 8.5 million schmackers of it. I have thus decided to eschew the lottery in favor of Big Gulp Dr. Peppers and Milky Way Midnights, because 1) the lottery does not provide my daily recommended allowance of vitamin chocolate and 2) the lottery has taught me that I am much more of a fan of instant gratification.
I have discovered that there is a direct positive correlation between my mood and the level of housework that I have accomplished in the day. All who know me, especially those unfortunate enough to room with me in college, may be incredibly shocked by this revelation, as I have been a complete and unapologetic slob my entire life. But now that my baby is on the verge of crawling, I am a changed woman. My house must be immaculate, because if I don't vacuum that floor, Isaac will do his part to lick it clean. And this is a bad thing. But my cleaning transformation -- it literally happened overnight. I went from one day being completely content resting my feet on the foot of bills sitting on the coffee table to being dedicated to the eradication of dust bunnies under my fridge. But how does someone like me, who has gone through life not even SEEing dirt, get an idea of even where to start? I will tell you, because she changed my life -- the FLY lady. This lady's philosophy is first to teach you that there are so many hours in a day, and that you WILL clean your whole house, but you will do it in miniscule steps that take 5-10 minutes at a time, spread over several months. Then she deluges your inbox with e-mail bossing you around with one chore at a time. This is what I need -- to be told what to do. And my housework tally for today? 3.5 loads of laundry (to be folded after this post), dishwasher unloaded and reloaded, kitchen and dining room swiffered, kitchen and diaper trash taken out, all accomplished gradually over the course of the afternoon. Not too shabby, if I say so myself.
I do have one more cleaning-related issue, though -- if anyone has any tips they are much appreciated. Now that we are greasing up Baby-Bot's dry chin with various ointments, and he likes to eat fabricky things, all of my beloved "uniform" t-shirts have big oily stains on the shoulders that persist throughout several washings. How does one get that crap out?
I have discovered that there is a direct positive correlation between my mood and the level of housework that I have accomplished in the day. All who know me, especially those unfortunate enough to room with me in college, may be incredibly shocked by this revelation, as I have been a complete and unapologetic slob my entire life. But now that my baby is on the verge of crawling, I am a changed woman. My house must be immaculate, because if I don't vacuum that floor, Isaac will do his part to lick it clean. And this is a bad thing. But my cleaning transformation -- it literally happened overnight. I went from one day being completely content resting my feet on the foot of bills sitting on the coffee table to being dedicated to the eradication of dust bunnies under my fridge. But how does someone like me, who has gone through life not even SEEing dirt, get an idea of even where to start? I will tell you, because she changed my life -- the FLY lady. This lady's philosophy is first to teach you that there are so many hours in a day, and that you WILL clean your whole house, but you will do it in miniscule steps that take 5-10 minutes at a time, spread over several months. Then she deluges your inbox with e-mail bossing you around with one chore at a time. This is what I need -- to be told what to do. And my housework tally for today? 3.5 loads of laundry (to be folded after this post), dishwasher unloaded and reloaded, kitchen and dining room swiffered, kitchen and diaper trash taken out, all accomplished gradually over the course of the afternoon. Not too shabby, if I say so myself.
I do have one more cleaning-related issue, though -- if anyone has any tips they are much appreciated. Now that we are greasing up Baby-Bot's dry chin with various ointments, and he likes to eat fabricky things, all of my beloved "uniform" t-shirts have big oily stains on the shoulders that persist throughout several washings. How does one get that crap out?
posted by Claire at 8:02 PM
3 Comments:
Whoa! Listen to you. Move over Heloise there's a new girl in town. Who is this Fly Lady? Maybe I'd better log on.Love, Mom C
Claire, Greasy spots respond very well to some Shout with a little Oxyclean rubbed in and let it sit for awhile.works everytime. Throw it in the washer and it's done. Just do a little colorfastness test.Mom C
Robin -- I didn't know you were a flybaby too! I don't know if you are deleting your emails that she sends you as often as I am, but I have noticed this month she is all about throwing out anything that can be thrown out, weighing what you have thrown out, and then "posting your pounds" on her website. Her goal is to get people to throw away 2.7 million pounds of trash -- can you IMAGINE the landfills? Yee-yuck. Anyway, today I did my part -- I haven't painted my nails since I got preggers, so I threw out all of my nail polish, about 5 pounds worth. The newest bottle of nail polish I owned I had used to paint my toenails light blue for my wedding over three years ago -- that's pretty sad.
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