Stuff I do to simplify life when all I can do is barely the basics

[canadian gardener]

I want to give the tools I've learnt thru living with chronic illness before I forget (feeling better lately!)

This stuff is useful info whether you have a new baby, are coping under a great deal of stress, a new job, back to school, you name it.

There are times in life where it's useful to know just what is the BARE minimum you need to do (or delegate) to get by.

By basics, I define that as stuff that if you don't look after it, will cost you in future.

For example,

if you don't cook meals, you will spend $ on fast foods or restaurant meals or take out.

If you don't do laundry, you may be shopping for extra clothes to tide you over, or replacing ones that are now stained and permawrinkled from being on the bottom of the laundry hamper too long.

or bills, if you don't keep up there are late fees and reconnection charges.

cleaning where leaving that soft gooey spill of pancake batter hardens into something closer to stone, and takes way more work to deal with.

or cleaning when basic sanitation fails enough that you get a minor dose of food poisoning or a mild case of rotavirus.

BUT when you are sick or stretched too many ways, these things tend to be dropped, and picked up later as they turn into fires.

AND the VERY LAST THING YOU NEED when you are trying to do the least possible to get by,

is to have to put out a lot of brush fires, in your life that could have been prevented.

ESPECIALLY when the prevention takes WAY less time and effort than putting out fires like overdue bills, or mild food poisoning, or not having clean clothes, or going out to eat, because you hadn't planned in time, putting it on a VISA or other charge card, because your grocery budget is finished for the week or month.

See what I mean?

I'm talking BASIC basics!

Spending a little time and energy in prevention will save time later.

A final word of warning, some of my recommendations are not environmentally nice, or frugal. They are meant as stop gap measures to get you through a tough patch, so that you can once again, look after the environment, and your budget.

Sometimes in order to keep on track, you have to make some compromises. It's better if you eat somewhat more expensive easy meals at home, than going out to eat or ordering in.

[canadian gardener]

First and foremost Declutter:

This makes every job easier. And it does save time and money and energy over and over.

Easy ways?

Every day garbage should leave the house. Take the kitchen trash bag thru the house on the way to the garage (or where ever you keep the cans)

and empty the waste baskets on the way, into that bag.

Teach family and yourself thru each day, to toss whatever you can.

By making this little garbage run a routine, you will keep it up, and not crash and burn.

By doing it this way you only let go what you are READY to toss and that in itself is a biggy. Saves a lot of emotional exhaustion saying goodbye to stuff you aren't ready to part with yet.

Ok next

HAVE A GIVEAWAY box or pretty wicker basket, on EACH floor of the house, to make that conveniant.

As you come across clothing that is not being worn, eliminate. Toys ditto.

It's a lot easier to toss it than to organize it. If you are in doubt, toss.

EMOTIONAL WITHDRAWAL!!!: Handle by having 2 count em, TWO boxes: a box of stuff that will possibly get given away later, and another box that will possibly get thrown away later.

Label BOTH Boxes Emotional Withdrawal, and which type (give away, or toss away). Go thru the pockets etc NOW! So later in 6 months or 3 years, you simply GIVE it away or THROW it out. WITHOUT going into it again.

If you go into it and haul something out, it's earned it's keep.

And you don't have to toss it or give it away EVER if you don't like. Keep it for the next 27 years, just don't keep it in the main traffic zones of the house where it will be in your way.

Did you think I just meant things?

NOPE!

The dejunking attitude should spread to your calendar, your comittments, and your life. Dejunk things and even relationships that suck time and energy away from the core things you know you want to do with your life.

Core things might be core relationships like dh and kids or best freinds that are somehow taking a back seat right now, because the pressures of the urgent are pushing your priority people right out of your time and your life.

[canadian gardener]

ESTABLISHING VERY MINIMAL ROUTINES to deal with the five basics.

fly lady calls it flybaby stuff. She is right. By forming one or two habits every few months, and making them a daily routine, you can establish good new habits. Try too much all at once and you won't make it.

So keep it simple.

I do suggest flylady but ONLY if you can hear the flybaby stuff, and IGNORE the rest. Otherwise you will crash and burn under the load of email reminders.

I suggest you think about your basic bare minimums. If you have too much detail you will die under the load.

This is not a method to remind yourself of every living thing that you wish you could do if you had energy.

NOR IS IT TO BE USED TO BRING THE HOUSE UP TO THE STANDARD YOU THINK IT SHOULD BE KEPT UP TO!!! WHETHER ITS YOUR MOTHERS STANDARD OR YOUR NEIGHBORS OR ANYONE THAT COMES TO VISIT.

This is ONLY FOR THE STUFF THAT IF YOU DON"T DO IT IT WILL MAKE MORE WORK FOR YOU LATER

This means you prevent fires, rather than spend all your time putting out little brush fires. You are in control.

I can't stress this enough. This is BASICS not advanced housekeeping.

Having a routine system for bill paying is basic even if all else fails. This way you are putting out fires before they rage out of control. Getting the trash out to the curb on garbage day is basic so the house stays sanitary (and that means tossing what you can). Planning meals means you eat properly and maintain your health, and that is a basic for you and me.

I'd suggest looking at your five fingers, and the 5 basics are:

1-Sanitary bathroom and kitchen (not tidy, just sanitary, nothing smells bad) (pour some bleach in your sink every night maybe as part of the rinse water for the dishes if you don’t have a dw, fill up and wipe down the counters and sink area and stove—don’t’ forget rubber gloves!) In the bathroom, wipe down sink, counter and toilet flush handle, and rim and floor around toilet with a baby wipe. OR use a Lysol wipe for both. Does the job FAST and easy.

2-Garbage out regularly. (make a kitchen trash run once a day, and run through and toss whatever else you can to fill up the bag—whether it’s the contents of the bedroom wastebasket or the living room basket of magazines, or the liv rm wastebasket with junk mail and newspapers inside) Toss the daily paper daily and if it’s too much to keep up to, you and dh read the news online and save the work.

3-Shop for food, but keep it simple —pre bagged salad, pre peeled carrots or chopped ready to cook broccoli, or frozen veggies ready to pour in a sauce pan to heat and eat. Chops, ready formed frozen burgers, chicken quarters, fish fillets, pot roasts for the crockpot are all easy to make. Freeze the crockpot leftovers in meal size portions for you and dh. Get ready slice deli meat for sandwiches along with bagged salad greens, cold cereals, milk and yogurt for nutritious sandwich and breakfast fixings.

If you plan the meals and the grocery list, dh can do the shopping perhaps, and the cooking. Planning makes delegating happen easily with less fights.

4-Laundry.—I suggest, putting 3 cardboard boxes out in your room (or a 20$ Walmart sorting hamper) for lights darks and delicates. Put the stain stick up in the bedroom so you can treat spots and deal with zippers and pockets as you take clothes off. NOT later trying to find the stain, or check pockets for Kleenex. Do it at the source. Eliminate work. Use safety pins to pin socks together when taking them off, to keep them together in the wash if you worry about mating socks (I don't, I buy all the same kind, in bulk)

Do 1 of 2 systems—either the load a day approach, and fit it into a rythym of your day OR do it on the weekend and get dh to help with either approach. Maybe if you put it in, he can pop it in the dryer and put it away. Or the other way.

For now try to just have clothes you actually use in your bedroom. Bag the others for charity. But only a drawer at a time.

5-Bills—Check when they come in for urgent stuff and again on payday and pay what you need to. I like the office in a bag approach. Flylady shows you how to do your own. Essentially you have a zippered binder with your bills, and other paperwork supplies.

Coffee or lunch break at work or at home, take your office in a bag, plan your menus, your grocery list, pay your bills, basically keep the bare minimum stuff in your zippered binder (office in a bag) so you can do these basic paper work things. Skip all else.

Those are my 5 basics. 1-Sanitize kitchen and bathroom, 2-garbage out, 3-meals planned and shopped for, 4-laundry kept up so clean clothes for work, 5- Bills kept up so lights stay on.

5 fingers, automatic reminder of the 5 basic tasks.

What is your bare minimum? REMEMBER IF YOU PLAN these 5 minimum tasks, you CAN delegate some to your dh, or whoever you live with, and makes messes alongside you. Just set up the system, explain it, divide the tasks and STAY OUT OF WORRYING HOW IT GETS DONE.

As flylady says over and over "HOUSEWORK DONE INCORRECTLY STILL BLESSES YOUR FAMILY" and she is right.

When your dh helps, thank him, don't get all perfectionist and critical, remember that any help is better than none, and rotate the jobs if it bugs you so that once a month, you do it your way. Quit holding yourself to such high standards too. Just get it done fast.

ONE MORE REALLY IMPORTANT STRESS PREVENTION TIP:

Once a week GAS UP the car, NEVER EVER let it get below a half tank! Keep a 20$ bill in the glove compartment for emergency gas ups in between paydays rather than be stranded. Keep in an envelope and when you use, replace immediately. This will make for stress free transportation. If you see the tank getting near the half, gas up on the way home from work. Use full serve and avoid the physical stress if you have a baby in the back or are too tired to cope!!!!

[canadian gardener]

Papers/Bills and Time Management:

Setting up a system to deal with paper is important. Deciding what to keep, and what to toss ahead of time so you and dh can keep up with the daily flood of mail/papers/magazines etc.

Papers: You need a file box, some hanging files, and an accordian type file folder. KEEP THEM HANDY AS YOU GO THRU THE HOUSE DEALING WITH PAPERS.

Start a file box. Use a cheap plastic one that you can put hanging files in and figure what you absolutely need to keep for things like income tax.

Warranty/junk that came with the TV or VCR goes into a cheap ABCDEFG type alphabet expanding accordian file. TV junk and the bill to show we bought and paid for it on x date, with it's warranty goes in the T file.

VCR goes in the V file.

Bicycle goes in the B file

Mattress is found under M.

Keep that separate but handy where you can easily add a new bit of paper when you come to it.

USE THE CIRCULAR FILE (wastebasket) FOR ANY BIT OF PAPER YOU CAN"T SEE A USE FOR. Ask what will my life look like if I toss you? and if the answer is, no different, then toss away.

toss magazines after a certain set point. You can say oh I keep the last 1 month or the last 3 months or whatever you are comfy with.

Put the others in the giveaway box. See which ones you really like and read and unsubscribe to the rest. You don't have to keep them. Most magazines by their very nature are information that is easily found again. Nothing earth shattering. Chances are if you didn't try that hint or that recipe or make that craft in the first 2 or 3 months after buying the mag, you won't. You are safe to let it go.

Daily papers should leave the house like they came in, DAILY. Have a recycle pile and take it to the recyclers if you are up to that, otherwise, consider eliminating the daily paper or just tossing in the trash till you have the energy to cope.

Do toss any bit of paper that has to do with junk that left the house already, or old bills that you've paid, or otherwise dealt with.

Keep legal stuff or income tax kind of stuff.

Bill paying comes into this, having a place for bills. I suggest you have a special drawer, out of sight basket, or the office in a bag arrangement, and the bills get placed there where you know where they are for payday's bill paying extravaganza.

If you like you can work ahead, post date check, put in envelope, ready to mail, pencil in the DATE to mail, under the stamp area. Keep stamps etc in your office in a bag. I like that system of flylady's, it's close to what I did for years. I would drag paperwork with me to work, when waiting in the car for the kids, the dentist, all kinds of places. Do your paperwork in odd bits of time.

Calendar management is important. You need a good big one with room to write and a pocket in the back for things like wedding invites that you need to keep for a date.

I LOVE and use the More Time Moms calendar that I buy at Costco but I see flylady has it too, but a bit more expensive. If you can't afford either I suggest finding or making a big wall calendar and stapling a wide envelope to the back page for that pocket.

I would also have a white board (dry erase) mounted on the wall near the phone, and near the calendar/kitchen area. On it you can divvy up chores, make to do lists, start a grocery list for next shopping day, list upcoming important bills to pay so you don't forget and spend the money on the next priority. Phone messages go here too.

flylady thing. Set the timer for 15 minutes and ONLY do that 15 minutes a day on paper clutter. NO MORE THAN THAT OR YOU WEAR YOURSELF OUT! Repeat daily till that monster is broken.

Doesn't take as many days as you imagine. But trying to deal with say "all" the paper clutter in one day is usually a recipe for exhaustion.

15 minutes, then rest and reward yourself and do something completely different.

NO more till tomorrow. Then the same.

Don't forget to reward yourself for finishing your 15 minutes or whatever you think (less is OK, more than 15 minutes and you risk exhaustion and burnout)

[canadian gardener]

Some conveniances in housekeeping:

Using good tools is NOT an extravagance. If the difference between doing it without much effort on a regular basis, and not doing it at all is a good tool, then invest in the tool. You use it every day or every week and if it means you getting the job done regularly with ease, then DO IT!

Swiffer dry is a lovely little tool. I've fallen in love with mine. You don't have to dispose of the sweeping dust cloth. Wash them and put them on again, they will continue to work. BUT if it's the difference between using it or not, then dispose and be done with it.

I use wet facecloths and a spray bottle of Red juice from Clean Team diluted to usual 1 in 10 strength. Pop the facecloth on the swiffer dry, and it becomes a little wet mop.

Use with a couple of squares of nylon net and it can scrub the floors or windows, walls or SHOWER STALLS!!!!

Use it to scrub the floors when stripping wax as well, or with some vinegar or CLR on the tub surround or the outside windows where the minerals from the tap water dried on.

I've used the dry swiffer in the bathroom with the disposable Lysol pads made to go on the swiffer head, and around the house with the other swiffer wet pads made for the dry swiffer. In a pinch that is an AWFULLY fast way to ensure a clean floor. I don't do it all the time, but it's sure nice to have that option.

I'm not as fond of the swiffer wet jet. But you can let that "diaper" on the mop head dry out between light moppings and I've found that if you swiffer dry the hairs and dry stuff up before the wet jet, it lasts longer before disposing.

I think it will be quite easy to sew a terry cloth shower cap style cover for the head in order to have a non disposable "diaper" on the mop head.

It's been a year and I'm still working on the stuff that came with the wet jet.

Cutting the ring that holds the lid off the bottle means you can re use the bottle with your own homemade solution.

GET DAILY SHOWER SPRAY it's the best stuff! Use a spray on cleaner to get rid of the old soap scum stuff, but after that, maintain simply by lightly misting the shower or tub surround and tub when you get out.

You don't squeegee because it works best wet. Shower, spray and leave for the day.

Before getting in again, rinse.

If you don't have a hand held shower wand, get one, it's a big help in cleaning and rinsing tub surround walls and shower stalls. Also furnace filters, dogs, and miniblinds not to mention fake Christmas trees to mention a few things I've cleaned using mine.

Toss your vacuum bag once a month or oftener. My sister puts a new one in every time, and it helps keep the suction working well and reduces the dust.

Get a vacuum that WORKS and is easy to push around. I have a canister from Sears with a Hepa filter in it that I just love. Light and easy. Or use a quick broom mini vac. Just use something that sucks up the dust and crud on the first pass, and won't hurt you or dh or weary you to use it.

Leave said vac out all the time, wherever you downed tools and quit for the day. You can vac your way thru a whole house 5 minutes at a time over the week.

USE AN OSTRICH DOWN FEATHER DUSTER for speed, efficient dusting and economy. I bought mine from the Clean team but Flylady sells them too and they are worth their weight in gold. I have asthma, and am allergic to dust and I love mine. No it doesn't flick the dust into the air unless you do it wrong, unlike feather dusters (they do!).

Preventing dust and dirt:
At some point get your furnace fitted with a good electronic dust filter to catch and remove a lot of dust from the air. Clean it as recommended. If you are renting or plan to move soon then GET A PORTABLE WHOLE HOUSE AIR CLEANER to suck dust out of the air, make it easier to breathe and reduce your cleaning load.

Get entry mats inside and out for all entries to your home. That saves an incredible amount of dirt and cleaning. So does changing into good inside house shoes when you come home.

SHOES WORK, I do find wearing good supportive track shoes indoors really helps keep me from tiring early. Helps the feet, legs, and back and general tiredness level.

Consider investing in some Clean Team stuff, namely the feather down duster and Red Juice concentrate and the red juice spray bottles.

Windex works best. Their blue juice isn't as good.

While I like Comet for sinks and toilets, if I didn't have Dozer dog, who drinks out of the toilet

I'd invest in a 2000 Flushes with bleach and just swish with the toilet brush once a day.

Windex on a rag does a good job when I'm in too much of a hurry to scrub the bathroom sink. I just spritz the mirror, wipe clean and spritz the taps and sink and counter and wipe and I'm done.

Trash bags-- I get good leak proof ones from Costco which are cheap and prevent work.

Grocery bags do leak. I prefer using the trash bags. I take my daily trash from the kitchen and run thru the house emptying the wastebaskets from bedrooms, bathrooms, and even the laundry and computer rooms on my way to the garbage cans in the garage.

By doing it daily, keeps germs, stink etc to minimum AND I never have overflowing garbage cans in any room of the house.

Empty garbage cans in EACH room where people hang out, means they toss junk, not leave it in piles for you to clean up.

Toss the newspaper daily.

Have a trash can handy where you deal with the daily mail. Stand over it while going thru it. Empty daily with the kitchen trash bag run.

HAVE A GIVEAWAY BOX on each floor of the house. Toss stuff in as you think of it. Makes dejunking almost painless. Use a pretty wicker basket if it offends your eyes.

Have another giveaway by the laundry or by your closet for stuff you no longer want.

[canadian gardener]

Put a Laundry sorting basket in your bedroom where you undress, and you and dh can pull stuff off, sorting it as needed.

Have a shelf handy with some pre treatment for STAIN REMOVER and pretreat stains up in the bedroom. Check pockets while still on your body (easier), Zip zippers, pull socks off or if they come off inside out, turn them around. Pin together with safety pins (keep a dish on the dresser if necessary) if you have mated pairs of socks. Just put the pin in the dish when you pull a fresh pinned pair out of the drawer to put on.

Have the kind of laundry hamper with 3 sections, lights, darks and delicates. If you can't afford one right away use 3 boxes or 3 laundry baskets that you label.

When a wash load amount appears, throw it in the wash. You've already checked pockets, zipped zippers, and pretreated for stains.

Laundry management:
When you get up in the morning before leaving for work

or come home

toss a load in, toss into the dryer after dinner and put away the load at bedtime.

A load a day keeps the dr away. Just don't let it run while you are gone in case of floods etc.

flylady sets her timer (I have a little magnetic portable I love, I bought it from Walmart) when she puts the wash on, so she can remember to stuff it in the dryer, and sets it again so she can pull out dry clothes before they wrinkle.

Clean lint filter every time to increase efficiency.

USE A DRYER, and don't stress. Clotheslines are for people who stay at home, or have energy.

The single biggest thing you can do for yourself is make it easy to put stuff away, by not having more clothing than space to put it. Get rid of extra, pare down, simplify and you will reduce your weekly laundry burden and find it EASY to put stuff away.

I have a single large drawer for example for my dh's undershirts, when I bring up the basket, I dump on the bed and start tossing into various open drawers for undershirts, a drawer for the socks we share (I use the same as him-white cotton sport sox), our underwear drawers and my nightie drawer.

What is left is usually dd's stuff, and towels and kitchen linens.

I jelly roll or fold the bath towels and pop in the closet, tossing handtowels and facecloths in loose into large bins in the linen closet on a shelf. WHY WASTE TIME FOLDING???? If I am in a hurry the bath towels go loose and crumpled into their spot too.

Kitchen dish cloths and tea towels go loose and unfolded into a kitchen drawer.

I do hang up my clothes, pants, blouses and Tshirt right out of the dryer, to save ironing.

I like ironing but I don't feel it's my main career in life. I iron when I want to, not because I HAVE to.

[Guest1]

Thanks Margery - you're phenomenal, as usual!!

[dmvezina]

These all so very true.
I follow flylady and what a difference it has made in my housekeeping and how the house looks. It's not very often someone has to come to me for some type of clothing. Being 6 of us I do 2 loads a day. I do all the little cleanups through out the day & what a difference!!

You did, however, give few new pointers that I could use!!
Thanks!

[canadian gardener]

Get into a weekly routine of planning a SIMPLE basic menu and shopping list for it using your own best easiest cheapest recipes.

This isn't the time for new and spectacular stuff that will boggle you at supper time when your energy is almost gone. You need no brainers. WHEN YOU HAVE 6 WEEKS of menus, start rotating them. Save yourself the effort of rebuilding from scratch all the time. Leave one or two nights for a new recipe.

If you wish, you can take advantage of Leanne Ely's menu mailer. If you want to try first, she has some samples on her site. She has a low carb menu plan AND a regular one which usually has a vegetarian alternate in each recipe.

She always has one crockpot meal and another freezer friendly meal you can double for a "free meal" night in future.

And I have a whole huge thread over in our sister site, Homestead Gardens that I will link into later on easy OAMC and menus if you need freezer friendly recipes and easy ways to cook ahead with a freezer. [ame="http://www.homesteadgarden.com/forums/showthread.php?t=756"]OAMC, the easy way, no burnout, just good home cooking in the freezer - Homestead Garden Forums[/ame]

and the one on shopping and planning easier is [ame="http://www.homesteadgarden.com/forums/showthread.php?t=760"]Grocery shopping for the simplified OAMC system, and how to do an easy pantry - Homestead Garden Forums[/ame]

Another super appliance is THE CROCKPOT!!!!

Come home to a full hot meal, ready cooked waiting on the stove. Uses less energy to cook with too.

When you use it for 2 people it makes lots of extra ready cooked, ready to freeze dinners to stash in the freezer to microwave on those REALLY tired days.


Some conveniances that will save money and effort:
Pre peeled baby carrots and chopped fresh broccoli spears and bagged salads are GREAT, as are frozen veggies you can pour from the bag into the cooking water. Consider them a must in your menus. Without veggies my energy sinks like a stone.

Consider also putting the veg of the evening meal, into it's steamer basket, all peeled and prepped. Suppertime when the energy is low and baby is screaming, this means you just put water on under it, and let er rip. Otherwise you may find yourself not doing a veggie, and losing your health and energy gradually even worse.

YOU DON"T have to OAMC, or do a full 2 week plan. Even if all you do is buy 6 days worth of meat every week, freezing all but 2 days, and thawing in the fridge the night before (finish in micro) you will be OAMC'ing a good start.

I do suggest eating fish on the grocery day when it's fresh, followed by whatever meat you like fresh, and freezing the rest in the grocery packs as you get home. Finish the week with things like beans or frozen pork chops or frozen burgers accompanied by frozen veggies or coleslaw mix which keeps better.

Breakfasts will go faster if you consider cold cereals, with hard boiled eggs, cheese or yogurt with them. You can hardboil eggs one morning, and leave in fridge for rest of the week, fishing out one or two for a softboiled egg breakfast.

Dealing with packed lunches: whether you are out to work, or just dh is, fixing your lunches ahead will ensure both of you eating right, at the right price.

Consider fixing lunch as part of the supper prep or supper cleanup routine.

Make Tuna or salmon salad fillings ahead and freeze in small plastic containers (I like those cheapy somewhat disposable ones put out by Glad and ziplock). IF YOU USE MIRACLE WHIP they freeze nicely. Thaw as needed for sandwiches.

Buy deli sliced meats and cheeses as needed. They don't keep well, so do them first in the week, follow up with tuna and salmon then egg salad, or cheese or peanut butter.

MAKE SANDWICHES AS YOU FIX DINNER THEN REFRIDGE THEM FOR OVERNIGHT. In the morning pull and go. You will have already done the clean up with dinner prep. If you want you can set aside a bit of dinner in one of those cheapy gladware or ziplock plastics for lunch tomorrow if sandwiches don't suit you.

JUST DO LUNCH THE NIGHT BEFORE.

Snacks/salads:
Make sure you have a big thing of nuts or something for a little salty but nutritious snack to take in the lunch with you. Divvy up into the small cups of those gladware things.

Other uses for small gladware cups are salad dressings. Take some salad or cut up veggies in a bigger gladware thing to make lunch nice and nutritious. Have the little cup thing on the side so the salad isn't soggy. Bring a knife and fork and

a bit of fruit or yogurt in a cup for dessert.

When you get home, put the knife, fork and asstd plastics in the dishwasher. Toss when they get old or bent out of shape.

beverages:
Dh and I freeze bottles of water and or Iced tea for him to take to work. He sips all day, it's cool and refreshing, I wash them in our dishwasher when he gets home.

ICED TEA: Make tea as normal only in a big plastic jug. Fish out the tea bags after 10 minutes steeping in a kettle of boiling water. Fill jug the rest of the way with cold water. Let it sit and cool before refridgerating. I like throwing in a little sweetener. IT's LOVELY and cheap and really refreshing.

[canadian gardener]

Some tips:
THE DISHWASHER:
which means that you can always have a tidy sanitary kitchen. Load the dishes in after every meal, the kitchen is always clean and neat, let the dishwasher solve the mess. Load after load of spotless, sanitary dishes and bakeware, cutting boards etc come out day after day.

You use it every day. Which puts it ahead of a washer and dryer which you can substitute with a laundromat appt once a week if you have to. But dishes face you every day.

As soon as you can afford it, get a portable dw.

Why portable?

Unless you own your place, it's got to come with you when you go. Even if you do own your place, if it didn't come with one, why leave yours behind?

Built ins are less work but don't attach them permanently to a rental house OR one you plan to sell soon.

Take that dw with you wherever you go. It's well worth considering buying.

I have a middle of the line portable from Sears. It has Pots and pans, normal, light and rinse and hold options. It has a gunk and crud self cleaning filtration set up, power saver no heat dry option and

TIMED turn on.

Which means you can turn it on in the night or when your power rates are best or when your water needs are right. AS in AFTER the final clothes wash or shower is done.

Lose the guilt over running the dishwasher once a day whether it's full or not. You are using LESS water and electricity to run it once a day than doing by hand! By going for even MORE savings, you lose the easy habit. Don't go for perfection, just aim for a good brainless habit that will help keep your kitchen clean almost all the time.

I find that having a routine time to run it, means I can keep to an easy habit.

I run mine at night usually, and just before I start it, I take the days kitchen garbage out, running the trash thru the house as I described above.

In the morning it has run, (I do it on the energy saver no heat dry and if I get up in the night, I turn off the water--its a portable that I have, and open the door to facilitate drying)

so along with waiting for something to boil, or doing breakfast prep, I am unloading and putting away the dw contents.

By the time breakfast is ready, the dw is ready to swallow all the breakfast dishes, and anything else thru the day.

Another little trick with my portable dishwasher is anything big that doesn't fit in the dishwasher, I stick right under the hose/tap connection so all the used wash water and rinse water blasts into or onto the dirty large thingy.

Usually by morning, all I do is a quick swish with my trusty dish brush and HEY PRESTO she's clean!!!!

My trusty little dish brush! And a microwave, 2 more time and energy savers!

speaking of dish brushes, they are a great little time saver. I put a drop of dish liquid on mine and do the knives as I use them so I dont' dull them in the dishwasher.

I am a fan of flyladys shiny sink routine. I discovered years ago that it was easy to do for selling a house if you just hit the sink with Comet, scrub a bit with the dish brush. Let sit a minute or two to disinfect (comet has bleach) and rinse using a fresh dishcloth to get all the dull gritties down the sink.

Kind of kills two birds with one stone. The sink and the dish brush are disinfected, and I have my fresh dishcloth too.

I love the conveniance of that dish brush. I don't mean that soap impregnated sponge though, I don't trust sponges, never have. They grow germs in their nooks and crannies that even dishwashers and microwaves don't kill. The brush bristles are easy to clean, and do a faster better scrub job than any sponge.

Speaking of microwaves, they are another conveniance that is elevated to a must in a working woman's kitchen.

You can disinfect dishcloths that go sour in a flash

reheat coffee or that OAMC dinner you froze last week

and even cook hot cereal in them.

and they use less electricity than the stove or oven for most things.

[canadian gardener]

Most important, do it while you are in there, doing other things.

In other words, when you are in to use the facilities in the morning, sprinkle a little comet, and swish out the toilet.

Next visit, spritz a little red juice or rubbing alcohol on toilet tissue and wipe the flush handle, seat and rim and around the base of the toilet. If the top of the tank, the sides etc need it, wipe them too.

Next visit, when washing your hands after, swish up and around the sink, and counter. Dry with the handtowel, and replace the towel. Now the sink and counter are clean and the towel is fresh and dry.

Next time, grab some windex and hit the mirror and the chrome in the taps both in sink and the tub. Polish dry with a cleaning cloth you keep slung over the windex bottle under the sink.

Next visit, before you wash your hands, look at the floor and if it needs it, grab a paper towel and some lysol, or spray cleaner or my favourite red juice and spritz a little and wipe up the hairs.

Before you know it, it's done.

When you have your shower, while you are in, put some shampoo on a scrubby puff or your facecloth and quickly go over the walls and tub. Rinse with the hand held shower.

That won't need doing very often if you use daily shower spray when you get out.

If you are in supervising the kids, go thru and dejunk the drawers, and under the sink and the medicine cabinet. Flush any outdated medicines (much safer with kids).

OBVIOUSLY all this works best if it's decluttered, so take time to dejunk the counters and back of the toilet tank and any shelves. You want to make a clean easy swipe for any daily cleaning. The more times you have to lift and shift, and clean around objects, PLUS clean the object themselves, the more time you waste.

Suggestions: keep your grooming tools in a pretty basket locked under the sink. Pull out to groom in the morning, after your shower, and put all away out of the dust and away from the counter.

Have a bucket of toys, have a waterproof bucket just for shampoo, body wash and conditioners.

Corral the objects, and clean up the surfaces for faster cleaning.

[canadian gardener]

speeding thru personal care, showering etc.

2 ways morning or evening.

Flylady likes evenings. She has a long relaxing soak, does her hair etc and goes to bed with muscles like jelly from the heat and bath salts etc. In the morning she re wets her hair to deal with bed head or rooster hair and styles it for the day and she is off and running.

I prefer showering in the morning and what I like to do is brush my teeth before the shower and clean the bathroom as I dry off and tidy up.

While in the shower I use cheap conditioner to shave my underarms with. No nicks, no itchy rashy bits and it works like a charm. If I did my legs I'd do that too.

I also take a pumice stone to the rough skin on my feet. So much nicer when they are exfoliated. Put lotion on after and they feel great!

Flossing my teeth, I don't do this in the bathroom at the same time as brushing my teeth. I prefer to sit and floss my teeth sometime when I'm alone during the day, watching TV along with any manicure needs.

I still take care of my nails and floss my teeth while enjoying TV. And it leaves absolutely no flossing spots on the bathroom mirror.

Too much information I know.

Taking care of yourself is not a luxury, it is a basic mental and physical health necessity!

use makeup, get or give yourself a good attractive hair cut, wear clothes that suit you whether or not you are the weight you want to be.

In other words, take care of you, and send the message that you are WORTH TAKING CARE OF!!!!

[canadian gardener]

I allow the timer to say when I'm done and have closure on a task rather than feel bad that I couldn't finish the whole thing in one day.

I think the way people tackle large projects is different when they are chronically ill. And this can apply to people under stress, with a newborn, a new job, whatever.

When I was healthy, I could push thru, do a top to bottom clean, pull out a load of stuff and leave it knowing that tomorrow I can manage to get it all put away the next day. My health and strength would be up to the task.

But for the last almost 6 years, that approach would nearly kill me. If I pull stuff out, it may wait 3 or 4 weeks before I get the strength back up to deal with it. And if I do a big job one day, I will need to rest up a week to recover before I can continue and finish.

Don't pull out more than you feel up to putting away or dealing with in one session and don't do more than 15 minutes at a time on a big project.

It will get done.

Flylady says in her Sink Reflections book that she only spends an hour on that Monday house blessing using her timer to do 10 minutes for each task. One or two tasks take less, one or two take more.

when it's over it's over. Even if the job isn't "done".

She mentions that for working women, or ones who cope with chronic illness, babies or homeschooling that they may have to break that down over the week, and do 10 minutes a day for the big houseblessing hour to get done.

She breaks things down into small tasks.

People with healthy levels of energy can probably manage to fit more in, but one of the constant themes in her emails (I also subscribe to those, I like her essays, her style and she has definitely got wisdom) is to

not crash and burn as she puts it.

A lot of ladies when they first get the emails tend to do everything all at once. Then many of the testimonials talk about how they crashed and burned out on that routine, go back and re read what she said, and see how doing it all right away made them burn out.

Some of them retry several times before understanding that the core to her system is little bites, learning to make them a habit and never all at once.

She preaches Baby Steps, developing a single routine at a time, making it a habit BEFORE attacking a new routine and new habit.

I think she is right.

A lot of women who are healthy and have the time and energy, this isn't going to be a problem for but for the ones flylady talks to, it is a fairly important concept.

What I'm saying is, give flylady a chance if you've crashed and burnt on her before, and do just the baby steps till those are a comfortable habit, before trying the whole flight plan as flylady would say.

[canadian gardener]

there done for now. Thanks ladies, for your kind comments, sorry about not answering earlier, I wanted to get this done before dh got home.

[dmvezina]

You did a great job!!

I would like to add a tip to the kitchen cleaning one though if I may! lol

I did see you said a fresh dishcloth. Well, what I do is once I'm done cleaning up the kitchen after dinner, I toss the dirty, wet towel & dishcloth in the hamper & set out nice clean ones to start the next day with.