Out Of Chaos

The telephone rings, and it is your nightmare (at least it is, if you don’t have a home that looks like it belongs on the cover of “House Beautiful” magazine). The one person you would least like to have see your home at it’s worst is on the other end of the line.

It could be :

• Your fancy friends from the city, whose house is always spotless, because they can afford a housekeeper.
• Your mother-in-law, who always gives your house the “white glove test,” because she knows she should never have let you marry her sainted son.
• The new preacher and his wife, from whom you would like to hide your “sins.”
• Anybody else who is on your list.

“Hi there,” they say, “we were in the neighborhood and thought we would drop by to visit in about an hour.”

Breathe deeply. Don’t let the stress get to you. If saying, “This is not a good time,” or “How about we meet down at this cute little coffeehouse downtown” are not options, then you have an hour to tidy the house.

It can be done!

FIRST: Remember that when a person comes to the door, the first thing they will notice is the odor scent aroma. You probably don’t think your house has a “smell,” but it does. You are just accustomed to it. Don’t assault your guest with unpleasant smells.

1. If you can open a window to let the house ventilate, do so.
2. Got cat litter boxes? Empty them, and sprinkle some baking soda on the litter.
3. Empty the trash cans and the recycle bin. A sprinkling of baking soda can work wonders here, too.
4. Put a lemon in the garbage disposal, run hot water, and grind it up.
5. Give the toilets (the ones that will be seen by the guests a good swish with the toilet brush, and wipe the seat, sides, and lid with a disinfectant wipe.
6. DON’T spray the house down with air freshener (not everyone appreciates that odor, either).
7. INSTEAD, put a cinnamon stick, or a tablespoon of cinnamon, in two cups of water and boil it in a pan on the stove. It will smell as if you have been baking all morning.
8. OR, light scented candles in various rooms of the house (wait until just before the guest’s arrival)

SECOND: Tackle the clutter in the rooms that they will see. Don’t worry about bedrooms. You can close the door (if your mother-in-law sneaks a peak, she will deserve whatever she sees!).

• Grab a large garbage bag and a clothes basket (two if necessary)
• Start at the front door, and work your way into rooms in which the guest will go. Along the way, put trash in the bag, and anything that doesn’t belong in that room into the basket.
• If you will put a dust mitt on your hand as you work, you can easily swipe any large dusty surfaces (only worry about eye level and below).
• Once it’s gathered, find a closet to hide it, or put it in the garage.
• If there are dishes in the sink, put them in the dishwasher (if there are too many, put them in a basket and put them in the garage…just don’t forget them, because the roaches won’t!)

THIRD:
Vacuum the high traffic areas (and, if you have pets, vacuum the main seating area so your guests don’t acquire a coating of pet hair). Fluff the couch pillows. If you have dirty windows, pull the shades and turn on some soft lighting.

FINALLY:
Give yourself a pat on the back! Now quick…go change out of the shirt that sports last night’s lasagna, run a comb through your hair, and swipe on some deodorant. Then, drink a glass of your favorite alcoholic beverage. I promise you won’t notice the dusty baseboards.

Tags: Household Chores Simplified, Quick Cleaning by Shelly Kneupper Tucker
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I told y’all I had begun the process of getting my bathroom organized. Once I had tossed all the unused and excess items that don’t belong in my bathroom, everything had to go back on the shelves! On my first attempt, I put things back where they had been. Then, I realized I wasn’t making good use of the space.

The handiest shelves for us are a cabinet beside the sink. It stretches from floor to ceiling, but only the middle two shelves are really workable. The top two shelves are hard to reach. Especially because the cabinet is 22″ deep! Anything in the back of that cabinet might as well be in The Twilight Zone.

I had been keeping medicines on those middle two shelves, and they were behind the grooming items we used every day. It’s dark back there, so it’s hard to see the medicines, and when you aren’t feeling well, you don’t want to take everything off the shelf just to find the Immodium!

I decided to move the medicines to the cabinet I have over my toilet. Everything is eye level, the cabinet isn’t very deep (so medicines won’t get lost), and it’s easily accessible. I just need to remember to have the toilet seat closed while I’m rummaging in there!

Professional organizers will suggest that you use your narrow medicine cabinets and your easily accessible spaces for the grooming items you use every day. It makes sense to me. I found a workable arrangement, and left those high cabinets for items like the de-humidifier and the heating pads. Hopefully, I don’t need those every day!

Here are three items that I found very useful in my attempt to organize the shelves. You don’t need fancy containers to do it. Chances are, you have something that will work hidden in a closet somewhere (at least if you are a successful packrat, you should).

I use a turntable, or “Lazy Susan” to hold my toiletry items. I have one and my husband has one, so that we don’t accidentally share toothbrushes or razors. Turn it, and I can reach any item on it quickly. I have to brag that my garage sale days served me well on this one. I picked up six wooden Lazy Susans for $1.00 each. I’m putting them to good use now. You can find them at any container store, and I’ve found plastic ones that work quite well just at the grocery store.

I had some wire racks that I had picked up at a discount store many years ago. They were perfect for subdividing shelves that were too tall, and helped me utilize the wasted space. On them, I stacked plastic storage containers from the kitchen. I intend to put computerized labels on the front and side of each container, so the contents are easily identified.

We’ve shuffled things a little bit as we tried to tweak the arrangement. I think we’ve almost gotten it done. Now all we have to do is keep it that way. That’s another story!

Tags: The Bath by Shelly Kneupper Tucker
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I thought that cleaning, de-cluttering, and organizing the bathroom would be the easiest “beginner task.” After all, it’s the smallest room in the house, isn’t it?

That may be so, but it’s also the busiest and most crowded room of the house. It’s not as easy to simplify as it might seem.

First of all, the storage space is at a premium. If your bathroom is like mine, that storage space is “wonky.” I have drawers and shelves that are too deep, other shelves that are too narrow, and the space under the sink has drainpipes that make it difficult to utilize. I don’t have enough counter top space for all my lotions and potions, my mirrors and curlers. For some unearthly reason, my husband thinks he should get part of the space. Go figure!

It has taken three four tries to finally get ours workable. On my first attempt, I only worked with my makeup.
That task took me an entire evening. I had to throw away most of my beauty products because they were old.

On the second try, I spent a Saturday morning sorting and sifting. I set up a card table and removed everything from the cabinets. Here is what the “experts” told me to do:

• Toss old medines (they have expiration dates), old lotions (trust me, I tested one and you don’t want to keep them) and old makeup.
• Get rid of rusty tweezers/nail clippers/old razors and such.
• You don’t need worn out hair brushes and warped combs.
• Throw away old toothbrushes and tubes of toothpaste that are scummy and gummy.
• You can do without those hair products you bought and decided they didn’t work for you.
• Cull out any duplicate blow dryers (it only takes one) and hair accessories.
• Towels and linens that are frayed, ripped, or faded should go on out the door (or into your cleaning closet to be used as rags).

Once you have removed all the items that no longer belong in your bathroom, it’s time to sort them and find a “home” for them. In order to keep things simplified, that takes some planning. Again, it took more than one try for me. I’ll tell you more in Part Two!

Tags: The Bath by Shelly Kneupper Tucker
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Difficult, difficult, difficult…
   Easy, easy, easy…
Neither difficult nor easy.
          -Zen Buddhism

As I work at sorting clutter, I occasionally feel as if I’m floundering. We have so much that is just junk, and I don’t always know what to do with it. I get overwhelmed.

I was ready to just give up at about the time I found the above quotation. I sat down and pondered it for a bit. It seemed silly at first. The more I thought about it, though, the more I understood that it is true. If you want to accomplish a task (whether it is de-cluttering the house or preparing a speech), you need the proper attitude.

One step at a time, I’m continuing to de-clutter and organize. I’m chanting this quote as a mantra.

Tags: Uncategorized, simplified life by Shelly Kneupper Tucker
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