Category Archives: Housework

The Home Office.

26 Monday Aug 2019

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I shifted my junk purging to the room J used as an office when she had her accounting practice. It was a hodge podge of paper, unfiled, disorganized work sheets. Just wretched. So I shredded about two big garbage bags full of papers, put all her professional books in one box. (She will never look at these again). Whether the information is still current is another question. But there they are. I might subdivide them to make them easier to carry out the house.

It was/is hard work. I fell asleep in my chair afterwards, before I even had time for a shower .

There is more to do. The pile to be recycled is substantial.

I will go back to the other bedroom tomorrow, and pare down my book collection (accumulation).

When Your “Little” Is A Brat

23 Friday Aug 2019

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Firstly, I was unaware of the Daddy/little girl dynamic at work until about a week ago. What I was aware of was the behavior of her in regard to not doing any work around the house, hoarding, allowing messes to persist, offering excuses about being “tired” at the end of the work day, not putting clothes in her dresser drawers, et cetera, ad nauseam. I would cook so she didn’t have to; my ego needed the praise for my cooking,

So I “enabled” a lot of bad behavior, the kind of behavior you see in a twelve year old who won’t clean her room. I can’t let her get away with this behavior anymore. That means I have to be assertive. That runs counter to my normal easy-going, non-confrontational persona. Yikes.

She has two trump cards, bullet proof excuses. 1) She is tired after work. 2) She has a kidney stone working its way out. These excuses won’t “cut it” any more. I cannot live in a mess.

I was unwilling to acknowledge that this mess of a house is a BIG deal. I never viewed it as disrespect towards me. This was possible when I didn’t view myself as worthy of, deserving of and needing respect.

This is about my self-perception changing.

Records Management

20 Tuesday Aug 2019

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J and I have two really bad complementary habits. We hoard and we procrastinate going through the piles and piles of pay stubs, paid invoices, paid medical bills, greeting cards, church bulletins (for both important and trivial occasions), Holy Cards, and interwoven with all of this conglomeration of paper, junk mail.

Well, there’s a new David in town and he is attacking one of the Rooms O’ Crap. I just spent two hours going through stuff, put some recyclable paper in a shopping bag (or as my grandfather called it a “poke”), and shredded some, but not nearly enough.

This is all part of letting go for me. I have to retain some, I suppose, in case the IRS decides to audit us.

It’s all about avoidance. To grasp the short term pleasure of a book, game, TV show, cup of coffee, even, especially, pornography.

But this is what humans do. I didn’t invent this behaviour, despite what my mother and ex-wives said. I may have perfected it, but I didn’t invent it.

The room is in transition, as the picture will attest.

Housework

15 Thursday Aug 2019

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I went back to sleep for a couple of hours, awoke again around Nine, turned on The Ashes, fixed a pot of coffee, reheated my leftover steel-cut oatmeal from yesterday (not bad). Just sitting, I decided to get busy doing housework. It was housework by increments. Mission creep took over and within an hour, I was fully engaged. I did the kitchen counters, then the floor, the stove top. I noticed the kitchen floor had been neglected so I did a hands-and-knees, nylon sponge scrubbing on the spots like stuck tape, and those pesky, stuck on the surface “PLU” (Produce Look Up) code stickers, you find on nearly every pear, apple, orange, and avocado you buy.

Moving on to the downstairs bath, I found it fairly easy going. An easy clean up.

The upstairs bathroom was another story. The washer and dryer are in this bathroom, so it is a giant lint trap. I did lots of scrubbing, sweeping, and crevice work with a toothbrush. No more gross strings of dust and lint. For the tub, I used the Mr Clean© Magic Eraser to get the soap scum off the tub surfaces. Those suckers really work! I like them,

Mopping the floor, cleaning the toilet, and the sink, shining the chrome bright work, and I was done.

Now the truth be told, doing this after my spinal fusion is a bitcb physically but still as emotionally satisfying a when I did cleaning when I was healthy.

J came home to a clean house. I feel in charge when I get the house work done.

That Book Everybody Is Talking About

26 Friday Apr 2019

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The Life Changing Magic Of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo is a title that is receiving a lot of attention of late. Several people who follow this blog have mentioned it in their blogs. So I thought I would get a copy and do what the lady suggests.

However….

In the back of my mind is a vague memory of seeing the book suggested to me by one of the minions, real human or virtual, in the employ of Jeff Beezos. And guess what? I ordered it from my pal Jeff on 13 August 2015, over four and a half years ago. Seems like I thought it would be a good resource back then. Now here comes the all too predictable conclusion to this post. I have NO bloody idea where this book is or what I might have done with it. I know none of you are surprised to read that.

Mid-Century, Sort Of Modern.

15 Tuesday May 2018

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The Fifties and Sixties of The Twentieth Century are not the remote past to me. But the Thirties and Forties and its Art Deco legacy are. I remember stuff from that time distinctly. The atmosphere of novelty and progress that surrounded that era is arguably in our thinking still. We still prick up our ears at the thought of “Improved”, although we give more credibility to the idea of a better Smart phone than we would to an “improved” filter cigarette. Modern was the buzz word then.

When I was six, we got a new washing machine. It was a Westinghouse Laundramat front loader with a glass window in the door (hatch). Yes, we children actually watched the clothes wash on more than one occasion. You can’t watch the Three Stooges and I Love Lucy all the time, can you? The machine was an advanced piece of design for its time. In our present time we expect advanced design.

Some items we consider kitsch today were deemed special and prized back then. For example Avocado Green appliances that came along around 1970 were highly prized, along with sister colors Harvest Gold and Coppertone, because they weren’t stark white. Finally the monotony of white was relieved.

Two items from that time that we retrieved from my grandparents/aunt’s house illustrate the point. The first is an aluminum ice bucket with a penguin motif, shown below. Pure Fifties. Lovely still. If I ever have a party, I will use it. The second item is this Harvest Gold(?) cake caddy. I can’t put a precise date on it. It is as functional as it is ugly. But What The Hell. It can carry a cake. Maybe a streusal swirl Bundt cake from a Pillsbury mix.

Day’s End.

12 Saturday Aug 2017

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What a day. No fireworks, no bells tolling joyous peals mark this day.  One doesn’t receive medals for tidying up, tossing out items that should have been pitched months ago. I feel like I deserve such accolades. I recycled my empty Altoids tins, my John McCann’s Steel-Cut Oatmeal canisters. As functional as they are, steel, with a snug-fitting lid, they continue to be made, and are not at risk of obsolescence.  Yet why have I saved three, with nothing to put in them?

I have little piles of charitable solicitation letters complete with cheesy greeting cards, calendars, return address labels. Maybe folks, I will send you some dough, when I get some extra money.  Your causes have merit.

I replaced an anemic basket, holding my Red Delicious apples, Bartlett pears, yellow Cavendish bananas, Roma tomatoes, and a Vidalia onion, with a larger one capable of holding all of the produce.

These nagging little chores have a psychological reward greater than the tasks. I’m just a little bit less attached to my stuff.