Eastland Daiso and other classroom fun

Eastland is one of the major shopping centres on my side of Melbourne.  As you would expect it's pretty big, and because of the distance from our home, we don't end up there very often.  As I mentioned the other day, the first time I went there, two years ago, it ended up in tears for me.  Seven hours since lunch and never finding the restaurant, and having to decide what to eat from the food court at 8pm was never a recipe for my success.  Especially on a Friday night after work!  When Miss Mischief found out her response to Miss Sunshine and her Dad was "What?  You took her shopping and didn't feed her?  Are you stupid?"  Yep.  We do "direct" in our house like nobody's business.

Last year Dh and I went there for buy a birthday gift for Miss Mischief.  We lost the car.  Turns out we needed to go through the shopping centre doors on the other side of the wall to where we actually exited.  We forgot we had come in through Woolworths and not the exit right next to that one.  Like, 50cm away with a wall in between. 😣

Today I won!  I went all the way to Eastland, found the store I wanted, and then also found the car again afterwards.  No tears!  Miss Mischief came along to be my voice of reason in all things Eastland and shopping.

We found our intended target, Daiso, fairly simply with the help of the touch-screen map thingys.  Above is what we came out with.  The storage boxes have all the eleventy million disposable cups stored in them.  The shelf liner has been cut to size to fit the top of my washing machine.  I need to clean off the feet of our kitchen chairs to protect them with those perfectly sized felt circles.  The other things are for my classroom.  The white basket and hooks are magnetic so they'll be able to attach to my whiteboard.

Now that I know what's at Daiso I'll be able to plan trips there with added discernment.  I have to say, it is teacher heaven!  Everything is $2.80, if there is no other price attached.  There were some things that were more than that, but they were all over on one side of the store.  Once my classroom has been put back together (painting should have been completed, and I think carpet was scheduled to be laid today) I will be able to decide what I'd really like to have things the way I want them.

This is one of my new storage units.  Miss Sunshine and I spent some time last Monday labelling the boxes.  It took me a little bit of fiddling to get the label size right, but then it was a breeze to print, laminate and stick them on the inside of each tub.  I am very happy with how they turned out.  Not bad for a little creative ingenuity!

What's your favourite bargain store?  So far I'm leaning towards Arthur Daley's, and then Daiso was a very close second.

On the decluttering train

This week's little decluttering job is complete.  To look at the space, you'd think not, but I only ever intended to do a small portion of the job.

This week it was the front cupboard.  It's this monstrously sized cupboard in the front entry way.  When we moved in we thought we'd never fill up all that space.  Alas and alack, we did fill it and it was overflowing.  It seems to be a consistent phenomenon:  you fill whatever space you have.

The top shelf of that cupboard has been hoarding and collecting things since the very year we moved in here, a way back in 2005, as it turns out.  Twelve years.  Before I attacked this vortex of stuff it looked like this.

I spent an hour going through photos and kid's school work and baby cards and all sorts of things.  I threw almost all of it out.  I kept the catering/picnic stuff.  I kept a small box of photos and keepsakes.  I kept a couple of portfolios from when Mr Busy was in Prep/Year1, and Miss Mischief was in 3/4.  The 3/4 one is interesting to me, since I now teach that year level in the same school.  Mr Busy graduates next year, so I thought I'd stow that work in case it's wanted for graduation celebrations.  Can I just say, Mr Busy was awesomely cute way back in the day.  He's still cute, but he has such a long, lanky body now.  His cute little 6yo self was so compact!

Everything else?  Gone.  That Linak box?  Full of stuff we didn't need.  Up the other end?  Phone books.  Who on earth needs phone books anymore?  We don't even need them for loo paper (my mother says they all looked forward to phone book loo paper because it was softer than whatever else they used).

The new-look top of the cupboard looks like this:

Most interesting discovery?  A brass plumb line and eleventy million disposable cups.

My organising/cleaning/decluttering "done" list is looking pretty good:

• pantry
• oven
• recycling bin
• desk area
• entry cupboard (top shelf)

I still need to work on the dining room.  And then I need some major storage overhauls to happen, in the form of shelving for the bottom section of that front cupboard.

Claiming my Desk... Before and After

 A very long time ago, it seems, I wanted to get rid of the great hulk of a desk we had inherited from my father-in-law (we are his favourite disposal site, I think), and replace it with something simpler and less invasive.  Ikea provided us with what I considered the perfect alternative.  So it has been sitting in this corner for many years.  All white and slimmed down compared to its predecessor.  Gradually Mr Busy took the desk over with his junk.  The curtain over the window in front of it deteriorated so much that the backing became white dust over everything (hence the sheet).  I have been less than pleased with this corner.  It was never really what I intended.

As well as desktop issues we began to have under-desk problems.  All the reams of paper that came home because Dh couldn't use grey (neither do we, incidentally), and the printer cartridges and the manilla folders and on and on it goes.  Things that have been piled up and then spilling over the floor under the desk.

Well.  No more.  This was my latest corner of decluttering, reorganising, cleaning and reclaiming for its intended purpose.  Mr Busy studies in his room now.  I have finally claimed the desk I chose as my own.  With all my favourite pink things!

One day I'm going to need to have a trip to Spotlight to see if I can find a good enough curtain to replace the sheet over that window.  It looks so tacky, but it does the job.  No one can see in from the street.

My next challenge:  The area to the right of the desk.  It rests along a hip-height wall that will one day be pulled down.  The junk in front of it needs a better home.

If Google Knows Everything...

Imaged Credit

...Then YouTube can teach you anything.  Or at least inspire you to try something new!

Today's Lesson:  How to clean a very very dirty oven.  Did I say dirty?  Maybe embarrassingly putrid would be a more accurate description.  I had hoped to have replaced it by now, but that's looking like an out-of-the-question scenario right now.

My oven is so bad that I'm only half way through I've only just started getting it clean.  I've done the door.  But I sense hope.  My sink and tap are ridiculously shiny, as is my cooktop, thanks to a quick swipe with the paste I'm leaving to sit on the gunk in the oven.

Thank you YouTube, for teaching me that I don't need to use the caustic (but quick, less scrubbing...but also no breathing) oven cleaner I had been using.  So I hear you asking...."what is this shiny-making non-caustic cleaner?"  Well, three things you probably have right in your kitchen.

2 cups baking soda (aka bicarbonate of soda)
1 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup dishwashing liquid

Mix the vinegar into the baking soda VERY slowly.  Pour a little in and little it fizzle; stir a bit before adding a tad more.  Once it's all in the bowl (and isn't fizzing over the side - remember I said add slowly!) add the dishwashing liquid and mix it really well.  You just slop that, rather thickly, over all the internal surfaces of the oven and let it sit overnight.  I used a silicon pastry brush to do this.  In my case it'll be 24 hours before I can get back to it, but I suspect that might be best for all concerned.  I'll let you know how it goes, but so far the oven door is looking beautiful.

Incidentally these same ingredients (in different proportions) have been touted (on YouTube) as a miracle bathroom cleaner.  If my sink is anything to go by, your bathroom will certainly shine!  The video I watched for cleaning the bathroom said you have to use "Dawn" liquid, which is all very well if you have a Costco membership.  If not, you'd be up the creek without a paddle, here in Australia.  I can't see that a particular brand would make a difference, so I'd give it a go with whatever you happen to have.  Morning Fresh maybe?  I think the point is, something really good, not the cheap, weak stuff you get in $2 shops.

Some other YouTube channels I've been enjoying:
The Daily Connoisseur (inspiration to live a good life)
Do It On a Dime (how to organise on a budget)
Pick Up Limes (great nutrition advice and inspiration)
Fly with Stella (a very funny flight attendant who vlogs her life - she's just so happy!)
A Classroom Diva (teaching ideas and inspiration)
Pocketful of Primary (another teacher vlog)

What have you learnt lately?

EDITED TO UPDATE: This method for oven cleaning worked reasonably well.  Yes, it took a fair amount of elbow grease, but I didn't die from inhaling awful, choking chemicals.  And my hands were nice and soft, albeit dry.  Definitely the longer it sat the easier it was to clean (24 hours).  It was very, very sudsy, so know you're gonna have bubbles in your sink all over the place!  I suspect that if you were more diligent about oven cleaning, in general, this would look like it had worked better.  Given where my oven started and where it ended, I'd say it was a definite winner.

Pantry Capers... Before and After

It's a long weekend, here in Australia to celebrate the Queen's Birthday.  Say what you will; on this occasion I am more than willing to keep ties to the Commonwealth and take a short break for a long weekend.  I've been hankering to clean out my pantry, which I do about once a year.  Because after a year of the locusts (aka children) fossicking through it and spilling things and all of us shoving things in gaps and wherever, it needs a thorough clean out.

It took me a few goes, with sitting down in between, because, Friday night.  After teaching PE, a lunch time yard duty and an after school yard duty I was so tired.  There ain't no tired like teacher tired, folks.  In fact, I think I even shut my eyes for 15 minutes on one of those breaks.  Anyway, everything came out, the shelves got cleaned and then everything went back.  Almost.

I couldn't finish off last night because I needed some storage items to I could organise the floor of my pantry.  Also, I've thrown out about this much stuff, because I don't love it or use it or want out-of-date food in my pantry.

My pantry started off like this.

See how the floor is hidden under piles of stuff?

Part way through, the kitchen was an organised disaster and I wondered why on earth I keep all this stuff in there?

And then things were slowly returned to rights with everything organised, cleaned and restored.

Thanks to some stacking bins and throwing stuff out the floor is clear again.

I bought baskets for the pasta and some Asian food items as well as the stacking bins.  Everything is looking much more organised and tidy.  I also found a new dish soap dispenser with a pump top.  The old one got a crack in the bottom after many years of use.  Couldn't last forever I guess.  Just as I was finished up, Mr Busy peeked in and was very impressed.  "Oh Mum, I can find things...but do we have any food?  I'm hungry".  🙄

A Little Summer Cleaning

One of the jobs I like to do once a year is clear out my pantry and get it back to tidy and organised.  A year's worth of other people scrummaging about in there seems to take its toll on my pantry's tidiness.

I've taken everything out and put things together on the bench that seemed similar.  Then I cleaned the shelves and worked on putting everything back in.  Mostly things that are similar are near each other.  And then I had to work with shelf heights, so sometimes my little baskets of bits and pieces have gone on a shelf where they fit best.  Still.  It feels much better.  With some inspiration from The Organised Housewife I suspect a trip to Big W is in my near future, for the sake of gathering up some of the loose things that still have no real home.

There we go - Job 1 from the "things I want to get done around home" is complete.  For the sake of my sieve-like brain some other things I need to get done around here include:

• Clean the oven (this may take a few goes...)
• Dust the entire house
• Vacuum everywhere - a grown-up vac, not a kid version
• Clean the windows
• Clean the skirting boards

If I'm very brave I might even have a go at washing the sheer lace curtains.  That would take a great deal of bravery though.  Perhaps it might be the thing to do when I get paid again.  If they shred I'll need to replace them!

On my Big Dream Wish List:  Kitchen make-over.  White cabinets, replace cupboards with drawers where possible, caesar stone bench tops in something lighter - black is NOT my favourite bench top colour.  The oven and fridge are probably in line for replacement, given they are 18yo and 22yo respectively. 

What big cleaning tasks do you put off, and then feel much better when they are done?  And, while I'm asking questions I'd love to know how you go about keeping your house clean on a regular basis.  What system works for you when you're super busy?  This my area of epic failure with full time work.  Epic, I tell you.  We stay uncluttered, but the kids don't do the best version of cleaning things.  Am seriously considering having someone do floors and bathrooms every fortnight as a gift to myself.

More Cleaning.....

My Enjo bathroom cloths arrived.  There is nothing to inspire a girl more than brand new fluffy cleaning gloves!  After spending over an hour cleaning the kids bathroom on Sunday I am now armed to keep it that way.  This week my new routine is still going well.  When I don't have to be at work until 9am.  I'm sure it'll be more of a challenge when I have to be there at 8am next week.

This afternoon I had about half an hour between getting home and picking up Miss Mischief so I decided to "spend five minutes" cleaning the kids' toilet.  Fifteen minutes later I think I had managed to clean every little nook and cranny there was to clean, including the skirting boards.  Did you know kids don't really clean toilets after all?  Even big kids who are perfectly capable?  I keep asking them to do it and I hear all the right noises but the evidence suggests they really don't know what the task entails.

My next mission to save up for:  stripping out the bathroom and toilet and completely re-tiling and changing the set up in there.  My tips for bathroom renovators based on this bathroom:

• Floating floorboards are NOT appropriate wet-area floor coverings.
• Claw foot baths look pretty but they're a pain in the but to clean under and around
• Never ever have a 3cm gap between a shower screen and cabinet.  There is no. possible. way. to clean in that gap.
• Bathrooms should be tiled up the wall instead of having skirting boards.  Skirting boards are dumb in bathrooms - they just collect gunge.
• Bathrooms should be painted with good-quality paint designed for wet, steamy rooms that does not come off on your cloth when you wipe down the walls.

Are you getting a picture of my frustrations?  Whoever built this house was not wise!

In Search of Cleaning Routines and Schedules

Image Credit

My final task of the school holidays is to plan for organisation.  Barb left me a very wise and helpful response yesterday - a little bit often, get everyone involved. The kids do all the dishes jobs here and Dh does the laundry.  It's the dusting, floors and bathrooms that seem to escape our attention until visitors are imminent.  And Fly Lady is right.  I want to enjoy a home that is guest-ready all the time, not just when guests are there.

I've set myself a morning and evening routine along with weekly and monthly tasks, having borrowed from my Fly Lady days. I've assigned things so they suit what happens in a normal week here.  Let's be realistic, even though Fly Lady does her 'home blessing' on a Monday I am not going to get to it that day between weekly Uni work being released that day and fortnightly meetings at work.  My 'home blessing' is going to happen over a few days and has been scheduled to suit my days off.

I'm going to trial this routine for a week or three and see how it goes. I haven't included the dishes and laundry because they are done by the rest of the family.  Nor is there a schedule for deep cleaning.  That is just going to have to be a holiday job.  No, this routine is just about keeping our home cleaned in a basic kind of way.

I'll post a copy of the schedule when I am sure it works alright.  In the meantime, I really would love to hear your tips and ideas.  I know there are wiser women out there with lots to share with me...and anyone else who stops by.

Cleaning and Organising

Image Credit

I've been waiting all holidays for the cleaning bug go hit me.  It finally arrived.  My two front rooms have been thoroughly deep cleaned.  I dug out my Enjo cloths to help me with the dusting task.  My septic tank man will be thrilled.  Clean house.  No chemicals.

I have wandered into those two rooms numerous times just to enjoy the fruits of my labour.  Shiny surfaces.  No dust.  Reorganised music book storage.  And I have wondered again how to be more routine about the whole idea of cleaning when life is so crazy throughout the term.  I wish I had the mental wherewithal to sign up to Fly Lady again.  She was so helpful 12 years ago when I first became acquainted with her.

I don't think anyone has come up with a system for full speed life and super-quick house cleaning.  The two don't seem to go together.  Cleaning just takes the time that it takes.

So my question to you for the week is this:  How to keep your house cleaned when you're busier than you would like to be?

A Little More Autum Cleaning

My dust-free and empty stack of baskets

A little more cleaning and a little more satisfaction.  Yesterday Miss Sunshine had a collaborative study session with a friend.  Us Mums had a collaborative cleaning effort.  Just one little section of our family room along a half-wall that seems to collect stuff.  And dust.  Apparently I'm very good at ruthlessly culling 'stuff' that realistically hasn't been looked at in quite some time.  I find it cathartic to get rid of languishing 'stuff' that no long is of use or value.  I like Fly Lady's perspective:  if you don't love it, get rid of it.  I didn't love those old magazines, never-repaired clothing items and sewing projects that will never be completed.  They're all gone.

All this has me wondering.  Why is that we talk about 'spring cleaning'?  Do we really have to wait until spring to get things in order or organise ourselves, our stuff and our homes?  I think not.  If we all waited for spring we'd all be allergic to our homes, I think.  Goodness knows I used more than my fair share of tissues while getting into that dusty corner yesterday.  Who knew there could be so much to blow?!

In amongst assignments and Uni returning after a one-week Easter break I'm thinking that I need some kind of organised way to keep things constantly cleaned.  I just can't deal with the avalanche of emails from Fly Lady right now, and I'm not so bad with the daily routines of caring for our needs.  She was a perfect fit when I was a SAHM with little people at home and I had time to invest.  Organized Junkie has lots of inspiration for keeping things tidied and in their homes and has a new app.  For $2 it might be worth investigating.  Or maybe I just need to write down 31 days worth of tasks that need to be accomplished, somewhat in order, and just keep recycling those?  Hmmmm.  Maybe that would work?  It would certainly be cheaper than an having a cleaner, although that is an incredibly tantalising idea for this time-poor working, studying wife and mum!

How do other busy mums keep the house cleaned and organised when you don't have time to do it?  Tell me your secrets!

Household Satisfaction: A Clean Expanse

It may seems strange to you, to see a picture of my bedroom carpet up close and personal.  Why would a person do such a thing as taking a photo of carpet?  Let me tell you why.  There is nothing but green.  Beautiful, sage green with not little specks or bits or stuff cluttering that perfect view.  It needed to be recorded for future reference.  To know it happened, even if just once.

We all live much faster-paced lives than I ever remember when I was a child.  Back then it seemed that mothers were more likely to be at home for at least some part of the week and there was a high priority placed on homes being cared for.  It's not quite like that these days.  Not in my house anyway.  Life travels quite quickly and housework is relegated to a rather low priority.  In the scheme of getting to school/work on time and completing study tasks and assignments we're lucky we eat regularly.  The kids seem to think that's a fairly high priority though.

Over the school holidays (which it is for this week and next) I try and do at least one thing that tells people me we do love our home.  Yesterday it was my bedroom that got the sprucing up.  Papers were sorted, clutter was put away and a little bit of rearranging occurred.  Baseboards were cleaned and window sills dusted.  And after it all the carpet was vacuumed more thoroughly than I think the carpet can ever remember.  Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all that bad.  But there were little piles of stuff here and there that were gathering momentum.  Now I walk in there and just want to revel in the beauty of clutter-free space.

Because my bedroom now looks so satisfyingly clean I'm thinking I might need to re-investigate Fly Lady.  The question is: can I cope with the overwhelming number of emails she will send me if I signed up?

What have you been cleaning this week?

Exciting Discovery for Recipe Organisation - MS OneNote!

Do you have a whole ton of recipes floating about your house here and there?  I sure do.  Twenty-two years of marriage in which you are the chef will do that to a person.  If you're anything like me keeping all those recipes in such a way that they're easily accessible is quite a challenge.  I have clipped magazine recipes in display folders.  I have a desktop file-tray draw dedicated to things I print from online sources.  I have a little A5 binder where I keep recipes I've typed over the years.  And of course there's all the beautiful recipes books I've collected.  Surprisingly I know exactly where to put my hands on whatever it is I need, yet that does not reduce the number of folders and piles and collections I seem to have.  I haven't even mentioned the pile of magazines gathering dust in a basket!

The other day I wondered if there was some kind of template I could use to start recording all our favourite recipes on the computer.  Did you know that there is a whole program that has a recipe template already in it all set up and ready to go?  Neither did I.  The answer is Microsoft OneNote.  I happen to already have this on my computer.  It came with the Academic suite of Microsoft programs I bought 18 months ago - you may well have it and not know about it either.

The template is super easy to use.  You just click on the tab, click on the spot to add a new page and off you go.  You can add tabs, you can rearrange the recipes in alphabetical order (a special treat for obsessive people like me) and there are already a handful of recipes in there!

So, here is something I want to do throughout the year:  add my family recipes to my OneNote Recipe Book.  What I especially wanted to be able to do was to add a short narrative about the recipe and what makes it special to us, or where it came from...like my Granny's pavlova recipe or Dh's favourite dip and the way it has evolved to what I make today.  Those stories tell something about us as a family and it is a heritage I want to be able to pass on to my children.

How do you store your recipe collection?

Images from: blogs.office.com