DUH! Domestic skills?

[Kay/NC]

Yesterday morning, my lack of domestic skills caught up with me. Went to flip,laundry into the dryer at Jenna's, only to find the clothes in the washer bone dry and my POD perched pn top. I knew I had started the load, since we had both heard it running while we got ready for bed.

Scratched my head and started it again, but no water ran in. Fiddled with the water level knob, and tried again, but still no H2O. As I was about to give up, I finally remembered that I had to run the spin and drain cycle, to wring out a heavy work jacket of Mike's in the last load I had tun there. DUH!

I rarely change the cycle length or temp on either washer, since this is what happens when I do. Winn can wreak havoc, now that he has learned to push buttons and his fingers are strong enough to mash them in, and can change the setting on the dryer. Air fluff doesn't do much for soaking wet bib overalls.

I guess I will never be a Domestic Goddess. My sewing and cooking skills are back in action, since I've dusted off the Singer and made a few curtains for Jenna's house, and do all,the cooking when we are there. Neither one will win any Better Homes and Gardens awards or blue ribbons at the fair.


I just feel pretty close to frustration level with housekeeping...it is a very complex job, isn't it? What few skills I have are pretty much self- taught, and it is mostly by trial and MUCH error.

Do you feel you have a good set of domestic skills, or not? What is your strength, and which would you really like to improve upon?

[linda/IL]

Organization & decluttering for sure.  Cooking skills are good as long as I don't do too much multi tasking.  Wish I could get back to sewing but this hand- - - .  More on that later this week.

Cleaning.  While my house is fairly clean (depending on what day you come) it in no way compares to my mom's or my cousins'.  Both sides of my family are very clean.  I always am amazed at how any of their homes are clutter free and clean.    They wash their woodwork on a timely basis and move furniture out to vacuum almost every week.  My mom, almost 93, who is fighting arthritis & walking with a cane a lot now, HAS to have her bedding changed weekly to the day and vacuuming, etc. done.  I'll not go into my schedule for these things. 

I did have a great aunt who told me she slept on one side of the bed one week then on the other for another week so she didn't have to change sheets only bi weekly.  LOL  She was the black sheep of the family.

[turkey feather]

Same here, decluttering.  I just cannot get hung up on a picuture perfect clean house but it would be nice. I am much more of a well-rounded person with many interests. I learned a long time ago that one woman cannot do it all.  I can get things in shape pretty fast when I know guests are coming.

Now here I sit in a wheel chair for the next few weeks looking at everything that needs doing after being gone since Feb 8 until March 13 except for three days between vacation and accident.

[Kay/NC]

When you talk with your attorney, ask about hiring a housekeeper, at least during your wheelchair order, maybe longer, until your doctor releases you to do normal housework.

[Kay/NC]

I like your great aunt!

[Ruby Lou]

My housekeeping skills lack alot too!  The other day we went to my DD's and I guess I didn't teach her anything.  I guess I will have to go there myself someday and clean. (always easier to clean someone else's house)  Maybe leave her a list of those things that need done before she has company!  Needless to say, I went home and decided to do some cleaning.  Guess she probably comes to my house and thinks I don't do anything either.  When I get in those moods, I think I am going to hire a housekeeper to come in once a month.  I don't ever jump over the hump to get there though.  I bought a little "shark" vacuum that is a hand held thingy that I can use on my carpeted stairs.  I tried it last night and think I need ear plugs...it screams!  I did use it to clean out some kitchen drawers too.  I was looking for a gasket for my new blender but didn't find it.  Thinking I am missing my canister vacuum of the old days.  With our dogs running in and out of the house, the dust is terrible. 

[linda/IL]

I know our farm & also the age of this old house makes a difference.  But DH's cousin lives up the road & farms & has some livestock but his mom trained him to wash his boots outside and always come in from the basement.  While we come into the outside basement entry, there are snack stops & questions asked via the back porch/kitchen entry.  Makes a difference. 

I like our baseboard hot water heat during the winter (no central air in the summer-bah) it's so even but those little metal pieces inside the register are sharp & dust collecters.  Should be cleaned often rather than the rarely that I do. 

My one cousin who's house ALWAYS looks immaculate does cook/bake & cleans up immediately.  But they live in the basement TV/sewing room/computer room and the washer/dryer is there also.  Personally I'd rather sit in her LR upstairs than be in the basement even though it's comfortable. 

[Kay/NC]

I wonder if it is just so much easier to keep a house that no one is in most of the time, because they are all working away/ in school, etc., all day. At least neither of ours gets worse while we are gone to the other one. Both of them are acceptable, but the Carolina one gets hit by Hurricane Winn 3-5 days a week, every week.

I rushed through vacuuming that one when we got home yesterday, since he was coming this morning. Left Jenna's house with everything done except vacuuming our path through the two rooms we walk through when we arrive and leave. It had been raining, so some stuff stuck to our shoes, even when we wiped them at the front door.

The floors there are old pine with area rugs, and they have darker backgrounds, so everything shows where there is no design. I wish I had taken the extra five minutes to run over them and be done yesterday, so nothing was left hanging.

I told Mike yesterday morning that I could see the tiny bits of trash that make it into the backdoor, from our yardwork and his woodcutting, making it one step further each day, until I got the broom and Animal ready. It was visually like something was sneaking in on a time lapse, or a rash was spreading.

I try now to go through a mental checklist at each home, before we leave for the other one. It frees my mind to have nothing nagging me at one end of the drive, over what is undone at the other end. It feels so good to walk into a neater house.

I am not allowing any business at Jenna's, so the Paper Plague is controlled. Getting a lot more thorough at tossing stuff in Carolina, but my dinng room table looks like a landfill today. In my defense, Winn and I took a long parts run while he napped this mornng, so I was lucky to get a pot of soup done for lunch.

Just amazes me that I can structure and write a job description for an employee, deal with all of our complex contract and regulatory issues, keep all our accounts up to date, but struggle to run a household. It is the hardest job I have ever had to do....