Time out

I'm taking a bit of time out to attend to 'Life, the Universe and Everything'. I shall be reading all my favourite blogs regularly and will drop by occasionally for a post or two. Thank you for all your comments and for just 'being there'.

xx

On my needles and hook

I've started knitting squares from spare yarn. Here's a 20cm square and a 10cm square. The 10cm was way more satisfying to knit. A colleague at the CS wanted to get back into knitting again so we decided to knit squares for Charity projects. This one being for a pets' charity that needs blankets for the animals. We know that our hard work will be going to a good cause and we may recruit more knitters and crocheters along the way. My task was to sort out the pattern - number of stitches and size of needle and then to sew or crochet the squares together. Hope the project blossoms.

This next pic is of my blanket in progress. The ripple blanket is so satisfying to crochet and I'm using up my DK stash. It will take me some time to finish but I'm in no rush.

I've also been crocheting 'scrubbies' which are for washing up. They are crocheted from yarn that is actually strips of netting. The scrubbies don't work as well as ordinary scourers but look quite good around the sink. I'll post pics another time.

I've been thinking of names to call our knit and crochet for animal charities group and have come up with Knitty Nutters and Crochet Hookers. Any other names would be appreciated as we would like to recruit others to help us in our quest.

xx

Cleaning Routine for the week

To the tune of *'Today's Monday' with a little bit of Elvis thrown in.

Today's Monday, today's Monday.

Monday's Back Room Day.

Wash or iron maybe,

Thorough clean one spot.

DEEP CLEAN!

Today's Tuesday, today's Tuesday.

Tuesday's lounge or dine

Monday's Back Room Day.

Wash or iron maybe,

Thorough clean one spot.

DEEP CLEAN!

Today's Wednesday, today's Wednesday.

Wednesday's Hall and Stairs,

Tuesday's Lounge or Dine,

Monday's Back Room

Wash or iron maybe,

Thorough clean one spot.

DEEP CLEAN!

Today's Thursday, today's Thursday.

Thursday's Bedroom

Wednesday's Hall and Stairs,

Tuesday's Lounge or Dine,

Monday's Back Room

Wash or iron maybe,

Thorough clean one spot.

DEEP CLEAN!

Today's Friday, today's Friday.

Friday's Bathroom

Thursday's Bedroom

Wednesday's Hall and Stairs,

Tuesday's Lounge or Dine,

Monday's Back Room

Wash or iron maybe,

Thorough clean one spot.

DEEP CLEAN!

Today's Saturday, today's Saturday.

Saturday's FMH, (fridge, microwave, hob)

Friday's Bathroom

Thursday's Bedroom

Wednesday's Hall and Stairs,

Tuesday's Lounge or Dine,

Monday's Back Room

Wash or iron maybe,

Thorough clean one spot.

DEEP CLEAN!

Today's Sunday, today's Sunday.

Sunday's Day of Rest,

Saturday's FMH,

Friday's Bathroom

Thursday's Bedroom

Wednesday's Hall and Stairs,

Tuesday's Lounge or Dine,

Monday's Back Room

NO wash or ironing

Today's a Day of Rest.

xx

* Can't find my version of the song on the Internet but these are the words. We used to sing this song at guides.

Today's Monday, today's Monday.
Monday is washing day.
Is everybody happy?
You bet your life we are.


Tuesday is soup 
Wednesday is roast beef
Thursday is shepherds pie
Friday is fish
Saturday is pay day
Sunday is church

Cleaning Routine - Thursday, Friday

Thursday - Bedroom

Whoops, this should have been posted yesterday.

Any bedroom will do on a Thursday. The whole room will be tidied and vacuumed (including the edges) and one part focussed on for a more thorough clean - skirting boards, architraves, windows, wardrobes, bed. Bedding washing is for Saturdays.

Friday - Bathroom

And this is for today.

Friday's cleaning is done with the bathroom tidied. My focus today was the woodwork - architraves, skirting boards, picture rail, dado and windows. The light fittings were dusted with my tickling stick. They are a flat boat shape and when we decorated the fittings were cleaned very thoroughly. I don't want them to get so dirty again so a flick of the tickling stick every week should help.

The picture rail runs all the way round and that was dusted then wiped.

Had to get down low to go under the sink unit.

Well that's it for the week. Everything ship shape. I went swimming yesterday and today is my turn at the CS playing shop. Might even find some good bargains while I'm at it.

xx

PS For those who don't know fish pie is cooked fish in a white sauce topped with mashed potato and crisped up in the oven for about 20 minutes.

xx

Cleaning Routine - Wednesday

Wednesday - Hall and Stairs

Time to hoover two flights of stairs and I generally hoover the bathroom and bedrooms while I have the hoover out. The extra bit today was dusting the architraves and skirting boards. Other weeks I will clean the bannisters or door handles. I do have a small vacuum for vacuuming the stairs but I usually lug the large vac with the extension thingummy as it saves me winding up the leads of 2 vacuums.

As well as cleaning one loo thoroughly that was it. The rest was tripping the light fantastic at the Tower and making fish pie for tea!

xx

Cleaning Routine - Tuesday

Tuesday - Lounge or Dining Room

The lounge is only used in the evening so does not get in disarray very often as supper things are cleared away in the evening before bed as well as cushions and throws straightened. Tuesdays are for the more thorough clean. Today I will concentrate on dusting the fireplace, furniture and picture rails in both rooms. The carpets will be vacuumed. That's it - it won't take long as swimming and lunch out is on the agenda for today.

xx

PS - in answer to BBBJ the answer is, "Yes, I do do other things apart from cleaning and my cleaning routine may appear to be obsessive but with this framework I can do as little or as much as I want each day and know that all areas will have been covered with minimal effort and I've 'kept on top of things'."

The very act of living in a house creates disorder involving clutter, dirt and dust. Items are brought in, things moved around, clothes changed. Order and cleanliness doesn't last very long when activity and creativity are present. Illness, of which our family has had more than its fair share, doesn't help on the house maintenance front. Yes, when I can I will put my cleaning routine into action, not to be obsessive but to be happy in the knowledge that the house is in good working order so that we can pursue and enjoy all our hobbies and family life.

xx

Cleaning Routine - Monday

Monday - Back Room

As well as the daily routine tidy I focus on our Back Room for a more thorough clean on Mondays.  Everything is 'put in its place'



and then today I cleaned the paintwork - skirting boards, window and door frames.



This involves some scrabbling around on the floor to get to areas under the dresser and sideboard. The gaps in between the radiator and the wall are dusted with my trusty 'not feather' dusted which fits brilliantly into the tiny area and helps prevent a build up of dust and detritus.

(Perhaps I should call it my 'tickling stick'.  RIP Ken Dodd.)

This same duster can also do picture rails and high up places easily.

Other spots to thoroughly clean are the windows, of which there a are quite a few in this room, the dresser (waxed every blue moon), the floor and the lights. These spots will be tackled on future Mondays.

Everyday the loos get a quick wipe but each week they have a really good clean up and under the rim and all that. Monday, Wednesday and Friday are set aside for this - 3 loos, one day each.

That was enough for today because we were taken out for a belated Mother's Day lunch with DD.
Full now,

xx

Cleaning Routine - Sunday

Sunday is my day of rest and there's only one thing to be done apart from my normal daily routine and that is polishing the brass.

I can manage to add pics that I've already posted
but no new ones. Strange.

Grandma used to do the brass every week when she was alive so I feel obliged to carry on doing so. Plus the front door is more welcoming with the brass 'done'. If it is fine weather I also wipe any road dust from the door, door surround and window frames just to add to the sparkle.

xx

Edited later - I've managed to upload some pics to yesterday's post via a roundabout way by copying them to my desktop and uploading from there. Blogger does not want to know about my Photos application.

Cleaning Routine - Saturday

Phase 1 of the decorating is now complete and there should be no more decorating mess for the foreseeable future. Now my Cleaning Routine can get back to normal. 

Everyday I make sure that the kitchen floor is swept and mopped, cat tray sorted, kitchen surfaces cleaned, washing loads are done (if needed) and ironing is done (if needed).

Saturday

Make sure everything is in its proper place. (Everything must have a home or a 'put down' place.)

Clean - the fridge, the microwave and the hob.

That's it for Saturday - no deep cleaning on the weekends.

Today I also did the finishing touches to the understairs loo - hoovering the newly laid carpet, cleaning the door, dusting the shelves and adding finishing touches such as loo rolls in the cupboard and ornaments on the shelves. The hall was hoovered and the remnants of carpet put in the bin.

xx

PS Having trouble uploading photos at the moment. Will do so as soon as I've figured it out. Have upgraded to High Sierra and some things don't work! Hey ho!

Edited 11/3/18 - Managed to put the pics on via a roundabout way. :)