Saturday, December 29, 2012

A Days Work

Fantastic weather here today, for getting things done. Low 20's and overcast. Happy me!

The Boys (hubby, Nj & Timothy) are digging in the garden to help get the last of our seedlings in. We're waaay behind as gardening plans fell apart a month or so ago. We've been harvesting tomatoes as of this week and still have silverbeet and spinach on the go from winter. Zucchini have been in a couple of weeks and an additional 6 tomato plants went in about the same time - they were about 30cm high already when they went in. Today we'll be adding lettuce, capsicum, pumpkin (take 2!), parsley (take 2 too), spring onions, basil... and... ah yes, cucumbers.

Melinda and I are busy in the kitchen (I'm having a quick cuppa break while I'm typing). She's currently pulling all the meat of a roast chicken and will then turn it into chicken and corn soup. I've done the dishes, am getting pasta whipped up for lunch and am about to create a mango satay chicken recipe to go in the crockpot for tonight's dinner.

Other kitchen plans for today include making up a couple of Tuna Bakes for the fridge, straining and freezing lamb broth, sorting the fridges to make the menu plan for the next few days. And of course, a few more loads of dishes!

Once the digging is done, I'll go help with the planting of the seedlings and then hubby and I will spend the remainder of the afternoon using the motorised trimmer on all the path edges. Kids will be cleaning out the chook house and freshening the nesting boxes with more hay.

If I've time this evening, I'm going to try and catch up on blog reading from the last month or so. If not tonight, tomorrow arvo :-)

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Saturday, December 1, 2012

Works every time!

Sometime back, I posted on my personal FB page a rhetorical question about why when you are gone all day, the house looks like a bomb has hit it when you return. It turns out I'm not the only one to experience this and others were keen to know the answer if I ever found out. It was one of those questions we never expected to have an answer to.

But I have found the answer!

and it works every time :o)

and yeah, I was probably 'over thinking' to come to this point but hey, now that the problem has been solved, maybe it's not 'over thinking', any more???

I'll give you my 'over thinking' process first - much of this happens when I'm washing dishes. I do a LOT of dishes.

-This chaos when we come home from a holiday, doesn't happen. We walk into a spotless house and even when we unload the car, there's not that much craziness.
-When we're gone all day, lots of prep is done for the going out. Packing lunch boxes, nappy bags, shopping lists, things to be returned to another family, fuel in the car, pump up the tyres, wash the fruit, feed the animals... and so on.
-Because of this, much of the usual stuff doesn't get done.
-Neither does the 'when we come home we need....' stuff get done.
-Result... we come back to a house with important stuff not done and unload a car load of stuff into a house that's not ready for it and it takes a couple of days to catch up and recover.

The solution?

Make the 'Margin' bigger.
Get ready to go out for the day, earlier.

Yup, that's it.

Now, when we're to be gone for the day... we spend the day before preparing.

Here's the list of key things to get done THE DAY BEFORE
-Clean the bathroom and toilet
-Clean the kitchen and benches to spotless
-Empty all bins and replace liners
-Prepare a meal to come home to
-Prepare a breakfast for the day you're out... that won't need many dishes. I like zucchini slice. Can be served in napkin and if needed, in the car as we go.
-Have all clothes-washing, washed and drying (or dry, folded and away if you can pull that off!)
-Dining table cleared and wiped down
-As much surface stuff AWAY... as though someone else will be using your house while you're gone. I like to grab a box or basket and gather up all those little things that are in the wrong place. Sort them into the rooms they need to go to, on my now sparkling dining table. Then get the team together and get it put away!
-Floors swept / vacuumed
-Pack anything you can that needs to go with you

Bonus points if you get the next days clothes out for everyone so that there's no "I can't find...s" on the day you'll be gone!

Then on the day you're out... you only have to do the last minute things... make beds, feed animals, get dressed and GO!

Problem solved.

and yes, you CAN do it.

and the more people in your house, the more important it is that you do, do it.

Unless you want growing chaos on your return, of course :o)




(okay, in finding that link above, I've just realised I have a whole bunch of organising posts that never got 'published' so keep an eye out for those!)

... and if you want to keep up with our every day happenings, 'Like' the House of Bogwitz Facebook page.