Twenty-Six Minutes – and a Mystery!

Twenty-Six Minutes – and a Mystery!

Taking Care of My Home

This morning I stripped the bed and put the sheets, pillow cases and mattress cover into the washing machine. After the morning dog walk, I put everything into the dryer. At this point, I realized I may have a small problem…

Fast forward to this afternoon, the clean bedding was waiting for me on the stripped bed. So, I decided to time myself. How fast to remake the bed, pick up the bedroom, pick up the two upstairs bathrooms and vacuum the carpets?

Answer – twenty six minutes. That included putting away the clean clothes that were on the dresser. Putting away the clean clothes that I had hung to dry in the spare bedroom. Finding a bunch of rice crispy cake wrappers beside the bed…? Sparkling the toilet. And putting away a couple CDs and the boombox that I had put in the bathroom as part of my spa-recovery from my day 2 of Good Fitness workout – oooie ouchie! (Those espom salts felt great!)

As well, I vacuumed the carpets throughout. I am always amazed by how much hair my dogs can shed in one week!

Just like that, the top part of my home is clean – enough!

As for the mystery… honestly, I had two matching pillowcases when I stripped the bed. But some time between stripping the bed and remaking the bed, I have lost my husband’s pillowcase (my identical pillowcase was still there…). I searched from upstairs to downstairs. I double checked the washing machine and the dryer (where I first suspected I was missing one). I figured I’d find it stuck to the sheets or the mattress cover when I made the bed, but that was not the case.

It truly is a mystery!

And… until it’s solved, my husband has a “new” pillow case :).

Cheers,

Cindy

PS: That “new” pillowcase? It’s 30-years old, belonged to my oldest daughter. I just don’t have to heart to get rid of it yet.

Under the Bathroom Sink – yikes!

Under the Bathroom Sink – yikes!

Taking Care of My Home

I recently went through a period of what happens if something happens to me? My thoughts kept going to “Who was going to have to deal with my stuff?” 

And I don’t know but I was most concerned about the cabinet under the bathroom off our main bedroom. I’m in there almost every other day – to reach for my hair dryer and hair straightener which I keep at one end of the cabinet. At the other end are the rolls of spare toilet paper. In between is this huge pile of chaos that has been accumulating for years!

I can’t explain the morbid thoughts I was having about my kids having to mess with my personal stuff (maybe a symptom of turning 60?), but for my peace of mind, it was finally time to take the time and deal with the mess.

I’m still giggling. Would you believe six – count them – six tubes of toothpaste! Eight containers of dental floss. And nine brand new manual toothbrushes. I use an electric toothbrush – oh – and I found three replacement brushes for that too! And I think I have enough razers to shave my legs for the rest of my life! Sheesk! 

I knew I had a lot of stuff under there, but I was unprepared for just how many things I was able to stash in that one cabinet! 

Apparently, I have a band-aid fetish.  How else can I explain the several hundred band-aids that were spread all over? And I own five curling irons (plus the hair straightener I use) and three hairdryers. And five various styles of hairbrushes (which probably match the five various hairstyles I’ve rocked over the previous five decades…). Of course, I found a few Covid leftovers in the form of facemasks and small bottles of hand sanitizers. Finally, I ended up with a large bag of pads and tampons, leftover from “those” days (that I don’t miss at all!). 

Absolutely everything got hauled out, sorted, tossed, and donated where possible. Then the entire cabinet got a really good vacuum and washout with hot soapy water. Long-haired dust bunnies were running all over the place!

Once dry, I restocked. Grin LOL. 

I kept the one hairdryer and hair straightener. I put a spare hairdryer and curling iron in the guest bathroom, and donated the rest. I kept the box of hair color I still love to use. And the really soft tissues for when a nasty cold hits. I went through the shampoos and conditioners. The really old and crunchy stuff got tossed. My husband volunteered to take on the ones I don’t like anymore (he’s such a martyr LOL). Seriously though, I’m the picky one. As for the rest, they are on board for getting used up next – one bottle at a time.

Three bottles of eyeglass cleaner (sigh….). They got staged throughout the house. One in the main bathroom, one in the downstairs office, and I brought the third to work (I can’t stand smeary glasses!). 

I sorted through all the first aid supplies. The stuff that expired in 2017 got tossed. The band-aids have been reconciled into ONE container. I found the thermometer. And I found my old first aid book. I also found my new first aid book. I donated the old one. Now there is one SMALL bin that holds anything I might need for an emergency or a paper cut (or a few hundred paper cuts). 

As for all the toothpaste, toothbrushes, floss, hand sanitizer and razers, they have been organized into one larger bin. Did I mention three tubes of deodorant? I can stay out of the person care section of the store for years! 

Finally, at the other end of the cabinet (the most important end according to my husband), a package of toilet paper. 

I open the door and nothing falls out. I can see everything. I can find everything. And it makes me smile. I’m happy that I won’t be wasting any more money on yet another expensive package of razers, and I know that if anyone but myself has to deal with this cabinet, it will be easy-peasy.

Cheers from a well-stocked bathroom!

Cindy