Clean Freak

 It's Friday!  Time to prepare for your weekend!

First, lets do the check list for Friday:

 1. Write menu for the next week to prepare for shopping.

 2. Write grocery list and any other items you must buy at a store.



3.  Print out bank statements and update budget.

4.  It's the last business day of the month.  Do you have month end bills to pay?  Time to do that too.

5.  Plan when you will do tasks for the weekend including wash/clean out car, groceries, laundry, housework.  (yeah, for those of us who work full time and run a business on the side, most of these activities have to be done on a weekend.  Some of you are able to do this during the week and keep your weekends free.  In our house, it just isn't working that way right now.)

And besides that I just thought I'd share some musings on cleaning and tidying.

Are you a Clean Freak?  

 I mean really?  Think about it?  It's a very interesting subject and I am guilty of doing a lot of google searches on being a neat freak or a clean freak.

I am not. (a clean freak)

I wish I was to the healthy extent, but not in the OCD way that you find in so many articles.  I don't think anyone really wants to be so obsessive that they loose much needed sleep on a week night when they have to work in the morning, because they got upset about the pantry or a drawer and stayed up to the wee hours making it perfect.  That is a an effort to control things on the outside to make yourself feel calm on the inside.

I think the balance is in the truth that, making your life organized and orderly DOES in fact bring inner peace and it really does free you up to do the things you value, but it can become unbalanced if you let it become obsessive and then it's controlling you.

I think those of us who struggle to be orderly and tidy can learn great lessons by studying the ways of the super neat.  Such as:

1. They are highly visual people.  So much of what they do is a result of what they see in their world around them.  It comes from them saying "When I see the paper on the floor, I go pick it up."  "When I see the garbage can is full, I empty it and put a new bag in place"   or "When I see the tuft of cat hair on the carpet, I don't wait until the next time to vacuum, I just bend over and pick it up".

You see, the very orderly people in our lives have developed a habit of responding to the things they see around them.  The naturally messy types would see the cat hair and inwardly say "It's time to vacuum.  Now I have to vacuum this room.  It will have to wait until it's time to vacuum, I can't do it right now."   We can sabatoge our own efforts to get things in order by viewing things we see as large tasks to do, when a small task such as bending over to pick up the hair might suffice for now.

2. They allow time to organize and clean.  Have you ever invited someone out on a Friday night, or offered to hang out for a while after work and they just said something like "Thanks, but I'll pass, I have some things I want to get done at home and if I stay and visit, I won't accomplish what I need to."  I have had exactly that experience.  The clean types of people don't even realize sometimes that they mentally plan times when they will get certain things done.

3. Self Respect.  I know a few naturally clean people and it's part of their inner values.  They value being a good steward of the resources given to them by God.  Did God bless them with a house? a job? Clothes, books, media items, etc?  The clean types want to take care of what they own and make it nice for themselves and their family.  It is a healthy measure of self respect.

I fall in the middle.  I am hopelessly average.  I am not a slob, but I am not really a clean freak either.  I have some quirks.  I get very fussy over my linen closet being straightened "just so", and I am the type that can't leave a picture crooked.   I go to my friends house and start polishing their kitchen tap because I hate the soap splashes.  (Okay, maybe that soap splash thing is a bit OCD.  LOL!) 

 But I am guilty of continually fighting the stacks on my desk.  I am still getting my "in flow, out flow" of our home desk where it needs to be.  I get busy and distracted and I can fall away from our daily routines and next thing you know, the desk is a mess and someone forgot to sweep the floor, or the laundry is forgotten, and sometimes (GASP!) I even go to bed with the kitchen left in a mess!  

( I know, the kitchen one is beyond terrible and just shouldn't happen, but when you work a day job, and a business part-time, and try to keep up with family and friends, sometimes the routines slip and fatigue takes over. The punishment for that choice is there in full when your messy kitchen greets you first thing in the morning and you have to clean it before you can even start your day.)

It is a passion and life-long goal of mine to re-write these parts of my character into a person who values being organized enough to get things done. A person who won't let fatigue cause her to leave a mess where cleanliness and peacefulness should be.   I don't want to become an uptight, inflexible person, and I NEVER want to bully my family around about the housework.  I NEVER want to be remembered as the nagging Mom and Wife.  That's not worth it.

I find that when I think of myself as the person I idealize myself to be, I get more done.  If you tell yourself  "I'm a tidy person.  I don't leave my workspace a mess, and I leave the staff lunchroom spotless after I use it.", you will find yourself doing those very behaviours.

If you tell yourself "I am a clean, tidy, organized person.  I wouldn't go to bed with my clothes dumped on the floor, or I wouldn't go to bed without straightening up the house first." you just might find yourself doing more of those things.  

This is true because when there is things we would not want to be known for, we somehow shift our priorities and make it happen.  Such as looking good before you leave the house.   If you are a female reader, I am sure you can relate to a healthy sense of female pride that you don't want to go to the store in messy, stained clothes, no make-up and wild hair!  LOL!  Somehow, you just find clean clothes, a hair brush, toothpaste and all those things before going out.  It is the same with becoming a clean, tidy, organized person.  If you get on the positive side of things and tell yourself you value those things, I think you will find you get more accomplished than if you had not. 

So, as you go into your weekend, plan a few things that you want to see happen, and then affirm yourself on a job well done when you realize some of those goals.

If you are really overwhelmed and just starting out, try a website such as:

http://flylady.net/

or http://www.messies.com/

These sorts of websites have great step by step processes to help you get some wins.

We have a dinner to host on Saturday, so tonight is shopping and cleaning!

Have a fantastic weekend, and thanks for reading.

Cassie

Organized Make Up Box

Today is a link party and a small feature on my make-up organization.

I have cleaned up my make up box.  It was time, because I dropped my box and some powders broke and flew all over the box.  I used this opportunity to clean out the old make-up, thoroughly wash the box and put everything back into place nicely.

I use a make-up box instead of a case because I can line up all my cosmetics in a neat little row.
I also tote my make-up around with me if I am running late in the morning, so a portable style make-up box is important for me.

As you can see, when the box is closed up, I place on top of the stack, the portable moisture lotion, tweezers and the wrapped up item is my eyeliner sharpener.  Even with the plastic lid, shavings still fall out of the opening where you put the pencil, so I just wrap it up to keep all shavings AWAY FROM THE REST OF MY MAKE-UP CASE.  (Can you tell this really bugs me?  LOL!)

Contents of my make up case:

1. Pressed powder
2: Eye Liner
3. Mascara
4. Blush
5. Eyeshadow
6. Concealer (rarely use this)
7. Blush brush and eyeshadow brush
8. Lip liner
9. Lip gloss
10. Small moisture lotion
11. Pencil sharpener
12. Tweezers
13. Small bottle of perfume.

Here is some of my new fav's now.

As you can see, I like a soft, natural palate. 

What does your make-up case look like?

What are the essentials to you?  I'd love to hear about your beauty routines or what you carry in your make-up case.

Post your comments below, or link your blog below.

I'm Linked up here: 

Make your own Disenfectant Spray

Today I am going to show you how easy and inexpensive it is to make your own disenfectant spray.

The primary use of this is for kitchen counters and sinks in my house, but I often grab a j-cloth and wander into the bathrooms at night and spray down the sinks and give the toilets a quick wipe too.

The beauty of this homemade spray is that its just water with bleach and soap.  It is completely food safe.  When washing dishes by hand, the health departments recommends a wash in hot soapy water, a primary rinse in a bleach and water solution and a secondary rinse in plain hot water.
I have also read that bleach when left to air dry basically breaks down into a salt.  This is why this solution is so very safe to use on your kitchen preparation surfaces.

Supplies:

You will need a spray bottle (Dollar Store), water, common household bleach and some liquid dish soap.
**Note: since this solution contains bleach, it can stain your clothes with bleach spots.  Use your disinfectant spray with caution.**
(I apologize some of these pictures turned out blurry.  Due to the quick pace of life in September I did not have time to re-do the photos)

First Add 1-2 Tablespoons of bleach to the bottle.  I like it close to 2 TBS, but if you find that too strong you can just add 1.

Your bottle should be about this full: 

Next add 1 tsp of liquid dish detergent.  Any brand will do.

Now that you have the bleach and soap in there, add water the rest of the way until the bottle is full.

 

Once you have filled the bottle, the soap will have foamed up a bit at the top like this.  It's ok, it will settle down.

Put the spray nozzle back in place and Voila!  You have a nice spray bottle of disinfectant spray you can use to make your counter tops clean as possible for each use.

Remember, you can get a separate cloth and use this same solution as part of your evening routine to wipe down your bathrooms between the regular cleanings.

Happy Cleaning,

Cassie

Canadian Thanksgiving Planning

Good Morning all my friends in the blog world.  I am mostly recovered from this head cold, and now my daughter has the cold.  I fear I am being re-infected because my sinuses are filling again.  Oh no!

My weekend was spent working and also making a messenger bag for my daughter to carry her school books in.  It is now more than half done.  I has been a very big project, and I hope within a week I am going to have a TOTALLY AWESOME blog entry for you all about the creation of this school bag.  For now you'll have to wait.  I know the suspense is just too much.  LOL!

Today my heart and mind is turned towards family plans for Thanksgiving.

 In Canada we celebrate Thanksgiving in October.  It is usually near the second wekend of October.  This year it seems like it falls early in the calendar, and I think it's just the way the days occur on the calendar.  This year Thanksgiving is on Monday October 8th.   That is now 14 days away.  This time will pass quickly.

I have been trying to connect with family for dates to get together over the last week and I am just getting my answers now.  My side of the family is going to Quebec to see my brother (My Mom and sister, not me and hubby and kids), so this year we have Thanksgiving just at my husband's side of the family.  Nice and easy schedule. :-)

If you have not yet started plannning your Thanksgiving menu and coordinating dates with family, and you live in Canada, it's time to get on this.

Organized Thanksgiving:

1. Select dates you will meet with various family and/or friends.  Get those dates onto your calendar asap!.

2. Coordinate who will participate in the food preparation.  Do you all bring some?  Does one person tend to make most of it at their house because they are hosting?

3. Write a menu.  This includes all the classic fixings:
- Turkey
- Stuffing
- Gravy - we insist on homemade and LOTS of it.
- Cranberries
- Potatoes (scalloped, or mashed, or oven roasted)
- Rice - sometimes we include rice too, but not always.
- Butternut Squash (in our house anyways)
- Vegetable or 2 more (yup, lots of veggies, it's a feast!) 
- Salad
- Buns
- Dessert.  Dessert MUST include a homemade pumpkin pie with homemade whipped cream and some vanilla ice cream on the side.  An apple pie as well or an apple crumble (a.k.a. apple brown betty) is usually around too.  At Grandma's house there is always Hello Dolly squares, Date Squares, cheese and crackers, etc.

4. Order a turkey if using a butcher. If not using a butcher, these will pop up in the freezer and cooler sections of all grocery stores starting about now.  Shop early and get the size bird you want for the price you want.  If you leave it, you get stuck with an over-sized  bird or an under-sized bird.

Do you see why North American's are renowned for napping after their turkey dinner?  LOL!  One small scoop of everything and you still have a very full plate.  The beauty of this is that you have lots of leftovers that you put into lunches for the next day or two, or you work some of those ingredients back into your family dinner, and this saves your work for the next few days in the kitchen.

The end result is a family and extended family that feels nurtured and cared for and was able to enjoy good family times together and build memories to cherish.  Ours usually includes a walk at the park.  Sometimes we collect fall leaves and decorate the dinner table with them.  Nice and rustic feeling.

Next week we will review the shopping and plan ahead  cooking for the menu.  What can be done ahead, and what needs to wait.

One last thing, as the long weekend approaches, if you have a family, you will want to plan when you can complete your weekly cleaning and shopping routines to keep yourself on track.  You can't very well send the family into the next week without the laundry caught up and lunch supplies in the house, though some of that will come from leftover turkey!  YAY!

 Sometimes it's OK to back off your routines a bit because life was busy, but you still need to plan for the parts you consider to be absolutely essential, and when you plan to squeeze those into the weekend.

Happy Planning and Happy Monday,

Cassie