"mom...I'm bored"...sigh

Say it with me, "Go clean your room." 

And so last weekend, on a rainy Saturday, when I realized I was indeed bored, I cleaned my room.  It started out innocently enough.  Just put away the laundry from Friday.  But as so often happens, once you get to puttin' away, it's kinda hard to stop.

This past winter, I gave a talk at a MOPS meeting about homemaking shortcuts.  One of my faves, and best received tip was... to sleep like Europeans.  (It might have been a fave, cause of my props.  I brought a blow up bed, complete with blow up headboard.  Unfortunately, I didn't bring a camera. )

The tip?  Do away with top sheets and utilize the duvet cover as your sheet.  (like they do in Europe)  I knew I was going to meet with some pushback on that one.  Nobody likes to change a duvet cover.  But, I'm here to tell (type) you, a duvet cover can be changed by one person in less time than it takes to put on and tuck in a top sheet, and making the bed in the morning becomes simply a matter of pulling up the comforter.  PHWOOP, bed is made.  Literally.

How?  How is this possible? 

Back to cleaning my room.  The last thing I did in my room cleaning expedition was to change the bed.  I asked myself, "Self, since the room is no longer an embarrasing junk pile and the husband is home, why not have him photograph me changing the duvet cover?"

What follows is a duvet cover changing tutorial.  We timed it, and it took me two minutes, start to finish. 


Step one: Lay your duvet cover inside out on your comforter of choice.   (hint:  it always ends up inside out when you take it off the comforter.  Just leave it that way when you wash it.)

If your cover comes equipped with little ties in the corner, go ahead and tie them around the corners of the comforter.  It really does help to keep the comforter in place. 

Step two:  From the bottom, reach up inside the duvet cover and walk your hand up to the top corner...

...grab hold of the corner and duvet cover from inside the cover and pull the corner through.

Step three:  Repeat the process on the other side.

Step four:  pull the duvet cover straight down to the bottom on each side and stuff the lower corners of the comforter into the lower corners of the duvet cover.

(Those buttons to be buttoned outside in across the bottom..."fuggedaboudem".  One button, in the middle is all you need, especially if you have a footboard.)

Final step:  The big finish.  Flip and Fluff.  The "g" forces take care of the rest. 

And there you have it.  (probably should have taken a final picture of the bed all neatly made, but the hubs was knee deep in rebuilding my computer after a crash.  He had to go.) 

Couple of notes: 

I have two duvet covers made out of 100% cotton, with a 300 or more thread count.  (basically, made out of sheeting material, so they're comfy against the skin.)  I got them on sale, and paid roughly what I'd pay for a set of sheets. 

I buy plain white fitted sheets for the bed.  Don't have to worry about them clashing with my duvet covers : ) 

Final caveat - the first few times you try this, it'll be a little time consuming...but once you get the hang of it, two minutes or less.  Guaranteed.   (for me, it was the second or third time I tried it ...and believe me, I'm no mechanical genius.  Though I do have an incredible sense of direction.  I'll save that for another post.) 

Happy Homekeeping !!

I'm taking the shortcut !!

My daughter likes to take the "shortcut" to the kitchen.  From our front door, it's a straight shot to the back of the house, where the kitchen is.  Along that straightaway, to the left is the living room and dining room.  A couple of very small walls seperate the spaces.  The "shortcut" consists of my daughter running through the living room and dining room, then rejoining the straightaway into the kitchen.  She thinks it's a shortcut, because she always gets to the kitchen first.  What she hasn't figured out, is she gets to the kitchen first, because I'm a grown-up, and I don't run in the house.

When it comes to taking care of our house, myself, or really anything, I'm a huge fan of a shortcut.  As long as I don't have to run through the living room and dining room in order to make it work. 

One of my favorite shortcuts, is "cleaning in a can."  I'm a quasi environmentalist.  I do care about the planet, but I care more about my family.  It doesn't make sense to me to clean with chemicals if there is a solution that doesn't involve using them.  And if it actually works.  Cleaning in a can is simply, disinfecting wipes.  There are several "green" types available, and I've found they do work.

Don't want to scrub the bathroom?  Cleaning in a can.  One wipe for the counter and sink, one wipe for the seat and outside of toilet, one wipe for the floor around the toilet.  Squirt some cleaning goo in the toilet bowl (cleaning in a can does NOT work there)  Swish it around with the toilet brush....voila, bing boom.  Bathroom's clean. 

Or at least the half bath downstairs is clean.  Cleaning in a can doesn't break through soap scum in the shower.  I'm afraid I don't have a shortcut for soap scum, besides a stiff brush and a bit of elbow grease.  Cleaning in a can also doesn't clean the mirrors.  Don't try it.  Trust me.

For some insane reason, the builders of our sub-division thought it would be a great idea to put wall to wall mirrors in all the bathrooms.  I have no mirror less than 6 feet long and 4 feet high.  Really?  Who want's to see that much of themselves when they are stepping out of the shower?  But I can clean the mirrors to a lovely streak free shine in less than two minutes each.  How?  Vinegar and water and a really good squeegee.  The key is the squeegee.  Mine has a silicone blade.  4 parts water to 1 part vinegar.  Squirt some on the mirror, clean with a damp cloth, then squeegee.  Top to bottom, one fluid movement.  Then wipe the squeegee blade before starting the next pass.  Works like a charm.

Cleaning in a can also works great for quick wipe ups in the kitchen and the laundry room.  It took me awhile to warm up to the idea of tossing the wipes away.  Seems so wasteful.  I had originally bought them for "emergencies."  But after a couple of "emergency" cleanings - ie someone's coming over in an hour, I realized how great they were.  Not having to drag out the cleaning products, find cleaning rags that weren't crunchy cause I hadn't done a load of gross laundry for awhile, etc.   Then I thought about all the wipes I tossed away during the diaper years. We also repurpose, recycle and compost so much in our family of four that we only put out one small can of trash a week and it isn't always a full can.  Eight or ten wipes a week suddenly didn't seem like such a huge carbon footprint.  More of a toeprint  really.  Pinkie toeprint.