Cleaning Beyond the Basics Week 3: The Dishwasher Gasket

The repairman told me that you are supposed to periodically clean your dishwasher gasket to keep your machine running in top condition--that's the seal at the door opening. Who knew?

Ours is gross again.

 

 I scrub mine with baking soda, a scrubber, and a grout brush. Where does all this gunk come from, and how does it get stuck in the gasket?

I guess it gets built up after a few years... which is how long it's been since I last cleaned the thing. It was really bad...

After I used this towel as a drop cloth, I used it to wipe away all the slimy muck. There was a lot.

Time Investment: Less than 10 Minutes
Materials: Grout Brush, scrubber, baking soda, cleaning cloth
Payoff: Maybe? If the dishes aren't noticeably cleaner (we'll see) maybe it will prevent leaking or gasket wear or something?

No one will ever notice except me and the dishwasher repairman, but it's now clean!

So far I've washed a door, cleaned ice cream out of a utensil drawer, and cleaned my dishwasher gasket. Up next...

Cleaning Beyond the Basics Week 2: Utensil Drawer Vacuuming

Sometimes I open a utensil drawer in the kitchen and wonder... what happened here?

According to my Mom CSI skills, this scene is the result of opening the drawer to get the ice cream scoop, and scooping the ice cream over the open drawer... ? How is that even possible?

In any case, I needed to vacuum the crumbs out of the drawer. I guess it gets left open quite a bit despite having that wonderful whisper close mechanism. I'm the only one using it I guess.

And while I'm here I could remove the utensils that I NEVER use. And the ones the belong in another drawer.

Allowing kids to try things independently doesn't always work out the way it would if an adult had handled the task! But it's much better now.

Time Investment: about 15 minutes
Materials: Vacuum, Scrubber, Dish Soap, Sponge
Payoff: Immediate! (But perhaps temporary?)

So far I've washed a door, and cleaned ice cream our of a utensil drawer. Up next...

Cleaning Beyond the Basics Week 1: Grimy Door Handles

Obviously there are household occupants who prefer to close the door to the garage using the door jamb rather than the door knob. Ask me how I know.

In our defense, my husband maintains and repairs his own bicycle, and there isn't a way to wash your hands in the garage.

 You know it's a serious situation when the Magic Eraser comes away like this...

And then the cleaning wipe you subsequently use (to remove the dirty water) looks like this:

But finally your door looks reasonably clean again. (I should mention that it is a painted metal door, YMMV when cleaning a different surface door.)

Time Investment: Minimal--less than 5 minutes
Materials: Magic Eraser with water, cleaning wipe
Payoff: Immediate!

Would I be going overboard to try and train my family to use the doorknob?

Cleaning Beyond the Basics: A 12-Week Series

Very tempting...

It never seems to end... the dirty floors, the dirty sinks, the dust... it takes our entire family plus a monthly cleaning crew to keep our 2,000 square foot house tolerable, and I feel like we cut corners all the time!

I'm tired of just being 'adequate' and I want to stay ahead. The problem is that there is more to cleaning a house than vacuuming the floors and scrubbing the bath tubs, although those tasks are a big factor. I'll be doing a weekly post about the little tasks that need to be done periodically around the house, the small details that are either overlooked until a huge mess is created, or the tricks that might help an appliance work better.

If you're interested, follow along, and please share if you clean these spaces too! Go here to read about what I've cleaned so far.

Decluttering Paper in 3 Steps

I have to confess that I've been taking a lengthy break from decluttering projects this year. I was really on top of decluttering last year, but since then I got distracted and off track, and I'm only now (in July!) returning to the project, which for now is to just attack the piles of paper and miscellaneous items that have accumulated in my house. I'm decided to approach The Piles with a 3-Step approach:

1. Consolidate

First I went around the house and collected all the various paper piles in a laundry basket. (Confession: I filled the laundry basket twice!)

I cleared the dining table so that I would have plenty of space--and also for motivation to get the project done before dinnertime.

2. Sort

I set up an empty paper grocery bag for recycling paper, and sorted everything into piles. It occurred to me that this is really challenging work, because you have to make a decision about every piece of paper: keep? recycle?

I ran into a bunch of papers from an unfinished project that I need to refocus on, and also a few photographs and a recipe that triggered some memories. The biggest bulk of paper were the things that my son brought home from first grade at the end of the year. It takes a lot of energy to decide to recycle your child's artwork! I did save a few things that stood out.

Whenever I started feeling overwhelmed or unable to make a decision about something, I walked away and worked on something else for a while, then came back later. It helped that I needed to shuttle the kids around, and my mom stopped by for a little while. Sometimes I would just go switch the laundry to clear my head so that I could return and continue to make decision after decision...

3. Distribute

After all the piles were sorted, I found a place for each set of items. Some things were easy--obviously the two full bags of discarded papers went to the recycling bin, and the saved artwork went to a box in the basement designated for that pupose. Other things were more challenging to put away, and I admit that a small pile of those random items are sitting in a pile on my desk right now, still to be housed. Similar to the sorting, I did a few piles at a time in between other activities.

The good news is: I finished! I think that focusing very specifically on Paper Only helped me to avoid distraction, and setting a specific space and steps helped as well. I even got the dining table set for dinner, hours in advance. I think I will use this technique again on the disturbing number of Random Items scattered around the house--you know, the what-is-this-and-why-are-we-keeping-it stuff (I hope I'm not the only person with this problem!)

Find more declutter and organizing inspiration with 52 Weeks of Organizing at orgjunkie.com!

Dishwasher Day Part II

Another thing I learned about dishwashers is that it is not enough to clean the front. My appliance repairman visited recently and reported that the bacterial and dish soap buildup around the gasket/door seal of my dishwasher is best removed occasionally.

That vertical black line in the picture is coated with crud.

Fortunately, I have a handy dandy grout brush that looked up to the task!

As you can see, the crud is growing on the edge of the dishwasher door as well as on the seal.

Fortunately, the grout brush combined with some liquid dish soap quickly dissolved the mess and all was wiped away with a damp rag.

We can add this to my list of Things I Never Thought to Clean. My repairman will be so impressed--if ever we need him to return...

What's Your Motivation? I'm Overwhelmed

Over the past few months I've been thinking about what motivates me, and so far I've written about how deadlines help me to focus and get things done. As our family has made the transition into summer, I have become completely overwhelmed trying to keep up with everything that is going on.

A sample of my thoughts:

• School's Out! My son is finally home from all-day kindergraten as of 3 weeks ago. This is great, because now the kids are around more to go out and have fun together. At the same time, hanging out and having fun with the kids takes up a lot of time, and sucks away any inclination I have to be productive.
• The Landscaping Project: Our big household project for 2010 is focused on the outdoors. We have replaced the front stoop, buried rain gutter runoff pipes, raised and adjusted grade levels to improve drainage, installed rain barrels, enlarged the driveway, etc. I've been working on this project for almost a year, and for the past 3 weeks our yard has been a noisy, dusty construction site. Although the stonework and grading steps are finished, we have yet to plant any actual landscaping. I hope to post more about this project in the coming weeks, as I'm really excited about it, but recently it has been incredibly stressful and time consuming!
• Beach Trip Preparation: We are off to the beach near the end of the month, and I need to get a few things ready, including a meal for 24 of my closest relatives.

These are just a few of the highlights of all of the problems, projects, and plans knocking around in my brain (and my house!). Lately I've been feeling like I've been running in place; I've been lost between a long list of possibilties and feeble attempts to make plans for implementation.

Finally I had to sit down and just clean out my brain. I took a small calendar and started making lists. Not just one list, but numerous lists. Whatever came into my mind that I needed to do, wanted to do, or wished I could do, I put it down. I didn't try to schedule it for a particular day, I just put it all together on an older page. You can see a picture of what I ended up with above.

One list is the official 'Things to Do' list, literally listing all of the things I need to do in the next few days, whether calling or emailing someone, errands, or things around the house. I also came up with a 'House Projects' list, which had more detail about things I need to do around the house that are more than basic upkeep. I also had a 'Wish List' which simply listed things that I wish I could have or do, from the beautiful flower bouquets I saw at the farmer's market to making my own flower garden for cutting flowers.  I even had a list of 'Things to Buy', including anything from household items to birthday gifts. If something occurred to me, I wrote it down. If it didn't fit in any of the lists I had started, I started a new list.

Writing all of this down was such a relief, because it took the pressure off me to remember everything, and it allowed me to prioritize and consider everything that I could be doing to help  me decide where and when I need to spend my time doing things. As a result, I had a reasonably productive day yesterday and made quite a bit of headway in a number of different areas.

There's still a ton off stuff to do, though!

What's Your Motivation? Deadlines

One thing I know about myself is that I am really good at thinking up and starting projects. Finishing them is a different story altogether, and I am always trying to get better at finishing what I start.

Finishing projects around the house can be especially challenging because there aren't always specific deadlines around the home. Will the world end if the bathroom isn't cleaned today? Will daily life really be impacted if no one goes through the boxes down in the storage room? The exception would be meals (lest the ravenous hordes revolt) and emergencies, because yes, life will be impacted if nothing is done regarding the flood in the basement.

I've found it helpful to fabricate my own deadlines to help me move through tasks more efficiently. A few strategies I use include:

• Entertaining: Somehow household tasks move up the priority list if I'm expecting people over, so when I'm feeling behind and unmotivated, sometimes I'll just invite some people over. It doesn't have to be a big party or anything; even a simple playdate will motivate me to vacuum and wipe down the bathroom. (You can ask the people who visit me: when they come to the door I am often finishing up the hall bath!)
• Time Sensitive Rewards: I promise myself a reward if something gets done before a specified time. More on this later.
• External Rewards: The latest example is that I reserved an energy efficient appliance rebate through our state rebate program. We have talked about buying a new refrigerator for years now, but we haven't followed through. Why? Because despite the fact that the fridge that we had was not meeting my needs AND using much more energy than newer models, it wasn't broken. I kept wishing it would break, but it wasn't cooperative. I'm happy to report that the rebate prodded us into moving forward with the appliance purchase.

 Whatever deadlines you fabricate for your household, be sure that they are realistic and doable for you.

 

What's Your Motivation? An Exploration

I am still trying to get back on track after being derailed last month. I feel like there is so much I want to get done, but at the same time, I don't want to do any of it.

It doesn't really make a lot of sense!

My list of things to do typically includes two types of tasks: fun things that I want to do, and boring things that I don't want to do. I can usually motivate myself to do the unsavory tasks by 'rewarding' myself with the opportunity to do the things that I want to do (which are often a lot of work, not leisure activities). This system falls apart when I don't even have the motivation to do the tasks that I want to do.

For instance, sometimes I will assign myself a project to do and motivate myself to do it by planning to blog about it afterwards. I've pushed myself to work on a lot of things as a result of this blog! The problem is when I get so restless and unmotivated that I can't focus on writing--instead I go and read everyone else's blogs, then feel discouraged because my own blog is sitting idle.

I'm hoping that consciously acknowledging this struggle will help me to reconnect with my enjoyment of keeping my home and making progress on my goals and projects. I'm going to keep thinking about this challenge and explore what keeps me motivated (and what throws me off course) in future posts. Feel free to join the discussion in the comment sections!

Procrastination Can Be Good

Procrastination isn't all bad, I think. Our culture focuses so much on keeping busy and looking productive rather than thinking, preparing, and anticipating. If your mind isn't ready to focus on the task at hand, working on the task may be just as 'unproductive' as procrastinating. Or worse: if you are mindlessly completing tasks without thinking about the bigger picture, you may end up doing something that will be unnecessary or obsolete in the longer term.

I dislike discovering I've 'wasted time' doing something that was going to be undone anyway, like when I wash a load of whites and then realize that there was a hamper full of additional whites upstairs that should have been laundered in the same load. (A waste of water and energy!)

The Free Dictionary reports a definition of procrastination as,

To put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness.

I guess it's true that sometimes I am putting off doing something because I am enjoying some down time, but I don't think of procrastination as being non-productive every time. I can think of a lot of tasks that I have completed while I was procrastinating about doing something else.

Most every large school assignment I completed in college was preceded by every other thing I could think to do. Sure, that meant I watched some movies or went out with friends, but it also meant that I did all my laundry or cleaned the walls in our dingy apartment bathroom. There was something about sitting down to write or study in an orderly space that helped me to focus. The time spent cleaning often didn't require a lot of brain power and I was able to think about what I was going to say or focus on when the time came to sit down.

These days I am just as likely to forget about something that I need to do as procrastinate about it. My mind is constantly shifting from here and now tasks of child and home care to planning our schedule in advance, working on my volunteer work, attempting to progress in my declutter challenge, etc. etc. I don't have a perfect system for keeping track of everything, but generally things don't slip through the cracks of my mind for too long at a time.

When I do procrastinate about something, it is usually for one of three reasons:

• I dread performing the task; I'm not in the mood.
• I feel uncomfortable about doing the task (it is something unfamiliar or awkward)
• I'm undecided about the task; is this really what I want to do? I'm hesistant about making a commitment.

When I'm procrastinating because I am dreading or feeling uncomfortable about the task, often it helps to commit to forging ahead. I find it motivating to promise myself a reward--and usually the reward is to work on a task that I want to work on. I say to myself, "You can't work on your fun stuff until you do this yucky tedious stuff first."

When I recognize that I my procrastination is due to feeling undecided or noncommittal, I continue to hold off. Maybe my feelings of procrastination are trying to tell me that something is a bad idea. Something time sensitive will pressure me to make a decision one way or another, for anything else procrastination will be the decision itself. Holding off when I'm procrastinating about something has avoided numerous purchases that we didn't really want or need, and I've avoided starting projects that I hadn't thought through far enough.

It can be really useful to procrastinate in order to work up to something mentally challenging or to recognize in your procrastination a sense of hesitation. Or it may just be a beautiful day, a perfect opportunity to delay your To Do List and live for the moment.

I won't even tell you how long I procrastinated on writing this blog post.

Just Get it Done: How Long Will It Take?

You have 30 minutes before you have to be somewhere/do something. Quick! What are you going to do with that time?

Okay, you could sit down and goof off. That would definitely be my first choice, too! Let me rephrase the question: What tasks can you do around the house, finishing the task yet not being late for your next commitment?

This is what I am trying to figure out. There is a list of stuff that needs to be done around here, and it is never completely finished. That is not the nature of taking care of a home, at least not for our family. Around here everything is in fluid motion, the kitchen is clean now, but it gets used extensively almost every night. I 'finish' the laundry only to turn around and find a new pile of clothes that need to be washed. I'll admit, I am a control freak, and it took a while for me to get used to the fact that nothing stays 'finished' when you have an active household.

Still, I can't say that I want to spend the majority of my time stomping on the top of the housekeeping To Do List. I want to complete  these necessary tasks effectively and efficiently so that I can focus on The Rest of my Life, which is far more interesting anyway. I want to know: How Long Will It Take? If I know it takes 15 minutes to clean my wood floors, then I can get that done when I have 15 minutes before I have to leave the house rather than waiting until a bigger block of time comes along. The bigger block of time can be used for something else, such as going to the park. Knowing that I have only 15 minutes will also motivate me to get it done quickly--maybe I'll set a new record for myself, or at least I'll do the task with a sense of purpose rather than dragging through it and taking longer time (aka Wasting Time that I could use doing something enjoyable!)

Here are some timing records I am working with right now:

• Sweeping Main Level (with a broom; includes fast toy pickup and moving a few furniture pieces): 15 Minutes
• Mopping Main Level (ideally after sweeping!): 15 minutes
• Vacuuming both flights of stairs (I hate doing this.): A mere 12 minutes!
• Cleaning The Bathroom (full cleaning): 35 minutes <--This time needs to improve. I'm experimenting with breaking it up into smaller segments to make it more doable.

These times include the complete task as well as set up and put away (vacuum, cleaning supplies, etc.) What these times do NOT include are Interruptions. You know, the phone ringing, the kids fighting or 'helping', etc. The shorter the amount of time a task takes, the less likely I am to be interrupted. The more I can fit productive tasks  into the little slivers of time between bigger events, the more 'free' time I will have. Or so I hope! I'll check in occasionally and report how this experiment is going.