House and Home II: Shelter In Place

[eclair]

Our fridge is not really keeping things cold, as of yesterday. We spent a day thinking, maybe something is blocked, if we do some re-arranging, maybe it will work again. Nope. We have a chest freezer and a spare fridge that stays below freezing, so we moved food around. They should be able to deliver the new on on the 9th. Let's hope it works really well, and maybe they can deliver it sooner.

[mojogirl]

Good luck, eclair! Fridges are really important right now.

[ladyboy]

There was a discussion on Roombas previously, but it's a few years old (I searched). I'm thinking of getting one for our first floor because there are crumbs everywhere because no one ever leaves the house (aghhhhh). We have cats and a mix of hardwood and carpet. Does anyone have any recommendation on the model? I see they have the auto empty option - is it worth it? Does the Roomba go under the lip of the kitchen cabinet to get all those crumbs my kids leave there? What happens if there is junk on the floor? Will my messy ways break the roomba? I'm so sick of vacuuming I'm ready to go buy one right now if it's good!

Also, is Roomba the brand to get, or should I be looking at other ones?

[chonies]

Is anyone in the Declutter Hub community? I'm considering joining, but I wasn't sure if that would contribute to my digital and social media clutter.

[Carolinian]

I never heard of it before so I asked to join the FB group. I'll let you know my impression. I looked at the website and was disappointed the blog entries were written by what appear to be white women between 30 and 50. No men? No non-whites? No old people? In the past few years I've gotten more sensitive about representation- I was flipping through the most recent sewing pattern book by Gertie (who specializes in vintage women's fashions) and none of the sketches included non-white women or older women. (The actual clothing is all modeled by Gertie herself.) I was disappointed- I'm a member of some active historical sewing groups on FB and there's a fair amount of racial/sexual/age/gender diversity in them.

This has no bearing on the value of being in the declutter hub community, however!

Edited to add: I was approved to join the FB group. Lots of promotions to pay to join the community, and the list owners comment a lot on posts. TBH I'm finding the Unfuck Your Habitat FB group (Team UfYH (Official)) more useful for my purposes. YMMV.

[chonies]

Thanks for the insight, Carolinian! I found them by looking for decluttering podcasts, and theirs was actually really good to listen to--I like their accents, and the way they talk about the range of clutter, like "don't do the big project first," and so on. I have one big project and several smaller ones, along with just maintaining. The episodes were fairly relaxing because a lot of their banter recalls the "does it serve you?" ethos that's been applied in other personal growth/self-help type podcasts (running, weight loss) I listen to. They're not especially deep, which is fine. Those podcasts exist, too, and when I want them, I'll listen to them.

I have loved UFYH for years, but sometimes I need more than they offer. Flylady is a bit much, but also habit-based, so I strip out the parts I don't like. Jolie from Ask a Clean Person is not where I am--I'm clean, but I have one room that's a guest/craft/yoga/office room and I just feel like I'm churning.

And I hear you about Gertie. I liked her for a while, but mostly the idea of her. I loved the idea that she took on a project as a hobby and it totally transformed her life, but I've never felt tempted to stitch anything in her books or patterns. Too boob-y, too much exposure, not suitable for office wear, don't like the lines, not really interested in regularly wearing a longline bra, etc. and I love vintage-repro. I don't really have many places to wear fancy dresses, I guess.

Thank you for coming to my list of opinions about people on the internet.

[Carolinian]

Flylady is the first home cleaning/decluttering site I ever found on the internet. The heavy use of ~*#~! turned me off, but I do like her systematic way of cleaning a room. And she taught me the value of keeping my kitchen sink clean. Haven't thought about her for ages.

Years ago I checked out a hefty book from the library called Home Comforts. The author was nuts (using a sink other than the kitchen sink to clean the dog's dish because germs? Does she even touch her dog?) but boy o boy was it thorough about how to clean and care for everything. Unfortunately the library must've de-accessed their copy. I looked for it just before their pandemic closure, and I haven't gotten around to finding a cheap secondhand copy.

[chonies]

Jun 16, 2020 16:29:45 GMT -4 Carolinian said:

Flylady is the first home cleaning/decluttering site I ever found on the internet. The heavy use of ~*#~! turned me off, but I do like her systematic way of cleaning a room. And she taught me the value of keeping my kitchen sink clean. Haven't thought about her for ages.

Years ago I checked out a hefty book from the library called Home Comforts. The author was nuts (using a sink other than the kitchen sink to clean the dog's dish because germs? Does she even touch her dog?) but boy o boy was it thorough about how to clean and care for everything. Unfortunately the library must've de-accessed their copy. I looked for it just before their pandemic closure, and I haven't gotten around to finding a cheap secondhand copy.

Oh yeah--Home Comforts sold like hotcakes at the wealthy white people book store where I worked, like literal stacks, and it was definitely a status book. But I agree, there was definitely a mix between "a tad intense" and actual good advice, although sometimes the corners were kind of sharp as she veered between the two.

[famvir]

I just bought it for $9 Kindle. I figure a hefty book and a flashlight and magnifying glass to read it by is just so much more clutter.

It might be worth it to figure out how to fold fitted sheets.

I think it will be like my Miss Manners book. Nice tidy 15 minute reads about long ago times (how to clean china? Dear me...), seeing that I already do things the “right” way, and a pearl now and then.

Oh, and I showed my oh so correct SIL how to “dress” a king sized duvet (she usually has the “help” do it. I wonder if she had live ins during the shelter in place ? Probably...).

Turn the duvet cover inside out and put it over you head. Yes, get inside it. Grab the duvet innards from the inside of the cover. Crawl out of the cover holding onto the corner of the innards. Button up the bottom. Done!

[tanyak]

I almost put this in the bitching thread, but I guess this is the better place. lol

We have a small, narrow living room. I don't know how long it is, but from wall to wall on the short side, it's a little over 11 feet, so not wide. Our seating arrangement is fairly limited by the shape, two doorways, the fireplace wall and our TV placement. For instance, we can't put the TV over the fireplace because you have to crane your neck too far back to look up at it. Also, the living room is our only gathering space -- no family room, bonus room, den, basement, etc. When we bought the house 12 years ago, we got a basic sofa and love seat set that works well for the space.

Mr. Tanyak seems to think we have a huge square room. A few years ago, I had to explain several times why a huge sectional, or frankly any sectional, would not work. We're now at a place where we need to replace this furniture (I mentioned it in the pet thread a few weeks ago.) He's now all of a sudden attached to the idea of a sofa with a chaise. We went to five furniture stores today and he found one that he really likes. I like it well enough and I'm fine with it. It's about a foot longer than our current sofa, so I'll need to move my photo shelf, which is beside the sofa on the long wall, to the short wall where the love seat is currently. Since the new sofa is longer than our current one and the chaise will jut out into the middle of the floor, I suggested replacing the love seat with an arm chair so that the room isn't completely crammed with furniture. Mr. Tanyak nearly had a fit. He is determined to fill every free inch of space with something. He's like a granny! The sofa chaise is going to take up a ridiculous amount of space as is. Can we please leave 1/3 of the room fairly open and breezy? Also, I love putting my Christmas tree in the front corner of the room and I'm always having to work around the love seat. I look forward to not having to deal with that.

Anyway, he is now grudgingly agreeing to the plan, but I still get the sense that he think's I'm the crazy one. Lord.