Today I’m trying to get some “annoying” little things done ahead of my Spring Cleaning push in March. Even the most well-maintained home has several small, easy yet annoying things that need to get done. If we let all of these pile up, we soon are left with a disorganized or ill-suited home, a disappointing day or two of irritating errands, and we’re not living our loveliest lives.
It will feel so good to have these little things checked off my list today and this week!
QUICK THINGS TO DO TODAY:
- When’s the last time you sanitized your tablets, phones (both mobile and landlines), keyboards and remote controls? Take a couple quick minutes to grab a sanitizing wipe and wipe them down. Don’t forget your video game controllers, if any.
- Check over your kitchen gloves, bathroom scrubbing gloves, dish brushes, sponges and scrubbers. Anything getting worn out or less useful? Need to toss any and buy new supplies?
- Take just two minutes to grab a sponge, a cloth and your favorite cleaning spray and really make your kitchen sink shine (if it needs it).
- Here’s a thought – have you backed up your pictures you store on your smartphone or tablet? Might want to spend some time researching how to get them off in case you lost your phone or in case of accidental deletion.
TODAY’S PROJECT: Taking Care of the Little Things
What’s on your list of little (yet necessary) things that you need to do around the house? Can you do them, or do you need to enlist help from a household member, or hire someone from the outside? Obviously the tasks on your list that you can’t do yourself won’t get done tonight, but at least take steps tonight to secure the assistance of another person who might be able to help you this weekend or be hired to arrive next weekend.
Look over your tasks, and wander around your house looking for things that need minor fixes or updates. (I have a twelve inch spot on a wall that needs to be repainted, for example). Take some time today to either get these things done, or make a concrete plan to get them done over the weekend. Some of your things might require taking time off work (ie, waiting for an electrician or plumber), so plan far ahead. If you have a child home sick from school anytime this spring, you might use that day at home with them to schedule last-minute short-notice appointments, if possible, with carpet cleaners, plumbers, home maintenance professionals, etc. Sometimes they’ve had a cancellation that day and can squeeze in a trip to your house.
What’s on my list:
- Paint the wall.
- Paint a windowsill the painters forgot.
- Replace several extremely ugly forced air heating vents with new brass ones. Some of them are a standard size and I can order them on Amazon, but the rest will have to be taken in to Home Depot so I can try to find exact replacements.
- I need to call a plumber to replace an ugly and barely working sink fixture in a guest bathroom.
- I’m replacing a cracked, rotted rubber stopper on one of my spring loaded curtain rods. Not a major priority, but it will make changing out the curtains so much easier this spring.
- It’s time to replace my dirty and painful old office chair with a new one. I’ve ordered the new one, and need to assemble it when it arrives. The old chair needs to go to the dump, so it’s time to call the junk haulers to take that and some flooring supplies away for me.
- I absolutely hate my upstairs living room curtain rods, and it’s time to replace the fourteen year old crumbly curtains anyway. Time to call the curtain professionals of my choice to come out, measure and advise.
What’s on your list of annoying little things that need to be done so your house isn’t slowly crumbling down around you?
LOVELY BATH & BODY: L’Occitane’s New Shower Gel
I love grapefruit scented bath and body products – especially during dreary, cold wintertime! Here’s the new shower gel I’ve treated myself to for this month. Stop by your local mall’s L’Occitane if you’re curious to smell this!
Pamplemousse Rhubarbe Shower Gel, at L’Occitane
LOVELY BLOGS: Sweet Cayenne
This blog’s author, Whitney, grew up in the South. She now lives and blogs from Columbia, MO. Both she and her husband are dieticians. Check out her recent posts on Meyer Lemon Rosemary Bread Baked in a Dutch Oven, Chocolate Covered Wild Blueberry Superfoods Smoothies, Asian BBQ Chicken Meatballs, and her compilation of tips on resources for starting a blog.
LOVELY BOOKS: Sing a Song of Seasons
This free vintage book was written in 1913. It’s filled with charming, light and easy seasonal poems and offers a few nice color illustrations. These would be ideal for reading to small, sleepy children at nighttime.
Sing a Song of Seasons, at The Internet Archive
LOVELY BOOKS: Unstuffed
“Decluttering Your Home, Mind, and Soul.” This book should have come out right after New Year’s Day, when many of us were making resolutions to change our bad habits. One of my bad habits is definitely clutter, the result of another of my bad habits – over-shopping! I’m going to read this book when it comes out in April. I’m always up for a good decluttering book!
I’m confident I will take some things away from it that help me declutter my house and life. I did succeed in several goals after reading “The Art of Tidying Up,” so it will be interesting to see what changes I am inspired to make by “Unstuffed.” However, as a non-religious person, I’ll be skipping the parts of this book about Biblical or religious topics.
Unstuffed, at Barnes and Noble
LOVELY CANDLES: Paddywax’s Flower Market
I love this new line of candles from Paddywax. Not only do they smell fabulous, but the floral packaging is so perfect for Spring. If I have an occasion to gift a girl friend a nice candle (perhaps for a birthday?) this spring, it will be one of these! So far my favorite scent is the Freesia & Apricot one.
Flower Market, at Paddywax.com
LOVELY TV: The Full House Reunion Series: “Fuller House”
Ok, I admit, I shouldn’t be looking forward to this sappy sitcom reunion so much. But I have fond memories of watching the syrupy sweet show back in the old days; and watching re-runs with my nephews recently. So tonight I’ll be making a little time to turn on the Fuller House reunion show on Netflix. At least it will give me something to watch while I’m folding laundry and taking care of a few little projects!
LOVELY LINKS FOR TODAY:
Banana Walnut Bread (The Classy Cookies)
Brioche! (A Garden for the House)
Cinnamon Roll Casserole (A Beautiful Mess)
Cinnamon Sugar Orange Knots (Tutti Dolci)
Healthy Avocado Deviled Eggs (This Mama Cooks)
How to Make a Pound Cake, with Video (The Bearfoot Baker)
The Moroccan Berber Omelette, Shakshuka (Cooking on the Bay)
No-Knead Rosemary Asiago Cheese Bread (Love and Pastries)
Our Glam Shara Tent Camp – Overseas Adventure Travel in Morocco (Worth the Whisk)
Preserved Lemon Chicken Soup with Rosemary (Soup Addict)
Rustic Chicken Cranberry Bean Soup (One Hundred Dollars a Month)
Salmon Tacos with Avocado Cilantro Cream (Tartelette)
–Copyright 2016 Lovely Living
