Rock The Housework Chat

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www.rockthehousework.co.uk/

Anyone else rocking the housework?

My housekeeping was always somewhat chaotic, and since these were launched, my house is far more functional and a podcast away from actually looking rather orderly, even at short notice.

I tend to pick what I need each day rather than following the tradtitonal TOMM, but do refer back to that to help get some jobs done if they're in danger of being neglected.

I think my most used tracks are the "Calm Laundry Put Away" the "Bitesize Bathroom Blitz" and the "Quick Kitchen Turnaround"

I like the Disco Declutter, but for a bigger project there's a Clutter Buster Series to keep the input fresh.

I've done my annual car clean
The muddy mats have driven me mad for months, but actually it wasn't too bad. Not too much junk built up. Much nicer than the days of messy toddlers!

I've had a go at some of last week's weekend sessions. Last weekend was too busy!

I've been in ticking over mode, and it was still at the point of being fixable in a decent multi-room session.

I'm just so mentally and physically done to keep up in the week after work. By the time I regain any momentum, it's evening activities.

I was very excited to see the weekend level 1 sessions, had a go at both of those yesterday and Saturday. Also did a 15 minute bathroom clean which was surprisingly effective for such a relatively small amount of time, but I know the feeling about being too done in during the working day. I have just about been keeping up with level 1s, and I do WFH 2-3 days a week so it should be manageable, but it rarely is!

Eek! I didn't realise I'd been AWOL this long!

Life's been busy and I've been surviving in minimal maintainence mode for the house. I'm really looking forwards to the holidays and getting some deeper reseting going on to get back on top of it.

I've ended up deep cleaning the dishwasher today as it's been leaving gritty deposits on the crockery. I pulled the racks out and gave them a good blast with the shower and dish brush. OMG the gunge that gets stuck in the crevices! The rest of the machine got a pre-rinse with a bit of Fairy to soften it up, then a scrubbing and another rinse cycle.

My plan for the first day of the holidays is to put one of the big reset sessions on to freshen most of the house, then I can pick what I need for declutters and deep cleans after that.

The great thing is that I know this is managable and just needs bursts of frequency and is not a major holiday consuming project.

My clean laundry heap might need two rounds to get through though 😂

I was doing pretty well with daily level 1s and TOM lites, and then it all fell apart in the last few weeks of term because the schools were cramming in dozens of activities, which ended up being rearranged or cancelled due to the heat - it was chaos. We've been away for a few days and I am almost done with unpacking, but there are mountains of laundry to deal with, albeit clean.

The living room in particular looks like a bomb hit it and I'm debating whether to do the new-ish Engine Rooms Reset today in between WFH, or do the deconstructed living room clean. Feeling quite low on energy so will probably be the latter; I think ten minutes at a time is all I can manage!

we are in the final throes of house moving. Moving out next week (moving in TBC due to a shitshow of a conveyance process so everything is going into storage). It is quite satisfying cleaning those scummy corners that have been behind furniture for years! Looking forward to getting a proper routine back sometime in the future.

Good luck!

We were lucky when we moved here years ago as we had time to give this house a thorough clean before moving in (it needed it!). We gained space so were able to use one room for storage and concentrate on homing stuff properly as we unpacked, and got that completed in about a month.

It was a much easier move than average!

My house is looking so much better than this time last week.

I had intended on doing a general reset, but nature had other ideas... I started with a deep, full on clean of my bedroom... because a mouse, lured by my old wedding favours stashed away has been getting into my bed base 😱
Today's project will be pulling out my sentimental stash and a trip to IKEA for storage boxes to organise (and declutter) it as it has returned despite removing temptation. I do not want mouse nesting in there!

In other news I have a clean conservatory (bye bye dead flies!) and general resets done on the main living spaces. I'd like to get a deep kitchen clean in before we go on holiday, and that's now easier because it's back at regular levels of clean. I've got cooker hood filter in ready for that too.

Aaaargh, mice! DP has seen one in our bedroom and I have seen one in the living room. It is slightly baffling as we live in a first floor purpose built flat with thick concrete walls and floors so they are quite ingenious and possibly shinning up the drainpipe. I did catch one a couple of weeks ago and no sign since, so it could have just been a rogue visitor.

If you need to put down traps I'd advise the snap-style rather than the humane version; in my experience these are the only way to actually catch anything. Peanut butter and Nutella are good for bait, and wear gloves when setting and putting down the traps as they have an excellent sense of smell. My one catch happened after I took up the traps that had been down for weeks, and washed and re-baited them wearing gloves - that night, snap!

So far this one prefers well-matured sugar-coated chocolate to nutella. Fussy git! 😂

I'll remember the bit about washing it the traps. I've never had to use them before.

I've wondered if it's coming in through gaps in the floorboards around plumbing.

They like anything sweet and nutrient-dense. Also stuff to make nests, so sometimes cotton wool, fleece, etc can work, weirdly. Years ago I used the really old-school Tom-and-Jerry-cartoon mousetraps made from wood and metal, and didn't have an issue with them smelling me, but the modern versions are plastic which maybe reacts differently.

Apparently they only need a 5p sized hole to get in - flexible bones - so tiny gaps will do it. I suspect that's how mine is getting in as there's lots of old-ish exposed and not-very-well-installed pipework in the kitchen 🙄

The textiles make sense.
On that note I bought the boxes and now everything is organised under the bed which is generally a good thing, but also significantly reduces the risk of mouse deciding that it would be a cosy nest.

Naturally I haven't heard mouse since I did that.

In other news, the kitchen has had a deep clean. Annoyingly it's one of those invisible jobs, but the extractor area needed it and the filter needed replacing. It's not a done job yet, but I've done quite enough for one day.

I’m wondering how many dead mice we are going to find when we move the washing machine and fridge freezer as one of our cats has a habit of bringing them into the kitchen.