Home care and conditionng

[elainegrey]

We slept in the living room last night to test out the sofa bed. I was fine; Christine had to share more of her allotment with cats. Yay us, we can now host two adults who can sleep closely together.

The bed is about 5" more narrow than a double. I think it would be OK to have a double air mattress supported by the platform, hanging over the edges by 2.5" on each side. And, as the "spine" of the couch is quite perceptible, i think we should try the inflatable mattress supported on the sofa bed platform.

We have also passed on the sofa and loveseat to someone else. I'm delighted with how the absence of those large pieces opens up the space. Christine has a work project that requires two 1' x 2' x 4' boxes that we need to stash for a while, but there's now room. We purchased two upholstered dining room chairs as the conversation seating (to sit opposite the couch) during my vacation week when we chanced into them on sale. (I've just put two slipcovers for them in my Amazon basket.) The chairs aren't going to be particularly comfortable for lounging in, but i can imagine sitting for an evening talking with other folks using those chairs.

So we have four chairs: two new upholstered chairs and two oak chairs from ages past. The solid oak chairs are a little beat up (like much of our stuff) but i'm struck by their solid and detailed construction. On the other hand, not particularly comfortable. Where do we stash them all?

This leaves the "entertainment center" as an investment target. Can we mount a monitor on the wall above the fire place? Can we find a cabinet that can contain all the hardware? (I swear, the volume of wires is about the same as the hardware pieces.) Right now the fire place is blocked with stuff. We haven't used the fireplace that much with the issues around smoke as pollution, but i've loved the CleanFlame logs we've taken camping. I'm not sure i'm ready to give up the fireplace for the digital hearth.

And now with the sofa and loveseat gone, there's room to swoop through with a carpet steamer. I think i'll do that today. I partly imagine that i should wait until the roofing is done, but it really would be delightful to not have the carpet stains to trigger my feeling of being rundown and unable to care for things. And now we have a functional vacuum to clean with regularly once the carpet is clean.

I still have a hard time not looking about and feeling confronted with dirt, dust, and decay: the walls, the popcorn ceiling all have the sticky urban dust i first remember encountering in Philly. I do think there's a different quality to it compared to the dust i grew up with in the Carolinas.

There were some other random cleanings and repairs yesterday. I tried to repair a drawer in the kitchen. The drawers basically seem supported by one middle wooden rail with a tiny plastic guide at the back of the drawer. The plastic blades on the top drawer's guide snapped years ago, and we've been manufacturing sawdust with every opening which falls in the drawer below. I'd bought replacement guides years ago, as well. In my glacial progress, yesterday was the day when i tried to fit those guides to the drawer. Too thick, too long. Christine and i brainstormed, and i covered the wooden rail with a "paper" packing tape and soaped up the bottom of the drawer. I think i can find a more appropriate drawer guide via Amazon. I'll try again.

Getting out the tool box inspired a cleaning out of it, as well. I closed my eyes and dumped some things: i saw phone jack repair supplies from our Philly apartment when i peeked. We've a few too many junk drawers that need the same ruthless purge with the recognition that we're more likely to run to the hardware store with the project list than we are to sift through all the junk. (Although i do remember my delight at sorting through the boxes of bolts to find one that helped me repair the Prius' car door (weeks before it was totaled).

A somewhat creative project was dyeing a stained sheet with the rust brown dye. This time the rust brown was more brown and less red-orange. I think the dye needs to be very strong to get the green colors to set. The sheet turned out wonderfully mottled and patterned, and the dingy white washcloths that have been relegated to the rag bin turned out nicely and fairly even (as i desired). I think i may try dyeing some of our (dingy) white bath towels forest green. I do think the fiber reactive dye is less of a chemical threat than chlorine bleach.

And how could i forget: we took down some of the diffuser panels in the kitchen, cleaning off the horrible grime that fell through the skylight during last week's roofing adventure and replacing light bulbs.

So, floors today. And somehow preparing for the week

Comments

[laughingrat]

I think you're right about the carpet cleaner. Do it now, if your gut is telling you to. The thing about cleaning is that there will always be more dirt, so you know, you can do it later too, and that's fine.

That probably sounds the opposite of comforting, but oddly, it's been very comforting to me lately. :) Just the idea that perfection (the Clean House) is never really going to happen, and that once something is clean, it won't stay that way...that can be very freeing, because it gives one permission to do what one can and actually feel proud. At least it does for me. If it doesn't work for you, feel free to chuck it onto the compost heap. :-D

[elainegrey]

I too find that way of framing it helpful. Setting a timer and getting a fixed amount of effort done and not holding out for perfection is often how i've practiced it. Only a half clean tub at the end of the timer? Better luck next time, back-of-tub grout!

In the end, my gut said "rest." No lugging carpet steamers from the grocery rental place and back. I did vacum as if i had steamed it. I figure we've such a vacuum debt that deep vacuuming is going to make significant progress that will make the steaming more effective.

Do what you can!

Another story that helped me ended with, "If something's worth doing, it's worth doing a crappy job at it." It was the story of someone with a chronic illness that sapped energy who wouldn't do anything she wanted because she knew she didn't have the energy to see it through. Eventually, with coaching, she started going and doing, accepting that maybe she wouldn't have enough spoons to finish.

Hope your day's going well.

[laughingrat]

That's a great way to put it--a crappy job is okay, and is better than no job at all. Yes.

Not a bad day! Hope yours is nice too.