Frugalicous Domesticity - Wednesday Edition

Do you have any idea how foolish I feel telling you how to clean a bathroom?

I'm not Martha Stewart.

I just play her on the internet.

OK, my schedule for Wednesday suggests (doesn't dictate) that I clean my bathroom, and front porch as part of my cleaning routine for the week, and do the grocery shopping.

In the winter, I don't clean the porch.

Why, that's something someone with OCD would do.

Because I really have no clutter in my bathroom to speak of, (other than that shelf up there) and I spot clean it daily, it's really a piece of cake.

I do my 'work around the room' method.

First, I wet the sink, and sprinkle my cleanser in it, so that it can soak a bit.

I put in the toilet bowl cleaner, brush it around.

See these corner shelves?

I only clean those about every three weeks.

They just don't seem to get very dusty.

See that old tub?

I only scour it every couple of weeks.

It just doesn't get filmy.

I do take everything off of this counter and clean it.

I do use my homemade (1 cup of olive oil, 1/3 cup of lemon juice in a spray bottle) furniture polish and dust the tub rim, and the little dressser.

I wash the throw rug once a week, on Mondays.

I check my toilet paper supply.

I do get down on my hands and knees and give the outside of the toilet bowl a good cleaning.

I finish up by washing the sink, drying it, and cleaning the mirror.

Then I dust the light bulbs in my big light bar that I don't like too much.

I really can't tolerate dusty light bulbs.

Total housekeeping routine today, including making beds (we'll be in the bedroom tomorrow), running the vacuum, cleaning the bathroom, and doing a couple of stray snack dishes from the night before.

28 minutes.

I really have to say that having a routine like this completely liberates me.

I never have to spend an entire day cleaning.

I have a LOT of hobbies that I like to do.

Including, but not limited to:

Dollhouses

Sewing

Knitting, Crocheting, Embroidering

Just learning to make rag rugs now

Soap making

Baking

Camping

Gardening on Steroids

Being a member of a Cooking Club, BeeKeeping Club, Garden Club

and hosting a Stitching Club here every week.

Throw homeschooling into the mix, and I'm a busy girl.

Today, my schedule looked like this:

Up at 3:30. (I'm usually not up til 4:30, but Glenco had an extra early start)

Made Glen's smoothie, and packed his lunch.

Waved goodbye to him at 3:45am

Started my routine. Yes...before coffee!

Finished my routine at about 4:15am

Made coffee, had quiet time, read blogs and returned a few emails.

at 5:15am I baked muffins and cleaned up the mess.

5:50am I blogged.

6am I cleaned out a couple of drawers in the bedroom, watched the sunrise and took care of the chickens.

At 7am my friend came over and we worked out til about 7:45am.

I got myself cleaned up and dressed.

Started homeschooling at 8:15am and did that til 12:15pm

Had lunch and headed to Salvation Army in Illinois for thrifting fun and Aaron's 'Practical Skills' portion of homeschooling.

We do practical skills every Wednesday.

Once I took him to the thrift store and gave him $5 to find an outfit he'd wear.

Nice Levi jeans and an Abercrombie shirt were found - $4.50 total.

One day I told him to make sure he wore a shirt with buttons.

I cut them all off when he got here, and gave him a thread and needle.

Today, he needed to pick out furniture to 'refurbish' and use in his bedroom.

He found a pretty cool piece. I'll share that with you later.

There was a dollhouse shop in Illinois that I wanted to go to, so we headed there next, with the intention of peeking around a few minutes, and heading to the grocery store, and then heading home.

We were there for two hours.

The shop owner generously offered to give me a hands on lesson on electrifying a dollhouse.

I didn't get home until 6pm tonight.

Guess what? I didn't go grocery shopping.

I stopped at KFC and brought Glen dinner.

My schedule is a guideline, it's not written in stone.

I do what works for the day.

I wasn't going to force myself to shop tonight.

Look what I found thrifting!

Sorry for the bad pics...

This old cake cover with acorns and oak leaves! It's going to be perfect for my vintage camper AKA 'The Squirrel'

A few vintage dishes. There are two of those platters.

Love the old wire dish drainer!

Can't see the fabric too well, it's for an apron, and then an old vintage ironing board cover.

It's now 7:15m and I'm pooped. I'm hitting the couch with my afghan project and I'll crochet til I fall asleep. In about 30 minutes!

Please know that in no way am I saying you should, or you need to follow a weekly schedule.

I'm sharing this with you, as a former overwhelmed, frustrated homemaker that never wanted to have company because of what the house looked like, never felt like I had 'time' to do what I wanted to do. I never really cleaned, I just moved piles.

This routine really changed my life.

I hope you can glean something from it, that could maybe make yours better,

if you want it to be.

Tomorrow....the bedroom, and the living room!

(and grocery shopping!)