My chimney cleaning service came today. Does that count?

The garage. Always with the garage here.
If you have tools, the garage is at this time of year calling out to you, ‘Hey you bastard, I’m greasy, I’m dusty, I’m rusty. Get your butt out here!’

Just vacuumed the new carpet…environment still in the tank…should I redo or save the electricity. Hmmm
Spring is in the air
Pollen everywhere

Nah, neat freak I am not. I’d sorta like to be, but I’m incapable. I would really like to have less clutter…but I’d rather read a book or do what I’m doing right now!
I have pets too, so the litter boxes get faithfully cleaned – twice a day at least when I had more than the current three.
I make my bed when I get up; that’s because I found, years ago, that the sight of the messy bed was just toooo depressing. So it gets done religiously.

Even a few years ago I cleaned more regularly – dusting and vacuuming. I probably still would, but my back just complains too much whenever I vacuum. Sometimes sweep up the cat fur with a brush and dustpan.

Sometimes I do get that spring cleaning urge..with age and back aches, it doesn’t last as long, lol. There does seem to be almost a hormonal, or something, response to the arrival of spring, doesn’t there?

I am kind of a neat freak, always putting stuff up, but you probably would not generally want to eat off my floors (though you would not be disgusted to walk across them). This time of year at the end of the semester, I tend to let everything slide as I go into grading hell. I do often do a major cleaning a week or two afterwards, however.

I’m not a neat freak nor do I do Spring cleaning but I clean the place every week on Saturday whether it needs it or not. It takes about three hours.

I do try to keep stuff put away. I’m a bit anal with my books for example but if I wasn’t, they wouldn’t all fit.

My problem is that I have an aversion to clutter, so it drives me crazy if I do not put stuff up.

Planted more seeds today…yum veggies to go in my mushroom compost soil. Crook neck squash, snow peas, broccoli, heirloom and beefsteak tomatoes, more romaine lettuce, spinach, zuchini squash and sugar snap peas. Working on greenhouse and buddha sculpture. Nice to hear from you Allison Oh and the garage is always needing a littlr TLC.

Well, clutter isn’t a problem with me really because I’ve made myself be pretty brutal about throwing stuff out, donating it or giving it away. I’d be a hoarder is I wasn’t so careful to avoid it.

My clutter is in my mind so I do an hour of cleaning in the morning and again in the evening. Being a free spirit and an adventurer I get into a lot of stuff that needs releasing into the universe. Traveling light frees more head space for new stuff.

Hmmm. My kitchen is under absolute freak control rules, at all times – mine! It’s just one of those things. Spices on a lazy Susan, alphabetical order, that sort of thing; it’s organized for least effort for working, and maintained in that order, always.

Now, my piano and office? Totally different story. What I am interested in currently is on top of seeming dis-organization, of a lot of stuff going on.

Belch and I have a low-level civil war going on in the piano room. When company is due, he’ll shove all my music stuff away, and once that event is over, I calmly just put it all back. He noticed last week: “Hey, I put those music books back in the bench in alpha order, but you have them back on the rack in, erm, what order?”

“The order I am interested in them, silly.”

Mental clarity reflects Feng Shui…you are what you eat/breath…and a stitch in time saves nine so? And in the end the love you make is equal to the love you take…Lennon/McCartney 1969 Abbey Road. Love is all you really need. don’t knoe when that was written by whom?

Awww! Belch was trying. He made the effort to alphabetize them because he has no way of knowing what order they interest you in. It was sweet, if misguided.

I am a neat-freak, I admit. But one thing I’ve noticed over the past several years, and I don’t know if others are doing it, but a lot of people here in San Francisco take off their street shoes before walking around their living space. I do, too. Makes sense, if you think about it. I’ll walk around in socks, slippers or flip-flops, but not shoes that have traversed the filthy streets of the City. Street shoes come off in the entrance hallway.

I take my shoes off in the house, but that mostly reflects my hillbilly hippie abhorrence of shoes.

I’ve tried this, but I don’t like the look/smell of the front hall when I do.

AS far tidiness, we got a storage locker last week and filled it with Xmas, alternate lampshades, suitcases, and moving boxes. It feels great not to star in Fibber McGee opening any closet door in this apartment.

I picked up that habit in Nihon and it’s one that I’ve never tried to change.

Dogpatch style unshod as opposed to Kobe style? ;)

I love throwing things away but you wouldn’t know from the looks of my house. I like to think I coexist with genteel, sweet entropy. The dust bunnies sometimes float to freedom before they can get hoovered up. But today I found a tick in the house and on my person. The cleaning supplies were broken out. And the doggies will be bathed. And the cats, well, they won’t be bathed but brushed. Are ticks a sign of spring? I hope they are a sign of something good. Cleaning! Ticks are a sign of cleaning.

Q. Are there many duplicates in your iTunes?
A. Too many.
Q. Does your hard disk ever fill up?
A. Every month.
Q. Is there a Reese’s wrapper in your car?
A. Not now.
Q. Do you always make your bed?
A. Always (turn the pillows over, snap the comforter and turn it over — takes longer to type about it.)

You’d best leave your shoes at the door here…! You’d be Gaijin…! ;-)

This has nothing to do with cleaning but it’s about as fucked up as it gets.

I have an extra piece of carpet in the entry way for street shoes…if really bad they stay outside. Off to the meditation mat, happiness is within so there I go. Best to all.

Heh. He was a bit surprised I have a “different” sense of order sometimes.

We actually made the kitchen work together. We lived with it in “remodel state” for 18 months, and planned out the cabinets, what goes where, all that stuff together, so that all works out REALLY well.

In fact, there’s a 220 plug he put in the office that we haven’t used yet, in case we decided at some future time to put a freezer in here and sort of turn this office platz into more of a pantry than it already is. [We have a Queen Mary in here for the catering/restaurateur set!]

It was no big deal. I said “HAH! And just keep alpha-ing them, OR take the stack in my order and put them in that parlor closet. Either way, I don’t care. Why the Piano must be naked when people come over is beyond me, but whatever floats your boat.” It’s his house too, so, there we are.

Ticked off!

Mostly I go around barefoot, like I am right now. (And boxers and T-shirt. Is that TMI?) My place has hardwood floors and tiles in the kitchen and bathroom. Some nice area ruges here and there. I could never, ever imagine living in a place with wall-to-wall carpeting. Ick.

OMFG! What dickwads!

Yep. Hey bb!

I once alphabetized my spices, then the meds kicked in.

hahaha!

Given my background, I would have to say yes.

I’d be Gaijin regardless.

Why the Piano must be naked when people come over is beyond me, but whatever floats your boat.”

Yeah, I don’t get that. I cleared my dining table off once. Now sometimes I remove a layer or clear a corner but for the most part it’s the table of holding now.

Yep. I have a shelf where I keep spices but that’s really my only nod toward organizing them: putting them in roughly the same area.

Mine are organized by type. Indian spices, Middle Eastern spices, Mexican Spices, East Asian Spices, standard European spices. There is a downside to cooking in a variety of styles.

I don’t do that. There’s something satisfying to me about shifting through them.

Time for me to toddle off. Take care all.

I’ll bet you can still bounce a quarter off those square-cornered bedsheets, too.

tejanarusa said @ 4

“Sometimes I do get that spring cleaning urge..with age and back aches, it doesn’t last as long,…”

When I get that spring cleaning urge, I just get out the chips and salsa, slouch down on the couch, put a movie in the dvd player and wait till the feeling passes

*heh* My mode too…! However, the oft-used items are front and center…! Pepper grinder, course sea salt, garlic powder, paprika, etc….! ;-)

Night DrD

I still make shadow boxes with my sheets. I don’t test them by bouncing coins though.

Yeah, the most used are always the handiest. They just wind up that way though.

*heh* I’m lucky if the bed actually gets made some days…! I’ve been fighting a losing battle over the past 20 yrs of wedded bliss…! ;-)

Hangars still come in handy to smooth ‘em down and get those corners square, even if you don’t use ‘em for shirts and pants. Isn’t that what the dryer’s for? I had a roommate like that once; used to throw socks into the corner until a pair made itself apparent.

Another was Felix Unger: would clean both sides of partner’s desk – not a convenient habit – and empty the wastebasket while trash was in the air en route into it. She had an excuse; her ex-Navy pilot dad used to make her and her four siblings eat four square.

I make my bed once during the week, the day I change the sheets. Other than that, it always looks like I just got out of it.

Ach! Alphabetical Spice Scoffers! Fine!

But know ye this – I can kick out many and any delectables quickly with minimum fuss! It’s all about the guest.

Just saying *hospitality rules!*

I’ve never used hangers for sheets. We sure as heck weren’t allowed to in the Navy.

Just saying *hospitality rules!*

Gonna hold you to that when I visit. If I ever get solvent again that is.

If you have to wonder where things are, it’s not your own kitchen.

Times have changed.

Easily delivered. We live it. And especially in your case, m’dear!

;)
my walls are lined with bookshelves and a few desks for surface work, like computers, monitors, stuff.
Everything else gathers in piles: clothes, old mail, dvds and cd and packing envelopes, some boxes. I know where everything is generally and things haven’t degenerated into merely pathways between the piles of stuff. When it does, I reorganize everything and put things I never get out or pick up into closets and attics.
The fridge could use a scrubbing and that old oven too.. That means the bathroom should get a serious work over.
I’ve been avoiding this.
Thanks!
;)

tejanarusa @ 4 said,

“Sometimes I do get that spring cleaning urge..with age and back aches, it doesn’t last as long…”

When that spring cleaning urge comes my way, I grab the bag of chips, the container of salsa, slouch down on the couch, put a video in the dvd player and watch a movie till the feeling passes.
Though I do take my shoes off at the front door. Learned this when I lived in Hawaii.

Right. I’m a mise-en-place kinda guy. The quick way to do that?
Cuisine-en-place.

Not different times, just the preference of my Company Commanders I think.

Woohoo!

Well, I’m out. Oya.

She had an excuse; her ex-Navy pilot dad used to make her and her four siblings eat four square.

Hey, I know what that means! My dad went to a military school for a few years, and then of course, was in the Army (Air Corps) in WWII. He demonstrated “eating foursquare” a few times when I was a kid. I was absolutely appalled!

My parents were both pretty orderly and neat. Mom is a classic Pennsylvania Dutch housewife…must be busy, keep hands working during the day, house must be spotless.
Me, not so much. Somehow I didn’ get the genes.

Tried alphabetizing my spices once. Hopeless. OTOH, I try to keep often used and certain types more or less together, like baking spices and flavorings and decorations for Christmas cookies together. Once a year stuff is up on the top shelf. For the rest, they’re organized by how they fit in the wire spice rack. I hate, hate, hate shuffling through searching.

I’m more of a mise-en-scene guy, and not just with food.

WRT post @ 55

ASorry for the double mpopst.
Thought the first one didn’t go.
I guess I better “clean up” my act

Night.

mise-en-scene, mise-en-bouteille, mise-en-blog, de même, non?

Pleasant dreams, Peg…!

Heh. I honor the principle.
Don’t like to cook anything more elaborate than scrambled eggs, say, without gettng all the ingredients and tools out and ready to use.
It’s the main reason I wash dishes – ’cause I want them clean and ready to go when I want to cook. I do not want to wash dishes first, then cook, then wash ‘em again.

Ex seriously seemed to believe it was standard to leave pots, pans, dishes, spoons etc lying around dirty until you needed them again, then wash ‘em, use ‘em…and leave’em around unwashed, unrinsed, until you wanted them again.
He doesn’t seem to mind the wasted time and energy. He roots happily among the spices and flavorings, too, and puts ‘em away completely at random.
But….all his LP’s, then CD’s were alphabetized.
Mine, again, were organized by type….70′s rock, blues, jazz, classical.
Books, much the same; Spanish fiction together, Russian lit together; Russian and Spanish grammar, vocab, textbooks, etc. together; English language reference, like dictionaries, together. Non-fiction, separate from fiction and loosely organized by subject, like history, politics, science.

понять Россию? отлично!

The Sweety always catches the Spring Cleaning Bug the day after Ash Wednesday. She wants it all done before she’ll have sex with me again. I, on the other hand, am a one-room-at-a-time guy; a room may take a week; and as far as my reward, I can hold out longer than she can….

In another week, the whole spring thing should be done, or at least by Memorial Day….

Да, конечно. Я изучала русскуий язык в университете. Был мой главный предмет.

LOL.
Maybe that’s why I seem to be over it for this year – we’re pretty much into summer. That spring freshness has already passed.

Отлично. Я знаю только, мало русских – от музыки, а теперь, друзья.

~~~Get a room, you two.~~~

Sorry Lurk.

Nothing bad, товарищ (tovarisch/comrade)!

And, like, I’ll Pledge up the fireplace mantle, then take a coffee break, dust some woodwork; take another break; vaccuum some of the dust that floats to the carpet; take a break.

Drives the old girl plain crazy….

*heh* A bunch of Commies if ya ask me…! ;-)

My next Russki baby will be born this next week – brother/sister to Dascha (no one knows – not even mama, again. She’s liked keeping it unknown, like last time.)

Gotta follow up on composer duty; made big sister’s tune a while back

Alas, my snark has lost its mojo :-(
/~~~

CTuttle is upstairs!
Late, Late Night FDL: All I Need Is A Miracle

Kelly? You still here?