Bye, Bye Books

It may have been years since I have looked at any of the books here, mostly cookbooks and natural health books.

In my new kitchen, Gd willing, these shelves will be recycled and doored to hold percolator, French press, mugs and other thins I use daily.

If anyone wants some books, now is the time to come and take or arrange delivery.

Tip: My Tip To Make Laundry Easier

Today, daylight hours for me, was "National Laundry Day." I did about a half a dozen loads of wash. Most of the wash was hung outside to dry, and Gd decided to let us skimp on electricity. The weather was perfect.

And after my husband helped by taking in the dry wash, the real work had to be done, the sorting, folding and putting away. That's the part I don't like. That's the part I have trouble making time for.

It can be quite overwhelming and boring, too.

Years ago I'd get the kids to help me, and we'd sort the clean dry wash into baskets like these, according to family member. But now I'm stuck doing it all myself, and I don't like the old method.

 I made up a new method. I search through the wash for various kinds of items, like all of my husband's clothes go on the smaller couch for him to put away. Then, depending on my mood I make piles of other types of things. One pile at a time. To the left you can see the floor cloths all folded up. And then I put them away. So you suddenly see that less and less laundry is left to fold.

Of course, sometimes I take a break, and each time I return I find it less daunting, because I've already put away a lot of laundry, bit by bit.

And suddenly, the couch is clear, clean of laundry.

I highly suggest this method. It works for me, and I hate housework.

Most Useful and Safest Cleaning Tool

I don't use sprays. I don't like the idea of breathing in dangerous cleaning chemicals or having them damage my eyes. That's why I use an old-fashioned long-handled cleaning brush.

Just put the cleansers, bleach etc. in a bucket with water and scrub away.

The big problem is that they are difficult to find nowadays.

Cleaning, Clearing and Donating

Is this Baile Rochel talking?
Could be...

How can one clean when buried under an avalanche of things?

Shuffling/transferring stuff from one place to the next doesn't really help, even if it's the only way to reach the floor. I look at my house and feel sick. I can't paint it, not just because of the expense. I just can't imagine moving everything around and then having to put it back. Just the thought of it, and I go catatonic.


Not all that long ago, the woman who coordinates the senior citizens activities sent out a notice that she would like a few music CDs, so I happily filled up a bag. I haven't bothered listening to my collection for almost four years. I got out of the habit when my mother passed away, and it was forbidden to have music on. Since then the news is on TV most of the day. But I still have too many. Now I'm at the tail end of the year's mourning for my father. Will I start listening to music when it's over? I don't know. But seriously, how many CDs do I need?


I've given away a few dozen books, but they hardly made a difference to the gazillions here and all the papers. And I must say that probably under 1% of the books are mine. So, I don't have the authority to get rid of them.

But I'm very proud and excited to say that this week I did get rid of some stuff that had been inhabiting a nice bag for years. I transferred it to a bag that we really didn't need, killing two birds with one stone! Call it "double riddance," for sure.

Yes, I got rid of lots of yarns from my hat crocheting days. OK, I'm keeping the crochet hooks. I brought them to the senior citizen center when the weaving teacher was there. My plan is to do a very different weaving project next which will incorporate the yarns I've donated. 

Granted it's a small step, but that's how we start. Step by step, nothing traumatic, nothing drastic. Isn't that what Fly Lady tells us?

Baile Rochel: Trying to Clean

This was first conceived as a regular blog post, but then when I was towards the end of writing it, I realized that not only would some of you consider it funny, but you'd think I was exaggerating... Honestly, it's 100% accurate! Yes, I'm the one and only Baile Rochel, and this is all true!

First of off, to be perfectly honest, I'm an awful housewife. Granted that I can cook and I do love hanging out the wash--problems are with folding and putting it away... But basic cleaning of windows, floors, dusting, decluttering ad nauseum are just... ignored or done too infrequently. Of course it doesn't help that our double windows, which do help keep the house at a "reasonable" temperature sort of, were so badly planned, some are literally impossible to clean, but that's another story...

Well, yesterday I was home alone and decided to find a way to clean the blinds in the dining area. I couldn't attempt the ones in the living room, since my husband has a ton of books under them. They have been awfully dusty for years. I guess that some people know how to take them down and wash them in the bathtub and then put them up again. But I don't have any construction engineers in my house, certainly not any more.

So I figured that all I'd need would be a good long-handled brush and a tub or pail with multi-purpose cleaner slightly diluted. That shouldn't be too hard. But I couldn't find a suitable brush it the house. The one I found had very rough bristles, OK for the bathroom tiles, but not the blinds. And then I discovered that I must have used up all of my multi-purpose cleaners, and the floor cleaners didn't seem suitable when I checked all the info on the container.

So, off I went down to the grocery store, way to the back where all the cleaning supplies are kept. There was no familiar looking multi-purpose cleaner, the type I'd buy every year or two and had used up. It must have been a very long time since I had last bought any.  Finally I found two types of spritzy things, one mostly for windows and the other, not sure. It did claim to be a multi-purpose cleaner... Then I looked for a brush. No long-handled brush. The closest thing was a children's broom. A young neighbor looked at me a bit strangely. All I had in my hands, I hadn't even taken a shoppingcart, were those two liquid cleaners and a kiddie broom. I told her that I was looking for a long-handled scrub brush, and she admitted that she, too, needed one. So, I proposed a deal, if one of us ever finds one, we'll get two.

Considering the weight of the cleaners, I was pretty lucky that a neighbor drove me all the way up the hill home. I got to work pretty quickly and made quite a mess.

Of course, I forgot to prepare lots of rags and newspaper. So, in the middle of the mess I had to take off my rubber gloves and search.

Nobody in their right mind, or with halfway decent vision would say that the windows and blinds look really clean and sparkling, but they do look much better, at least to me.

uncleaned blind; look at dust/sand

cleaned, sans sand/dust

The windows still look awful, but I know that there's less dirt, sand dust on the ones I cleaned. I used oodles of the cleaning liquid, which did not come in large 3 liter containers. I'll check out what multi-purpose liquid cleaners they sell in Rami Levy. Hopefully, this cleaning adventure will get the "cleaning bug" out of my system for a while....

PS Some of you may remember that just as I was about to do my "heavy" Passover cleaning this year, three days before the Holiday, my father passed away, so many things weren't done at all.

Pre-Passover: Eaks!!! It's Inventory Time!!!! #4

I can't believe I have just over a week to get my house in Passover mode. The freezer is emptying if you're keeping track with me. 

When I first started this year's series in Eaks!!! It's Inventory Time!!!! my freezer looked like this:

Now, this is how it looks:

I have made some progress in emptying things out and cleaning. But I must be honest, pre-Pesach cleaning just isn't "my thing." Actually cleaning isn't my specialty. But there are things we must do, and I will just do my best. There isn't anything else I can say.

Why isn't there some simple abracadabra we can say/do to get it all done?

Eaks!!! It's Inventory Time!!!! #3

I must admit that I cheated a bit with this series of photos, because I already began buying chicken and beef for Passover. And if I had a way of getting more home, I would have bought lots more last night at Rami Levy, since he had a great sale on poultry in Sha'ar Binyamin.

Before putting in the new stuff, this is how the freezer looked:

I still have some cooked meat, a meatloaf/moussaka and some beef in tomato sauce, in the freezer and half a pack of chicken breasts that must be finished before we go Kosher for Passover. I'm almost finished with the salmon I had bought months ago. But the big problem is that there's wholewheat flour and a cake up there, too. A lot of the rolls are eaten, but there's more to go.

There's plenty to get ready/done before Passover. This year, for the first time in four years, if my memory is correct, we'll be making a seder. It will be small, but still, we're hosting. I'm glad it's a Friday night seder, since that gives a full week from Shabbat to finish the kitchen and start cooking early.

One of the empty bedrooms has had a quasi-thorough cleaning. It's not a room that has seen food at all, but it must be made clean enough.

Weather reports have been springlike, perfect for opening the windows and hanging laundry.

Guilty!

Confession: 

I'm an awful housekeeper. I always was and I always will be.

As a kid I was known as a slob. Over the decades I've learned how to keep myself looking relatively "put together" as the saying goes, but I'm not the fancy type.

If I have to choose between comfort and style I go for comfort every single time. I can't remember the last time I used my iron. I should probably throw it out, since if I did turn it, on rusty water would escape and stain whatever I'm ironing. Thank Gd I found stores that sell nice clothes from fabircs that don't need to be ironed at all.

I haven't a clue how to clean the blinds, so they're coated with a very heavy layer of dust. And our energy-saving livingroom windows, double--two frames, were so badly designed they are impossible to really clean. So I haven't tried for a very long time, like forever. Yes, ever since I realized that I would end up losing the rag between the window or getting so stuck they'd have to be disassembled and thrown out.

My husband has thousands of books, two and three deep on the walls of the den, so we haven't painted, because the thought of taking them down and putting them up again is worse than living with the old dirt and grime. Also, if they were taken down it would be impossible to replace them exactly where they are. And if they move he won't know how to locate specific books.

One good thing I've been doing of late is trying to get rid of things. I've given away lots of clothes, a few jigsaw puzzles and even a bit of my household items, like some serving bowls we never ever use, stained tablecloths and best of all, I saved my daughter money by giving her a couple of great quality (expensive) pots which she now needs, and I don't use.

At present I dream of redoing my very inefficient kitchen and making it easier to cook in and clean. I know that having such a project done will cause lots of stress, but then maybe it will encourage me to tackle other difficult household projects.

Of late my aim has been to unclutter, and I hope that I make significant dents by the time our kids have to move us into an old age home.