Homemakers, to the rescue!

[Mrs-M]

Catherine, presented a question today Re: ironing a shirt, and I find out I've been ironing shirts the wrong way (for forever)! NO! This can't be, Charlie Brown...

One may ask, "does it matter", and my answer is, "not really", but there's just something about me and homemaking that calls out for perfection, and ironing has always been, at least what I thought of as being, one of my strongest suits/qualities/traits.

I guess at the end of the day, as long as the shirt is pressed nicely and looks great, that's all that matters, really... but still, do you think there is a "right versus wrong" case/argument that can be applied in this circumstance? Or do you think quality homemaking equates to simply getting the job done, regardless of correctness?

[goldensmom]

I don't think there is necessarily a right/wrong way to do most homemaker/housekeeping chores but there is a better, hygienic, safe, more efficient way to do most things. For example, there is a right/safe way and a wrong way to slice an orange but both get the job done. There is a right and wrong way to put sheets on the bed, do the corners, etc. but both ways can provide a good nights sleep. Then there is preference, I like the first sheet of a new roll of toilet paper folded in a V-shape because I like how it looks. Whatever the way, I don't accept sloppy.

[catherine]

Mrs-M, you are the FIRST person who EVER told me that I was the perfect housekeeper at ANY part of housekeeping!!! My kids would laugh. But you made my day, let me tell you. (And it's Mother's Day at that!! == Happy Mother's Day!)

Certainly I didn't consider my way to be the only way, just like there are many spiritual paths to the one God! So please don't fret!

I think because I am a bit ADD in general, and certainly with housekeeping, I've tended to really love 1-2-3 step routines when it comes to anything like that. It keeps me focused.

That's why FlyLady is great with her morning/evening routines.

I also have a 1-2-3 step routine for washing dishes by hand, taught to me by my grandmother and great-aunt when living with them in the summer cottage:

1) Scrape
2) Rinse
3) Wash glasses first
4) Wash utensils next
5) Wash plates
6) Wash serving bowls
7) Wash pots and pans

Dry
Put away
Clean out washing tub/basin and put away
Put away drying rack
Scour sink with Comet

[peggy]

I'll tell you what. Folding fitted sheets used to give me fits and I just kind of fold-wadded them thinking no one is going to see them anyway and I have lots of storage room so it doesn't matter. But it still bothered me, all these years. Finally i just decided to google it and see what others did. What a revelation! Maybe not for you perfect housekeepers who probably knew the secret all along, but for me it was great! Now my sheets are folded nicely and I even tuck the top and bottom, along with one pillow case into the other pillow case before putting on the shelf.

The reason I googled it was I was looking for that rolling trick to put the duvet cover on the duvet, which I found and is the neatest trick. Now I don't dread washing the cover.

[Mrs-M]

Goldensmom, You and I, are so alike, it's spooky. I don't accept sloppiness, either. Re: right/wrong ways, whenever I prepare chicken, I always sanitize the kitchen sink afterwards (with bleach), along with anything I touched/handled. IMO, that's the right way and proper way.

Happy Mother Day, too, Catherine! Whew... breathing a sigh of relief, because I never gave any thought to the idea that you might have/could have taken my comment out of context. So happy you didn't, because I strictly meant it in a nice way.

I believe I, too, have ADD, which more than likely explains why things like this tend to stir me. Re: washing /drying dishes by hand, your method is nearly identical to mine!

1. Scrape.
2. Rinse.
3. Cleanse sink basin with detergent.
4. Wash-down countertops, stovetop.
5. Wash glasses first.
6. Wash plates/bowls next.
7. Wash utensils.
8. Wash pots.
9. Dry out sink basins.
10. Dry, put everything away.
11. Hang dish-towels on stove-door handle.

[Mrs-M]

Hi, Peggy! Just seen your post. :)

I'm a firm believer in the idea that we all have our own strengths and weaknesses, related to homemaking skills. Some things come natural, while others escape us. Poorly folded sheets would drive me batty! Funny, when you think about it, because they just dress a bed, which few see, yet there's something rewarding and soothing about pulling fresh sheets out of the linen-closet, and seeing that everything is crisp and straight.

The duvet-cover rolling trick, I've never heard of before. Going to have to see if I can find it!

[Miss Cellane]

I don't think there is one single correct way to iron a shirt. There are wrong ways, where you iron winkles into the shirt, or miss part of the shirt, or things like that. But as long as the outcome is a smooth shirt that looks the way you want it to, you have ironed the shirt correctly.

Many household tasks are like this. There can easily be more than one way to reach the same outcome, be that clean dishes, a tasty meal or stacks of nicely folded laundry.

I can fold fitted sheets. They never come out to the same size rectangle as the flat sheet, though. I know there is a way to do this, but it's never worked for me. At that point, it's a decision I have to make--do I spend more time and energy on this, first to learn how to fold the fitted sheet to the exact same size as the flat sheet and then weekly to keep things the same size, or do I decide to make a pile with the larger folded fitted sheet on the bottom, then the flat sheet and then the pillowcases, so it looks like a nice, neat pyramid? For me, the answer is to pile the sheets in size order. For someone else, it would be to learn a new method of folding the fitted sheet.

It depends on what is important to you and how much energy it takes to achieve what you want. I'd never do the thing where you put both the sheets into the pillowcase, because I find that sort of fiddly work boring and not easy (not hard, but harder than I want it to be). The effort involved does not have a good pay off, for *me*. I don't get any extra satisfaction out of having the sheets inside the pillow case. But if someone else does, I say, Go for it!

Some might call me a sloppy housekeeper because I don't sanitize the kitchen counters. I clean them, but I don't bother making them sterile. All my food preparation is done on cutting boards that can easily be cleaned and sanitized--much more easily than a counter top. And I have separate cutting boards (maybe I should call them prep boards) for fruits/veggies and meat/chicken. Food never touches my kitchen counters, so I don't feel the need to use bleach or whatever on them. And while I have never seen my cat up on the counters, who knows what she is up to when I'm gone? Better to be safe and use the cutting boards. But some people would probably think that's just slovenly.

Now, my sister hates cleaning bathrooms. I can remember when she was a child, she'd clean the bathroom sink and claim she'd cleaned the bathroom. She didn't like touching the toilet and bending over to clean the tub was a pain and then there was cleaning the shower door tracks and she just didn't like that. That's the wrong way to clean a bathroom, in my eyes. You do actually have to clean it on occasion. But whether you use rags or a sponge or disposable wipes or a scrub brush doesn't matter, as long as things get clean.

I've got a system down where every room gets tided, dusted and vacuumed once a week. And every week, a different room gets a more thorough going over--moving the furniture to vacuum behind it, dusting the window sills and radiators, etc. I'm sure there are some people who do what I call "deep cleaning" weekly. As a single person who works a lot, this is what I have time for. It allows me to have a clean, relatively neat-looking home that I wouldn't be ashamed to invite a mother-in-law into, if I had one.

[Miss Cellane]

Oh, and there's actually some logic behind the order in which you handwash dishes. You want to wash the glasses in grease-free water, because they take less time and effort to rinse clean and they will look nice. Then you tackle either the plates or the utensils, which are probably equally greasy at this point, because they've both dealt with the same food. Then you wash the pots and pans in the now somewhat dirty water--but since the pots and pans don't have to sparkle like glasses and dishes, it's okay. But it's a movement from most clean/least greasy to dirtiest/greasiest. You don't want to be washing your glasses in water with the tiny bits of food washed out of the pots and pans in it.

[Mrs-M]

Happy to hear from you, Miss Cellane. One thing I need to work on, is feeling as though I always need to be proper/do things proper Re: homemaking. Proper, in it's proactive form, can still be lived up to and accomplished, regardless of steps and formats, but it's convincing myself to think outside of "proper'ness", that presents the biggest stumbling block of all. Somehow, between "proper-ness" and "process", I get all twisted and bottled-up.

How right you are Re: finding a comfortable happy-medium, then running with it. I've been able to do that with certain things, but still need to work on incorporating that ideal into my daily life when it comes to other things. Baby steps... Incremental milestones...

Side-note to mention. Whenever I happen upon someone who doesn't know how to efficiently and properly wipe down a counter-top, it makes me crawl. I instantly think to myself, "no... all you are doing is spreading/smearing everything around"... This is one of those areas that has always bugged me. Proper-ness, or, the right way, definitely trumps all other options/ways regarding this one. You can either wipe, allowing the cloth to pick-up as you go, or you can spread around, smear, and wipe the mess all around from side-to-side, and call the job, done.

So true Re: half-measure effort. I've never been one for that. If I can just get past the A-Z issue, or, 1-2-3 issue...

Re: dish-washing, so true, and this truly is one of those more rare areas of homemaking (almost exceptions), where right is right, and wrong is really wrong.

[Miss Cellane]

Mrs. M, this is how my mom taught me to clean counters, and the kitchen table. I don't know if it's the right way or not. I do the counters right after I finish hand washing any dishes/pots/pans that can't go in the dishwasher.

1. Brush off all the loose crumbs and things into your hand, and drop them in the trash.
2. Spray the counter with cleaner, or shake on some Bon Ami if things are really bad.
3. Use a clean rag or sponge to spread the cleaner around and let it do it's work.
4. Rinse out the sponge or rag and wipe the counter, moving from back to front. If there are any little sticky spots, gently rub at them until they are gone. Maybe even spray a bit more cleaner on them and finish the rest of the counter and come back to them.
5. Rinse the sponge out again, and wipe from side to side, making sure to cover the entire counter and rinse off every bit of cleaner.
6. Let the counter air dry before putting anything back.

Truthfully, I have a cat. And while I have never seen the cat jump up on a counter or the kitchen table, I'm not sure what she does when I'm asleep or not at home. And I don't want to have to clean the counters every single time I use them. So to be safe, I keep a bunch of cutting boards on the counter, leaning up against the backsplash and I use those all the time.

[Mrs-M]

Miss Cellane, we learned from the same mom! :) I think of my method (our moms counter-top cleaning/washing-down method) as being the "double-whammy" method! Going in two different directions, with a clean, rinsed-out cloth/sponge each time, all but guarantees an immaculately clean counter-top area with no surprises!

It's funny, but I cannot involve myself with dish-washing until the counter-space/stove-top is clean and done. Then, if we've had a really messy dinner that night, I can load-up the sink with as much of the dirty dishes I can, and if I have to, let everything soak for a while, before plunging in and tackling it. But that's just me set in my ways!