Lost in Twilight...

I just finished reading Eclipse, book 3 in the Twilight series. I started it yesterday. My husband gently suggested that I shouldn't start book 4 until tonight. I'm nervous to start it, actually. I don't think the story is going to go the way I want it to. I'm firmly on Team Jacob. I don't even like Edward, but I've got a feeling that Bella's going to choose him. Jacob would be so much better for her. Why can't she see that? Ha ha ha... I'm a little too involved in it, considering I wasn't even that impressed with the first book. My sister told me to keep reading because the story gets better. She was right.

I really try to pace myself with reading. When I'm lost in a book, I don't get too much else done. The house is looking a bit shabby, the laundry is piled high and I've got to work on the next assignment for my writing class. It's due on February 17th. I'm planning to not read Breaking Dawn until that assignment is safely in the mail.

Today, I'm going to get the house back in order and hope I've got the self-control to stay away from Breaking Dawn. Wish me luck!

I have a Love/Hate Relationship with my Dishwasher

A dishwasher is supposed to be a time saver, right? Mine seems to be a time waster. I used to love it. Back when we were using our water softener, the dishwasher was awesome. We could put any type of dish in there, run it with the cheapest detergent and everything would come out sparkling clean.

But, after the basement flood of 2009, we decided to stop using the water softener. The only benefits it gave us were sparkling clean dishes and an equally clean shower. I was always slightly nervous about the possible long-term risks to our health from the higher salt content in the water. Dr. Weil, the famous medical doctor and healthy eating guru, recommends that people not drink or cook with softened water. While we couldn't pinpoint our mystery basement flood to the water softener, it was the extra push that we needed to shut it down. Our basement has been perfectly dry every since.

The dry basement came at the price of dirty dishes. I've always rinsed my dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, so they basically looked clean when they went in. I figured the dishwasher was killing germs and getting things even cleaner. With the water softener, the glasses sparkled. Without it, the dishes were coming out dirty. It wasn't a dishwasher, it was a dish dirtier!

I did some research with Google University and found some helpful information. First, those with hard water should not use liquid dishwasher detergent. I thought the liquid would create less residue, but everything I read said it's the worst offender. Second, dishwasher troubleshooting message boards consistently recommended Lemi Shine, a lemon-based powdered dishwasher additive. You can put it in with your regular, powdered detergent for each cycle to get sparkling dishes. The only place I can find Lemi Shine around here is Wal-mart. It's kind of on the pricey side, but it does work. My dishes are not as sparkling clean as they were with the water softener, but they aren't disgusting, either. For the record, this is not an ad in disguise. I've got no affiliation with the company that makes Lemi Shine.

I'm wondering if the lemon in the Lemi Shine is the key ingredient. In an effort to simplify dishwashing, save money and not have to go to Wal-mart all that often, I am trying my grocery store's brand of lemon-scented powdered dishwashing cleanser. So far so good. With the exception of anything plastic, yesterday's load of dishes looked good.

Which leads me to my final new tactic for clean dishes. I'm going to stop putting plastic in the dishwasher. It, by far, looks the worst after a run through the dishwasher. A quick search around the web gives me lots of blogs and Wiki answers that say washing plastic in the dishwasher isn't a good idea anyway. It seems that plastic leeches chemicals when it's washed in a dishwasher. Huh. Who knew? Probably everyone but me!

I'm trying to learn to love my dishwasher again. With any luck, the dishes won't look dirty, my family won't be drinking nasty chemicals and I'll still be able to get my dishes done efficiently. Maybe they won't sparkle anymore, but at least they'll be clean.

Who Taught you to Clean?

Did you learn how to clean as a child? I'm not sure I did. Like most other girls, I knew how to sweep and vacuum by the time I left home, but my mom wasn't the best housekeeper when my siblings and I were growing up. She is also somewhat of a packrat. She's come a long way since then, but she doesn't have four children living at home messing things up anymore!

Dishes and laundry were done everyday, but as far as other cleaning tasks went, there was a big Saturday effort. Once we were a bit older, my sister and I had a chore list that we could do to earn extra money. Chores like vacuuming, dusting and cleaning the bathroom were on the once a week list. That meant that we couldn't do them more than that or we wouldn't earn anything for our extra effort. If my sister beat me to it, I was out of luck for the week! No extra cash for me!

My mom had a lot to deal with. She was widowed at the young age of 29 and was raising four children on her own. At the time my dad died, my youngest brother was barely 2 and my older sister was 7. My other brother and I were in the middle. So, we were all very, very young. Housekeeping took a back seat to dealing with grief and keeping us clothed and feed.

By the time I was in college and out on my own, I didn't quite have the knowledge or experience to keep my apartment clean. I was never a packrat (though I married one), but I was also never known as "tidy". I learned the hard way that I just can't clean the bathroom once a week and expect it to look clean on any day but that first day. By the sixth day, it'd be downright nasty!

Slowly, over the years, I've worked to get a cleaning routine down that keeps my bathroom clean most of the time and the house fairly presentable. It's still not one of my strongest traits. But, I try!

All of that to say that I want my boys to go out into the world as adults knowing what it takes to stay on top of housekeeping. I want them to know that they can spend a few minutes a day in each room and keep it relatively tidy. Today's task for myself is to make a cleaning list for each of my older boys. I want them to have a checklist of five, simple and easy-to-accomplish tasks that will leave their bedrooms cleaner and tidier than what they were before. I know they can do it!

The list for my 10-year-old son is:

• Clean out the cricket tank.
• Change the water in the frog tank.
• Make bed.
• Use the dustpan to scoop Legos into the Lego bin 5 times.
• Take dirty laundry to the laundry room.

The list for my 5-year-old son is:

• Use the dustpan to scoop Legos in the toy box 3 times.
• Clean the toys off the nightstand.
• Put the stray books in the bookcase.
• Make bed.
• Put the stuffed animals on the bed.

If they don't waste a lot of time complaining, they should both be able to finish their lists in less than 10 minutes. I'm also going to create a list for my own room, which mostly involves dealing with laundry and making my bed. Here's to tidier bedrooms by the end of the day!

Do You Have a Carbon Monoxide Detector?

My neighbors had a seriously close call with carbon monoxide in their home a few days after Christmas. Their carbon monoxide detector went off at a terribly early hour. I think it was five in the morning, but I'm not sure of all the details. They were, however, still asleep at the time. Luckily, they took it seriously, got their two little boys outside and called 911.

The fire department came and inspected the house. It turns out that the carbon monoxide readings in their youngest son's bedroom were extremely high. They later found out that the furnace chimney had a crack in it big enough to stick a hand through. This was news to them and they had no idea how long the crack had been there or how it got there. It seems that the way the weather conditions were that night, there was enough pressure to push all the fumes from the furnace back down through the crack and into their house.

My husband knows the fire chief who responded to the emergency call. The chief said that this family is extrememly lucky they had a working carbon monoxide detector. Had they not had one or had the batteries been dead, chances are, they wouldn't have made it. In just a couple of hours, it would have been to late.

The chief recommended everyone install carbon monoxide detectors in all bedrooms. He said that the current building code for new construction requires it. However, those of us that live in older homes don't have that benefit. It's up to us to make sure our families are safe.

My husband and I have one combo carbon monoxide/smoke detector in our house in the entryway. We have a split level, so this made sense to us. However, in light of our neighbors close call, we are planning on getting one for each bedroom.

A quick Google check led me to this website that recommends carbon monoxide detectors be replaced every five years. That means mine is a couple of years outdated! My husband and I replaced all the batteries in our combo unit and our other three smoke detectors, but we are going to work on updating these very important home safety devices.

How about you? Is your carbon monoxide detector up to date? Do you have one? Does it need a fresh battery? Maybe this week, we should all take care of this super important chore.

Before Flylady, There was Heloise

Our local newspaper runs the Hints from Heloise column every Sunday. A couple of weeks ago, I read a great cleaning tip that I've been trying to implement in my house. Unfortunately, I didn't save the piece, but the basic idea is that you do 5 things at a time. If you walk into a room, pick up 5 things, spend 5 minutes cleaning, 5 minutes decluttering or throw 5 things away, etc. If this becomes a habit, the house will stay tidy. That is no where near an exact quote, but you get the idea.

This morning, I checked out the Heloise website. She's been at this a long time and her website is a great resource for cleaning tips and inspiration! I'm going to bookmark it so I can refer to it again and again.

I finished the 14-article challenge at Suite101 yesterday and, as predicted, my house has suffered. Though, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. Today, I'm going to put Heloise's tip into action and spend 5 minutes cleaning each room. Here's to a cleaner house by the end of the day!

Still Plugging Away at my 14 Articles...

So sorry for the absence from Cleaning up the Clutter. I'm busy working on my 14 articles for Suite101's 14 in 14 days challenge. I've got 8 articles done. This has been really good for my writing. The articles are definitely not works of art, but it's good to write everyday and I've found that the ideas are flowing freely. Just bear with me a bit longer and I'll be back to cleaning and decluttering. My house is going to need it next week!

Here's today's article:

How to Care for Wool Sweaters

14 Articles in 14 Days?! The House will Suffer for Sure!

As some of you know, I have a few on-line writing gigs. One of them is for Suite101.com. They are currently running a challenge for their writers called 14 Articles in 14 Days. It's pretty self-explanatory. I really need to give my writing a kick in the pants, so I decided to go for it.

My long-term goal is to be a bona-fide freelance writer with lots of in-print credits. I've got a few now (5, soon to be 6, but whose counting?). So, to that end I need to write. The only way to be a writer is to be a writer, not a dreamer. Not that there's anything wrong with dreaming, but it's a lot more effective when there are actions to back it up.

In addition to writing 14 articles for Suite101 this month, I've got an assingment to do for my writing class that I really want to knock out of the park and a magazine query that I finished two months ago that I have got to send. Why haven't I sent it yet? I don't know. Fear of rejection, maybe. But, I'm used to that in the writing world, so I don't know about that. But, I've put a lot into it and I think it's a good query. Heck, I've already written the article that goes with it, which I also am quite proud of, so I want it to go out into the universe and be treated kindly. I think I'm afraid it won't be.

In the meantime, I know my house is going to suffer. I've got three kids to take care of and not a lot of spare time as it is. I'm going to try to do some decluttering projects over the next two weeks, but if I don't post much, it's because I'm busy typing.

Here is the beautiful stock photo I found on Morguefile.com yesterday to go with an article I wrote and posted on Suite101. I've got two articles of the 14 done, 12 to go. Wish me luck! Here's to hoping my house isn't too trashed when I get through my writing frenzy!