Happy Slob!

I was so caught up with house cleaning and house keeping work that I didn’t have enough time to update about how it all went. So here I am to share a quick update about cleaning task that I had mentioned in my previous post – Let’s Clean Up!

Housecleaning and housekeeping has never been my cup of tea. But keeping up with dirt seemed pretty harder than cleaning it all up ;-) I have been planning to re-organize my kitchen for ages, but never found enough time to do it. The worst past about procrastination is that even though you neglect the job, the job doesn’t leave you. It always used to linger at the back of my mind that there are a few things that I need to work on but I used to shove it. But thankfully the time had finally arrived when I could compel myself to come out of the cocoon and take care of the kitchen. The other items in the TO-DO house cleaning list (mentioned in my previous post Let’s Clean Up! ) have been done and hence marked C R O S S E D.

- clean the living room : X
- clean the dining table : X
- wash the dining table mats : X
- clean the kitchen
- rearrange the kitchen shelves
- move the unwanted items from the kitchen to storage : X
- clean the two beds : the beds are intricately carved out of wood and hence attract lot of dust : X
- change the bed-sheets : X
- extra quilt covers (it’s winters here in India) : X
- move the kitchenware from all the rooms back to the kitchen : X

Earlier, my kitchen used to be a mess, literally. So many jars and containers were piled up on one another gathering dust. And when I needed something I had to struggle to figure out the right jar. Phew! It was quite a task.
I accomplished this near-to-impossible task on Friday, after I returned home from work. I had read about lot of articles online on how to quick clean and how to spring clean your rooms or kitchen or bathrooms. And after reading them I had an eye for the details and the need of the hour. I could figure out till what level I should delve in to carry out this daunting task. The kitchen sink, tiles, cupboards were all clean. So they didn’t require any work. I fast cleaned up all my shelves, arranged all the containers so that I don’t have problem figuring out the right one when the need is. I also moved oil container, spice jars and mixer apparatus, which always cluttered my kitchen top, to other more appropriate and reachable places.

You know what! My husband was all praises when he saw the kitchen. It looked more neat and organized. The placement of all the kitchen paraphernalia seemed to be in order and made more sense. I am quite ecstatic about all this. I have also decided to keep cleaning my home frequently so that I don’t have a ‘Herculean’ task up my sleeves every time someone has to pay a visit to us. Marking the items left out undone in the TO-DO list as C R O S S E D

- clean the kitchen : X
- rearrange the kitchen shelves : X

And yes, the guests from a faraway land have finally arrived. It is their son’s birthday today. So we have a birthday party up in our agenda today;-)

Let's Clean up !

Yeah, since my guests from a faraway land would be soon dropping in I have to prepare my home to welcome them. As mentioned in my previous post Guests from a land far, far away, focus is on C L E A N I N G & D U S T I N G.

We are living in a rented 3-BHK apartment. Practically we have 2 bedrooms; the other one is converted to host miscellaneous activities. It is partially a store-room and partially a washing room where I have kept my washing machine. It is always cluttered with clothes; both dirty and clean. So I thought of leaving out this room altogether. At least for now I am not going to add this room to my cleaning and dusting chore. So now I am left with the following rooms –
A living room
A kitchen
2 bedrooms
2 toilets

Not losing the focus, I have prepared a list of TO-DO items for the housecleaning task. Earlier I used to mentally prepare and maintain list of items. No pen no paper. But when I read the post about maintaining List I thought even I should pen down the items on a paper (sometimes I can even make soft copies of the list too!). The mere advantage of scribbling it all on paper is that I never waste time recollecting if I have missed out something. Trust me, I waste a lot of time thinking if I have forgotten any item from my mental list. I have never been into this ever before- making lists. This is my initial attempt, perhaps naïve too, to manage house by making lists. I am not good at making lists, at least I think so. I have penned down the items I thought should dot my list. Here is my TO-DO list for preparing my home for the wannabe guests :
- clean the living room
- clean the dining table
- wash the dining table mats
- rearrange the kitchen shelves
- move the unwanted items from the kitchen to storage
- clean the two beds : the beds are intricately carved out of wood and hence attract lot of dust
- change the bed-sheets
- extra quilt covers (it’s winters here in India)
- move the kitchenware from all the rooms back to the kitchen

I am not sure if it is complete. Anyways I will try to stick to it completely. I will keep adding to this list as and when I find something needs to be pushed onto the itinerary. I will be back again on how all this has been. Till then wish me luck in my cleaning endeavor.

Guests from a land far, far away

This December we are expecting guests from a land far, far away from ours. My husband’s Uncle and Aunt and their two lovely children- a son and a daughter, are coming from Australia to visit us here in Delhi (India). His aunt is his Mother's sister. And my husband quite enjoys her company.

Uncle and Aunt are Indians by origin but they chose to make Australia their home land to spend the rest of their lives, or rather to begin a new journey of their life. Uncle had been with merchant navy and had sailed through almost entire world. And when he married her, they chose Sydney to start their new quest. Since then, they have been visiting their family here in India once in three to four years. Last time they were here in Delhi our engagement was being planned. Because their next visit would not have been at least 3 years thence, they pressed my husband’s mom hard to get both of us engaged before they leave. They knew, otherwise, making for our engagement and wedding couldn’t have been possible. So I thank both of them for getting both of us engaged earlier than expected.

There is a vast difference in the climate and culture of India and Australia. Well, culture wise their family is an Indian by heart. So there isn’t any appreciable culture GAP. Though their children were born and brought up in Australia but they, as parents, have deliberated a lot of hard work in inculcating Indian values in their children. So culture isn’t a problem at all. But climate certainly is a BIG problem. Unfortunately, apart from boasting a rich cultural heritage, India also abounds in pollution and dust. On the contrary Sydney has far better and cleaner environment. It’s quite hard for their children to put up with dust and pollution, esp. for the youngest one who is very sensitive to dust. All our family members here in Delhi are busy nowadays to prepare their homes for the guests. We all are specifically focusing on the cleaning part. Unfortunately, there is so much dust around everywhere that if we don’t dust clean our homes regularly our homes will look as if they have been deserted for months. All the siblings of my husband’s aunt, accompanied with their children, will be spending time with her. So we need to prepare our home for at least 10 more guests milling about my house.

So what am I waiting for? Even I need to prepare a checklist of what all things I must do to prepare myself and my house to welcome them. They will be visiting us for the first time. So it’s time to get my home in order, from the perspective of a “happy slob” ;-)