Counter bad habits with good ones for a tidier house...

As I'm typing this, I'm watching 'How Clean is your House?'. I know I've mentioned the show before, but I think there is allot to be learned from these shows to show how quickly a house can get so out of control that it poses a health threat. Not that a bit of dirt is dangerous, but a buildup of dirt, dust and damp is. Most people who's houses are dirty say things like "I'm not unclean, I'm just untidy" or "I actually hate living in an unclean house" and "It's so bad I don't know where to start".


The problem ALWAYS starts with untidiness. Once the clutter takes over, the surfaces are unreachable and things need moving before you can clean, so things just don't get cleaned. You cannot clean an untidy house, and an untidy house is daunting! But can all these untidy people change? Untidiness is normally a result of bad habits, habits that people can't seem to change.

Photo from and episode of How Clean is your House

Regular readers of my blog will know that I have said before, I am not naturally tidy, at all... my bedroom as a child and my student flat both had at times, a floor covered in clothes/wet towels etc. So what has changed? Well, I haven't changed, I still have very bad habits, the difference now is I admit I have bad habits, and I've developed good habits to counter the bad habits. Yes, at times our house does get very untidy, especially when there's a bit of DIY decorating going on. I can sympathise with the above statements, but the secret to a clean house, really is being tidy and clutter-free. Let's be honest there is no such thing as a 'clean untidy house'. So what can be done? The solution lies in first identifying the bad habits.

Here's an example of how a chaotic house starts off.

Let's start with a clean slate and imagine I've just finished my spring cleaning and the house is perfect on a Sunday night. This is what happens.
1- Sunday night I go to bed, and leave my clothes from that day on the floor after I get into my pajamas.
2- The next morning Mr L has a shower, and leaves his towel on the bathroom floor.
3- When we get home Monday evening I leave my coat on the sofa, sit down with a cup of tea and kick my shoes off. Mr L gets home, and after dinner he too kicks his shoes off when he sits on the sofa, and takes his jumper off because the house is nice an warm.
4- Then we take the dog for a walk, and it's raining outside, so he treads through the house with his wet feet, and chews his post walk biscuit on the rug.

In only one day we have gone from a perfectly clean house, to a bathroom that has wet towel on the floor, a bedroom with clothes on the floor, a living room with a coat and a jumper on the sofas, 4 shoes on the rug (and probably their socks too) and muddy footprints along with biscuit crumbs on the rug. And this example doesn't even include the cooking in the kitchen, the toothpaste in the sink or the dog hairs on the sofa. Now imagine another five days like this passes, and you can imagine that you already have a house that feels out of control and daunting to clean. so how do we change this scenario? All it takes is a bit of time to remember to look around and see what needs doing. Here's how we can change the same scenario with the bad habits still in place.

1- Sunday night I go to bed, and leave my clothes from that day on the floor after I get into my pajamas. Just before I put the lights out, I fold my jeans that are were only worn once, and put my undies and top in the laundry basket.
2- The next morning Mr L has a shower, and leaves his towel on the bathroom floor, I walk past and remind him nicely to hang it up and wipe the shower door down with the squeegee.
3- When we get home Monday evening I leave my coat on the sofa, sit down with a cup of tea and kick my shoes off. Mr L gets home, and after dinner he too kicks his shoes off when he sits on the sofa, and takes his jumper off because the house is nice an warm.
4- Then we take the dog for a walk, and it's raining outside, so I put a doggy towel at the front door to wipe his feet on. The dog then chews his post-walk biscuit on the rug. Before our favourite program starts, I set my timer for 5 minutes in which time I tidy away anything that doesn't belong in the lounge, and do a quick vacuum of the rug whilst Mr L unpacks the dishwasher in the kitchen so that we can use it the next morning.

Taking time to look at what is out of place, is a great way to start cleaning. so stop feeling guilty for the bad habits, and don't get mad at your partner for theirs either. Some bad habits are so ingrained that you're better off developing a new good habit than trying to un-learn a bad habit. With your good habit in place (give it time, actions take between 20-30 days to become a real habit) without realising it you might unknowingly stop the bad habit, and if you don't, oh well, you know you'll do something about it. And once your house is tidy, well then the surfaces are quick and easy to clean, and the vacuum cleaner can glide over the rug without the risk of getting a sock stuck in it.

Have you got any bad habits you'd like to confess?

Have a great weekend!
x

Cooking with oils & a warning about pine nuts from China

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend. Mr L & I are trying to be healthy at the moment, and through our attempts we've stumbled upon some interesting information regarding cooking with oils (perhaps you already know this). We use to just drizzle some virgin olive oil in all or pans, thinking we were being healthy... aaah, but it turns out that virgin olive oil is not always the healthier better choice... it all depends on what temperature you'll be cooking your food at. If you overheat your oil, not only will it make your food taste bad, but it looses all it's goodness too, and could contain free radicals that contribute to the risk of cancer. Scary stuff!

It turns out that it's all got to do with the 'smoke point' IE. the temperature the oil can handle. Some oils start smoking at a much lower temperature than others. So leave that extra virgin olive oil for your salads, and use a healthy coconut oil or Ghee for stir fries and believe it or not, bur you are better off with refinde oils for deep frying (who knew?). Follow this link for a list of oils and their smoke point so that you too can make sure that you don't cook all the goodness and taste out of your oils!


Warning: do not purchase Pine Nuts from China!
On Wednesday last week I bought a packet of pine nuts from a Tesco store here in the UK. Tescos import their Pine Nuts from China (and I admit I did not look at the label when I bought them). After nibbling on this lovely healthy snack (or so I thought) between Wednesday and Friday, I suddenly yesterday noticed all my food tasting bitter. At first I thought it was the grapes I was eating, but then all my meals were tasting this way. After doing a bit of research on Google, i found out I am not the only one. There are plenty of people out there who have been experiencing the same horrible after effects (believe me, it's really unpleasant - so much so that even wine and chocolate tastes foul). It seems that it might be due to these nuts from China being oxidised, but there hasn't been enough research done to confirm this. The symptoms can last between 3 days and two weeks, so I'm afraid my meals for the next few days wont be anything I'll be looking forward to too much. Please don't eat pine nuts from China dear readers, I'd hate for you to experience the same thing until this has been sorted.

Happy Halloween!

A day late I know, but I hope you all had a good weekend, and that for those of you who partake in Halloween festivities, that you had a fun time.

This year we hosted our very first Halloween party at our house. But let me tell you, Mr L and I are not party-throwing people, we're more the small dinner party sorts. But this year we were very social and threw a Halloween party for about 20 people and 5 kids... all squeezed into our lounge/dining room. I was planning for weeks, and by the time the party came around I was exhausted and nervous, but I can also say that I really enjoyed it (and yes... with all those guests attending, I cleaned the house, especially the bathroom, as best as I could). Would you like to see some party photos? Well, I'll share them just in case you'd like to see some Halloween decor (inspired by the Martha Stewart website of course) and some silly costumes.

Lots of black cardboard silhouettes was the theme, and this is our front window.

Mice on the stairs...


The drinks table guarded by our New Zealand masks...Can you tell who I am? I am meant to be the ghost of Marie Antoinette, with my mummy dog...

The food table...
Some more scary decor...The cobwebbed fireplace...

And finally, from Mr.L, Banjo and me... Hope you had a wonderful Halloween!