Teaching your family to pick things up

Adapted from this article about How to Get Children to Pick Things Up

This article will give you a way to teach your child to pick things up.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging  virtually impossible

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Time - 18 years
• Patience of a saint
• Lots of Loving   
  
• A realization that you might just have to adjust your standards of clean. 

*Realize that when your child grabs things and throws them all onto the floor, something needs to be done. This is not a good way to live. Rarely will they ever learn, on their own or with the help of others for that matter, that things really do not belong on the floor.

*Try to pretend that you are happy. Mommy is so happy you are chunking stuff on the floor!  Look, the good stuff is in the china cabinet! 

*Pretend that it's a game, and you want to play. Lookey here, now mommy is taking the entire contents of your underwear drawer and tossing its contents one garment at a time onto your floor!  This is fun!  Whoo-hooo!    Now, it really isn't a game. No really...it is kind of fun.  I think they are on to something here.  No more folding laundry.  Just chunk it on the floor!  Of course you don't feel like picking up all the toys, clothes, books, and the never-ending list of things that children purposely throw onto the floor, but push all your feelings aside to placate others but just try to look happy, talk happy, and sound happy while you begin picking these things up. Oh yes, confuse them.  They all think you are crazy anyway.  And if they don't, give 'em a few years.

*It would help if you would even sing while you pick things up with them. "I'm sick of this bit, I'm sick of this bit, why can't anyone, pick up their own ....  "   It would be a little more fun for your child, and they will remember this moment. "The moment when mommy's cheese slid off her cracker."

*Ask your child if they want to play. Most children will be happy to "play".  "I throw things down, mommy sings and picks them up!  This is fun!  I'm off to find more things to throw!"

*Once the game is over, and everything is picked up, it probably won't take long for your child to start throwing things down onto the floor again.  You call this progress? 

*Don't let that bother you, though, because you really are teaching them; and they really are learning. Wait, I thought they were still throwing things down.  Delusional, much?  Where's the "learning" that you mention?  The only thing they are learning is that mommy sings and acts crazy when she's angry.

*Eventually, you should begin to start seeing them picking things up on their own. You only have to harbor your frustration and smile for a little over 1.5 decades.

*They might even sing a little song while they are picking up.  Oops.

*If you catch your child picking up, it would be really great if you would join in, and maybe even say things like, "Yay!", and "This is fun!" Or they will realize that it is not fun, like we all know.  Because it's NOT FUN.  Even if you are singing your little songs and doing your jig and smiling and saying "It's fun!"  It's not fun. 

I need a laundry room keeper

I don't need a housekeeper.

The house is usually fairly kept.

What I need is a laundry room keeper.

This is embarrassing.

She (or he) wouldn't even have to do laundry. 

I do my laundry on Fridays.

This photo was not taken on a Friday.

He (or she) would have to organize this box of wires.

And old remote controls.

And manuals to electronics.

Most of which we don't have anymore.

Don't stick your hand it there.  It might get caught.

And he (or she) would have to stick some stuff in the attic.

Or maybe make a donation.

To the city dump.

Free to good home.  Broken lamp

Oh, forget it.
It would be too much to ask of anyone to sort through this mess.
I'll just shut the door.
Problem solved.

Under the Sink

Moving into a house that has been vacant and neglected for several months (years?) has it's challenges.  Some parts of the house were easy to clean.  Take these bugs right here:

 Can you spot the spider who is trying to run for his life?

I swept them up into a giant pile, mopped with enough chemicals to contaminate the water supply in surrounding counties, and voila!  Clean!

Other areas are not so simple.  We have 4 sinks in the house and all of the "under sink cabinents looked like this:

Plunger stains?

The obvious solution would be Contact Paper, which was my original plan.  But Marc's Aunt Jane suggested Peel-N-Stick Floor Tiles which can be found at the Dollar Store.  Who knew?

I found an interesting but not extensive selection there (beggars can't be choosers.) 

This is the result:

 Clean and clean-able!

 Very simple project!  Thank you Aunt Jane! 

The Throne

Grrrr....Have you ever gotten really frustrated and gone Incredible Hulk on your toilet?  Just ripped the toilet lid right off the seat? 

Don't you just hate it when that happens?  

Maybe you even smashed someone with it.

  I am not here to judge.  

I am here to help.  In fact, I have the perfect solution for you!

Now then, doesn't that look nice? 

Simply take the seat off, drill four new holes, reattach your lid, and leave the exposed stripped holes to collect bacteria and rot. 
It might be a little wobbly, but you'll learn to balance yourself.
I hate to take credit for this idea.  You see, it was our previous home owner's solution. 


Or you could go buy a new toilet seat for 20 bucks.  That's what I did.
Not that I didn't appreciate their "handy work."

Just for fun, I went ahead and replaced this one too.

Because that's just nasty.

Got Gross Grout?

"GROUT" is such an ugly word.  And unfortunately, it is sometimes an ugly, dirty part of your home.

I noticed that the grout in our living room had absorbed every little drop of liquid that had been spilled on it over the years.  Despite my efforts, I could not get it clean.  I could easily blame the kids or Rex, but I was just as guilty since I generally rush out the door each morning carrying two tons of school stuff and my much needed cup of coffee.  The coffee never makes it to the car without spilling a little here and there.  Once, I even left it on top of the car and didn't realize it until I stopped at a red light.  "What is that noise?  What is rattling on top of the car?  And where is my coffee?"  That mystery took at least 10 blocks to solve. 

Anyhoo, grout + spilled stuff = gross and impossible to clean.

 Take your eyes off that precious cat and feast upon the tile:  

Something about the tile just doesn't look clean to me.

I decided to tackle this problem last summer.
I visited Lowe's and purchased these products:

Then I spent the next several hours removing rugs and small furniture, scouring my grout with the cleaner and the brush, which was about as thrilling as it sounds.  I meticulously vacuumed the tile, swept the tile, mopped the tile, steam-mopped the tile, steam-mopped again, and collapsed from exhaustion.  But just for a sec because I knew I had to work quickly before the grout soiled itself again.

The next step will sound familiar to you if you read my "Patio Painting" blog.  I simply poured the grout sealer into a paint tray and rolled it on the tile and grout.  I did half the floor, let it dry for 24 hrs, then moved the heavy furniture to the "done" part and finished the remaining section.

The result was beautiful, somewhat glossy (which appeals to my Type A semi-clean freak nature) tile.

Ignore the backpack thrown in the middle of the floor; I said I was "SEMI-clean freak."

See the "wet look?"  The best part is, we can drop Popsicle (the kids,) spill an entire jar of salsa (me,) or spill coffee (me again,) all we want...and it mops right up!  Well, it doesn't mop itself up, I still have to do that part.