wendymt's Profile

I myself have done some research into the home and I learnt a little something that may bring understanding. In the days before restaurants, the only place to get food was at home. In these days, most shops were part of the house and so if a meal came up and business was still being discussed. Then the client stayed for dinner. At that time a household would have between 20 or more people in it. Furniture was minimal and often chests and benches were used as chairs or tables. Food was the women's terratory and this is when "house proud" first beginning to be seen. Women were just taking an interest in their domain. There wasn't much in that time to celebrate, so they made what they could of every moment. I'm not sure when it change to us having to validate our want/need to entertain. But good food, good friends and family is excuse enough for me. I usually have a Friday night dinner and any of our friends can come with a simple phone call. I learnt recently why these nights are a hit. To them our house is a home. So does that mean the need to entertain comes from the need to share our homes? Interesting thought.

Here's an ancient way to get your linens white. Most of us won't be able to do this but, it's a historical fact. In European countries during the middle ages women would first beat their clothes against rocks with lye soap and then hang their unbleached linens over cotton bushes in the sun to dry to bleach them.

As for the jeans thing, I've a 4 yr old that always has mucky fingers no matter how often I clean him up. I'm not going to waste my time "spot" cleaning my jeans. I do wash them maybe once a month in cold water with very little soap, I smooth them out in the way they will be folded so I get the lines down the front and back of my jeans and then I lay them out on a clothes rack in my kitchen.
Why iron out wrinkles in things? Just take a hot shower with the wrinkled clothing in the bathroom near the shower. The steam and gravity will pull out the wrinkles.
I live with baking soda and vinegar as my mainstay for cleaning.
Baking soda will get stains off most counters if they are surface stains. (Google the type of counter you have as you may need to seal them every so often for this to work. Or the manufacturer may have other recommendations on getting stains off in a Green manner.)
I'm an Interior Decorator, when I put something into a person's home we ask how are these things cleaned. Why? The cleaning manner may make the much loved item a no go.
Denim is actually a hard wearing material, it's stretch now comes from synthetic materials, so if you're into green all the way...read the label of the jeans before you buy them...get a fit that's snug at first and no spandex (or whatever). Wash with very little soap and cold water, hang dry. This will preserve the fibers, not the dyes. To help preserve the dye colour use about 1/2 cup salt in the water, it will help set the dye, do this for the first 4 washings. Wash your jeans with like coloured jeans. Dark blue with dark blue. Black with black. Sounds silly but if you have 4 pairs of Levi's in the same wash type. The dyes released will redeposit back on the jeans a little and help preserve the colour without altering the dye colour much. Same theory (we've all done this.) 1 red thing in with the whites. What do we get? Pink things. As for freezing, people freeze batteries (debunked myth) to slow the discharge.
Note: Jeans were originally made from tent canvas. Denim is a highly durable material if it's pure without stretch additives.

This is my first time posting here, I've a blind husband and a 4 yr old boy. I get no help even when I'm going to school full-time for interior decorating.

A help in staying organized, this works great in a apartment and even better in a large multi-level house.

Take a large basket with you from room to room. When you find something that needs to go into another room, then toss it into the basket, when you get to that room to clean it then put it away. It will save you time because you aren't running back and forth over and over again.

I keep a basket on top of the filing cabinet and as I go through the mail I toss everything like empty envolope into the recycling and put what needs to be dealt with/filed into the basket. Once a month I deal with what's in the basket. We have to keep paper copies for the government because my husband is on disability.

As for drawers, if you're really strapped for cash, shoe boxes and dollarstore boxes can help sort your things and keep them in neat stacks.

If you're having problems figuring out where to start, try pulling everything out of the room and then as you put things back into the room, decide if it should go back or not. Have a place for garbage, donate, and sell. Once you're through all of it, look at your room critically, can it use a dresser? a bookcase? a chest? some baskets? What will work for you to get to things easily?

I have to think of my husband, can he get to it? can he figure out which is what? will he hurt himself or break something getting to what he wants? These are all questions we all should be asking. Nothing more useless than your dinner plates on the top shelf.

You need to logically walk through the room or run through things as you put things away. How will you get it out? Will you be in a rush?
Are kids and pets safe where that item is? Is the item safe from the kids and pets?
Store things in rooms that make sense, you'll be more likely to remember where it is.

Hope some of this helps.