Becoming Domestic

I am not a big fan of spiders. In fact they paralyse me with fear or send me into a screaming loon. When the children were 18 months old I ran screaming from their room leaving them alone with a huge great big hairy one. Nice work mummy.
Since moving to the country I am less frightened by them because there are so darn many of them - there is usually at least one big spindly legged chap in each corner of the house.

The best cure apart from moving to the countryside is this most amazing gadget any girl could wish to own:

The Lakeland Spider Catcher

Oh thank you Lakeland! Thank you so very much for releasing me from spider hell. Why just this very minute I was walking up the stairs to bed, Darren is out with some Worcestershire geeks, and there on the ceiling preventing from entering the bathroom is a whopper - the kind that has great googly eyes which look like extra legs. What to do!?

Be brave Ackers, get The Spider Catcher gadget, check the batteries for maximum vacuuming strength, get a stool to stand on so you can reach from a distance (I think having one that size land on my head may result in a very bad very loud reaction), grit your teeth and catch that spider!

Scary stuff but not with Lakeland’s product of the century. I’m going to reward them with a link to their shop from this very site.

‘If there’s time to lean, there’s time to clean!’

2 Minute Jobs:

• Load dishwasher
• Wash a sink
• Sweep a floor
• Tickle ceiling corners with a feather duster
• Wipe a toilet
• Empty wastepaper baskets
• Load washing machine
• Polish a mirror/picture
• Find a few things to donate to the charity shop (toys, clothes, unwanted gifts)
• Empty car of toys & rubbish

5 Minute Jobs:

• Unload dishwasher
• Organise food in fridge
• Vacuum a room
• Wash the bath/shower
• Put bread making ingredients into breadmaker
• Water plants
• Hang washing on a line
• Write a postcard or email to someone
• Put folded laundry away
• Paint fingernails (but allow a bit of drying time!)

10 Minute Jobs:

• Check online bank statements and download latest figures
• Gather washing from the line
• Meal planning
• Iron some clothes
• Vacuum car
• Cut grass

Why has no-one ever pointed out to me the importance of stripping the bed AND IMMEDIATELY making the bed up with fresh bed linen during the same 10 minutes?!

Perhaps I’m part of a small slovenly minority who didn’t know why whisking the dirty bed linen away to the washing machine without taking the time to replace the linen with fresh is a Bad Habit (I’ve been doing it this way since leaving home aged 17).

This morning I changed the bed in our bedroom and congratulated myself for having the energy and time to take off last weeks sheets and put on fresh. I felt midly relieved that I wouldn’t have the shock of realising that they needed sheets and duvet covers to be put on just when I least wanted to.

This afterternoon while out with the kids I started feeling really poorly which turned into a migraine. Luckily Darren was home and able to drop what he was doing to bath the children and put them to bed while I fell shivering into our bed with a splitting headache and feeling really nauseous.

I was so thankful that I’d spent the extra time (no more than 3 minutes) to pop the fitted sheet, duvet cover and pillow cases on during my morning houswork session that I vowed to myself that myself I would always do a complete change of each bed from now on instead of my previous habit of taking the sheets off and waiting until I’m next upstairs to install the new linen.

I also promised myself that I would pass on this top tip to my kids so they don’t spend half their life being irritated by beds which are not ready to be slept in.