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walkitoutWe finally had the cleaning meeting / work party that I was attempting to have yesterday. I found old documents in google docs about what needed to be cleaned in our house. One was aimed at cleaners we hired; another was a rough list of what needed to be kept up on once we were back to doing it ourselves. I made a copy of that one, and then split it up mostly by space and used that as an agenda for figuring out who was responsible for which parts of which areas. I also talked through a modification for how we run the dishwasher, to make sure that the kids start learning and building confidence in loading and unloading the dishwasher, and to ensure that the dishwasher has been run _and emptied_ after dinner (or the last major cooking project) every day. The goal is so that when people are awake and putting away dirty breakfast dishes, there is lots of space in the dishwasher to put them.
We also have an ongoing issue with R.’s stinky bike gear, which is laundered separately, being forgotten repeatedly, especially in the dryer. I suggested that we experimented with timed drying; alternatively, we could just start hanging those things to dry instead of attempting to run them through the dryer. The technical parts are already hung; it’s just the small towels and things that are the issue. The dryer sensor thinks they are dry long before they actually are.
And then, on to doing the work! T.’s vacuum broke while he was working on the porch. I had him redo the dining room, because he didn’t really do it — this is a chronic problem with him and his room, and whenever I ask him to vacuum anything, so I really leaned into it this time, since that’s what it takes to get him to receive the information. But the dining room is now vacuumed, without me having to do the whole thing. I didn’t really have to do the porch floor, just get him a different vacuum. I did have to do the furniture in there, but again, I leaned into the question of is it really dirty, and he eventually took on board the idea that Yes, Sure, It Is Dirty (pollen, dead insects, living arachnids, webs, lots of dirty, etc. Yes, it was dirty). A. cleaned two toilets, so she is an absolute rock star now in my opinion. She wants to vac the soft furniture, but I said later.
As I was typing this, T. came up and asked, do we have any life vests? He is going paddle boarding later. I was like, let’s go look. I knew we had one that was way too small, but was pretty sure we also had some that were reasonable size (like, for me) that might fit T. And sure enough, we found one, and Adult W - XL, whatever that means, but it seems to work for him. So, yay! It’ll get some use. While I was looking, I also found another doll couch to donate.
I’m putting together a plan to further reduce the number of books in the house. It’s become increasingly difficult to find people who are willing to accept books (bins are gone everywhere, and the people who used to do pickups no longer do in our area, and the library has even suspended donations recently altho I don’t know their current status), so they are probably all going to Savers. But it is most definitely time to clear it all out.
ETA:
Also, I read Matthew Salesses’ _Craft in the Real World_. I had bought it a while ago (amazon sez: Jan 2021) based on Roxane Gay’s positive comments about it on twitter, IIRC. Then I looked at it, went, oh, but it is about fiction workshops and I Am Scared. So then I didn’t read it (there were also other reasons). But then, K. sent me this link:
https://www.tor.com/2022/08/17/the-ghost-of-workshops-past-how-communism-conservatism-and-the-cold-war-still-mold-our-paths-into-sff-writing/
And as a result of that I went, aha! This may frighten me, but by teaching me _why_ I am scared! I read it, and I plan on rereading it (possibly immediately), because it was _sooooooo_ good. In addition to an amazing analysis of the problems described in the article at the link above as well, Salesses has an enormous treasure trove of ideas for people who run or participate in workshops. Lots and lots of great ideas. He even has a lot that could be used by someone DIY’ing it.
If you already bought it but haven’t read it, I promise you, it’s not scary. Totally worthy.
We also have an ongoing issue with R.’s stinky bike gear, which is laundered separately, being forgotten repeatedly, especially in the dryer. I suggested that we experimented with timed drying; alternatively, we could just start hanging those things to dry instead of attempting to run them through the dryer. The technical parts are already hung; it’s just the small towels and things that are the issue. The dryer sensor thinks they are dry long before they actually are.
And then, on to doing the work! T.’s vacuum broke while he was working on the porch. I had him redo the dining room, because he didn’t really do it — this is a chronic problem with him and his room, and whenever I ask him to vacuum anything, so I really leaned into it this time, since that’s what it takes to get him to receive the information. But the dining room is now vacuumed, without me having to do the whole thing. I didn’t really have to do the porch floor, just get him a different vacuum. I did have to do the furniture in there, but again, I leaned into the question of is it really dirty, and he eventually took on board the idea that Yes, Sure, It Is Dirty (pollen, dead insects, living arachnids, webs, lots of dirty, etc. Yes, it was dirty). A. cleaned two toilets, so she is an absolute rock star now in my opinion. She wants to vac the soft furniture, but I said later.
As I was typing this, T. came up and asked, do we have any life vests? He is going paddle boarding later. I was like, let’s go look. I knew we had one that was way too small, but was pretty sure we also had some that were reasonable size (like, for me) that might fit T. And sure enough, we found one, and Adult W - XL, whatever that means, but it seems to work for him. So, yay! It’ll get some use. While I was looking, I also found another doll couch to donate.
I’m putting together a plan to further reduce the number of books in the house. It’s become increasingly difficult to find people who are willing to accept books (bins are gone everywhere, and the people who used to do pickups no longer do in our area, and the library has even suspended donations recently altho I don’t know their current status), so they are probably all going to Savers. But it is most definitely time to clear it all out.
ETA:
Also, I read Matthew Salesses’ _Craft in the Real World_. I had bought it a while ago (amazon sez: Jan 2021) based on Roxane Gay’s positive comments about it on twitter, IIRC. Then I looked at it, went, oh, but it is about fiction workshops and I Am Scared. So then I didn’t read it (there were also other reasons). But then, K. sent me this link:
https://www.tor.com/2022/08/17/the-ghost-of-workshops-past-how-communism-conservatism-and-the-cold-war-still-mold-our-paths-into-sff-writing/
And as a result of that I went, aha! This may frighten me, but by teaching me _why_ I am scared! I read it, and I plan on rereading it (possibly immediately), because it was _sooooooo_ good. In addition to an amazing analysis of the problems described in the article at the link above as well, Salesses has an enormous treasure trove of ideas for people who run or participate in workshops. Lots and lots of great ideas. He even has a lot that could be used by someone DIY’ing it.
If you already bought it but haven’t read it, I promise you, it’s not scary. Totally worthy.