5 Domestic Habits to Break

5 Domestic Habits to Break 

to Improve Your Life

I don't have my crap together, I imagine a lot of people don't. Here's a beginning list of bad habits I personally have that I know breaking will improve our lives.

1. Leaving the dishes for later

• Dried on food is a pain. Moldy dried on food is the worst. At least giving a quick rinse to dishes will make it faster should you decide to put it off. You can soak dishes, but if you're like me, they'll “soak” for 2 days

2. Setting things down on the kitchen table/end table by the door

• A big no no for us. We can't find our kitchen table. Why? It's one of the first surfaces when you come in the door. This is a GREAT way to lose mail you should have opened. This is also lost usable space. We've all read or at least seen the articles on eating at the table, so if you have a table, don't just use it for a garbage dump. You'll also feel better about having guests over. Sitting around the table is an awesome interaction space. You've now opened yourself up for so many more activities! Board games, card games that, sure, you could play on the floor, are so much less back breaking and relaxing at a table. Let's not forget you can start hosting like the almost-adult you are. 
  
  
  
  
  

3. Leaving dishes, cans, and bottles around the house

• Just pick it up. You don't even need to make an extra trip. Take it with you when you get up. Unless you've grown to the furniture, you're going to get up eventually. Save yourself from scrambling around because suddenly it's recycling day and most of your recycling is still laying around the house. You'll feel better when you don't need to shove 5 empty soda cans off to the side to find a coaster.

 

4. Cleaning “whenever”

• Make a schedule for cleaning certain things. It'll help you avoid those sudden realizations that EVERYTHING needs cleaning. Not only will you not have a massive cleaning come due, but cleaning on a regular interval whether it really needs it or not helps decrease the amount of effort it takes to clean. You avoid nasty build up and keep your environment healthier. Don't wait for cat hair tumbleweeds on the carpet to vacuum. And guess what? You don't need to be a doctor or scientist to know that with a clean environment you won't just feel healthier, you'll BE healthier. If it isn't growing in your house, you are less likely to breathe it in.

5. Not planning meals

• We all wing it from time to time. Deciding to order a pizza is A-okay! The thing is, you COULD live that way and be alright, but we aren't looking for “alright”. Planning your meals if nothing else is COST EFFECTIVE. Plan both what to eat and how much time it takes to make it. Having the time to make your food saves you on those pre-prepared food costs. Knowing what you'll be eating throughout the week saves time and gas. One trip to the store is the goal. You can stay on budget better because you aren't popping back into the store and picking up those little impulse buys we all love. If you do forget something vital, make Quick In- Quick Out your mission and stick to it! The longer you spend in the store, the more likely you are to buy. So get in, get out!

So now we have some goals. Are they easy? In concept, absolutely. In execution? If they were, we'd all already be rid of habits like these. And that's exactly what they are – habits that need to be broken. We're all somewhere in this domestic adventure. Some us aren't climbing adult mountain yet and are sitting in base camp enjoying our college age style of living. That's okay too, just know that there are some foothills like these to beat and for some of us, they're a gnarled path of bad habits. Maybe adult mountain is easier than the foothills. To each their own. Good luck and Godspeed.


Pictures in today's article provided by pixabay and PEXELS

Potatoes O'Burnt

Posted from 08/23

Welcome back! Or welcome for the first time. Either way välkommen. So what's been happening? Well Tony and I have been enjoying ourselves mostly. We play Pokémon GO! so we took an adventure down to the Neenah, Wisconsin area to a park that's hopping with activity. It was a good day to decompress and think about our week to come. On our way home we made sure to pick up groceries. That's right, folks! No last minute ideas about what to eat, we've got this week all settled. We made it a fairly easy week too. Fast fixing food I like to call it. It's that mix between cooking and boxed meals. The hope is that it will cut down on food preparation time for a little while so that I can throw myself more into getting the house clean the way we want because it's still a far way off. You'd think it would make life easier.

You'd think.

Monday's (8/22) meal should have been simple. Breaded and baked haddock fillets, seasoned baked fries for me, and Potatoes o' Brian for Tony. The fish got done way too early (that timing business again) so by the time the potatoes were done... and I mean DONE... the fish was luke warm at best.
Tony had reheated haddock and potatoes o' burnt. He assured me the “char” was really great and I assured him that I'm not going to burn it on purpose in the future even if his assurances made me want to test him on it. I'm not a wicked woman so he dodged a bullet on that one!

The fries I threw in a little later for myself and grazed on through the night. It worked out well for me since I had of course, another headache. We aren't talking migraine levels here, but we are talking a bleh day. I managed some dishes and to not make the house worse. Generally the day was a flop.

I'm really not going to complain about it though. That's just how the day went, it wasn't great but I can't bring myself to see it as a failure. It can be recorded as a misadventure 100%, but a failure? No. If burned potatoes constitutes a failure, boy oh boy have I got my life together! A little thing like that?

Pish, friends. Pish.

So I have a bad habit I'd like to address.

I forget to thaw meat ahead of time.

You can plan all the meals you want but if you're using a type of ground meat for your meal and forget to thaw it, you'd better figure out a new plan real quick. Today (8/23) was another day that I managed to forget the meat. I could have just kept it in the fridge for the day and a half we've had it but I'm so in the habit of not being able to cook meals that I automatically put meats in the freezer. Ah, well. Another piece of our lives that needs adjusting.
Throughout this process my mother has been so amazingly helpful. Today she came to the rescue in the form of brats. My original plan had been to make Tony a boxed meal you add ground beef to and he'd have some for dinner and the rest for his work lunch. Now it was looking like a meal with all carbs. Not ideal for someone with a physical job like his. Well my mother being the wonderful woman she is had already set aside 4 bratwurst for him just because she thought he might like them. With 2 for work and 2 for dinner with the meatless dish I made, he's all fed and ready to go.

Appreciate your mother, folks.

Accept Your Success

Hey guys! I haven't posted in about a week. I've been pretty busy. By pretty busy I mean I've been enjoying what I feel has been the start of Fall. I've been working on a project for Halloween and have been compiling that for a future post, so look for my Halloween DIY post later this month! For now, please enjoy this short post about chronic illness.

Posted from 08/18

Homemaking. Home. Making. We take the word for granted. I cannot express the change in how I feel about my home. While Tony and I would like to own a home, it makes whatever place we are able to live in so much better. After the past few weeks, I've come to appreciate how much better our home feels. It no longer feels just like the place we come to to pass out. It feels like a real home. Everything I do here helps to improve the feel of our home. I really am making this place ours. Even on the days I struggle most, I can still feel satisfaction in our (slowly) improving home.

And struggle I do. “The struggle is real, bruh.” I suffer from chronic migraines so everything is always extra fun. Last year I FINALLY had a care provider listen and was implanted with an IUD which has so drastically reduced my migraine days. I used to have a migraine every day for 2 weeks straight out of the month, and have now reduced to maybe 10 migraines a month. Still not wonderful considering there are some magical unicorns in life that have never experienced a single migraine. But we do what we can, because I'm more like a narwhal in life; unique enough some people think they don't exist, but legit an actual living creature if not commonly seen. Note* I don't have a horn and also don't stab people.

Bubbles watches over me when I'm sick

My chronic migraines are no joke when it comes to being a functioning human being/narwhal. I spent the last day and a half with an on/off migraine with the “off” being a downgrade of a bad headache. I took that time as a green light and did what I could. I did a few dishes but I have to tell you the pile in and around our sink has reached near catastrophic proportions. I've taken a before picture but I will not be showing it until I have a satisfactory after picture. So that's what I did in 2 days. I managed to wash a few dishes and cooked a single meal. The meal I cooked was a boxed meal but I'll take it as a success.

Sometimes the successes we accept for ourselves are failures for other people, but who cares? They don't live here anyway.

Off to the Races

Posted from 8/10

Hello friends, let's take some time and talk about TIMING because dear God is that a pain.
Tony unsuspectingly had to pick up a little over time which means SURPRISE MEAL PREPARATION! Hooray?
So it seems I'm channeling Tony's cravings because I said “tuna casserole” and he lit up and exclaimed his recent craving for fish. (Well tell me, fool and then I'll know! Lol) So let's get a recipe!

“Mom, can I have your recipe for tuna noodle casserole?”

“Well, um, you use..”

“No no, just the recipe.”
“I don't have one.”

0.o …. “erm, what?”

“I do it from memory the way my mother taught me.”

Sweet! That's alright with me, but I'm writing that business down. I'm sorry, I just can't remember that sort of thing yet.

I'm missing just a couple of ingredients so I plan to wake up at a set alarm time the next day and go briefly shopping. My round trip took maybe 20 minutes... but when you wake up and hour late? Let's just say I have no need for a gym membership today. Booking it in the kitchen is something I hate, but the alternative is Tony trying to explain to his boss the reason he's late is that his ladyfriend couldn't get the *expletive* tuna noodle casserole in the oven on time. 

Time. Running out of time. 

Everything's home now, put the water on to boil. 

No clean pots, not one. Maybe I should have allowed a little time for dishes? Clean the pot, start the water. Sweet, okay. Maybe I should wash a casserole dish and the pasta strainer while I'm at it! No problem. 

Tick tock.
Drain the tuna, drain the peas. So I have this new fangled can opener. It's the kind that breaks the glue seal and produces no sharp edges which is really nice... except when you need to drain what was in the can. I can't press it in! What do I do? I dorked around with the lid for a while but ultimately I ended up pressing it out with my fingers. Peas were easier.
Cat. One of the cats has caught wind of what I'm draining. Cue the caterwauling and the tripping me up. No really, thank you tiny friend, I needed to trip repeatedly in the hot kitchen today. And thank you for the crying, you've attracted the other cat who, as I found out today, isn't actually interested in tuna, she just wanted to know what was happening.
Noodles are done! Drain those things and GO! Crap, I forgot the cans of tuna and peas directly in the sink. Time to balance the hot cook pot with one hand and fish those puppies out with the other.
Throw it back in the pot, mix in the cream of chicken.

Dear river of cats around my feet (there are only two but gee golly it feels like more when they're around your feet), to satiate your nom propelled curiosity, I make this offering of a cream of chicken lid.
Mix all that crap up, go dump it in the casserole.

Turns out, neither are interested in cream of chicken (divas!) and I've stepped just over the lid and it has now plastered to the inside of my pant leg and is glazing itself to my ankle. Can't stop! I have an alarm in my pocket that has been going off for 2 minutes and that casserole WILL GO IN!!
So it's in, I run to the base of the stairs and wake Tony. Wake Tony, yell frantically up the stairs to Tony, whatever.
Relax, calm down. You just made it in with enough time for it to cook and be out with 20 minutes eating time...
You forgot the foil on top. Yank it out, throw on the foil, shove it back in. Beautiful. Still good. Now just panic for a while for no good reason. Also, go clean your leg, you animal.
Food! It's food. Finally. Phew.

I scoop up a wad because, let's face it, that's how tuna noodle casserole comes out, and give it to Tony and this fool is smiling like he's never seen food before.
“Why are you smiling like that?”
“I just really love you”
Ah, tuna noodle casserole, the food of love.

So let's talk about that timing thing. I'm so horrendously terrible at it. Meal planning is so completely not my thing (yet). So usually here I am with an “Oh I know!” plan dejour and am missing the ingredients to fulfill it. I am usually missing the proper cookware not because I don't have it, but because I haven't washed it. I cannot explain the level of loathing I have for washing dishes. I really have to pump myself up for it, or be driven to it out of necessity through either needing them, or needing them not to start molding. Gross.

Planning meals means planning more than the food, it means planning your other chores, augmenting your day, and making sure you stay on schedule. Sure, you're home, but timing matters here just as much as a job outside the home. So maybe, if you're absolute garbage staying on schedule at home, you can see that at least once in a while, if you bust ass, you can still nail it - even with a furry river around your feet.