Day 1- Whole30

Things are going well. I’m planning on making some iced unsweet tea when I get home because I’m craving tea and love unsweet

I’m not craving anything outside of unsweet tea and it’s allowed, so its all good. I did get to feeling very hungry but my lunch break was late.

I’m planning on going grocery shopping today after work so ill be able to get what I need.

I’m working up to quitting smoking so I don’t end up failing everything

So far- mood- fine

Cravings- none

Symptoms- brain fog and time standing still

Completed my first day of grocery shopping

It killed my budget but I hope it lasts through the majority of 2-3 weeks.

The meat alone should. Im not feeling great nor bad. Wanting tea and that’s it.

Today is my technical last day but my food has been compliant

I was wrong before. I keep thinking there are only 30 days in the month.

Today, I ate bacon and eggs for breakfast and have a lunch of a plain baked potato, salmon and kale with no butter.

I’m still unsure if ill allow myself one last time indulgence or am going to just start today. Im thinking starting today.

Tomorrow is my cigarette quit day, I have work then a day of making candles and editing my book planned after to keep my hands and mind busy.

Today is the day before I start Whole30

Technically, its still 7-29, but once I wake up it will be the day before.

I’m getting myself used to unsweetened tea already (I already liked it.)

I’m not feeling nervous, even though I’m going to try to go without tobacco as well. (I’m creating a 30 day no nicotine challenge for myself as well)

I’ll be posting daily updates and working on focusing on other things.

Last week, I gave up Facebook. I now have no way to access it to unset it up for deletion so next month, I’ll be focused on learning new recipes I’ll post on here, writing and learning pottery/sewing clothing.

I’m going to try to switch things up to spend the time i would smoke

Tomorrow I’ll post up my before pics and weight.

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Whole30 (Again)

On August 1, I’m prepping to begin the Whole30 again.

Whole30 is something I’ve written several posts about in the past, I did it in 2019.

Just to recap, I’ll be giving up

Sugar, alcohol(but I don’t drink anyways), dairy, grains/gluten(all grains), most legumes and certain food additives for 30 days.

Melissa Hartwig (writer and creator of the Whole30) wrote a journal Whole30 Day by Day and I’ll be logging “journal entries” on a regular basis during my Whole30 experience.

Is there anyone else doing it during August? I’m hoping if I log how I feel and any changes, it will push anyone who reads who has been curious to try it. It got easier last year and by week 3, I had it almost down perfectly. I also never went through sugar withdrawal but did have some cravings occasionally.

Keeping the House in Order With Multiple Cats

Owning more than one cat doesn’t mean your house has to smell like a litter box or look condemnable. With cats, come food bowls, litter boxes and potential fleas. If you have multiple indoor cats, you may still want to keep a flea treatment on hand since they can come in on shoes, clothing or through cracks in doors. We lived in an apartment with one cat and ended up having to flea bomb the house. Bombing worked and we were able to get rid of the infestation fairly quickly but had to make plans to have the cat out of the house.

person cleaning a cat litter box — Photo by chatchawarn loetsupan on Pexels.com

Keeping more than one litter box and making sure to scoop in the morning and evening can help eliminate odors, especially if you throw the bag away in an outside trashcan immediately. Air fresheners and litter deodorizer also helps.

Keep food and water dishes confined to a small area, like the kitchen so messes are easier to keep up.

Clean all vomit or anything else up immediately.

Make sure your flooring isn’t carpet. Carpet is stained easier, harder to clean and retains smells worse than hard wood, tile or linoleum. Run a dust mop or sweep 1-2 times a day and mop as much as you need.

Vacuum all fabric surfaces, like sofas or kid toy sofas, pet bedding or towels on a regular basis. Brush your cats daily and sweep up all stray hair balls.

Keep all cats treated for any and all parasites and make sure they visit the vet regularly- otherwise you could look at diarrhea, flea infestations, worms or other messy problems.

Get cats fixed to help keep from spraying

If your cat has problems with hairballs, there are foods that help control hairballs and brushing can help.

If you have any other tips for multiple cat households, what do you do?

What is it like to downsize with a family?

Last year, we moved out of a somewhat small/medium size town home and bought a smaller home. We needed out of the town home and buying made sense- we wanted stability of one location with the added bonus of owning instead of paying to nothing, so we found a cute home but smaller in the area where he grew up.

We only went down 40sqft but that was enough to see a difference.

We now generally have lower utility payments, which is a perk of moving to a smaller home. We also have a smaller home but bigger yard. Moving from a town home joined with several other homes to a single family in a rural area gave us a garage as well, so he is able to do side jobs in the comfort of our garage.

We did move from a 4 bed with two closets the sizes of rooms to a 3 bed with closets in the bedrooms and a linen closet in the bathroom, so we are having to get creative with storage.
We have taken pieces of wood and turned them into key and jacket hooks to hang on the walls, bought book storage and extra children’s toy boxes to handle larger toys and the kids’ books, had to buy a new shoe rack and we use as many wall hanger storage systems we can get. I also went through most of my stuff and have donated bags of clothing, outgrown toys and fabric I’ll never use. We have cabinets from Walmart and Lowes along most walls and have a lot of furniture that doubles as storage.

If you’re moving to a smaller house out of a larger town house or apartment

You will likely have more of a yard and might have a garage. You will be able to make up the storage you’re giving up by adding in a storage shed in the yard and putting seasonal decor and other items in the garage. Storage sheds can be bought on credit at places like Lowes or Home Depot, they typically can range from 1-2/3k depending on the dimensions and material.

Home Depot also has portable closets that can be set up on the wall to give you a makeshift closet. That would require extra wall space, and space can be limited.

For larger budgets, watching the Netflix documentary series about tiny houses can give ideas for mods to make to give storage in compact areas. One I personally liked was a sewing center under the bed- pull it out and the sewing machine pops out and it fit snugly under their bed, so it took up no space.

Finding things like storage ottomans, storage benches that work in the kitchen as seating with lids for storage works as well.

If you’re moving from a larger house with a larger yard and more storage space to a smaller house or apartment, the best way to handle lack of storage is to hold a large yard sale, sell stuff on Facebook or Craigslist or donate. When you downsize and there is less opportunity to create storage (and renting a storage building is out of the question), downsizing your belongings (and making some extra cash) is the best way to go.

Have you ever downsized? How did you handle going from lots of storage space to practically nothing?

How Often Should I Wash?

Typically, when you wear a pair of underwear or a shirt, you throw it in the laundry immediately after wearing it. Washcloths are another one use wash but what about towels? Hand towels? Sheets, covers, blinds or curtains?

This will be an ongoing guide with updates on a regular basis.

Towels are said to be OK 2-3 uses since you dry yourself off after bathing but some people prefer using them once.

Hand towels that are only used to dry hands typically can last 2-3 days.

Kitchen towels should be washed when they are used.

Sheets– 1 time a week

Covers– once a month unless you don’t use a top sheet.

Blinds– use a dust rag, feather duster or even a wet cloth about once every couple months.

Curtains should be washed about every 3 months. Dust builds up but they just hang so they don’t need cleaned as often as other items that are used regularly.

Jeans are a 3-4 time use, unless you get them dirty.

Bras can typically go two to three wears unless you sweat a lot. If you find yourself really sweaty, you may want to wash with every wear.

Shoes tend to be ignored but should ideally be washed every week to every two weeks- it’s best to put them on cold, in a delicate bag and on a delicate cycle when they start to look dirty. Let them air dry to prevent damage to the dryer or damage to the shoes.

Cars are another often ignored item that need to be washed. It’s best to wash your car off after a snow when salt and other things get on your car. The salt can cause lasting damage. It’s also best during the summer to wash every other week unless you live out in the country and ride dirt roads on a regular basis.

Windows– every 3 months

Fridge– cleaned out weekly

Dishes– either with every meal or before you go to bed each night, never go to bed with dirty dishes- it can lead to pest invasions like German roaches.

Sink– both kitchen and bathroom should be wiped down nightly before you go to bed, kitchen sink should be wiped out every time you use it but cleaned every time you use something like raw meat or nightly.

Couch or Upholstered Furniture- Deep cleaned at least once or twice a year but if you have kids, pets or it needs it; every 1-3 months with vacuuming when needed.

Shower– The shower should be washed at least once a week, maybe more. It all depends on what type of door or curtain you have. The shower should be wiped out every time it’s used to prevent build up and shower curtains should be cleaned at least once a month, unless your preference is more often (I typically wash mine at least once a week)

The shower head should also be cleaned at least once a month.

Purse– You ideally should clean out the contents of your purse either daily or weekly. That way you can remove all the old receipts and other things you end up tossing in the bottom and things won’t get too cramped or lost. You should wipe down your purse whenever you need- there isn’t a set amount of time but weekly wipe downs with disinfectant or wet wipes don’t hurt.

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Spring Cleaning: While Home Social Distancing

Since it’s well past the first of Spring and we have all been stuck at home, there’s a good chance some of what you have been doing has been cleaning, disinfecting and going through closets and garages. If your weather has been anything like ours has (a lot of cool and rain) you probably have spent a lot of time inside as well. What are some spring cleaning ideas for the time while under stay at home orders?

1. Now is a good time to go through clothing. Watch Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and lay all your clothing out on your bed- then hold each item to see which ones excite you. If they no longer fit, aren’t worn and you feel nothing when you hold them, they will likely be worn in someone else’s closet.

Another idea for clothing is to hang everything in one direction in your closet, flip the hangers as you wear each item and in 6 months, all the originally hung clothes get donated- or 1 year if they’re seasonal.

Go through kids’ clothing as well. Make sure everything fits, is in good condition and is seasonally appropriate.

Go through shoes and accessories next- if you have a purse or shoes that are wearing out or that you haven’t used or worn in years, toss them.

2. Kid’s toys. How many games are laying out with missing pieces that are never played? How many toys are broken or outgrown? Sit toys to the side and put away to have a yard sale when things clear off.

Another recommendation is to put some toys away and switch them out. Kids typically have too many toys so not all get played with- when you rotate the toys, it’s like the toys are new again.

3. Take this time to go through your kitchen. Find all the gadgets you don’t use (or forgot about) and either find ways to use them or put them aside for a yard sale. Make sure your dishes are in good shape and get rid of and replace anything that’s chipped or broken.

Make sure you have a full set of measuring spoons and cups and make sure all your normally used supplies are in good shape. Anything you don’t need or have too many of, set aside for a yard sale.

Go through all your food- pull it out of the lazy Susan, pantry and all shelves. Anything that has expired, toss and take close inventory of everything. Make sure everything is still good and put it back with earliest dates first.

Remember, not all food goes bad by the date and best by is not expiration.

Before you put the stuff back, clean and wash all shelves or wipe them down with clorox wipes.

Clean out your fridge, it there is food growing mold, toss it out and soak the container. Wipe down the insides and shelves then organize as you put everything back.

4. Go through your bathroom.– Find all of the medications that are expired and drop anything off that has expired, destroy and toss the prescription take labels to destroy. Find all your cosmetics, lay them out and go through dates and condition of each item. Also go through personal care, hair and skin products and get rid of all almost used or empty bottles. Before you put the stuff back, clean and wash all shelves or wipe them down with clorox wipes.

Before you leave the bathroom, clean the toilet, tub and sink. Make sure you get the edges of the toilet- not just the bowl, get the back and under the seat.

5. Get rid of all your towels that are in bad condition. Animal shelters are always willing to take old, used towels for bedding. Move all ragged wash cloths to cleaning cloths and replace anything that is needed.

6. Put your washer and dish washer on cleaning modes and have them clean themselves, self clean your oven if it has that option. Otherwise, scrub down the inside of your oven. Remember to make sure if you’re able to use oven cleaner, it’s not always safe to use.

7. Pick everything off the floor and sweep or vacuum. Move the furniture and appliances and sweep/vacuum/mop and shampoo under everything. While you’re at it, vacuum and shampoo (or steam) the couch, all upholstered chairs and other fabric furniture.

8. Go through your books. They may have an attachment but they do no good just sitting around collecting dust- if you have already read them and aren’t going to read them again, give them to a friend who would like them. Donate to the library or sell- they do good when they’re being read not sitting around and doing nothing.

9. Wash all the windows, TV and computer screens, mirrors and all glass.

10. Dust all knick knacks, ceiling fans and light covers before sweeping

11. Take a Clorox wipe and wipe down the sides of all appliances and cupboards in your kitchen and laundry room.

The states are slowly working on starting to open back up but stay at home orders are slowly changing to “safer at home” and a lot of people are still wanting to stay home as long as they can.

If you still haven’t returned to work, now is a good time to work on trying to get your home caught up, decluttered and deep cleaned. Cleaning can help take your mind off things and deep cleaning can help protect against insect invasions that happen during the spring, viruses and can make you feel fresher.

What areas in your house are you or have you cleaned out? Have you been spring cleaning your house?