Organizing and decluttering the homestead

[tortoise]

DH wears his farm tshirts until they literally fall off him. I love how frugal he is. He beats me by a long short and keeps me inspired.

I do a capsule wardrobe. I have 2 pairs of jeans tucked up away someplace. Pretty much only for sheep wrangling when their wool is full of burdock and all scratchy. They're nice enough still for dress up, but gosh, why would I subject myself to wearing jeans?! I live in leggings. Gray leggings (Capri, ankle length, shorts, or compression), a bright colored top or dress, and a gray cardigan or hoodie or bolero. Easy peasy.

re: fleas comment a while back, WASHING laundry for fleas is not necessary. the DRYER is what kills them. Put everything you can through the dryer WEEKLY until 6 weeks after you see the last flea. Use a vacuum with brush attachment for anything you can't put in the dryer - the whirling of the dirt, etc in the canister kills fleas, the suction removes flea eggs. Empty the bag or wash the canister promptly. Flea eggs do not attach to animal fur like lice nits are attached. Flea eggs fall off animals anywhere they walk. I recommend treating lawns. In freezing climates, treat the lawn the following spring after the infestation, taking care to treat mulch, rock, gravel, under decks and places animals tend to pass by.

 

[Beekissed]

Blood stains? Tell me about this "history"?

My own and the animals I butcher out....blood happens and sometimes that shirt won't get washed until that blood is well set in. Most of it comes out, but deer blood seems to be the most persistent if you don't wash it out right away.

My own because I'm forever injuring myself out here in one way or another...sometimes I know I've done it and sometimes I'm in such a work mode I won't know I'm bleeding down one limb or another until someone tells me I am. Such is life on the homestead...gets messy and hurts sometimes.

 

[Beekissed]

A good preventative flea treatment for outside is good ol' sweet lime...good for the lawn and good for desiccation of flea eggs. Every time I take the time to do that in the early spring and again in the fall, my dogs never have to have flea treatment of any kind...cats either. I just have to remember to do it.

A good one for inside the house is Borax...it's fine enough to get down into the carpet and fabric fibers and is easily swept up. It's a great desiccant and is also used to dry flowers for preserving. Just lay down a fine powder of it on all cloth surfaces~wear a mask and goggles...that stuff is easy to breath in and gets you sneezing and such~and wait a day before sweeping up. It kills fleas and their eggs. In between these treatments place a bowl of sudsy water on the carpet in each room with a lamp near it...they will be attracted to the lights and drown in the water.

Repeat the Borax in a few weeks and keep the lamps and bowls going until you see no more fleas in the water. It works!

 

[tortoise]

Thank you for the lime suggestion Beekissed. I know the lawn needs treatment, but gosh, pesticides and stuff. Yuck. I also forget about the flea trap with bowl of soapy water and lamp. It's a great way to figure out the scale of a flea infestation and be able to judge when to discontinue treatments. Food-grade DE can also be used in carpets. The dust is hazardous, but the powder itself is safer for crawling babies than borax. Food-grade DE isn't toxic if ingested, only the dust is a concern.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Making the bed makes it easier to not crawl back in

 

[Beekissed]

No worries on the Borax...it's just a mineral salt and some people take it internally for health reasons. Unless babies are licking the carpets, I doubt they'd have much problems other than breathing in the stuff.

1. ✴Toxicity: Are Borax, Boric Acid and Boron safe for ingestion?
   
   
2. The National Institute of Health (NIH) provides the following information on the safe upper limit (UL) for boron intake:
   
   
3. -Adults, and pregnant or breast-feeding women over 19 years of age: 20 mg/day
   
   
4. -Adolescents, and pregnant or breast-feeding women 14 - 18 years of age: 17 mg/day
   
   
5. -Children 9 - 13 years old: 11 mg/day
   
   
6. -Children 4 - 8 years old: 6 mg/day
   
   
7. -Children 1 - 3 years old: 3 mg/day
   
   
8. -Infants: no UL has been established
   
   
9. Dosages that exceed these ULs could be toxic.
   

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Thanks for the information on the fleas! I've never had to deal with them in the house before even with years and years of multiple indoor and outdoor pets.
Luckily I don't have any carpets. Wood floors throughout the house. Just one small area rug under the piano (dusted with borax) and a few small ones easily removed. I've dusted the couch and chairs with borax but right now I don't even have them in the house. I have DE here somewhere. I'll try the light trick tonight. Thanks!

 

[Beekissed]

Apparently this topic is a familiar problem that everyone seems to share...look at when this vid was published and just how many views it's had already!

...and this one too! I applaud this lady's courage to get herself up and end the thing that is overwhelming her life and increasing her depression.

 

[Beekissed]

This evening I'm sorting through items from the pantry while listening to my favorite preacher online. I tend to be able to hear things better if my hands are busy with mindless tasks.

Sorting, eliminating and organizing so as to be able to use everything more easily. Case in point...last week I bought new lightbulbs for the back porch motion floodlights. I bought new ones because I couldn't find anywhere that we had replacement bulbs on hand. As I'm cleaning out the pantry/mud room/tool room I found two boxes of said bulbs . Do you know just how many boxes of plastic utensils we have on hand??? FOUR huge boxes of plastic spoons and forks and we might use such things once a year here. How many boxes of trash bags for the kitchen trash can? FOUR huge boxes and I know Mom buys a new box when we run out of the boxes of these we keep in the kitchen....in the cabinet...that has TWO boxes of trash bags.

Scrub brushes? We have six and we use a scrub brush of that type about twice a year...how did we get so many of the exact same kind????? Because Mom couldn't find them and just went out and bought some.

We do that often here because we can't find things, usually it's Mom who's doing such things but when I'm doing it, it's time to do some major cleaning and sorting out. Mom bought a new grease gun last week and several tubes of grease...did it because she couldn't find hers. I found hers....both of them. Now we have three grease guns. How many do two old ladies need, for pity's sake???

So, the ongoing sorting of our lives continues. It feels good when it's done but it's almost like that movie Groundhog Day, where we are doomed to repeat the same experiences until we learn to do better in our lives that are filled with clutter. I'd love to see a day when I no longer have to do major overhauls of rooms and spaces and can just maintain them as we go along. I think that will require we have MUCH less STUFF for that to happen.

 

[Britesea]

I agree with you there, Beekissed. I remember when I was cleaning out my mom's house after she passed-- we found 6 pairs of scissors, 4 irons (she never ironed clothes since I was a little girl) and 10 cartons of salt (each one opened with about 1/4 teaspoon taken out). Oh, and I found her missing garden sprayer- she'd stashed it in the (thankfully disconnected) oven. Why disconnected? She had Alzheimers, and towards the end, having a working source of fire in the house gave me the heebee-jeebees; so I drove over every day with hot food for her.