Spring cleaning: Get things off the floor!
Shelves and hooks!
The School for Housewives brings you short, practical, and thoughtful messages to inspire you to shake off feminism and make your home. If you’re new here, go to the homepage for the previous Lessons; the categories are arranged in the menu bar at the top.
The urge to spring clean is strong, but for many families, the calendar is full. So you have to use your housewife mind.
As you go around your home doing your normal tasks, think about whether and why things are on the floor. Could they be in bins (and maybe slid under the bed)? In baskets? On a shelf? Hanging on a hook?
The only cleaning tool you should have resting on the floor is the vacuum. Everything else should be on a hook, in a bin, or on a shelf. Pound a few big nails in the wall if you must (if it’s a wooden wall or the back of a door — use command hooks if not) and feel the tremendous satisfaction as you hang up your broom, dustpan, dust mop, and what have you.
A board with a row of hooks on it, mounted on a door, can transform the kids’ routine. I see those at the thrift store all the time and have snagged my share! They are easy enough to make, too.
Hutches are out there on FBMP. Put one in your kids’ room. If space is tight, put a shelf above the bed. Whatever doesn’t fit is asking to be chucked or donated!
Shelves are a matter of a board and some brackets. (If you’re me, you’ll spray paint those brackets!). Find the studs and get them up. “Shelves in the closet, happy thought indeed!” is a classic phrase for an excellent reason! It is the happiest of thoughts!
Spring cleaning can be done in the little interstices of the busy schedule when you aren’t wrangling all the stuff on the floors!
Spring Cleaning by Margaret Tempest
Thanks for being here! Apply my thoughts to your situation with discernment, prudence, and confidence — and a sense of humor!
Who am I? Go here.
Be happy at home!
Could you become a free or paid subscriber? That way you won’t miss anything!
As a paid subscriber, you can comment and join the chat!
If you don’t wish to subscribe just now, I understand! How about…
For the longer version of this Substack and much more on this topic:
My 3-volume book on Order and Wonder in Family Life: