CREATING OUR HEALTH AND WEALTH thru SPRING
HOUSE CLEANING
By
Anita Sands Hernandez astrology@earthlink.net
Want Life to be terrific? Want wealth, luck, friends and health to come your way?
Where there’s ORDER, there’s MONEY,a great philosopher told me. (It was Rosa,
my ancient Mexican maid who kind of spat at me contemptuously when she said
it.)
Do as
I did (in the wake of meeting this snarly old dame). Vow Now Brown Cow to clean
up the house. And vow it every morn, after coffee, and clean for an hour while
energy is fresh.
To inspire you to start this labor of getting spiffy, go out to the 99c store, buy:
1.) Rubber dishwashing gloves, grit
backed and plain sponges both. BIG square scrub brush.
I
am the Secret of the WHOLE EVENT.
Plastic or WOOD and STRAW, We ALL WORK FINE, if YOU
WORK!
2.) Jug of ammonia, 64 oz bottle of
cheap, white vinegar.
3.) LIQUID DETERGENT. I do not find that detergent powder rinses clean enough!
NOT out of clothes or anywhere else, certainly not dishes. I CAN ONLY get it
out of my clothing if I use a quarter cup LEMON JUICE in my rinse water, which
I do now as I collect rinds for jam making! But that’s a seasonal affair. (I
find the lemons littering the ground of entire valley where I live,) WHEN you
buy the LIQUID DETERGENT, I stay away from BIO-CIDAL kinds, gad knows what kind
of poison that is. Instead I get a big jug of bleach each 99c at the 99c store.
4.) Can of scouring powder, 2 for 99c.
5.) flat sponge mop on a stick. You’ll use it to push rags around although with my rag
collection I just rhumba on rags, so I personally become the big huge mop on a
stick!
6.) Pick up some big, cardboard BOX (produce or wine, liquor) Big boxes are free from the grocery store, to carry trash around in. Then when you take it outside to big trash can, you can just deposit it there.
7.) a huge pile of rags. I use old towels, any clothing that is beyond the
beyond, cannot be retrieved, I save every piece of cotton and have for years. I
wash them regularly. If I’ve used a few and they’re dirty I don’t do a special
load of wash on rags until I have a washer full. I hang them out in sun, dirty,
until I have enough dirties to do a load. Always use bleach on them when I wash
them. NO matter what I was using them for, cat grime on floors, they get so
clean you can wipe your nose in them. I use CLOTHES LINES out in sun, have four
long lines out there!
8.) Vinegar Kills Bacteria, Mold
and Germs Adapted from the
"Care2 Ask Annie" newsletter. Vinegar
is a mainstay of the old folk recipes for cleaning, and with good reason. The
vim of the vinegar is that it kills bacteria, mold, and germs. Heinz company
spokesperson Michael Mullen references numerous studies to show that a straight
5 percent solution of vinegar - such as you can buy in the supermarket - kills
99 percent of bacteria, 82 percent of mold, and 80 percent of germs (viruses).
He noted that Heinz can't claim on their packaging that vinegar is a disinfectant
since the company has not registered it as a pesticide with the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). However, it seems to be common knowledge in the
industry that vinegar is powerfully antibacterial. Even the CBS news show 48
Hours had a special last December with Heloise reporting on tests from The Good
Housekeeping Institute that showed this. Just
like antibiotics, common disinfectants found in sponges and household sprays
may contribute to drug resistant bacteria, according to researchers of drug resistance
at Tufts New England Medical Center. Furthermore, research at the Government
Accounting Office shows that many commercial disinfectants are ineffective to
begin with, just like antibiotics.
Keep
a clean spray bottle filled with straight vinegar in your kitchen near your
cutting board, and in your bathroom, and use them for cleaning. I often spray
the vinegar on our cutting board before going to bed at night, and don't even
rinse, but let it set overnight. The smell of vinegar dissipates within a few
hours. Straight vinegar is also great for cleaning the toilet rim. Just spray
it on and wipe off. http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/home/164
ACTUAL CLEANING INSTRUCTIONS.
FIRST, early that morn or nite before,
do the grocery shopping and hit the 99c
store while you’re out on the street as it’s cheaper to use the car / gas when
you have a few reasons to go out, accomplishing multiple errands on one
¼ gallon of that pricey gas stuff. I look at circulars to see if cleaning
agents are on sale at supers, or the Vallarta Mercado chain. Frequently loss
leaders beat 99c store. And hey, Get yourself a pint of real ice cream to
celebrate with, (when you finish the day’s work). It’s how the brain bribes the
body to be its slave! No fair nibbling 'til you've done hours of work!
Save old bleach bottles. If you live in quake country, fill w. water, put under
the pingpong tables you cut in quarters to use as OUTSIDE TABLES. I put extra
legs on these quarter tables, which become tables for outside storage like
PLANT FLATS, baby lettuce, tomatoes are in the sun on these tables, or mops,
etc/ buckets sit there or UNDER them. I can also put beds for cats on rainy
days, but you need risers with blankets or pillows. Also store these multiple
bottles of water out there. These will be useful for flushing toilets when
quake destroys city water pipes. I live in L.A. so I HAVE to do this! OR, say
you need a jug when you make a new batch of homemade cleaner, you may want to
store that batch of cleaner in the second bottle, diluted. ALWAYS mark WELL,
mark it with permanent marker pen so in a quake nobody drinks vinegar/ ammonia,
detergent mix!
It’s easy to clean a house.
1.) First, take a big cardboard box,
walk around picking up all objects that look ‘extra.’ Later you’ll know where
to find them, outside on pingpong table, in a box. (Unless it’s raining.)
2.) You throw in a load of laundry at a time, set it to go, and walk around
filling the cardboard boxes with excess junk.WHEN your kids have to go outside
to find their balls and gloves and wash off the cat pee, they will learn!
3.)
If wash is doing ok, spinning around, get
out the Vacuum and plug it in. NOTE: Firstyou sweep all carpets and floors to
get the big pieces off, cuz we don’t want to fill the costly vac bags with semi
big stuff that you really don’t need a machine for. Plus some of those things can
blow the motor or the belt.
4.)
Turn on radio and listen to PUBLIC
RADIO talk shows, (*that is an URL, click
on it) NOT A.M. right wing propaganda talk shows cuz you’ll start screaming at
those bozo jocks, -- but a nice smooth PACIFICA CHAIN radio show while you wash
dishes is so thoughtful, mind expanding. It keeps you from hating doing dishes. AIR AMERICARADIO.org or kpfk.org or any Pacifica chain.
Leave PC on and blaring!
5.) Don’t ever bother making beds. NEVER seal a warm bed after you slept in it. ALWAYS
open beds wide open in a.m. let them breathe all day. Stops mites from
breeding. So encourage all family members to open them fully. Wide open. (Boy
are they gonna thank you!) When bed breathes it exhales your aroma and heat and
dampness. Let beds breathe themselves fresh. Lock bedroom door or the dog may
add a new aroma that’s real surprising when you go to sleep there, as well as a
few fleas. As for looks? Who looks at a bedroom anyway?
6.)
Take a broom, drape it with rag, clean
cobwebs above, in ceiling corners. Take all junk out of windows to dust and
de-web the space. THEN run a damp cloth over every bit of it catching fly
carcasses in its folds.
7.) Pour slightly used dishwater in the sink on to kitchen floor, broom it out the
backdoor. Then use the rag to rhumba across floor ‘til it’s dry. If linoleum,
use that gloss waxy stuff that makes people break their coccyx, knees etc. You
need to throw money down the drain.
8.)
When a rag gets really dirty, or filled with
fly carcasses, shake it outside, hang outside in sun. When you have two dozen,
you’ll run them thru washer by themselves with a half cup of bleach and
detergent soap.
9.) Spray entire house with anything aromatic. Febreze fabric spray,cologne,
incense. Room fresheners. I save old spray bottles and use a ¼ tsp of really
fine bath oils – shaking before spraying. LIGHT spray from a foot away on
lightbulbs or they explode! Once knew the people from SUNSHINE aromatic oils. I
could pick up a few empty ten gallon cans of jasmine, rose, violet oil. There
were always a few oz left at bottom. Throw some water in there, shake it
around, put in rinse water for floors, in spray bottles, bath water.
10) Dust rag all shelves, books. Wax furniture with old, rancid handcreams. No need to buy
pricey wax.
11) On hands and knees, de-spot carpet with a heavy grade brush. Detergent/water/ammonia/vinegar.
Then use a dry rag to scrub up the water and soil.
12.)
Take screens off windows, clean the outside glass, then inside.
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CHEAP CLEANSERS
Shopping the 99c store, it’s not costly to clean with ammonia, dish soap,
(detergent liquids), powdered detergent, scouring powder, liquid bleach or huge
bottles of white vinegar as nothing costs more than 99c!
MAKE IT YOURSELF
Here is a list of homemade cleaners...just for FYI! A bit cheaper than buying... so there’s
money left for the important stuff: Garage sales and new furniture. NEW TO YOU!
These formulas come from http://www.pennysolutions.com/
Window cleaner
In a plastic jug, mix: ½ c. ammonia, 2
Tbsp baking soda, 1/3 c. white vinegar, water to fill jug. Save your old jugs.
They abound in trashcans.
All purpose cleaner
½ c. rubbing alcohol and ½ c. ammonia. This
is a favorite. Spray it on and use a soft vegetable brush to brush the sinks,
then rinse.
Ceramic tile and grout cleaner
1 cup baking soda, ½ c, vinegar, 1 c. ammonia, 7 cups warm water. This, obviously, can be divided by half. Spray on and wipe with a scrubbing pad. This is the equivalent of Tilex. At the time I write this, Tilex was 2.99 for 24 oz. I get CALIFORNIA RED WINE for that price! JEEZLOUISE!This recipe cost .56 for the same amount!!
Window Cleaner Spray
Mix 3 c water & stir in 2 TBsp ethylene glycol (antifreeze).
Put in spray bottle.
Ammonia Wall AND CARPET Cleaner
½ c household ammonia, ¼ c washing soda, ¼ c white vinegar, 1 gal.
Warm water. Measure ammonia, washing soda, and vinegar into water in a bucket.
Mix. Store in clean bottle.
GLASS CLEANER
1 cup isopropyl alcohol, 1 cup
ammonia, 1 Tbsp. Soft soap, 13 cups warm water.
ANOTHER GLASS CLEANER. If you find
an old bottle of windshield wiper solution in somebody’s garage, discarded, put
it in a spray bottle for glass cleaning.
Toilet
Bowl Cleaner
Mix ¼ c sodium bicarbonate & ¾ c
caustic soda. Store in airtight can/jar. To use, sprinkle in toilet bowl, let
stand ½ hr. Then brush and flush with clean water.
Scouring Powders¼ c soap
flakes, 2 tsp borax, 1 ½ c boiling water, 1/3 c whiting
Dissolve soap flakes & borax in
boiling water by stirring mixture. Allow to cool to room temp. Add whiting
& stir well. Store in sealed plastic or glass container in dry, cool place.
Jet Dry for the dishwasher
Mix in a jar, 1 cup borax and ½ c. baking soda. Add I Tbsp of this mixture to
the dishwasher soap for each load.
FURNITURE
RUBS. I never buy furniture wax. On
wood, I use old rancid face creams and body creams not costly cleaners and
waxes. I have gal pals who give me all their half used handcreams as they think
it’s gone rancid. MY FURNITURE glows! LINSEED OIL WORKS WELL, TOO but
it’scostly. So I use old salad oil.
MAKING
FRUGAL SOAP
Rebatching
may not work with corporate soaps, because those are petroleum product based.
However, scraps of homemade soaps can DEFINITELY be rebatched this way. Use 9
oz of cold milk to 24-32 oz of grated soap. yes, you should grate those
slivers, or at least, break them into smaller pieces before attempting to melt
them. Use leftover juice cans or tuna/cat food type cans to remold the soap in.
Always allow rebatched soap to dry for three weeks before using it, or the soap
will just dissolve in the shower.
FOR
CORPORATE SOAPS
CLEANING CARPETS- We’ve probably washed every kind of carpet, area carpets
you can hang on the fence or line, wall to wall. I love those rented shampooers
that you empty every five minutes. I never buy the l0$ shampoo they sell you. I
mix ammonia, vinegar, dish soap with water and it works fine for a hundredth of
the cost. The carpet absorbs the soap, then you suck up all the grungy, black,
muddy water which goes back into the machine and you carry it over to bathroom
and it goes down the toilet. Then go back and do that a hundred times. I’m
always astonished at the amount of filth that carpets collect!
Those shampooing machines do pull a lot of water from the floor, but if
you have nice wood floors and own the property don’t do it cuz some water goes
down onto the fine wood, destroying it. The wet shampooer could be the
revenge-on-the landlord invention of all time. Landlords should make you sign a
lease saying you won’t ever use them. If you own the house, at least do this
wood warping torture when it’s exceedingly dry outside. Dry and hot.
SUNLIGHT SHAMPOO FOR CARPETS! Do huge 8 x 10 area rugs outdoors. I either lay it on the
cement driveway soaking wet. I like the slope of the driveway for draining. Or
I hang it on the fence. How to get the dirt out? Ingeniousness to the rescue.
For the horizontal carpet on driveway slop, I took a one by four scrap piece of
board, a lumber piece a foot long, wrapped it in heavy plastic, like for green
house walls, 6 mil? so it was slidey. Then when I got on knees, it slid over
the surface of the carpet, squeegee-ing the water in its path, out of the
carpet.
As I didn’t have a deck, I used a concrete driveway that had a slanted pitch,
down to the street. On hands and knees, I squee-jeed and water ran down the
carpet to the street. Many times, hosed it, soaped it, squeegeed it. Let it dry
on the slant. Dirt and water were squeezed/ drained out, down to the street.
Didn’t drive car up the driveway, that’s for sure. Parked it in street for a
day.
My driveway gate was ten feet wide, wrought iron, so for medium carpets,
I’d lay carpet over the top of gate, hose it, couldn’t squeejee very well
there, just hose and soap action. THE RECIPE is VINEGAR, AMMONIA, WATER and LIQUID
DISH DETERGENT. A foamer is good for small areas. DIPPING YOUR big fat
BRUSH is a great way to cover larger areas. If you're outside on driveway, you
can wash out any chemicals and dirt cuz the slope carries it away. JUST BLOCADE
it so hubby doesn't come home, pull in all the way and wheel on to the rug!
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NEXT DE JUNK THE HOUSE BEFORE YOU
DECORATE! The most important thing is to
DE CLUTTER!!!!
http://www.wenscentral.com/how_to_declutter_your_life.html
Organization 101 was written byJulie Morgenstern, the New York author of Organizing From the Inside Outand Time Management From the Inside Out, recommends a three stepapproach to getting the most out of the space in your home: analyze,strategize and attack.
Analyze. Decide what three to five functions are normally done
in thespace. Ask everyone what's really essential in the room, and what
worksand doesn't work about the space.
Strategize. Lay out a "zone" for each function. Make one
spot thecomputer area, another the TV area. Maybe you'll have a reading
corner.Now figure out what you'll need in each.A chair and a bookshelfforthe
reading area, perhaps - and that box with your scissors, stickynotes and
reading glasses.
Attack. Only after you have a plan should you start to do the
work.
Making
SPACE :Now, says Morgenstern, it is time to work out your SPACE - meaning to
Sort, Purge, Assign, Containerize and Equalize.Sort out similar items and group
them. Don't, for example, have thebookshelf across the room from your reading
chair, or your bound to endup with a stack of books on the floor next your
chair. Consider placinga bookshelf perpendicular to the wall to help block off
your readingarea.Now Purge what doesn't belong. Ask yourself, for example, if
thosepencils rally have a reason to be in the reading corner.Then Assign
everything a home. Things should be put away in the same place every time so
everyone knows where they are- and where they go.It's a lot like kindergarten:
Everything had a place, and the items were easily put away in about five
minutes during clean-up time.
Next Containerize
items, Morgenstern says. Figure out what needs to be in what container,
determine what size the container should be, and thengo shopping. That might
mean looking for basket and drawer units, or itmight mean buying a few extras
of things you already have in your house.
Finally,
Equalize: Have a rule that everyday at a certain time, the roomgets cleaned up.
And then once a year, give it an over-haul, checking tosee what you should keep
an what you should throw away. This isespecially important if there are kids at
home because their interestschange as they get older.
Organizing
the room may seem like a big task. But by planning before youact, it should be
easy. Two other websites that describe this process:http://www.wenscentral.com/how_to_declutter_your_life.html
http://www.svainteriors.com/designnews.htm
SPACE concepts werecreated by Julie Morgenstern,http://www.juliemorgenstern.com has more on this. Plus offers the books for sale.
============================
NEXT, DECORATE THE HOUSE ON A NICKLE!
DÉCOR FOR DUMMIES, or HOW TO SPIFF THE
HOUSE UP GORJUSS! Buy really awful,
amateur night in Dixie stretched canvases/ paintings at garage sales. If the
art is awful enough, the Thrift Store will be in agreement with you it’s worth
nothing, they should pay you to take it away. Don’t tell them you’re going to
use the canvas part which even at the cheapest art store, is very costly.
Next, buy some oil or acrylic paints and paint portraits and landscapes
and then re use the frames you bought them in. Remember this. IF the paint is OIL already, you cannot cover it with acrylics.
If the paint is acrylics, you CAN cover it with oil. That means to be safe? USE
OIL PAINTS.
THEME: Your own garden, as a landscape, with a family member
sitting there, so a portrait, landscape mix. You will be happy with that theme
no matter how primitive your style is!
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THE TRICK WITH FURNISHINGS, ART
TROUVEAU! IS that anything like
ART NOVEAU? NO! NOT HARDLY, the
word is TROUVEAU!!! That means “FOUND!” in French. Where do we FIND the pillows, furniture, art,
accessories? Can’t hit the Salvation Army, as today that joint is not cheap.
One mebbe can hit the thrift stores, (cheaper) but cheapest of all, the village
garage sales. Look for bookcases, ashtrays, lamps, overstuffed furniture you
can cover with fresh cottons. Buy textiles and for that, printed sheets work
bigtime. You get ten yards of fabric for nothing. If you find a stack of
printed sheets with nice flowery fabric, buy them all, pillow cases included as
you can turn them into SOFA pillows! Or LANAI swagged curtains. No LANAI? Get a
half dozen POLES at HOME DEPOT. Sink them in concrete set inside PIPES, big
terra cotta pipes. Slope top of concrete like sugarloaf so rain water drains
off and doesn’t collect at intersection of wood pole and concrete cuz you’ll
rot the neck off and topple your lovely lanai! Build cross rafters with
discarded lumber and do slanted braces on every single pole! Or wind can topple
everything! I tried to do a special coating, and used OIL PAINT on bamboo reed
fences to stiffen it, strength-ify it, then when all the rafters are up, laid
the bamboo fencing on top of beams. But painted or Unpainted, my cats walk on
them, bow the roofing. PAINTED, they support cat’s weight and rain can’t hurt
‘em. Use a ROLLER to paint them.
BRING
HOME your garage sale finds, Get them into the driveway first. NOW, vacuum the
upholstered things, Vacuum out under cushions. Then, suds them down and use a
stiff bristle scrub brush all over the upholstered furniture then HOSE THEM OFF
well. Even your own, old sofa, chairs. Do it in full SUN, detergent clean
spots.(ALL PETS must be housed for the duration or they will climb all over
these and give you the worst case of muddy paws in history. ) Add some bleach
to the water. Now, when dry, pin the sheets over the thing, being careful not
to snag the sofa cuz you are going to LIFT OFF this slipcover and stitch it on
a sewing machine. Only then, when it’s away from the sofa, whip stitch the
pieces into a coverlet hand basting in parts, stitching long areas on sewing
machine. You get those sheets tailored to the sofa or chair. Now, take this
coverlet you made, turn outside in so seams are hidden. IRON the seams so they
lay flat, then throw back onto the sofa or chair. The piece looks fresh as a
daisy. It holds up brilliantly (if kids and dogs don’t bounce on it,) at least
‘til your ship comes in and you can afford professional reupholstering.
DRAPING THE FURNITURE- Second best to the total wash and dry is draping furniture with Mexican rugs, fabrics, sheets. Fresh looking if the furniture is ratty Prettiest find for me was this week, Huge oil cloth tablecloth sunflowers on bright blue BG, tear in it made no diff. I cut it to fit different garden tables. ANOTHER FIND: 20 yds of upholstery fabric at a garage sale. Have done that many times. Then you go to the smallest, Mexican upholstery shop in the barrio.”Senor, My sofa seats three, (four,) I have the fabric, what will you charge me for labor?’
OUTSIDE OF
HOME GETS SPIFFED. Walk perimeter of bldg. Do you like the color? Is it ‘you?’ If not, you
are going to acquire a few gallons of marked down OOPS paint (5$ each,) at the
OOPS shelf at HOME DEPOT. Gallons won’t match but you’ll blend them so that
three gallons are the same shade. You yourself can change the color of your
house and freshen it up immensely. That takes two people with two brushes, two
rollers, two roller pans, a brief, pair of short days --- to paint the average
size house exterior. ( THE PAINT REQUIRED must be Exterior paint, not INTERIOR.
Roughly three gallons of it. Next, as the paint store has many different
brands, colors on the OOPS shelf, pick two or three that (when mixed) will make
a great color. Be cautious not to get oil and water. Pick ALL OIL or all water.
You don’t mix types. ACRYLIC paint only goes with ACRYLIC PAINT. Ask the paint
salesman. I usually get a blue, a white, a pale blue, a dark blue, those colors
are in my range. Periwinkle, cobalt, ultramarine… when I add the white or near
white, I get some great celestial colors. I may get some white OIL enamel for
my shutters and trim and a separate brush if I use oil.
The OOPS
shelf costs
you ONLY 5$ for that fine, retail-at-25$ a gallon paint! YOU can paint a
whole home exterior, four bedroom house for 15$, I know cuz I did it. Four room
house, all exteriors! Not too shabby. You will need a big bucket for mixing and
a stick! You will be putting all the paint in the bucket, stirring, then
RE-filling the three separate gallon containers with the new shade! And to
paint a house always puts your rollers on poles.
FIX ALL
BROKEN CORNERS OF THE HOUSE WITH CHEAP, HOME MADE CEMENT. That
sounds neat, but how do we do that? Saw this
in a chatroom. “I am curious as to how the newly laid block will hold up to the
elements if it takes a few days to construct, seal, and roof the building. If I
were doing this, it would be over several weekends, and I’m wondering if I
could safely leave the partial walls etc.?? Maybe after your experimental brick
has cured you can check its water resistance in that state, I’d try a batch
myself, but my wife doesn’t let me near her kitchen stuff.
ANSWER: go to a Home Depot, Lowes, Builder’s Square or similar
building supply house, after you find the OOPS shelf os mismixed paints and get
two or three gallons depending on house size, that are compatible, you will go
back in the section which has pails of bedding mud for drywall joints, mortar
mix etc. and look at the various tools. Among them will generally be two brands
of mixers for insertion in a half-inch drill for mixing small quantities of
mortar and paint.
If you soak paper strips overnight it pulps easier and more quickly. With 10%
Portland in the mix, though cellulose brick will shed water it will be very
absorptive if rained upon. That won’t cause any deterioration in the
cellulose/cement brick, but until the excess water is re-evaporated the compressive
strength would be reduced somewhat, sand and cement don’t compress but the
cellulose component can (like sawdust-cement heavy on the sawdust)---not too
important if there is no load on the wall.. After the walls are erected or
after a roof-panel is made of the stuff and raised, a water-shedding paint
should be applied. Take your choice of cement-paint (read the label) or acrylic
latex-based paint.. Note that each has advantages and accompanying
disadvantages. You can patch small joints, cracks or damage to a cement-paint
wall with a little cheap Portland and water cement paste. You have to use epoxy
to repair a wall painted with acrylic latex. Embed roofing fiber-tape for
larger repairs (comes in four-inch rolls)
Making
and testing samples is always advisable before plunging ahead. This stuff works
fine. It was the subject of an article in Countryside four or five years back
for someone who built himself a quickie, small dome, and Jack Bays (don’t know
if he is still alive), an eccentric in Cedaredge, (sic) Colorado, (PROB is
CEDAR RIDGE) used to sell a king-size malted-milk mixer you dropped in a
fifty-five gallon barrel to mix this and other good stuff of his devising.
Since
it was then more available and of even less value (stores paid you to haul it
off), he used pulped cardboard boxes, in which the fibers are a little stronger
than those in paper.
There
have been some recent developments along these lines, and one patent Tridex
which used junk materials like this to make an extremely strong building panel
with good insulation characteristics.
Now,
take those marked down two or three gallons of exterior paint, mix them
together, and paint the entire house. Two people can do that in two very short days.
I myself have done it with Pablo my landlord’s helper man, and Pablo is 70 plus
years old. A ladder is required for eave area. FAB ARTICLE on subject of
faux finishes no one ever thought of at READ THE FAUX WALLS
ARTICLE. But if you want to become an expert and get yourself a second
profession, go to ABE BOOKS and buy every single book, I mean everything that Miss JOCASTA INNES ever
wrote. Mostly a buck, up to six bucks, used at ABE BOOKS! Be certain to get the
ones with illustrations. “PAINT MAGIC”, etc.
So, now the place is fantastically
spiffed & clean? Now, There are TWO
WAYS TO KEEP THE SPIFF GOING: ONE way is to NEVER MAKE A TRIP EMPTY HANDED!
(And I don’t mean from the alleys of your neighborhood. I mean inside the
home!Fulltime, yes, not just on cleaning day but do the carrying of migrant
stuff every moment of the day by following the dictum of MILDRED PIERCE
when Joan Crawford played her. She told her waitresses, never make a trip to
or from the kitchen empty handed. I expand that to never make a trip
from one room to the next, without taking all that I see that does not belong
there, back to the area where I am going. I am morally obliged to pick
something up, whether Shoes, trash, clothes, newspapers or those onerous
constant PAPER COLLECTIONS, NOTES, articles that are clipped (stick them in
cook books, get them off the street! CLUTTER is deadly and bad luck besides).
SECOND RULE: Pick flowers a few times a week. Go outside, cut branches from
flowering trees, flowers if you can find any, (if not, turn to the garden
articles at MY SITE. Bring
potted plants inside in baskets, with a plate set inside the basket so you
won’t rot the straw or stain furniture. Fill the vases, mayo jars whatever with
blooms, branches, green leafy stems. My Second Site has some
great garden sections, articles, too. THREE: Spray with pleasant things. Thrift
stores have cologne for a quarter. Buy a few, spray on light bulb.
The
way your house feels when thusly loaded will inspire you to decorate a little
more, perhaps brake for garage sales and pick up old vases for a quarter. It is
VERY IMPORTANT for good home decor, or feng shui to have lots of flowers and
plants in the house. LIVE plants are best. I keep a plant indoors for a month,
then shoot it outside in a lanai roofed with bamboo fencing….semi shade….and it
can do six months out there in filtered sunlight. Our California valley is so
hot in summer, no house plant could live there were it not for bamboo fencing
roof on top of six of those POLES from HOME DEPOT. SUNK them in cement inside a
terra cotta pipe!, Do some cross pieces on the bias up near top of poles or the
thing can fall over! I have enough plants out there to keep pulling something
green and frondy inside when req’d GARDENING IS THE
LAST WAY TO MAKE A HOUSE GORGEOUS..
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