September and October were ridiculously busy
- There were the fixed points where I had to be somewhere else - Cyprus, College Thanksgiving, Bayeux Tapestry, Thrive Conference.
- Special local events - Harvest Festival, Choir Concert, Lunch with friends, the Family Funday at Church. Four PLACE assessments at local hospitals.
- Half term with the grandchildren.
- And all those medical/dental appointments - between us we had fifteen appointments in seven weeks [and an extraction this coming Thursday - a large molar, which will then mean an implant]
On Saturday I stayed in my pjs until 1pm! Then we had a pub lunch, because Bob had been busy all morning and a break together was a good idea. But I came home and wrote a new to-do list for November. It is alarmingly long. There are so many little tasks which have been deferred because of all the other stuff. I have a definite system for my lists.
- I begin with a totally random list writing things down as they occur to me
- After another cup of coffee I add in some more things
- Then I rewrite it in a more sensible order [eg'meal planning' has to come before 'making shopping list', and 'putting things back into loft' must come after 'sorting out craft stuff on spare bed']
- There are always instant tasks which I can do easily and tick off quickly to make myself feel better [put purple trug back into the garage
Get Dressed
Eat Breakfast
Take Girls to School-
simply because I knew those things would get done, so I'd have at least three ticks on my list by bedtime, no matter what other urgent matters had taken precedence over ironing, or mending.
But I am so much more laid back about lists and deadlines than I was back then. I was working part-time 2 days a week at the Primary School in the next road to the one my daughters attended. On the days I was there, my two would wait patiently at the school gate, and I would be there about 10 minutes after they came out. I'd often walk up the road with another parent from 'my' school. One day she said to me "How do you fit in all the work, and home and church stuff? I mean, I am just a stay at home Mum and I can't manage it all. I haven't washed my skirting boards this week" I was dumb-struck
Admit it, readers, how many of you washed your skirting boards down last week, and plan to do it this week as well? Apart from redecorating, we haven't had serious skirting board ablutions since the great Chocolate Mousse Disaster of 1991 [when the visiting missionaries who had come for lunch knelt down to help us, even though their dessert had been comprehensively splattered everywhere]
Next on my agenda right now - another cup of tea, I think
Do you have urgent things on your to do list?
And what about the less important feel-good tasks?
That is so funny Angela. My husband is great at sharing tasks, works hard but isn’t that taken with very routine housework like loo cleaning, dusting and so on. For years, whenever he sees me working when he isn’t he’ll asking what he can do to help and I always reply ‘wipe down the skirting boards’. They never do get done and I’ve no idea how they came to be a running joke in our house.
ReplyDeleteLove a list by the way.
Jill
With Bob's back, I'd hesitate to suggest he got down to wipe the skirting boards in case he never got back up again 🤣
DeleteOoh, I could do with a cup of tea! I feel very tired this morning!
ReplyDeleteI write to do lists and then never quite finish them. Or lose them.
X
I sometimes write important lists on my phone, so I know where they are
DeleteI think list-making, like the collecting of craft materials, is a hobby/passtime all of its own and if it's your thing you'll get no criticism from me. But washing the skirting boards? What fresh hell is this? Mine get a cursory vacuum-cleaning if I can be bothered to use the soft brush attachment but then I don't have littlies with choclatey fingers and glue and paints on their grubby little paws.
ReplyDeleteFortunately they get slightly less messy as they get older
DeleteTeachers love a list! I cannot function unless I have made a list. I too add simple, easily achieved things to my list so they can be ticked off early on which always helps mentally. I cannot remember the last time I washed the skirting boards! Probably before painting them too long ago to recall. I do give them a flick with a duster now and then. I currently have quite a long list, mostly Christmas related, most of the list is semi-urgent, not worryingly so, and all achievable. As I type this "list" keeps on coming up as "lust" that is definitely not on my to do list, I have no time for that!😂 Regards Sue H
ReplyDeleteAutocorrect is a pain sometimes. Mine frequently changes w to x when I type "sew" . So a sewing list can become quite another thing altogether 🤣🤣🤣
DeleteWe have a small dog so I do sometimes dust the skirting boards, especially when family are coming to visit. Not our daughter and family who live locally though!!
ReplyDeleteI have an old school pocket diary where I write reminders and lists, my husband uses his phone, but each week we have a mini planning meeting. 😀
Good to plan together weekly to avoid diary disasters
DeleteI did clean the skirting boards here when I moved is as they were so dirty even I could see it. I haven't done them since and probably won't bother again.
ReplyDeleteOnce on moving in should be adequate for a decade or so
DeleteMany years ago, a friend came round to help me clean our new house before we moved in. Dividing up the jobs, she asked which of us was going to wash the skirting boards. I may have looked at her as if she was speaking a foreign language... I did do it in one house a few years later, where I also had to wipe down the radiators and other things because it was filthy, but I've never done it before or since. I used to run my feather duster round them occasionally, and now I pay an energetic young lady to clean the house and I have no idea if she does them or not. Can't see most of them anyway!
ReplyDeleteLynnP
👍🩷
DeleteIf I'm honest, I'm not sure I have EVER washed my skirting boards. I have a white board above my desk where I write my weekly tasks - that sort of helps my anxiety a bit - and I have a paper diary for upcoming events in the year. Daily lists not so often.
ReplyDeleteI don't know the French word for skirting boards. Jupe de plafond? 🤣
DeleteThanks for sharing your lists Angela and how you subdivide and tackle them. I write daily lists and put the three most important at the top with the aim of complete them first as in ‘eat the frog.’ I’m also a big believer in writing down the small wins that can also be ticked off so if everything goes pear shaped I will at least feel as if I’ve accomplished something! Ta-Da lists are also great too and I will write them at the end of the day as a reminder to myself that despite everything I kept the plates spinning - even if nothing was ticked off on my original list!
ReplyDeleteSending hugs
San xx
Love the idea of a Ta-Da! list
DeleteI love lists and still buy a diary with notes pages for that reason. Catriona
ReplyDeleteI don't have a paper diary anymore
DeleteWhen I retired 20 years ago, the first few months were as carefree as I could make them. One day it dawned on me that I had not done any of the things I had promised myself I would do when I retired, because I was lazing away my days. I then started a list which changed every Sunday afternoon. I listed every day of the coming week with appointments, chores, fun things to do and things I hoped to accomplish. I placed the list on my bathroom counter where I see it every morning. How exciting it is to cross things off. Yes, somethings get pushed ahead to another day of the week and sometimes they show up on next week's list. Sometimes I add something to the list that I have just done, just so I can have the pleasure of then crossing it off. However, I don't miss appointments, I usually get several things done, and I sometimes Friday and Saturday's daily lists look a little overwhelming. But usually by the next Sunday afternoon, I can feel a sense of accomplishment when I plan the next week's list. OCD?? Maybe a little.
ReplyDeleteCrossing items off is good - but do make time for the carefree moments too!
DeleteWhen we first moved to our new place last June I thought I’d turn over a new leaf reference skirting boards and clean them regularly……I think you can guess what comes next, I very rarely, if ever, clean them, life’s too short.
ReplyDeleteI love a list.
Alison in Devon x
🩷
DeleteMy son has a cleaning business and before he started it he looked at all the online reviews of other cleaning companies to see what the most frequent complaints were. “Didn’t clean the baseboards” (as they are called here) was the biggest complaint so he makes sure it’s part of his cleaners’ training.
ReplyDeleteWell done your son. Let me know if he opens a UK branch of his operation!
DeleteI have to admit to wiping down the stairs skirting boards and inbetween the spindles where the cat hair gets stuck. I do love a list though and take great satisfaction in crossing off the jobs done. French for skirting board is plinthe. Xx
ReplyDeleteOh thank you for the new French word👍
DeleteI'm laughing about the skirting boards because somewhere at the back of my mind I believe they should be cleaned, but in 36 years in this once new house I can't remember when I ever seriously got down to it. There just seems to be so much of them, in every room, for pity's sake! Meanwhile my late friend used to use a toothbrush on hers because of the silly grooves in the design that we all have these days. My skirting boards are seriously deprived! I do make a list every day or nothing would get done!
ReplyDeleteI've just had to check - no, my SBs do not have grooves!
DeleteI'm not good at to do lists, Alan is the one that makes lists in our house, and ticks things off as we accomplish them, I'm the one that just says, 'have we done everything yet?'.
ReplyDeleteAnd no, I have not washed my skirting boards for a while, we will do it before we let our house go to it's new owners though, honest. :-)
Hope you are settled in the new place soon! Do you have a time frame for the move ?
DeleteI had no idea that you were meant to wash skirting boards. Was it Shirley Conran who said that Life is too short to stuff a mushroom? Same principle, I expect. (Although I have been known to press some grated cheese into a Portobello)
ReplyDeleteI just checked my ancient copy of SC's Superwoman. Skirting Boards are NOT listed in her 'cleaning section'. So we are all officially excused [unless there are cat hairs on the stairs, see Gill's comment above]
DeleteAnd yes, she did refer to stuffed mushrooms.
DeleteI do make To Do lists! My daily to do lists are usually written down in my planner and I check them off when they are done. I might vacuum a baseboard or two, on occasion, but, I don't wash them!
ReplyDelete👍
DeleteMy dust trap panelling on the stairs on the right hand side gets cleaned almost daily when I run my big toe over them (with my socks on) while using the stair lift. I expect the left hand side is a disgrace but I never see it...
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of sock dusting 🧦 🧦
ReplyDelete