have a clean and tidy house

St Andrews Night 30th November. Haggis and Whisky. Barr’s Irn Bru for the youngsters. Slainte!

Then comes the Christmas rush a few weeks after. Close on the heels of Christmas comes Hogmanay – the signal to get going on the annual ‘get the house tidy and totally clean top to bottom’ before the sit down with the family just before The Bells.

Side table holds silver gallery tray, polished by husband and gleaming. Crystal tumblers, hand washed, dried with a soft cloth, are filled with ‘uisge beatha’ and sit waiting for the first toasts to the New Year. Slainte.

House still a bit of a tip but my new campervan is show off tidy with cupboards emptied and fridge defrosted and cleaned. All the wood cabinets are polished. Carpet clean because of huge rubber mat which totally covers the floor on rainy days. Shiny outside too, courtesy of the rain.

It still surprises and delights that my ‘so far’ tidy-up has yielded the ability to take books from a shelf without extreme tugging and leaves that same space for the book to return to. PS there are three shelves without anything on them. Happy, happy, happy!

See above

I vacuumed the sofa just the other day but its covered in fur from my cat so quickly. Which would I rather have clean sofa or cat. Guess the sofa will just have to thole the cat fur. People! if you come visiting. Don’t wear a dark business suit. Dress down in t-shirt and jeans. More relaxing anyway.

DH dismantled cot as granddaughter in single bed now she’s 3. Have parked cot in spare room till have a think where we can put it.

Have a cleaner and tidier house than this time last year. I’m getting there, slowly but surely. The clutter tales up less of the house. No longer custodian of stuff, I’d kept for years but couldn’t remember I had hung onto, until the bags, cases and boxes were brought down from the attic. Big clear out still on-going.

Today we saw a kitchen we liked. I’d had a secret notion to change the whole thing. As other half picked up leaflets galore and measured up, I realised with sinking feeling he meant to change only the doors of the cabinets.

Still, might be ok as found our older kitchen cabinets are imperial and newies are in metric. One can hope and cross fingers tightly.

Yesterday I took the decision to clean the WHOLE bathroom including the awkward are behind the toilet where the pipes gather so much dust and cobwebs. Eech!

I always figure the main areas are clean as I scoot around with the loo cleaner and Cif. But because the pipes are behind you if you see what I mean, they kinda get left.

These plastic pipes have been the bain of my life for years. Built mid 80s the plumbing is not covered in. Had we waited til the 90s when the fashion for boxing in the plumbing came in, I wouldn’t have this problem.

Many times, I’ve looked and thought is is possible to do any boxing in – its not. The pipes criss cross over one another with not a lot of space to spare next to each item and the loo’s plumbing has two angles in the main pipe. It all works perfectly but there is no way to hide those pipes without making lots of little boxes of differing sizez – which will look even worse than the visible pipes.

Anyway, all is sparkling again and maybe this will be the hint for a newer bathroom suite which will hide the pipes and come with newer panel along its bath cos our old one has a crack. Our bathroom suite is so old (23), no-one makes the same colour anymore and thus we are stuck with the cracked panel. Another bugbear of mine.