A Joyful Keeper

I really enjoy going to my mother-in-law’s house. It hasn’t always been so. There have been many relationship problems in my dh’s family over the years. However, things are much better now-a-days with some of us, so I am thankful that we can go there and enjoy our time with them.

My dmil is born organized. So whenever I go there, I try to watch her and pick up things from her. Her house is always neat and tidy and she seems to be always on top of things. Always? Yes. She really is one of those people who has everything running like a well oiled machine!

I’d like to share some things that I have observed, while I’ve visited her over the years. One thing that really stands out when I go, is that there is no clutter. I don’t mean that her house is bare… there are photos in frames on the walls, and on shelves. There are ornaments on top of the tv and cupboards. But there is no clutter on the table, or on the kitchen counters. Paperwork gets dealt with right away. If it needs attention for another day, it goes into a little rack specially for paper. Now in my house, that rack would get fuller and fuller…. because I don’t file it or throw it away after I deal with it. My dmil deals with the bills, and then puts them away in the filing cabinet. She goes through the filing cabinet regularly (so that she only has one filing cabinet instead of three like we do!), and only keeps what needs to be kept for tax purposes.

My dmil has a “What Not” (like Ma Ingalls!) where she keeps odds and ends. This is in the corner of her dining room and is the only place that could be described as “cluttered”. Here she keeps pens, pencils, needles, scissors, sticky tape, a few tools, and such things. They get put back right after they are used. If anyone leaves something on the dining table, she will pick it up and ask whose it is and then sit it on a little table by the tv in a subtle hint to put it away….! If it doesn’t get put away soon by the person it belongs to, she will look at it again, hint again,… and so on, until the person puts it away! I would imagine that if it were a family member, she would just tell them to put it away and not hint.

I love to watch my dmil in the kitchen. She only has a small one, and not a lot of bench (counter) space. She is very careful with what she leaves out on the bench. Not much is privileged enough to live there! My rule is that if it is used daily, it is allowed to stay out. Not so in my dmil’s house. The toaster is used every morning, the crumbs tipped out in the sink, the top given a wipe, and put back where it belongs in the cupboard. The only permanent things that are left out are the kettle, the cup rack, the big jar of utensils (wooden spoons, etc), and a little flip top bin where she used to put the scraps for the chooks (chickens). Why she still has that there, I am not sure. I think it is because she puts the food scraps in there in a little bag, then in the bigger bin so that it doesn’t smell as much.

Dishes get washed, dried and put away immediately. She has a dishwasher, but only uses it when there are many people there. Even then, she will wash cups in between meals, so that they are always hanging on the cup rack by the kettle. As she talks to us in the dining area, she will regularly pick up her dish cloth and wipe the kitchen sink and bench. Flylady would be proud of her sink! It is always shiny!

Meals are simple, but delicious and healthy. She cleans and tidies and puts away while she cooks. She says she has to do this, because her kitchen is so small. Everything has a neat place in the cupboards - they are not overflowing because she gets rid of anything she doesn’t need. Having said this, she still has times when she can’t find things. She laughingly told us the story about the carrot cake she made in her new ring tin. She thought she had one in her cupboard, but couldn’t see it. She then searched around the shops to find one. Finally she bought one and was horrified that it was so expensive ($25), but she really did want it, so she bought it. Of course, not long after that she looked in an out of the way cupboard in her kitchen and found the one she already had! So that even happens to born organized people… phew! We all laughed with her and encouraged her that she still saved money by buying the tin and baking the cakes instead of buying the cake from the shop. She agreed, because she had seen carrot cake at the supermarket for $5.

Washing is hung on the line as soon as the washing machine is done. When it is dry, she takes it in, folds it, and puts it away immediately. Ironing is left on the back of the chair in the formal dining room and gets done that night before she goes to bed.

There is a theme here…. things get done right away…. there is very little procrastination in my dmil’s life. She is able to easily get rid of excess stuff, and live simply with what she has. She sweeps her floor a few times a day, so there is no need for a huge, mad, cleaning spree! Sometimes her lifestyle might border on the obsessive compulsive, like the two mops she has - one for inside the house, and one just for cleaning the bird droppings on the front veranda. But her house is clean, neat and tidy.

I have such a long way to go to be like her! I look around me and know that I have too much stuff. I know that I don’t deal with things right away. But I also know that I will get there… slowly. I always feel so motivated when I come home from her house to make changes in my own home. This week I will do a few things that I have been putting off, tidy up a few areas that have been a mess for too long. It’s always good to be at my dmil’s home and learn from her, and it is always good to be back in our own home….

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 at 3:50 pm and is filed under Homemaking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.