Domestic

New Toy!

My mom used a roller mop. So I used a roller mop. Three, actually—the damn things kept breaking, or I'd have a hard time finding the right replacement rollers, or they just didn't get the job done. My current crappy roller mop doesn't quite fit into my bucket. Consequently, I hate wrestling with it—which means my floors don't get mopped nearly as often as they should. (I was using one of those squirt-mop with the disposable pads instead—they work well, but I didn't like wasting so much by throwing out a dirty pad every few days.)

So! We stopped by the world's greatest store, in Sellwood this morning. GR Scrub is a shop devoted to cleaning supplies. I was in heaven. I knew if any place in town had a dream mop, this would be it.

I was right—owner Glenn Recchia saw me eyeing yet another roller mop, and sidled up to chat. The roller mop in my hand was a good one. But he had something even better: The MysticMop. It's a microfiber mop by a local company (bonus!), with a pad you can toss in the wash. And you only need a little water to clean the floor (no bucket!). I nabbed that and a new broom, and raced home to clean the floor (yep, I'm a huge nerd).

The mop's awesome. The kitchen floor is cleaner than it's been in ages, it got that way quickly and easily, and the floor wasn't sopping wet for half an hour, as it was after previous roller mop session. I might just mop every day.

Mrs. Meyer's in the NY Times

There's a piece on Mrs. Meyer's products in the New York Times magazine (that link will work for a bit, until they archive the piece), exploring how a new brand channels nostolgia.

I haven't tried Mrs. Meyer's yet, but always want to—a family I babysat had the Lemon Verbena handsoap (or dishsoap, used for hands) and I LOVED the smell. I'd wash my hands a dozen times, and the kid—were he not two years old—may have suspected I've got a touch of OCD. I ran into the pet shampoo at Hello Portland! on NW 23rd a week ago, and loved that, too—it's got oatmeal and moisturizers, and smelled delicious. Right now, we use regular old Herbal Essence shampoo on Posey, which is probably not the best idea. I think it gives her slightly dry skin. Time to switch to Mrs. Meyer's.

Reorganizing Reinvigoration

So much to report! I just spent the last week in MN, visiting the family and attending a beautiful wedding of two dear friends.

While there, Sonia and I escaped the heat and poked around in a used book store. There, I found a book that I'd first read back in the summer of 1999, while nannying in St. Paul (the kids were thoroughly occupied, and it was one of the few books on the coffee table): Confessions of an Organized Homemaker. This is the book that originally set me on the planner path, inspiring me to make a behemoth calendar/list/info book that I toted around everywhere. I've since gone digital, so it was good to re-read this—it inspired me again. I gave my Treo an overhaul on the plane, adding in info sections and memos and lists that I'd forgotten.

Finding the book—it's so 1950s stay-at-home-mom (even if it was written in 1994), recommending homekeeping schedules, ways to keep your cleaning supplies tidy, and efficient cooking and cleaning practices—dovetailed nicely with something else that happened when I was home. I was helping Mom set up her new iPod, and found a lovely bit of software from the folks who made iPod Rip. It's called Connoisseur, and it's a recipe organizing program. I immediately downloaded it, and started importing recipes from Cooking Light, Martha Stewart, and Real Simple. Now, I can abandon my never-finished/always-frustrating crusade to keep up with clipping recipes out of magazines and pasting them into three ring binders. Going digital is much better—I can search the recipes (based on what's showing up in our produce order from Pioneer Organics on Thursday!), make a shopping list, and rate the meals for future reference. And it holds all the beautiful plated-meal photos!

So now I've got a new crusade: Meal planning. It's one area we've failed at. We tend to hit the grocery store and buy whatever, then cobble together a few meals, and then stare into the empty fridge four days later. Not anymore! I planned out five meals and hit the grocery store on Tuesday afternoon. Last night, we had herb crusted chicken. Tonight, it's a Manderin orange stir-fry. Tomorrow, I think we're slated to eat baked cheese polenta with chard.

But wait! There's more.

I've resolved to wake up at 6:30 a.m. every weekday morning. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, this means I'm headed to the gym. Tuesday and Thursday mornings are for household duties—bills, meal planning, cleaning, etc. The hope is that this consistancy will help me truly wake up early. And getting home stuff done in the morning will free up my evenings for other projects (and going to be early to wake up the next day). Plus, I can get to work at 9 fully awake, instead of sleep walking through the first two hours of work.

We'll see how it goes. This morning, my phone's alarm was accidentally set to silent, so I woke up at 7:30. But I still got a few things done! Better than waking up at 8:45...