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One Thing : The Laundry Shelves

The cold wet weather has brought with it a few visitors of the four legged variety. It seems they like our cosy warm house much more inviting than the wet and wilds of the great outdoors. As per our marriage contract (love, honour, and deal with creepy crawlies), Country Boy sets traps, catches the mice, and then disposes of them. I have learnt not to squeal like a three year old whose lolly has been stolen every time I see a mouse, but they are still not welcome in the house!

On Friday night, I wandered into the laundry just in time to see a mouse scampering around, and I knew I could no longer procrastinate. I needed to clear off and reorganise the storage shelves so that they were clean, and that any unopened food packets were in mouse proof containers. I had been putting off sorting out those shelves for about six months because it is a dusty, awkward, thankless task, but the mouse galvanised me into action.

One Thing - The Laundry Shelves-2

So on Saturday afternoon, with the rain still hammering on the roof, and with Toby as a self-appointed “helper” (use that term very loosely), I pulled everything off those shelves and piled them on the sun room floor. There was a nice mix of cleaning materials, bulk food containers that we have no where else to keep, and miscellaneous bits and pieces, some of which I didn’t even know we still owned.

Stashed up on the top shelf I had found our old vapouriser that we used when the kids were little and got croup (I’d completely forgotten about them getting croup till I found it), a small step stool, and about 40 old egg cartons that we had collected from family. They were all cleared away, along with some random empty packages, and other bits and pieces.

One Thing - The Laundry Shelves-1

I gave the shelves a good vacuum, followed by a wipe with a damp cloth. Once the shelves were dried, I sorted the gear. Toilet paper, and cleaning supplies on one shelf in buckets according to type and spare food packets on another. My suspicions about our 4 legged visitors were confirmed when I found nibble holes on some packets of flour. I chucked the packets out, and the other packets of flour were wrapped in a plastic bag. Next time we go to town, I’m going to get a plastic container to pop them in.

One Thing - The Laundry Shelves-3

It took me maybe 40 minutes to do the whole job, even with a small “helper” who insisted on handing me everything using a squash racket as one of his hands. The shelf is looking a lot less chaotic, and I’m hopeful that our “visitors” won’t find any reason to linger up there. The laundry still needs a paint, and a total reconfiguration, but at least there is nothing in there that shouldn’t be there, and everything is clean and organised.

With our extension moving ever closer (*rubs hands in glee and anticipation), I’m often tempted to put off some of these jobs because I know that we will be up for some major clearing and rearranging in the near future, but every time I do another #onething, I’m always ridiculously pleased with the results.

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Comments

  1. Elisha says

    June 9, 2016 at 8:57 am

    Oh I know the feeling. My cupboard under the sink has been keeping a few visitors warm here too. YUK!! Its a job for todays rainy day here. I am envious of your clean laundry.

    Reply

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Hi, I’m Jo

I'm a city girl turned farmer's wife, school teacher, ideas woman, and mum to three country kids. Country Life Experiment is all about simple country living, growing and making our own food, and life on our family farm in rural Australia. Join me as I give country living a try. Read more...
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A lovely, easy Christmas with family, good food, a A lovely, easy Christmas with family, good food, a few presents, an afternoon swim and dinner on the veranda as the sun set. Time to stop and be thankful for the many blessings of the year. I hope you had a lovely Christmas too!
We have been mulling over how to fix up the drivew We have been mulling over how to fix up the driveway and lead up to our house for a while. Currently it’s just a dumping ground for old bits of metal and a big pile of mulch, but C would like to create a turning area and put in a garden. First up though, there’s a huge old stump that needs to go. What better excuse is there to have a fire on Sunday afternoon? C and the kids jumped on the quad bike and trailer, and hauled back a big pile of sticks and logs to help the stump burn. Once the fire was going, marshmallows were found and roasted. No better way to spend time together.
Team work makes the dream work. We were asked rec Team work makes the dream work. 
We were asked recently whether we “make” our kids work on the farm. The answer is of course not. Having said that, all three love to help out whenever they can. They all work hard because they want to; because they take pride in working hard and contributing in a meaningful way to our family life; because they love living on our farm and don’t remember life before we moved here. Whether it be planting trees or doing sheep work or feeding animals, they all want to be involved. As a parent, nothing is better than watching them grow in skill and confidence as they work along side you. We’re so glad that we get to spend time with our three, working together.
We’ve had an unexpected addition to the family ☘️🐑. She is a lot easier to look after than the other family members but she does try to escape her yard and head butt people. Poddy lambs are super cute but they tend to think they are a human. Clover the lamb is sure that Meg is her mum. Can’t think why… 🤔🤣
The perfect way to end a long winter weekend: toge The perfect way to end a long winter weekend: together, cooking damper around the remains of the bonfire.
It’s been a tough few weeks on the farm. We got It’s been a tough few weeks on the farm. We got through shearing without a hitch (thankfully 🙏) but we’ve had a run of the flu followed by Covid run through the family since then. The kids and I have tested positive (this is my second time getting it 🦠) though so far C has managed to avoid it. There has been a lot of lying on the couch feeling pretty ordinary. Han had to reschedule her driving test for a 4th time due to Covid, which is disappointing for her because she wants her freedom and for us because it would be so much more convenient if she could drive herself places. Just to add in to the mix, our hot water system has chosen now as a good time to die so we’re on cold showers until we’re all out of iso. This is not meant to be a whinging post but sometimes life just sucks a bit and it’s good to be real. Fortunately, the sight of the fire going with a stack of wood next to it cheers us up. Things will improve soon. Onwards we go…

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Hi, I’m Jo

City girl turned farmer's wife, school teacher, ideas woman, and mum to three country kids. Country Life Experiment is all about simple country living, growing and making our own food, and life on our family farm in rural Australia. Join me as I give country living a try. Read more...
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