Hidden Hazards of Quarantine

[PollyannaMom]

This is the place for amusing discoveries about being stuck at home - the kind of thing where you find an advantage, but it comes with a hidden disadvantage (or vice versa). I'll start:

Positive - I've never been so caught up on laundry.
Negative - I've realized that all our clothes do not actually fit in our dressers at once.

 

[RamblingMad]

A messy house is far more disturbing when stuck in it. And I’m still unpacking from my move. Lots of boxes build up until bulk pickup day. And new online orders don’t help.

 

[cabanafrau]

The purging we're doing is resulting in a growing mountain until donation centers reopen. It's reaching the point where we have to stop efforts until we can move the mountain -- which I'm sure will be limited for some time when receiving is open again because everyone will have done the same.

 

[LSUmiss]

A messy house is far more disturbing when stuck in it. And I’m still unpacking from my move. Lots of boxes build up until bulk pickup day. And new online orders don’t help.

Yes! I have a 2 year old & I’m by myself with him most of the day so house stays much messier than usual. Ugh!

 

[lynxstch]

This is the place for amusing discoveries about being stuck at home - the kind of thing where you find an advantage, but it comes with a hidden disadvantage (or vice versa). I'll start:

Positive - I've never been so caught up on laundry.
Negative - I've realized that all our clothes do not actually fit in our dressers at once.

I have to agree with you on the clothes not fitting in dressers at one time. I had to go and find a tote to put excess stuff that neither of us are going to wear for awhile

Positive--Spring cleaning was actually done before we got too far into Spring..usually I am still working on it in May!
Negative--started yardwork too early, and now it's growing faster than it was before

 

[RamblingMad]

This is the place for amusing discoveries about being stuck at home - the kind of thing where you find an advantage, but it comes with a hidden disadvantage (or vice versa). I'll start:

Positive - I've never been so caught up on laundry.
Negative - I've realized that all our clothes do not actually fit in our dressers at once.

I suggest hiking clothes. You can wear the same shirt all week. And if it smells, you’re the only one that notices. I ordered two more hiking shirts.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Positive--

actually getting some projects done on the house. Materials just stocked in the house but not done for some things, finally re-did the mulch which hadn't been done in 3 years and landscaping was looking haggard with the mulch basically gone, redid the paving stones around landscaping as they were all askew, redid firepit, got firewood and firewood storage so we can have more firepit nights, about to replant some drift roses and take out the dead ones (that have been dead for 2 years), put up shelves behind tv, did a few craft projects, put up more shelves in the garage and installed the pegboard on the wall, reorganized some tools (can never find the darn tool you're looking for lol),etc



Negative--

realizing just how much more there is to be done, seeing how expensive it will be to fix up stuff like now we want an outdoor storage box to store the tops of our tiki torches we just got, during the rain so they'll last longer well that's $65+, needing to get a rain barrel (though we will get up to a 50%/or $75 reimbursement from the city...well whenever they resume inspections for that) so that's anywhere between $70-$150, likely need to get more river rock (last time we had purchased 1 ton of it), need to fix the spots the darn moles from several years ago dug holes up, and my goodness the black hickory nuts keep getting further and further out in the yard, etc




It was easy before to just bemoan that we weren't doing xyz and now that we've started I want to keep going..but it's a lot of work and $$$. We've def. been liking what we've done so far though

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Postive: saving on gas money. DH's work clothes and shoes will last longer, since they aren't being worn. DS's stuff may actually last long enough to be outgrown, not just worn down.


Negative: I've always broken the house up into dailies (like Mondays are for dusting and vacuuming; Tuesdays for bathrooms and mopping; Wed for washing bedding, etc etc). DH sees exactly how much time I have to spend cleaning the house. I had him convinced for YEARS that it took 4+ hours A DAY to keep things neat and tidy.Spoiler alert: I can clean a bathroom, top to bottom, in under 15 minutes (including walls and floors)...and we only have 2 bathrooms....

 

[Luv Bunnies]

The purging we're doing is resulting in a growing mountain until donation centers reopen. It's reaching the point where we have to stop efforts until we can move the mountain -- which I'm sure will be limited for some time when receiving is open again because everyone will have done the same.

Are all of your local donation centers closed? Someone posted in our neighborhood group that Goodwill is still open for donations while the store is closed. You have to unload your own car and sort everything into the bins. There is one staff member standing way back who can answer questions. They realized that lots of people are purging and it's a good time to get donations right now.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Positive--we aren't throwing out as much food.

Negative--we have to run the dishwasher every day which means I get to empty it more.

 

[NYCgrrl]

I found a cleaning product that I've been looking for for a weally longggggggg time at a new to me supermarket yesterday: Fels-Naptha brown soap.

Yeah sure they market it now as laundry bar and stain remover and it costs about $3.00 for a smaller bar instead of 2/$1.00 but I bought it anyway.

Downside? I washed the clothes for the week on Tuesday, LOL.
So I sit here sniffing the bar in anticipation cuz yanno sometimes it's the little things that make me happy.

 

[cabanafrau]

Are all of your local donation centers closed? Someone posted in our neighborhood group that Goodwill is still open for donations while the store is closed. You have to unload your own car and sort everything into the bins. There is one staff member standing way back who can answer questions. They realized that lots of people are purging and it's a good time to get donations right now.

I'm unaware of any locations in our area that have multiple bins and had heard specifically on the news that the places we ordinarily go to are closed. I'm sure there still may be freestanding bins in some store parking lots, but if they're not jammed full at this point I would hesitate to put anything in them because if I fill them I'd be afraid of encouraging others to just dump their stuff on the ground around the bins. I just plan to wait it out, grumbling, until things reopen.

 

[a1tinkfans]

Bag em all up, shove it in the garage or a closet till you can go donate. Out of sight, out of mind. I always seem to have something as I go about our daily lives( pre coved) I keep a tub for it now.

 

[ronandannette]

A messy house is far more disturbing when stuck in it. And I’m still unpacking from my move. Lots of boxes build up until bulk pickup day. And new online orders don’t help.

TOTALLY!! What I could (and did) easily ignore when I got home from work, now confronts me continuously. The irony is that now I'm working from home and taking calls/texts/e-mails from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm and have even less time and mental energy to do the chores.

 

[mmouse37]

I found a cleaning product that I've been looking for for a weally longggggggg time at a new to me supermarket yesterday: Fels-Naptha brown soap.

Yeah sure they market it now as laundry bar and stain remover and it costs about $3.00 for a smaller bar instead of 2/$1.00 but I bought it anyway.

Downside? I washed the clothes for the week on Tuesday, LOL.
So I sit here sniffing the bar in anticipation cuz yanno sometimes it's the little things that make me happy.

I have used that for years....I have had the same bar for a long time as I use it just for stains....works great. I just wet one corner of it and rub it on the stain and they put it back in a zip-loc bag for storage.

MJ

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Positive--we aren't throwing out as much food.

Negative--we have to run the dishwasher every day which means I get to empty it more.

Good point about the dishwasher. I keep saying how is it I just finish a load, unload it and there's already enough for another load..it's beyond me lol. We're not doing a load everyday though but more like 2-3 times a week.

Our 92 pack of dishwashing pods was supposed to last over a year (we usually only need to do dishes 1 to 2 times a week it varies)...but well that's going to be reduced at least some.

 

[mjkacmom]

Postive: saving on gas money. DH's work clothes and shoes will last longer, since they aren't being worn. DS's stuff may actually last long enough to be outgrown, not just worn down.


Negative: I've always broken the house up into dailies (like Mondays are for dusting and vacuuming; Tuesdays for bathrooms and mopping; Wed for washing bedding, etc etc). DH sees exactly how much time I have to spend cleaning the house. I had him convinced for YEARS that it took 4+ hours A DAY to keep things neat and tidy.Spoiler alert: I can clean a bathroom, top to bottom, in under 15 minutes (including walls and floors)...and we only have 2 bathrooms....

I’ve been a SAHM for 23 years, I think I’ve been outed....

 

[NYCgrrl]

I have used that for years....I have had the same bar for a long time as I use it just for stains....works great. I just wet one corner of it and rub it on the stain and they put it back in a zip-loc bag for storage.

MJ

Going to borrow your ZipLoc bag idea since otherwise it'll just wind up sitting in a pool of soap "glop".

ETA: where do you buy it normally?

 

[DopeyDame]

Positive--we aren't throwing out as much food.

Negative--we have to run the dishwasher every day which means I get to empty it more.

The dishes!!!!
Holy cow I never realized how many dishes we would use if we ate at home all day.

 

[NotUrsula]

Most supermarkets around here normally carry Fels-Naptha, as does WalMart.

I also keep a bar in a ziploc under the bathroom sink for stain treatment use; along with chips off the bar stashed in our travel toiletries bags, to use to hand-wash clothes while traveling. Be sure to cut it in the same direction each time; otherwise it crumbles.