Recently there have been a lot of changes in the Blaelock Household, with the aim of creating a happy and healthy home. Mainly leading out from the transplant rejection scare, and consequently a need to redesign my working and sleeping environments. Happy and Healthy Sleeping Environment We started the sleeping environment upgrades a few months…
Electricity Humbug
The other day, our electricity went out, and I was a little surprised about how dependent on it we’ve become. Even though I’ve written about that before. Aside from the alarm not going off, the central heating didn’t kick in, the hot water tank didn’t stay hot, and even worse – the coffee machine wasn’t…
How to Choose What To Do First
It’s been a busy couple of weeks. I have so much to do that I’m not sure what to do first. Or second. Or last for that matter. I’ve been sick, DB’s been sick and pretty girl’s been sick. She was so sick she slept through the last episode of Game of Thrones! (Actually, I…
Some Thoughts on Things
I’ve had some thoughts on things: The things we buy, The things we keep, and The things we throw away. That’s a lot of things. Things We Buy My thinking is partly inspired by shopping for Christmas gifts, and partly because we discovered an antique/junk warehouse. And for the first hour, it was exciting and…
How To Care For Your Best Rooms
In days gone by, houses were much smaller. They generally consisted of Best Rooms like the parlour, where you received guests during designated visiting hours, and everywhere else. Best Rooms Best rooms were very special places, strictly for showing off, all the very special, very expensive things went in there. You can see a more…
Housework Survey Says: What You Really Think About It
A while back, I mentioned I was inspired to write a book about Housekeeping, and I asked if there was such a thing as minimally viable housework? Well, housework survey says maybe. As you read the results, you’ll guess that the survey was mostly completed by women, but interestingly, the mix of age groups was…
The Happiness of Housekeeping Habits and Routines
Work on my new book Minimally Viable Housekeeping is steaming along – I’ve finished the first draft! There’s still work to go on the second draft, but I’m feeling a little smug. But as you might expect, the more involved I am in this project, the less I am in my actual housekeeping. And while DB…
How to Make Good Purchasing Decisions
Here in Australia, the Banking Royal Commission is well underway. And you may wonder what this has to do with good purchasing decisions, but at some point, we all chose to buy their services, and some of us chose to invest in them, and all of our superannuation funds invest and bank with them. The Commission was…
Doing the Damn Housework; Downton Abbey and You
It seems to me that the problem with doing the Damn Housework is that we’re all amateurs acting like professionals. Doing the Damn Housework Professionals take specialised training, sign up to and work to a code of conduct, standards of practice, and accept ethical obligations. They join associations where they can continue to expand their professional knowledge, contacts…
A Short Soapbox about Fat Old White Guys and Doing the Housework
I’ve been thinking about modern life. And how fat old white guys still run the world. And that they believe they know what is best for everyone else. Even when it’s usually only best for themselves. I’d shared my irritation about that before the latest round of rorts and scandals, so there’s not much point going over that again. And…
What is Your Home’s Purpose?
There’s nothing like going away for a period of time to make you want to click your red heels three times while chanting “There’s no place like home.” And when you get there, you can’t help but compare your home to the hotels you stayed in while away. And in my case, find something lacking.…
Signature Wardrobe House Cleaning Outfit
As you know, I have been trying (for a long time) to lift my game on cleaning house. Aside from clothes that are loose, with elbow length sleeves I haven’t thought about a Signature Wardrobe House Cleaning Outfit to wear while doing it. However, in the course of my researches for my new book Holistic Personal…