Spring Cleaning | The emotional art of housekeeping

Growing up, one of my favorite features of the Sunday newspaper was "Hints from Heloise" a how-to column referencing all things domestic. Cleaning hacks (before they were a thing), advice for stubborn stains, and even a section from young readers aimed toward kids. My obsession with cleaning tutorials expanded to the home maintenance sections of …

The Glories of Chores

I'm a firm believer that children who don't do chores grow up to be adults who don't know how to care for themselves.  It's all well and good to assign chores to your children, but without consistency, motivation, and/or consequences, chore time turns into a game of frustration and nagging. Enter, the chore chart. Seriously, …

How much do you want for this? | A guide to stress free yard sales

Saturday, Mom and I hosted a yard sale. Yard sales. The very term brings back memories of waking up on a Saturday morning to find my parents had been awake since before dawn and were selling all of my toys. It should have been traumatic, but there were always donuts, so I got over it. …

day 11 – Monday Musings: of eusocial formicidae invasions…

1) It is a truth universally acknowledged that a girl in possession of a day off is in want of a disaster. Fridays are the day that I get to catch up on things. No students, no jobs, no classes, just me and a huge cup of coffee and my never ending list. It is …

day 2 – We need a list, and other shenanigans

Tell me what is more satisfying than the kind of exhaustion that comes after a day of accomplishment. I dare you. On a recent Saturday, just before my mom headed out of town on a business trip, we had one such day. In an effort to encourage each other to complete all of the small …

Monday Musings: of vocabulary lessons, office overboard, and a world of nope…

Happy Monday! 1) My mom and I spend a lot of time together. I mean, a lot. Which means we talk a lot. So much, in fact, that it's a wonder that we have anything to talk about anymore. I guess the secret is talking about really inane things. At a recent dinner out, we were discussing...I …

Step 1: Admit you have a problem.

May I just share something with you, without the inevitable scrutiny and eye-rolling? Probably not. I'm going for it anyway. I, Simone, being of sound mind and relatively sound body admit that I did knowingly and with intent spend in excess of 2 hours rearranging the pins on my Pinterest boards. *Shame* But it felt so good. …

Monday Musings: of cleaning products, a rug in a bag, and a great lady…

It's Tuesday, but that isn't alliterative with "musings" so I'm just going to pretend. Mmkay, pumpkins? 1) When I get stressed out, I clean things. Seriously, the morning after my dad died, I cleaned my entire kitchen and bathroom. I couldn't control what was happening in my life, but I could absolutely control how clean …

If this is going to ruin our friendship, just walk away…

So Emily has this problem.... I call it "Waytoomuch(stuff)ititus". Between moving from home to school and back again and trying to keep her ever burgeoning wardrobe under control, she's in way over her head, and has been lamenting her plight to me all summer.  So last week I finally relented and offered to help.  We …