Rules that work

You know those dividers that fit in a sock drawer so I can roll each pair and slip them into the slots? I don't have any. They look like they would transform my sock drawer from scrambled socks to order. It would save me time, so I wouldn't have to hunt for the ones with the blue triangles at the ankle.

But I would end up piling my socks on top of the divider. They never come out of the dryer in pairs, and I couldn't put just one sock in a hole. It wouldn't work for me.

I do have a few tricks that work every time. If I have an empty gas tank, I put a note on the seat of my car, so I will go to the gas station first, or I break out in a sweat wondering if the car will make it to the next gas station. I put notes in a lot of places. They help me remember important things.

One obvious place is on my desk chair. Another is in the bathroom sink for things I have to do first thing in the morning. I can't trust my memory without little reminders. If I had a workable desk, I could leave my messages there, but the way it is now, leaving myself a message there would require an archeological dig to retrieve it. And, I would have to remember that it is there.

Cleaning for company can be easy. Of course, all of the "ick" spots have to be clean - bathrooms and kitchens. Dust bunnies just don't mean much compared to mold in the fridge or gunk around the kitchen drain.

I love dusters of all kinds - the new ones with the disposable dust cloth on the end and the feathered ones that leave little fluffs of yellow here and there. I can whisk around the great room in just three minutes with one of those.

Then I shine up the glass-topped table until it sparkles. Countertops also get cleared off - a "his" pile goes into my other half's study and a "mine" pile that goes into the laundry room because there is no room to put another thing on my desk.

And I don't ask people over on a sunny day when the sun shines on the wood floor. I can clean that floor three times, and there will always be "stuff" that shows up in the sunlight. Knowing my house saves a lot of unnecessary work. If we are eating in the dining room, I have to clean those windows. Once it gets dark, those streaks show up like neon signs, but the other windows are fine.

The key is to clean the spots that scream at me and distract everyone's attention from the others. Hors d'oeuvres go a long way in distracting guests. So do fresh flowers. Put fresh flowers in the bathroom, and it will look like I have been cleaning all day.