Monthly Chore: Polishing Furniture

I’m essentially a work-at-home-mom. I’m not ashamed of the title, and I find that I get judged a lot less for it than I did when I was a work-from-home-person. People have a tendency to assume you’re lazy or an anti-feminism Suzy Homemaker if you tell them you work for yourself when you don’t have any kids. I assume they do that because of social norms or something, but it doesn’t much matter to me, as I am the only one who can judge my own self-worth.

That totally unrelated point being said, time-management is a serious issue for me as a work-at-home mom. Throughout the day I need to find time to keep the house clean, the laundry done, the people and animals of the house cared for and fed, my own work done, as well caring for myself in whatever form that happens to take. This is hard. No, this is not another blog about a mom who can’t handle the responsibilities plenty of people swear that their mothers handled no problem and whines about it (though I can sympathize), or really anything like that. I’m not even going to go off on a rant that I almost just started about how more is expected of us as PEOPLE, not just as moms, than ever before. This is a post about one of the many things I do to manage my life and my household. Once a month I polish all of my wooden furniture.

Today is Friday. I have a cleaning schedule that I pretty much stick to. I believe in it, and it’s what works for me. I regularly read and visit other mom blogs such as A Bowl Full of Lemons and Clean Mama, and I adapt some of their ideas to fit my lifestyle when appropriate. My cleaning schedule is pretty much like theirs. On Fridays, I do a rotating set of monthly and semi-monthly chores. On the first Friday of the month, I polish my wooden furniture.

Why I Do this Monthly

I like the look of well polished, clean wooden furniture. It isn’t practical, or good for the wood, for me to do this on a daily basis, and I have too many things to keep together to do it weekly. I suppose I could do it less often, but I have pets and a toddler, so finger and paw prints start to show up pretty quickly. I do a quick swipe of the most used furniture before gatherings or visitors to keep things from getting too out of hand. Again, this is just what works for ME. I grew up in a household where the wood furniture was polished on a weekly basis. Great, good, that works for you. Do it whenever you can, if you can. Have your cleaning lady do it, fine. I do it the first Friday of every month.

The Process

I use Pledge lemon furniture cleaner for this. It’s what I grew up using, I don’t think it smells overly chemical-y, and I appreciate the results. Also, one can of it lasts a super long time when you’re only doing this monthly. I’ve been itching to try a homemade version, since many of my homemade cleaners have been superior to the store bought stuff in both performance and cost, but this last can I bought appears to be bottomless, so maybe I’ll give it a try when it’s gone. I also use a microfiber cleaning cloth (Zwipes are my favorite, because you can get a ton of them for very little and they work for almost everything).

I start at the top of the house and work my way down. This works best for me because my laundry room is in the basement, so once I’m done down there, I just throw the cloths in the laundry and go about my day. The whole process takes less than fifteen minutes. For each piece of wooden furniture, I take everything off of it, spray the top with a little Pledge, and wipe along the grain of the wood. Then I use the already damp cloth to wipe down the sides and front. I replace everything I took off of it and repeat for each piece of furniture in the house. There are things I don’t take everything off of, like Baby Girl’s crib. This I just wipe down with the damp cloth. Also the entertainment centers…too many cords. Sometimes I skip taking everything off of the bookshelves and DVD storage shelves, but if I do, I try not to skip it two months in a row or those things start to look grimy! Usually one cloth will get me through the entire task, but sometimes I need two.

I intend to try out some different furniture oils to reduce scratches and things on some of my nicer furniture in the future, but right now it seems silly since a lot of my furniture needs to be refinished anyhow. Do you have a favorite one?

Happy Polishing!

Here’s to Baby Food: Pears

So, pears. They are as easy as apples ( think they were even easier, but that’s just me), and they are delicious. You won’t regret making these babies form scratch.

Equipment:
Steamer OR Stove, Pot, and Steamer Basket
Vegetable Peeler
Blender OR Food Processor

Ingredients:
4 pears
That’s it!

1. Quarter and core the pears. Don’t peel them, we’ll do that later. Cooking with the peel on adds nutrients.

2. Steam the pears. I used an actual steamer appliance (I have an Oster one), because it’s easy and it turns itself off when it’s done (seriously helpful when you have to run and change a baby), but a steamer basket over a pot of boiling water would work just as well if you keep an eye on the kitchen timer. It should take about 7 minutes.

3. Now peel the pears. I used a vegetable peeler. If your knife skills are way better than mine, you can just use a knife. It can be a bit of a pain, and the apples can get a bit slippery, but you’ll get the hang of it, I promise.

4. Process the pears in a food processor or blender until smooth. Add water or cooking liquid as needed to make it the right consistency for your baby. I used my basic Hamilton Beach blender, and cooking liquid to thin it. My steamer has a reservoir under the steaming basket that catches all the pear flavored water before it ends up in the steam water, so I used that. Normally I would use a food processor because it makes quick work of it, but I don’t have a full size one, only a mini, so all the pears wouldn’t have fit.

5. Transfer to containers (I use the OXO Tot baby food containers because they’re airtight, plus freezer and microwave safe). To store, keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. The pears will brown a little while being stored, but don’t worry, that doesn’t mean they’ve gone bad.

That’s it! It doesn’t get much simpler than that (and you thought this was going to be hard)!

Here’s to Baby Food: Apples

So, my first foray into baby food today was an apple puree. Baby Girl is only six months old, and we just started her on solids. I always wanted to make her baby food, but I wasn’t sure how she would like it, so I started out with some jarred organic stuff people had given me at my baby shower. Once it was clear that she wanted solid food on a daily basis, I decided to make some. Apples it is. This is how I made it. There are many variations to this (it is essentially applesauce), so feel free to do it your own way. I do not use any special baby food specific equipment, as the functions they perform are the same as other kitchen appliances I already own.

Ingredients:
6 sweet apples (I used Gala)
That’s it!

1. Quarter and core the apples. Feel free to use an apple corer thingy…I didn’t, because I don’t have one. Why don’t I have one? Seriously. I must be nuts. Don’t peel them, we’ll do that later. Cooking the apples with the peel on adds nutrients.

2. Steam the apples. I used an actual steamer appliance (I have an Oster one), because it’s easy and it turns itself off when it’s done (seriously helpful when you have to run and change a baby), but a steamer basket over a pot of boiling water would work just as well if you keep an eye on the kitchen timer. It should take about 12 minutes.

3. Now peel the apples. I used a vegetable peeler. It can be a bit of a pain, and the apples can get a bit slippery, but you’ll get the hang of it, I promise.

4. Process the apples in a food processor or blender until smooth. Add water or cooking liquid as needed to make it the right consistency for your baby. I used my basic Hamilton Beach blender, and cooking liquid to thin it. My steamer has a reservoir under the steaming basket that catches all the apple flavored water before it ends up in the steam water, so I used that. Normally I would use a food processor because it makes quick work of it, but I don’t have a full size one, only a mini, so all the apples wouldn’t have fit.

5. Transfer to containers (I use the OXO Tot baby food containers because they’re airtight, plus freezer and microwave safe). To store, keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. You can add a little lemon juice to keep it from browning, but a little color change won’t hurt it.

That’s it! It doesn’t get much simpler than that (and you thought this was going to be hard)! I thought about including a photo, but it really does just look like applesauce. I swear it. When baby is old enough for spices, add a little cinnamon!