Do we want a Making Life Easier thread?

[Ikoiko]

He is great! But he doesn't iron.

[agate]

Dragging up this post again because I've found yet another use for the reacher:

There are times when a floor, usually the kitchen floor, has visible dirt spots but I don't want to drag this mop out when the floor is still 80% clean. Since there are no more splash mops, and they did take a while to dry, I've improvised.

I have a reacher. I take a wet paper towel, not sopping wet but pretty damp, and grip it with the reacher and mop up the floor spots, then toss the wet paper towel away. It does a good enough job for the floor to look clean again.

I've modified this procedure somewhat and am so happy about the results that I just have to share them. Anyone notice how the areas just under and outside the baseboards on washable floors seldom get really clean unless a person is washing the floor on hands and knees and reaches for those little crevices where the baseboard meets the floor?

Well, reacher to the rescue! I've been using the reacher with an attached wet paper towel to run along the baseboards while I'm doing one of those spot-cleanings. I'm amazed at how much better the floor looks, without the major project of moving everything off it and washing the entire floor.

--Stay tuned for more Reacher Features and other shortcuts so we can get away with doing less.

[agate]

This article in Consumer Reports looked like a day-brightener at first but after looking at the whole article, I'm not going to try laundry detergent sheets just now. They are sheets of concentrated laundry detergent, probably not on supermarket shelves but you can order them online, and if they worked well at laundering, they could save a person a lot of lifting and pouring from those bulky heavy jugs that liquid detergent comes in.

But it seems detergent sheets don't do well at removing stains. Someone who spills often has to work on quite a few stains.

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[agate]

Another article in Consumer Reports that might help to make someone's life easier. I've had to buy a case for my smartphone and spent quite a lot of time just finding the right type of case. This article talks about phones costing $800-$1,500, and the cases are pricey too, but some of the advice is helpful even for those of us who don't invest so much money in our phones and cases for them.

"The Best Cell Phone Case for Your Pricey Device" in Consumer Reports (September 27, 2022):

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[agate]

I've been hearing about sound bars. Apparently people aren't happy with the sound quality on their TVs and are investing in sound bars to enhance it. I just saw an article on sound bars for less than $200. So they're pricey.

Does this mean that nowadays you can buy a TV but if you want decent sound you have to enhance it with a sound bar? I'm not happy with the sound on my TV but don't want to clutter up my life with another gadget.

Is this one more instance of products being less than you'd normally expect--so you'll spend more to get the missing elements?

I've noticed that you can buy a lamp but you might need to buy the shade separately. You can buy pajamas but you might find you're buying the bottoms separately from the tops. So now you don't get anything but muddy sound on a TV you buy and you rush out and spend a few hundred dollars on a sound bar.

No wonder nobody has much money.

I've probably done this rant before. If so, I apologize. I just wonder if life would be improved with a sound bar. At least it would be easier to hear what's being said on the TV but who wants another plug-in gadget that probably needs cleaning and maintenance?

[agate]

<sub>SHOPPING CARTS

Is anyone besides me a fan of shopping carts? I've always used one, and people without cars find them to be essential. Nowadays I don't use my cart much at all for groceries because those get delivered but I do use it for laundry a couple of times a week.

It's been a problem here because it's probably the largest cart available and just doesn't want to fit well in any of my closets. And its tires have been leaving marks on the painted wall in the closet. And at 13 lbs. it's really too heavy and bulky for me to lift comfortably.

So I decided to splurge and treat myself to a new cart. This one I'm using is at least 30 years old and fairly creaky after several repairs. The new one will weigh only 7.5 lbs. but will supposedly carry 90 lbs. And--an essential feature--when folded it can be locked into a folded position. Some carts don't have that feature.

Its front wheels don't swivel (a disadvantage) but the wheels seem to be rubber (an advantage over plastic IMO).</sub>

If I can put this together, this new cart should make my life easier. I've put all previous shopping carts together and I'm hoping I can do this one too. It's a matter of cotter pins and washers and axles and so on but there's a video about it.

I find how-to videos very very useful.

[Ikoiko]

We bought a $400 TV from Best Buy and the salesman wanted us to buy a sound bar, too. I said no! We will see how it sounds first! It sounds perfectly fine.

That said, my bf did recently get a sound bar for his stereo system for reasons that are too hard for me to explain.

[agate]

Maybe some weekend content would be a good idea, and so I'll just natter on about my latest effort at making life easier:

For about 30 years now my twin bed has been covered by a sort-of quilt that was my first effort at quilting, years ago. It's been cobbled together in a number of ways that most real quilters would frown on but it has worked for its purpose--covering the bed during the daytime and serving as warmth when needed--useful in all seasons. I've loved it and repaired it often.

I've even kept a box of fabric scraps that I bought from time to time from a mail-order quilting supply place. They have been really good cotton that has stood the test of time, and I've treasured them because I would go to those pieces of fabric whenever pieces on the quilt disintegrated and needed replacing due to holes or fading.

However, in recent years I haven't ever got around to doing some needed repairs on the quilt even though some old pieces were pretty obvious. There are about 6 places that need fixing, and I haven't got around to doing it.

One day it dawned on me. The repairs are a project. Choosing the pieces is fun but putting them into the quilt is a strain on the eyes and hands and back. Even though it's a lighter-weight quilt, it's still a bulky and heavy thing to deal with. I have bicycle clips for rolling it up but even so there's the problem of doing those tiny stitches. I can't do them without a magnifier hanging around my neck. So I get all set up with the quilt positioned in its bicycle clips and my magnifier and lighting just right, and then the phone rings, or someone is at the door, or I need to use the bathroom. But I need hours of uninterrupted time to do just one piece.

I just don't want to go to the trouble any more. I didn't want to spend the money on a bedspread but decided to see how much they cost. Amazingly, I found a pretty nice one on sale for $50. I decided to wash my quilt one last time and stow it in a trunk for future reference.

I like the new bedspread. It's a solid cream color and lightens up the room considerably. The quilt has a white background but because the pieces (diamond shapes) are mostly dark colors, the effect isn't nearly as light.

And I no longer have to concern myself with the quilt. Even washing it can be a chore. I kept going back to the laundry room every 15 minutes to see if it was dry enough to remove from the dryer yesterday because it shouldn't be in a dryer any longer than absolutely necessary.

I put the carton filled with fabric scraps, known as a fabric stash, I think, on this building's "free table." I was overjoyed to find that it had disappeared within hours. Somebody around here who sews quilts may have been glad to get all of those pieces, and I now have more space on a closet shelf where that box always sat. For my 13 years here, that box sat there, and I got into it only occasionally.

I still have two other things I quilted that are in use--a vest I made as well as a holiday decoration that is a bellpull. You hang it on a door or on the wall. It is red and white and has a jingle bell attached to it.

So I can still remind myself of the wannabe quilter I was.

It's a very liberating feeling to realize that a hobby I thought I'd never let go of really isn't going to be a hobby any more. It's sad in a way but it's also good to have a new bedspread.

It was a little too long for the bed, and then I realized that I could bulk up the bed by adding a second blanket, which I happened to have. It too had been sitting on a closet shelf for all these years. I added it, and now the new bedspread fits better.

[There. How is that for drivel no one would want to read? The space is here, and I've had a good time filling it.]

[Snuggles2]

and I enjoyed reading it! Getting something new every once in a while can brighten our spirits and I think we deserve it. Enjoy looking at the brighter and lighter room.

[agate]

I was able to launder the quilt and even to stuff it into a pillowcase and store it in a trunk for future reference. Years ago I read up on quilting and learned that quilts aren't just any old bedspread. You can't sit on them, you shouldn't launder them very often, you shouldn't have them anywhere near too much light, and so on. And you shouldn't ever store them in plastic bags. Or at least that was the wisdom back when I was reading up on it, which was in the 1980s.

[agate]

I keep discovering how useful little rest breaks can be.

Today I was facing a task that I was afraid I could no longer do even though I have done it before. That was quite a few years ago and it was pretty difficult even then--moving a very large bookcase about 20 feet across the carpeted floor.

I had decided that since almost all of my reading is done by audiobook and has been for over 30 years, having about 200 books just sitting around here is ridiculous. Many are just dust-catchers at this point. I decided to get rid of a smaller bookcase and about 50 books and move the largest bookcase into the entryway so it will no longer take up space in the living room, where there just isn't a lot of room.

In recent days I emptied the two bookshelves and weeded out the books to be given away. I have 3 shopping bags filled to bursting with them now. Today was my day to tackle the actual move.

Moving the little bookcase was easy. It even folds up. The big one was daunting. It has only one removable shelf, and it is too heavy for me to lift for more than a few seconds. The bookcase itself had to be shoved along until I got it to its destination.

But I did it. After each shove I stopped to rest and took a couple of very deep, slow breaths.

I was amazed at how quickly I felt better after those deep breaths. And I stopped for longer rest intervals several times during the hours I've been spending just moving books and bookcases around. I also ran a vacuum briefly over the carpet where the bookcases had been sitting (for about 10 years!).

I think it was possible only because I kept resting. I had set aside the day for this. Everything else was on hold in my mind--phone calls I might have to make, laundry I need to do. I'm fixing my meals and doing up the dishes and that is all, besides this book project.

I tried to dust the books as I handled them and was pleased to see that they weren't very dusty at all. That says something for the air around here.

So I thought I'd pass along this suggestion to anyone who hasn't yet discovered it. There's no need to finish a job in a big hurry, or at least you can often see to it that there's no need. Then you have time for the all-important rest breaks.

I'm hoping to use this method again when getting ready for the next inspection here, which is scheduled for Monday morning.

Rest breaks. Deep breaths. You can move mountains.

Maybe not mountains but bookcases. This bookcase is 36" long and 47" high, 12" deep, and has two stationary shelves that are very heavy. It's made of some very heavy wood, probably "engineered wood." The removable shelf was a bit of a problem because one of its little brackets came loose, and I had to get on my kneeling pad with a flashlight and wiggle it back into place, but luckily for me, it held on the first try. I should get in there and tighten it with a screwdriver but somehow that is beyond me just now.

I had a Plan B: If I couldn't have moved the bookcase, I was going to call on my neighbor and offer to pay her to help me move it. She is still very strong and I think she'd have agreed to do this but I'm really glad I didn't have to do that as she is busy.

[Virginia]

Good Job Agate! Quite a task you took on. You probably exercised in addition.

[agate]

I was pushing against the (empty) bookcase with my entire body, and so I think it was exercise. I was able to move it only a couple of inches each time I pushed it but I did get it there. That bookcase is one very heavy hunk of wood.

[agate]

I've had this new wheelchair for a couple of weeks now and am appreciating it more and more. One of the nicest things about it is the special type of back that was added for more back support. I'm ever so much more comfortable with the added support. This back slips over the regular wheelchair back and just stays there, very securely. Helpful for anyone with a "wobbly center" or whatever it is about my back that isn't doing what it should.

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[Virginia]

Agate, knowing you prefer to spend your sitting time in your wheelchair, this is really good to hear. I am so glad you like your new chair. I sit in a recliner. Putting my legs up when I sit is a must because my legs and feet swell really bad. The problem is I slump in it, so while it is bad posture wise it feels so good.