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Post by joyinvirginia on Oct 11, 2017 8:00:29 GMT -5
Welcome wileycoyote! I like nael's suggestion of getting paper plates and plastic forks and spoons to use until you get things under control in the kitchen. For putting clothes away, I suggest working together. That's how we used to do it, I would wash and dry clothes then ask the dh to help me put away things. Doing a small load at a time will help! If you work together, it can be done quickly. I always put clothes baskets on the bed, so we can't get in bed until the clothes are put away. Works for us. Best wishes, and I hope some of these ideas people have shared will work for you.
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Post by dustylady on Oct 11, 2017 15:09:48 GMT -5
OK, I'm back. Here's my suggestion.
First, go to the store and buy: 2 sets of rubber dishwashing gloves, paper plates, plastic utensils, the most strongly-scented trash bags you can find that fit your biggest trash can, and a jar of Vicks Vaporub. You'll use the paper plates and plastic utensils till you get the dishes caught up.
When you are ready to begin Operation Kitchen, apply the Vicks to your upper lip beneath your nose. Do NOT put it on your nostrils like in The Silence of the Lambs; that will make you feel like your nose hairs are burning off. Do like real cops do and put it on your upper lip. Put a fresh perfumed trash bag in the can. Put on the rubber gloves like samurai putting on armored gauntlets, stride into the kitchen in a manly, determined manner, and start tossing. Repeat until all the stinky stuff is gone. Unless you live in an apartment, all this will have to be done the night before Trash Day. If you do live in an apartment, put the full bags down the chute or in the dumpster as you go.
Now, let the stinky water in the sink out. Plunge if you have to. Once the water's gone, pour about half a box of baking soda down the drain, followed by a generous amount of white vinegar. A fun, fizzy volcano will erupt. Do this as many times as you have to to get rid of the stench; you shouldn't need more than three rounds. Run hot water for about 5 minutes after the last round to clear it all out.
Now, clean the sink.
Now, wash the dishes. If you have to wash them by hand, leave the gloves on so you can use super-hot water. If you have too many dishes for one round, leave the extras soaking in hot sudsy water while the dishwasher runs or the dishes are air-drying in the drainer, whichever applies. Until you get caught up, eat sandwiches or take-out with the paper plates and plastic utensils.
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Post by wileycoyote on Oct 11, 2017 17:38:23 GMT -5
I just wrote a long suggestion. It got eaten! I have to go to bed, I have to get up at oh-dark-thirty, will rewrite it tomorrow. So sorry! I have no idea but oh-dark-thirty means but don't pressure yourself to re write, it sucks when thing like th at get sucked into the "void" haha
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Post by wileycoyote on Oct 11, 2017 17:45:10 GMT -5
And, be proud of yourself for keeping the bathroom clean, and other areas too! It could be worse--you could have disastrous messes in every room of the house. Welcome to the group, and you CAN do it! We did have that for a while, the whole house was a disaster , but I've been able to keep the other areas decent since getting some other personal issues more under control. Mainly since I'm a recovering alcoholic and am still struggling with it. But I've managed to stay sober 6 out of every 10 days which is a big step from 0.
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Post by dustylady on Oct 11, 2017 18:57:02 GMT -5
Hi Wiley, oh-dark-thirty is American for "unpleasantly early, when it's still dark."
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Post by dustylady on Oct 11, 2017 18:58:03 GMT -5
P.S. congratulations on your sobriety!
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Post by Di on Oct 11, 2017 19:09:25 GMT -5
Do you have a bathtub? Fill it with hot water and bleach. Scrape all food off your dishes, pots, ad pans. Soak them in the tub. Scrub your empty sink. Add a couple of pots of boiling water to the soaking dishes. Remove a few at a time, wash, dry, put away. You may have to do this a couple of times.
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Post by TML on Oct 11, 2017 19:42:22 GMT -5
The cats are beautiful and look happy . As to the dishes - we had dishes problems and it stemed retrospectively from having too many dishes. Once things get out of hand it is really hard to get motivated to fix it. I still have all the dishes but use only one plate and a bowl plus cooking stuff. I also have paper plates that i use quite a bit too. There is a dish washing group that is here that might help you get motivated. You may have to make dishes a group effort where you wash and he dries and puts them up. We tried it where mom said since i cooked she would wash dishes and it got to an utter disaster. I finally told her I might as well believe the cat would wash dishes. I got them all put up and then got in a habit of doing dishes after each meal to keep it to two plates and two bowls to wash at a time. Also I put a long sleeve t shirt with the sleeves tied behind my head and the body of the shirt over my face to mask the smell when it got to be a disaster. I did small sets with 10 min of work , scraping soaking, washing, drying, a set. Sometimes soaking had to be get one set scraped and soaking then wash the previous set that had been soaked and ready. Then took a break. Repeat. It was a few dishes at a time and it took forever where we ate on paper plates with disposable silverware eating sandwiches and no cook food. Mom complained that she wanted home cooked meals and i said do you want to wash all those dishes you let pile up and the answer to that was no. Good luck!!!
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Post by TML on Oct 11, 2017 19:53:21 GMT -5
Do you think your BF might use a basketball hamper? link
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Post by bub on Oct 11, 2017 21:34:50 GMT -5
Do you think your BF might use a basketball hamper? linkOr he has to wash and put away his own clothes from his side of the bedroom...
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Post by Arid on Oct 12, 2017 3:41:25 GMT -5
OK; I'm going to say it again:
Do **NOT** mix bleach and dish soap!! The combination can cause toxic, or at the very least, "irritating" fumes!
Arid
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Post by Arid on Oct 12, 2017 3:57:11 GMT -5
Also, do yourself a *BIG* favor:
After every meal, SCRAPE YOUR DISHES!!! Rinse them, too.
It's no wonder that you have mold growing all over the place in your kitchen! Molds and bacteria help to break down the waste that we humans generate. So, if you leave things with a carbon base lying around, that microflora *will* do its job! Things can get pretty "stinky" (and slimy!) before such things as leftover food get so degraded that they disappear.
Either send that food left on your plates down the garbage disposal, or scrape it into a trash bag that you then *TAKE OUT DAILY!!*
Arid (former microbiologist!)
P. S. Welcome to the board! A.
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Post by lesaulerouge on Oct 12, 2017 5:34:38 GMT -5
I've washed dishes in the bath before, and not only because we've now renovated two kitchens leaving us with no sink for months at a time. Just soak and then don't forget to wash before the water gets cold, sorting out cold greasy dishes is not fun, nor is sorting out a cold wet greasy cat when they slip on the side and fall in with the dishes...
I'm afraid that unless you can get him or some ground rules sorted youre wasting your time. As you've said yourself you're working hard, at life as well as your home, good job on the not drinking days btw, but without him on board, and seriously properly accepting that there is an issue and wanting to do something about it, nothing is ever going to change.
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Post by wileycoyote on Oct 12, 2017 13:44:36 GMT -5
OK, I'm back. Here's my suggestion. First, go to the store and buy: 2 sets of rubber dishwashing gloves, paper plates, plastic utensils, the most strongly-scented trash bags you can find that fit your biggest trash can, and a jar of Vicks Vaporub. You'll use the paper plates and plastic utensils till you get the dishes caught up. When you are ready to begin Operation Kitchen, apply the Vicks to your upper lip beneath your nose. Do NOT put it on your nostrils like in The Silence of the Lambs; that will make you feel like your nose hairs are burning off. Do like real cops do and put it on your upper lip. Put a fresh perfumed trash bag in the can. Put on the rubber gloves like samurai putting on armored gauntlets, stride into the kitchen in a manly, determined manner, and start tossing. Repeat until all the stinky stuff is gone. Unless you live in an apartment, all this will have to be done the night before Trash Day. If you do live in an apartment, put the full bags down the chute or in the dumpster as you go. Now, let the stinky water in the sink out. Plunge if you have to. Once the water's gone, pour about half a box of baking soda down the drain, followed by a generous amount of white vinegar. A fun, fizzy volcano will erupt. Do this as many times as you have to to get rid of the stench; you shouldn't need more than three rounds. Run hot water for about 5 minutes after the last round to clear it all out. Now, clean the sink. Now, wash the dishes. If you have to wash them by hand, leave the gloves on so you can use super-hot water. If you have too many dishes for one round, leave the extras soaking in hot sudsy water while the dishwasher runs or the dishes are air-drying in the drainer, whichever applies. Until you get caught up, eat sandwiches or take-out with the paper plates and plastic utensils. We do have several sets of those gloves and just purchased a bag of paper plates and plastic cutlery. I got plug in room fresheners and some spray. Vics would be a super good idea, we will do that. Since the plug in things work to stop it from actively smelling but when things are moved around and shifted the smell seems to erupt as a horrible cloud. We are in a basement apartment so trash is every other week. We have a bin that is shared with the people living upstairs so I had to go and buy these garbage tags so we can put out bags in addition to the bin. We have to store them in the house before garbage day unfortunately, which is not until Wednesday next week. Upstairs people refuse to let us put bags in the garage. Even though it's not even connected to their apartment. I talked to my husband Tuesday night and he said he would do it as soon as he was home Wednesday. Well it's Thursday and nothing was touched. I just took all the trash off the counter and put anything I could into the bin on the floor. I ran the dishwasher since the inside smelled horrible even though the stuff inside was clean. Probably because the drain is right attached to the sink drain as well.
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Post by wileycoyote on Oct 12, 2017 13:47:59 GMT -5
Do you think your BF might use a basketball hamper? linkOr he has to wash and put away his own clothes from his side of the bedroom... We don't really have a bedroom. The bed is in our living room and clothing is in his office in closets. He just leaves dirty clothing all over. Wherever he takes it off. At the front door, bathroom, by the tv, on the bed, everywhere. And even litirally next to the clean clothing so I never know if it's clean or if he just tossed it onto the clean stuff
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