'No Fun' Jobs to Do

Someone cute, grey and furry moved into our pantry while we were away.  It turned a Saturday bike-riding along the Ballina riverfront  into an emergency declutter and clean. I had scheduled a SPACE attack this month but this required total assault.

BEFORE - not taken yesterday - no one wants to see the real 

BEFORE shot with mouse droppings eh?

It probably took about 3 hours all up. I had my husband help out for some of the time (reaching back corners and the like) and he was great at reading the dates on food products and throwing things out. We binned 5 plastic grocery bags full of out-of-date and mouse spoiled food!

Thankfully I had put a lot of food items into containers late last year and so we really only lost our burritos, naan bread, muesli bars, popcorn and Weet-Bix to the mouse. Still each container and surface needed disinfecting...and that takes lots of time.  I kept saying out loud "I am not having fun".

I've had to ditch the 'snack station' located on the inside door of the pantry (inside the IKEA storage) because the mouse had found the stash as appealing as my daughter!

My eldest son, Duncan, used my Dymo and made some labels for the dry food containers. It was nice to get help...and great that he can spell so well at 7 years of age.

Now, if you can believe it, that night I was sewing and heard a rustle in the kitchen. When I opened the door, baby mouse hid herself behind the spice rack, pictured left, below. What????  #%$$@$ No way!

So I set the trap...found the peanut butter gone in the morning but the trap not sprung. Set it again...same thing. So then I set another one on the shelf above and my old 'trap but not kill' model one shelf below. 

Some time during the day, today,Miss Mouse was sprung and disposed of, by my husband, to the local magpies. There was some remorse on my part...I hate killing things.


School Supplies


Since our school stopped organising 'Book Packs' last year, parents have had to do the 'School Supply Buy' in January. I hate it. There is not much fun chasing down stationery items in discount stores and then finding that you need to visit at least 2 other Newsagents to find the remaining items. It took me the best part of 3 hours and $200 to kit out our two boys heading into Year 1 & 3 this year. "Bring back the $113 Book Pack", I say. I'd rather pay someone else and get back my 3 hours for something fun.







But that is just the start...then there's the labeling of each item and the covering of books. Here I lost about 6 hours over 2 days.

However it forced me to delve into the 2011 wicker basket of art and craft and sort, save or bin each item.

About half way through the pile

Before - the hamper on the right was full of paper rubbish by the end

The artwork came in handy to cover some 35 books though.

A practical canvas for artwork. I used pre-cut clear plastic sleeves to protect the books. Great invention - beats 'Contact' any day.

If you want more of a challenge then try the fabric book cover tutorial found at Hand Madens blog here.