Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up

February 26, 2016

...he illustrations are Japanese-cute line drawings. It doesn’t look like any cleaning or organization book I’ve ever seen, and that is what makes it special. Kondo understands that tidying is a spiritual activity, not an organizational activity. The same week we got this book, we also had a library book out about home organization. Erik had grabbed it off the new book shelf at the library without looking at it until we got home. It shall remain name...

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In the Gutter

Mr. Homegrown

January 3, 2007

rainwater harvesting

1 Comment

...over the damned up gutters. Two simple bits of technology can make gutter cleaning easier. We have inexpensive strainer baskets made out of 1/4 inch hardware cloth in each of the downspouts to keep them from clogging up. Some may wish to consider leaf guards which run along the top of the gutter to keep out leaves and other debris. The problem with leaf guards is that in order to clean out your gutters you must tediously remove the guards along t...

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Introducing the People Washer

Mr. Homegrown

November 6, 2014

Water and Power

8 Comments

...he water intake automatically shuts off and the hot water begins to whirl, cleaning the body even more thoroughly. While the water whirls, small rubber balls float around in the water, massage the skin, and relax the muscles. After seven minutes of washing and rubber-ball massage, the bath water drains from the sphere and the body is reshowered for two minutes. The shower and the ultrasonic waves cease and the water is drained out. Finally there i...

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Garden Update Part II: The Good the Bad and a Lot of Ugly

Mr. Homegrown

March 4, 2019

Gardening

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...Yes, a leaf blower is the gardening equivalent of vaping but it does make cleaning up faster. Don’t worry, I leave the leaves in place to enrich the soil. The leaf blower just helps me clear the hardscaping. There’s actually a nice brick patio under the weeds and clutter here. Ugh, more junk. Here’s the nice new patio the Haynes landscaping folks built. The adobe oven is under a blue tarp. Blue tarps are the architectural equivalent of a comb ove...

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Everything Must Go Part 3: Clothing

Mrs. Homegrown

January 13, 2015

Cleaning, Domesticus, Tidying up

30 Comments

Cats love the chaos of cleaning In this post we continue the tale of our tidying up using the KonMari Method discussed in this post. Clothing is the first category Marie Kondo (KonMari) recommends for sorting, presumably because her clients find it least confusing category to tackle–and also, I suspect, because it is the most immediately rewarding as well. It’s really pleasing to see your shirts hanging in a tidy row, your drawers brought to orde...

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