Storing Rubbish Bags

I feel like I blog about rubbish an awful lot!  But rubbish just seems to breed in my house, and by having routines and systems in place, it helps to keep on top of it...  My 'I Love Rubbish Day' post (which you can read about here) is in the top 10 of my most-read posts - that tells me that it is a fact of daily life and everyone wants to know how to make it easier :)

My tip today is to make sure that you keep spare rubbish bags in the rooms of the 'busiest' bins.  I have already shown you my kitchen storage solution for my scented garbage bags (which you can read about here).

My bathroom is definitely next on the list for the room with the most rubbish.  I only have a small bin in my ensuite, so I find I have to change the rubbish liner at least once a week.  Like with any routine job, we tend to procrastinate doing it if it involves multiple steps.  For me, this used to involve (1) getting a replacement bag (recycled fruit/veg bag) from the kitchen, (2) walking to the ensuite, (3) taking out the old bag, (4) putting in the new bag and (5) walking outside to the wheelie bin to dump the full bag of rubbish.  Too many steps!  Life is busy and we need to simplify!  So, I now keep the spare bags in the ensuite cupboard - seems really logical, but I just didn't think to do it until this year ;)  By eliminating the first 2 steps, the job now takes half the time - around 30 seconds in total!!  And the best part is that I can do it when I think of it... I lost count of the number of times I walked out to get a new bag from the kitchen, got distracted and never made it back with the replacement bag!  Not anymore...

And the storage solution for these bags (that can take over an entire shelf if left to their own devices)??
An empty tissue box!

Keeping House - Zone 3 (Bathroom)

This week we are in the bathroom.

Day One
Declutter the room. Return any items that don't live here to their proper home.  Purge any items off the benches/shelves that you haven't used in the past 3 months.  If in doubt, throw out!

Day Two
Refill the liquid soap. Wipe over the pump and bottle. Add a replacement to your shopping list if you have no more left.

Day Three
This week I am trying the new Viva shower wipes. So far, I am pretty impressed with them! They cut through soap scum really well, without having to use toxic smelling cleaning chemicals. So, today's job is to clean the shower screen and door until it sparkles!

Day Four
Continuing on from the shower glass, move on and clean the shower walls. Scrub from top to bottom.

Day Five
Today finish off that shower by scrubbing the shower floor. I love to use gumption and a mesh scourer to get my shower floor pearly white.

I hope you can see that Flying with these zones isn't about working yourself to the bone, rather it is about breaking things into smaller, more manageable steps. Be kind to yourself! Give yourself a shiny shower this week, plus a couple of other simple treats to make you smile each time you step into your bathroom!  I am sure that you will find that once your shower is nice and clean, it is much easier to maintain it :)

Cleaning the Bathroom - Swish and Swipe

Swishing and swiping is a fabulous way to keep on top of cleaning the bathroom.  It is another one of Flylady's brilliant ideas, which I have adapted to make work for me and my household.  As with anything, you have to customise it to suit your needs, and in my case, I always try to simplify it so that I actually do it!

What is swish and swipe?
Swish - swirling the water in the toilet bowl with the toilet brush to clean the toilet each day
Swipe - wiping down the flat surfaces in the bathroom each day