Is Your Home Your Castle or Prison?
Recently, I’ve been wondering whether your home is your castle or prison – does it keep you, or do you keep it? By now you’ll be aware of my thoughts ...
Tidy Desk Tidy Mind
Does a tidy desk really equal a tidy mind? Or is it just that the open, expansive space feels more relaxing? Rife with possibilities. A few weeks ago I read ...
Some Things to Live By
After another few weeks in lockdown, I’ve been thinking about “things”. Both the physical some things and the mental some things we accumulate as the days go by. This time ...
The Joy of Freshly Mown Lawn
In a rare break of sunshine, we did a little yard work. A bit of pruning, and weeding, and lawn mowing. It’s amazing how much better the garden looks with ...
Creating a Happy and Healthy Home
Recently there have been a lot of changes in the Blaelock Household, with the aim of creating a happy and healthy home. Mainly leading out from the transplant rejection scare, ...
Life Worth Living Project, Beauty, Friendship, Wealth
How to Choose What To Do First
It’s been a busy couple of weeks. I have so much to do that I’m not sure what to do first. Or second. Or last for that matter.
Books: to keep or not keep?
Since I read Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying, I keep falling over intense, library voice (whispered) bookish debates about whether to keep or not keep books. More often ...
How To Care For Your Best Rooms
In days gone by, houses were much smaller. They generally consisted of Best Rooms like the parlour, where you received guests during designated visiting hours, and everywhere else. Best Rooms ...
Housekeeping Standard Practices
We had a “discussion” recently about the current quality of home care, and as I’m hard at work packaging my new book Minimally Viable Housekeeping, (thus the discussion) so I ...
Housework Survey Says: What You Really Think About It
A while back, I mentioned I was inspired to write a book about Housekeeping, and I asked if there was such a thing as minimally viable housework? Well, housework survey ...
The Happiness of Housekeeping Habits and Routines
Work on my new book Minimally Viable Housekeeping is steaming along – I’ve finished the first draft! There’s still work to go on the second draft, but I’m feeling a ...
How to Make Good Purchasing Decisions
Here in Australia, the Banking Royal Commission is well underway. And you may wonder what this has to do with good purchasing decisions, but at some point, we all chose to buy ...
Doing the Damn Housework; Downton Abbey and You
It seems to me that the problem with doing the Damn Housework is that we’re all amateurs acting like professionals. Doing the Damn Housework Professionals take specialised training, sign up to ...
Friendship, Beauty, Wealth, Wisdom
A Short Soapbox about Fat Old White Guys and Doing the Housework
I’ve been thinking about modern life. And how fat old white guys still run the world. And that they believe they know what is best for everyone else. Even when ...
What is Your Home’s Purpose?
There’s nothing like going away for a period of time to make you want to click your red heels three times while chanting “There’s no place like home.” And when ...
Signature Wardrobe House Cleaning Outfit
As you know, I have been trying (for a long time) to lift my game on cleaning house. Aside from clothes that are loose, with elbow length sleeves I haven’t ...
The Surprising Benefits of Home Ergonomics
I want to start by apologising to Katy because she has just renovated her kitchen. If you have recently renovated your kitchen too, just close this window and move on ...
The Dread of Domestic Duties
You might recall that when I first brought home into the virtue of beauty framework, the goal was a comfortable, happy, cheerful, welcoming and calm home that reflects who we are right ...