Winter Challenges

Tomorrow morning when you wake up, if it has been cold overnight, look at the surface of your windows. Now, if you get up after the sun begins to come up, you'll probably not see what I mean, but what youwill typically see there is a wet window! Condensation. I have been told that you expel into the air over a liter of water each night when you're sleeping.

Where does this moisture go? Good question. It gathers on the windows for one place when the warmth of it hits the cold window glass, and also settles into soft things, like your bed clothes and...well, everything in your room.

This winter has started out to be very wet compared with last year. So during these cold-wet months here are some tips to keep you healthy and happy:

* Keep your doors open during the day...actually as much as possible keep them open
* Have the blinds up, especially if there's sunshine, to help warm the room and evaporate the moisture
* Ensure that soft things are not left in heaps
* Ensure your bed clothes are spread out so the moisture has an opportunity to evaporate evenly and not hide
* Clothing is best hung up with a little air in between, where possible. Some things may need to be hung outside when there's sunshine to help too.
* Shoes should be stored with the sole on the floor rather than on their sides or upside down. I have the most amazing pair of cowboy boots that are now a bit green from my own mistake with this.

Having a high-efficiency heater on low most of the time (if we find safe ones, even overnight and when we are not here) will help a gread deal in minimising any problems. We used to have light bulbs fixtures installed at the bottom of our closets when I lived in Okinawa and it really made a difference. I would love to have this done in the kitchen cupboards, but know someone would think me a mad woman for such a request. But since we aren't using those big construction lights now, the cost of the heaters will eaven out and there won't be a need for washing clothes so often.

Anyway, enjoy the winter challenges!

Recycling & Trash

In our household, recycle bins are a nuisance, but they are taken seriously by the professionals who come by every Tuesday morning before the birds are conscious, let alone singing. So for our household we have always seemed to struggle with this.

The House Faery constantly finds herself feeling like a bag lady sorting through messy bins, to be sure what we do not get a fine from the city. So here is some re-clarity for everyone.

Recycle (the big black container to the right of the bin)

• All plastic containers (with the food dumped out and rinsed out)

• Wooden chopsticks (leaving them in the paper is fine)

• Mail that is not sealed in plastic (see plastic bag box)

• Glass bottles (empty, if full of liquid, dump it in the sink)

• Soft drink cans (empty)

• Old shoes & clothes

• News papers

• Cardboard boxes

• All toilet paper and paper towel rolls

• All plastic bottles

• Tooth paste tubes

Plastic Bags

• Because we seem to have so many, just put all plastic bags and plastic wrappings in the box to the right of the waste basket, this includes dry cleaning bags and plastic that seals mail and newspapers

• If you have hangers you wish to throw out, please put them in the box this box is in and please do this in an orderly way

Rubbish/Trash/Garbage

• Anything that does not go in the Plastic Bag box or the Recycle Box goes in the bid that is covered with a lid.

• Please leave the lid on the bin.

• You can lift the lid by using your foot to gently press on the pedal at the front bottom of the bin.

• Do not pour liquid into this bin

• If you happen to be throwing garbage in there and you miss the bin, please be sure you pick up whatever you dropped and put it in the bin.

• The House Faery is tired of picking up bits of peppers and bread and various indiscernible items scattered around and behind all the bins.

If you have bread or roll or cake pieces that have gone bad, please put them in a plastic bag in front of the plastic bag bin and I will put this out for the birds.

Now if it is Monday, it is a perfect day to dump the rubbish in your rooms into these bins, unless you have heaps of it and then you can just put it in the appropriate bin outside. Remember trash/garbage needs to be in plastic bags and not dumped in there lose, as the professionals who dump the bins in an almost automated fashion will not pick up any trash that falls out during their process.

And if you see heaps of newspapers in wrappings all over the nature strip and in the front yard, feel free to pick these up and put them in the appropriate bins as we are responsible for ensuring the lawns are tidy and the sidewalks are not dangerous to try to navigate down.