Battling Clutter

Having a clutter free home with one or more energetic kids in the house might seem like an impossible task. As soon as you are done cleaning one corner of the house, two more seem to be clamouring for attention. Babies, toddlers, pre-teens or teens, it does not matter what age group your kids belong to, their scattered belongings can drive you up the wall if you do not have a firm plan on how to counter it.

Sometimes we like to console ourselves with the adage that where there are kids, there’s bound to be some mess. However, research has shown that a cluttered house can have a very negative impact on your mood and health. It makes you feel tired, lethargic and quarrelsome especially if you cannot locate socks, school shoes or important papers buried underneath the mess. And just imagine the horror of unexpected guests walking in through the door with your children’s belongings scattered all over the house!!

Choose toys carefully:

One of the cardinal rules for having a clean house is to have fewer toys for young children. We shower our kids with toys, most of which end up broken, discarded and scattered all over the house. Mechanical and battery controlled toys are the worst offenders.  If your child has too many toys, divide them in half and put one half away. After a month or so, round up the current lot, store it and take out the other half. Choose toys carefully. Balls, bicycles, stuffed toys, building blocks and hard books have a greater shelf life than remote controlled cars and video games which become junk without cells and other easily breakable parts.

Keep things out of reach:

Toys belong to children but this does not mean that they should access to all their playthings 24/7. If clutter drives you crazy, think about putting jigsaw puzzles, bead sets and 1000 piece Lego out of reach of your kids or you’ll spend endless hours picking them up. Put such things in a place from where only you can hand them out.  Designate a play area and place a mat or sheet there. After they are done playing, just gather the sheet from its corners and pour the little pieces in their container.

A place for everything and everything in its place:

Most of the clutter in the house arises from the fact that there is not enough space or containers to store the things in the house. Buy multipurpose colorful baskets or chest of drawers for your children’s toys, games, art supplies, etc. Once in place, teach the children gradually to put away all their stuff after they are done playing. If things are spilling out of cupboards and containers, sort them out for storage or donation.   

Clean up between activities:

This is one of the most difficult but necessary habits to inculcate in kids. Between every two activities, there should be a 5-10 minute break in which children put away their things. For example, after getting ready each morning and before leaving for school, older children must learn to put away their night clothes and breakfast dishes. Similarly, after doing homework and before watching TV, there should be some allotted time, in which they put away their school bags and books before settling down to watch their favourite programme. 

Think before you buy:

Most of us usually buy far many more things than we need. Whether it is shoes, clothes, DVDs, accessories, decoration items, kitchen utensils, we sometimes forget to draw a line and the result is often a cluttered house. This tendency becomes more pronounced during sale seasons if we have kids. Before going on a shopping frenzy, think carefully, if you really need all those “buy one get one free” items.

Pick up things as you go: 

One sure way of keeping the house clean is to pick up things as you go and keep putting them back in their places. Straighten cushions, stack books and clear table surfaces as you go from one room to another to have a spic and span hose all the time. It might seem irksome at first but once it becomes a habit, the house starts looking habitually clean and tidy. It becomes even better when children start to copy your ways and start picking up their stuff without you having to point it out.

Clean a corner everyday:

We all know how quickly things pile up in our closets, cupboards and shelves. Shoes that are no longer needed, clothes that are outgrown, faded bed sheets, threadbare towels, broken toys and hordes of other things which eat up space in our homes. For a house to be really clean and organized, it is important to clear away such debris on a regular basis. Each day, spend some time to clean away one corner of your house, no matter how small.

Keep 2-3 cardboard boxes in the store and keep filling them with things that are not in use any longer. Kids’ booties, caps and rattles that they have outgrown, old books, your daughter’s T-shirt which she has vowed never to wear, your son’s broken toys – all these things can be collected out of sight and then sorted for storage or charity making your house less cluttered. Your sanity and prestige might depend upon it!!

The Treasure Chest

Deep beneath the blue waters

Dwells an old sunken ship

In it lies a treasure chest

Greed and avarice at its best

Glinting silver coins aplenty,

Gold bars and a necklace pearly

Some diamond pins and a ruby ring

And a glittering crown fit for a king

An ivory fan and sapphire bracelets

Jeweled cups and emerald anklets

Heap upon heap, mound upon mound

There it lies, waiting to be found

The chest took lives of men depraved

And the treasure lies in a wet, muddy grave

An Ode to Socks

My mum bought me a pair of socks

With tiny circles and mighty blocks

Pink and purple, blue and white

They were quite a pretty sight

My feet were cold, my toes were numb

Not wearing socks sure was dumb.

I put them on and they were snug

I gave my mum a very big hug.

And on my feet, they were kept

I wore them even while I slept

They are brown, once they were pink.

They were clean but now they stink.

Now all I need is a new pair of socks.

With tiny circles and mighty blocks

Pink and purple, blue and white

Won’t they be a pretty sight?

16 Tips To Help You Prepare For Motherhood

Motherhood is a great blessing but it always manages to catch you unprepared. No matter how much you read about it or get information from family members, friends, doctors and media, there is something about the real experience that is slightly surreal and at times bizarre.

Failure to plan means planning to fail and you cannot embrace an important role like motherhood without a lot of practice. So whether you are about to become a new mom or there is going to be another addition to the family, here’s what you should do:

Once a week, collect at least three children… you can borrow them from your neighbours or conscript nephews and nieces for this purpose…. and go shopping for grocery with them. Learn to glare, scold and discipline them while ignoring the amused looks from other shoppers. 

Forget what words like being ‘clean’ and ‘sweet smelling’ mean.  Get in the habit of having milk, custard, yoghurt, mashed banana, cerelac and egg yolk being burped, dribbled, spitted and vomited upon you. And remember that is just one end of the baby working.

Practice fishing out keys, toys and your favourite make up items from toilet seats. Learn not to cry or complain. 

Watch ‘Dora the Explorer’, ‘Blue’s Clues,’ ‘Ben 10’ and Jimmy Neutron all day long. If you get bored, you can watch ‘Baby’s Day Out’ and ‘Home Alone’ but nothing else. 

Learn to convey your meaning within 15 seconds…whether it is gossiping with a friend, having a conversation with your husband or scolding the maid, 15 seconds or less is all the time that you have.

Watch only first quarter of any television drama, movie or show and learn to be satisfied with that. Or watch only the end and train yourself never to wonder about the beginning.

Learn to judge a book or magazine by its cover. You won’t have time to read it.

Know that a tiny head moving from left to right and right to left means NO and whatever you say, think or want is of NO consequence!

Know where the bathroom is located in every restaurant and departmental store in your vicinity. 

Learn to dash from shops to parking lots and back. Practice jumping queues and insisting on being served first. Better buy the stop watches that Olympic athletes use to time themselves. You have no idea how useful this practice will prove to be.

Get used to the horror of leaving your purse behind as you come out with the baby or else it might be the horror of leaving your baby behind as you come out with the purse…. 

Learn to eat meals at a supersonic speed. 

Practice driving maniacally from the beauty parlour to home with just one eyebrow or half upper lip done. It will help you once you get frantic calls from home only to find that the baby is fast asleep in the crib. While you are at it, get used to looking like some zombie character out of the movie Scream 3 all the time.

Remember that your colicky baby can generate as much noise and debate as Hurricane Katrina and Typhoon Belinda on Fox News and BBC channel combined.

Train yourself not to look at clocks and watches because your house will be run on baby schedule. It will always be the time to bath, feed, burp, rock, change diaper and put baby to bed only to be followed by the time to bath, feed, burp, rock, change diaper and put baby to bed all over again in an endless cycle.

Know that in your children’s eyes your views will be archaic, your education outdated and your outlook antiquated, but they still expect you to come up with a solution to their every problem.

Get Set before You Go

The arrival of a new baby is always a matter of great happiness….and one has to admit, a great deal of added housework and responsibilities too. In spite of its small size, the bundle of joy in your arms can increase your workload manifold and occupy a great deal of space in terms of baby clothes, baby products and whatnot.

Whether you are about to give birth for the first time or the fourth, there are a few basic things that you should tackle beforehand. Many women suffer from depression, stress and post-natal blues because they are not physically and mentally prepared to cope with all the added housework. Of course the hormones do not help either.

Give your house a thorough cleaning

You might not consider it a priority but cleaning the house from top to bottom is one of the best things expectant mothers can do before giving birth. In between the second and third trimester, go over each room of your house critically and get rid of all debris and clutter. 

If carpets, curtains and other linen need to be washed, get this done too. Clean out your freezer, fridge, bathroom cabinets and bedside drawers. After the delivery, you might be too busy, too sleep deprived or too worn out to take care of dusty fans or hanging cobwebs. Beside they are not good for the baby’s health.

Create space for baby’s things

Have at least a couple of drawers for baby’s things in a place of easy access. If you are buying new stuff, prepare a list and do your shopping beforehand. Baby clothes, pampers/diapers, shampoo, soap, soft towels and sheets for the baby can all be bought prior to the delivery and should be kept separate from other household linen. If you are using the things which your older children have outgrown, wash and air them thoroughly and put them away neatly in the drawers. Re-arrange your furniture to accommodate the baby’s cot, pram, high-chair etc.

Prepare children for the new arrival

If you have young children, prepare them mentally for the new addition to the family. If you have to leave them with grandparents, aunts or friends while you are in the hospital, talk to them about it as well. It can be very scary for young children if they are suddenly ‘deserted’ by their mother and father and one of the main reasons for sibling rivalry. Also make sure you have help lined up in case of an emergency or an early delivery. You must have someone to call and take care of your children on a moment’s notice.

Fill up freezers, refrigerators and pantry:

Cooking a meal for the entire family will be the last thing you have time for in the early newborn days. Plan ahead and stock the freezer with foods that can be easily thawed and served like kebabs, haleem, chicken stock for rice and soups, and ready-to-cook frozen products.  

If you do the grocery shopping yourself, buy things with longer shelf-life in bulk so that you do not have to run to the market every time you run out of tea, jam, cereals, detergents, sugar, rice etc. Plan ahead for at least four months. Between frequent breastfeeding, nappy changing and other household chores, shopping for everyday things can be quite a burden.

Where there’s a baby, there will be guests. While no-one expects you to prepare gourmet meals for all the well wishers that drop in, common courtesy demands that you entertain your guests with some goodies on the tea-trolley. Again planning and shopping ahead will come to your rescue. 

Get your hospital stuff ready:

Another important thing is to get your hospital bags ready by your eighth month. It is better to use two small bags… one for your baby and other for yourself …rather than one big one which contains everything. This will give you more privacy as the baby’s stuff gets handled by everyone from the hospital staff to nurses to relatives.

Remember to pack a few personal items, such as a toothbrush and toothpaste, a hairbrush, undergarments, change of clothing, comfortable shoes and your own soap and shampoo. There is no need to look and smell like a zombie just because you have given birth. 

Put in your favorite lipstick, other essential cosmetic items and a light fragrance too. It is also prudent to pack your own towels. It is best not to wear any gold jewellery, expensive watches etc. to the hospital so take off any gold rings, locket and bangles that you habitually wear by your ninth month. 

For the baby, you will need at least three sets of clothes, bibs, diapers, wrapping sheets for summer or a blanket if it’s winter, baby pacifier and a feeding bottle.  Baby soap, shampoo and soft towels are also necessary. Pack this stuff and keep the bags in an easy to access place by your ninth month. 

The birth of a child can be one of the most important and scariest times in a woman’s life. Being well prepared and having tackled all the important things before the baby’s birth will make you more calm and ready to embrace motherhood. 

Taste of Hunger: A Poem

Have you ever tasted hunger?

Have you ever been its prey?

Do you know what it means

When hunger comes to stay?

A little loan from a shark

Brought misery upon us all

Every day he would come

Push a little and watch us fall

“The money you pay is not enough!

Your farm and crops, goats and cattle

All mine as your debt remains.”

In silence, the village saw the losing battle

One day he took it all and threw us out

As our village watched behind curtains tattered

Evil triumphed when compassion failed

Cruelty laughed as humanity shattered

We have been hungry for many a days.

Or weeks or months or perhaps some years

Can no one heed our pleas for help?

Does no one care, does no one hear?

Stars Beyond Number

Just using your eyes

On a clear, dark night

Look up at the skies

To find a wondrous sight

Stars beyond number,

Making patterns gay

Helping weary travellers,

Go along their way

Their black, velvety cushion

Stretched across the horizon

Like little drops of diamonds

They glitter and glisten

Pegasus and Perseus,

North Star and Leo

Libra and Aquarius,

Hydra and Scorpio

All major constellations

Moving across the sky

Looking at the stargazers

As they play I Spy.