FlyLady Helps You Clean Your House and Your Life While You're At It

I've posted here about how to clean house, periodically sharing tips I've learned.  I get how frustrating this can be for many of us.

It's hard for me.  Just plain hard.  In fact, housekeeping can be flat out overwhelming sometimes.  Especially when I'm on a deadline.  I just don't see the mess, really I don't, because my head is filled with the research or the writing or the editing.  I just don't SEE it.  Then the deadline is met and I relax and suddenly I look around, and wow.  I need a break and I'm surrounded by mess.

I hate this.

I remember reading on The Bloggess about how she suffers from mental illness and one of her red flags that she may be about to have a bad episode (here in the South, we call them a "spell"), is that her vision narrows.  Like she has blinders on her eyes.

What I experience is something like that -- I'm busy, I'm buzzing along and my head is happy with thinking, and I don't register that the dishes need washing or that the porch needs sweeping.  It's just not there for me.

However, living in mess is definitely real and I hate it.  It's major no fun to come out of the waters of creating something good, all ready to wallow and relax, only to find that you're in a messy environment.

Raccoons: How I Got Them To Go Away and Leave Me Alone

I'm just so darn pleased with myself it's ridiculous and no doubt sinful.  So of course I'm going to write this post to share with you, Dear Reader, about my latest accomplishment.  So you can be darn pleased with me too, LOL ....

Here's the thing.  (Drumroll.)

Bah-Bye.

I got the raccoons to go away.  Exit the building, as it were.  Leave the trash alone.  Stay out of the garage.  Forget the trees and the roof and hanging out on the back patio basking in the moonlight.  (Apparently, my back porch was quite the hot spot at one time this summer.)

And, nope, no animal was hurt or killed in the process.  Which I'm sure you already took for granted if you've read this blog at all....

If you or someone you know has a problem with raccoons, then this is big news.  BIG.  If not, well then maybe you should just venture on over right now to I Waste So Much Time (a truly fun blog BTW).

Here's the story.

Back in July 2009, they first appeared.  I wrote about the "Mysterious Guest" that had taken up residence in my garage - bigger and more powerful than a rat, smaller and less noisy than a bobcat.

Salt Kills Fleas: How I Finally Won my Flea War.

Here in San Antonio, fleas are bad this year.  Very bad.  And it doesn't help that my next door neighbor feeds the feral cats, the wild birds, and the local raccoon family.  I hate to think the number of fleas that hang out in his back yard among the sunflowers. 

So, it's especially bad here at my little casa.  It's very, very bad for my dogs. 

I don't like giving the pups that chemical stuff: Frontline, Advantage, Program, whatever.  Creeps me out to think some chemical is running through their system for three to four weeks that is toxic enough to kill bugs.  Doesn't make sense to me that this doesn't harm the dog.

However, I caved in and bought some Advantage in April because one of my pups is allergic to flea bites and it was the lesser of two evils sort of decision.

It did NOTHING.

So, we fought the bugs as best we could until enough time passed that the product materials and the vet tech said it was okay to try Frontline Plus.  Which we did in May.  It did NOTHING.

Meanwhile, I'm vaccuuming so often that I'm thinking about making an exercise tape: Vacuum-ize Your Pounds Away!  Between this, Dove dishwashing soap, and not letting the dogs roam in the yard (more walks at the park, they're not exactly upset about this), and we're winning flea battles but we're still in a war.

Every time the pups go outside, they come back with fleas.  So frustrating.