The unremarkable joy

I like to think I am a pretty positive person, always looking on the bright side and all that, I mostly do hop out of bed and get on with the day with enthusiasm so long as I’ve rolled a coffee. But inevitably the everyday minutia of day to day household running can bring even the brightest spark a little down. A little duller. But even in those moments, there is joy to be found. Unremarkable, mundane things that can still bring joy to a gal like me. What? I never said I was smart.

Here are 4 things that bring me some of that ย joy each and EVERY time I do them.

1. The dyson hand stick vacuum swiffer thing

I held off on getting one of these bad boys for quite some time firm on the knowledge that once I started, I would not be able to stop. It’s safe to say that my suspicions have been confirmed. Each and every day it gets a run, a quick little swiff around the high traffic areas and I tell you what? This simple action can completely transform my outlook on a day. Swiffed? IN CONTROL. I love this with the passion of 100o burning suns. Yes, that much.

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2. Making the bed

Each and every SINGLE day I make the bed. In fact, I make all the beds. And I MAKE THEM WELL GOD DAMMIT. The pulling and smoothing of the donnas and the sheets really are a tidy of the mind. The fluffing and placement of those cushions? A fluffing of the soul. If nothing else gets done in a day and a bed has been made, it’s been a good day. You cannot hop into a unmade bed at the end of a hard days work and feel the joy of a tight sheet, a plump pillow.

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3. Cushion re-alignment on the couch

I KNOW I am mental. I KNOW I have issues. Namely because Rob tells me about them at any given opportunity but you can BET that each and every time I go to bed, or leave the house that I will throw my eyes over to the couch to ensure that those cushions are sitting up AS THEY SHOULD BE. I must want things to be nice for the intruders if they were to ever arrive.

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4. Cleaning the glass of the fire

Mostly a job that is done only a few times each winter, but dead SET, when it’s done does it give you bang for your buck. A clean window to the fire (nay a clean window ANYWHERE) will make me happy. And with the addition of a glass of wine and a book it can make the fire experience a whole lot more pleasurable.

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What are some of your daily mundane joys?
Nothing will surprise me, I fluff cushions for AN EMPTY ROOM.
Tell me everything!

Comments

  1. Dipping water out of the rain barrel to water my plants. In Texas. In August…
    Water in the rain barrel is like an back-yard 401k, money in the bank. SUCH a satisfaction.

  2. Yes to made beds and tidied cushions! Also an empty dish drainer and small hands and face wiped clean with a warm washer. I’m going to need these moments of mundane joy for the next little while, thank you for reminding me to notice them. Very interested in that Dyson Swiffer thingy too!!

  3. Contessa Frankly Feisty says

    I have just realised that I don’t have ANY daily mundane activities!
    Apart from getting out of bed, going to bed, toileting and cleaning my teeth, there is nothing else that I do every day! Is that weird? I don’t clean and tidy and make beds and wash dishes or clothes or myself every day.
    I do them whenever.
    My kids are big people and I have been unemployed since May, so I potter and read and listen to music up loud and garden and write and dream and go in to town and wander and hang with friends and laugh and chat.
    I’d love to know you method for firebox glass cleaning – a chore I detest, but then love once it’s done!ย 

  4. Katie clews says

    Yes this is soo me !!

  5. Clean shower glass. I actually return to the bathroom to look at my efforts. More than once!

  6. My last chore of the day is setting up the coffee for the morning. I am the only one who drinks coffee in our house, so I could push it off till the next morning easily. I have to bang myself in the head and make myself do it, ’cause I’m tired and DON’T WANT TO! But I feel so good the next morning when I start the brewing in between walking & feeding the dog. Ahhhh… I’m so much more a night owl than a morning person.

  7. Wiping down the dining room table- because clearly if it’s been wiped then everything is under control- right?!;)

  8. Vacuuming the crumbs under the kids table and hanging freshly washed clothes in the cupboard. BUT currently having a first world lament that I can’t find my favourite Huggie fabric softener in Rice Cream scent anywhere. GAWD, I just whinged about fabric softener. Who am I. But rice pudding scented clothes and sheets are pretty good ๐Ÿ™‚

  9. I can so relate to all of those things that you have mentioned!

  10. Yup, beds made and cushions plumped and in the right place here too!

  11. Oh wow the fire glass one brought back a memory I had forgotten about! That was my “chore” as a kid… used to be so filthy but would keep admiring it all night long ๐Ÿ™‚

  12. Absolutely agree with 1 and 4. I love my Dyson stick vacuum sooo much. My hubby says I am vacuum obsessed and left to my own devices I would keep buying more. Mine is the older model and I believe the new one is even better and I so want one! How do I make the old one die so I can get a new one??? Hubby cleans the glass on the fire every so often when he vacuums out the build up of ash from crap wood (he collects the stuff!). Wiped down benches are my bug bear. Hubby will happily do dishes til the cows come home, but he doesn’t wipe down the benches! What is with that? They are the SAME job to me. One goes with the other. Also, I have gleaming black marble in the kitchen and it shows everything.

  13. If all of the things in the kitchen are put away, the benches wiped down, and the dishwasher EMPTY, then that my friend is better than chocolate ๐Ÿ˜‰

  14. Dishwasher on just as I go to bed, the hum makes me fall asleep, yeah clean dishes in the morning!
    The washing machine programmed so that a fresh load of wash is ready to be hung out at 630am
    I so so so want that Dyson stick, even sent my husband the details so he could surprise me (he didn’t) a couple extra shifts and that baby’s mine.
    I use those lint rollers for the couches due to cat and dog hair, can go through whole rolls in one go.
    Lastly after I have made the bed with fresh sheets, I am to be the first in the bed to feel the cool and smell the fresh sheets , usually a cat nap in the in the afternoon, I loll about thinking ‘mine all mine’

  15. Fashionista says

    It’s not a daily task but weekly, doing a meal plan for the week. So then all I have to do is look at it and drag appropriate containers out of the freezer on the appropriate morning. Or if it is something from scratch at least I know what I am doing when I get home from work. I feel all sorts of smug the weeks I pull that off seamlessly.

  16. Oh yes! For me it is the dishes done, the beds made and the floor vacuumed. Those things make my world okay. Bonus points if I have mopped my floor- that makes for an extra good day.

  17. That is my exact list, how strange is that? I even clean the glass on the fireplace once a week, I love it being clean that much. I hate how my husband can just get up and go to bed and leave the cushions unplumbed and not in the right spot. These little things make me happy, in feel in control. It’s the small things:)

  18. I think I need a Dyson stick. My son feeds the ducks every time he eats. Chucks pieces on the floor like there are ducks to eat it up. Especially the bread. Crumbed duck style. The broom just doesn’t cut the mustard, I’ll have to check the Dyson out.

  19. I love to wipe down the vanity of the bathroom at the end of each day. I even keep a pack of disposable wipes in the bottom drawer specially to do it. Small thing!

  20. Recently invested in the dyson stick. What a revelation. 3 kids in 4 years makes for my house resembling a giant crumb fest. NO LONGER I tell you! Everyday, sometimes twice a day. So happy.

    Definately bed being made and cushions plumped are a daily occurrence. You have inspired me to clean the firebox glass tonight before the inlaws descend tomorrow.
    Xo

  21. I just got the exact same Dyson 3 weeks ago (we call him ‘Mr Dyson’). Completely get your feelings of satisfaction! The bed making is also a thing of mine. Love those simple pleasures ๐Ÿ™‚

  22. Long time American reader…..never commented. Adore your love of cushions….mostly since my husband also thinks I’m insane for having so many and for the plumping!
    Love your blog!

  23. Uhh but I just got the brand spankin new Dyson DC59 Animal stick vacuum delivered to my door on Tuesday….it is the bees knees. Far above previous models.
    But the kicker? My sister gave me a code for 30… Yes THIRTY.% off! That’s unheard of for Dyson….usually they don’t go past 10% but I scored 30%. It was like all my Christmas’ had come at once!

  24. My husband came home one day with a Dyson handy vac for using in the kitchen. He announced he was SICK of dragging the full-sized Dyson out of the cupboard and he hated the banging sound it made when it came out of the cupboard. Ha! For a man who could live in a tip and never notice it was untidy, I was delighted! I almost – but not quite – forgave him for buying it off the shelf at Myer and paying full-price.

  25. With 2 under 2 and half, we pretty much have every toy covering the floor by the of the day. Nothing more satisfying than once they are in bed having everything packed away neatly and not stepping on any sharp little toys! Also I LOVE our dyson stick….who ever invented it surely deserves some kind of medal…right???
    With your linen and cushions I’d be making beds and fluffing as well.

  26. My dyson stick is the bees knees , such sheer satisfaction using that little god send… With two fluffy cat it was a freakin necessity! Lucky for me I don’t have a partner at the moment so I went and bought one guilt free! Fist pump.

  27. YES! to cleaning the glass of the fire!

  28. Yes to everything, except we don’t have a fire.
    We have recently built a new (larger) home. My Dyson stock works as my “expensive broom” to do all the hard floors. Every night. Money very well spent.
    My husband is a shift worker, and is finally getting better at making the bed. Every day.
    Love my new cushions and my new lounge. But nobody straightens them as well as me.

  29. I hear you on the cushions… it totally transforms the look of the room. With two little terrors running around I don’t plump as much as I’d like or I think I would get nothing else done.
    The Dyson hand held vacs are THE BEST!!! Love ours too. Is awesome for those spot cleaning moments between big cleans. Sadly we don’t have a wood burning fire but had one as a kid and Mum and Dad still do. There’s nothing better than clean glass and seeing that gorgeous fire burn away….good book and glass of red is absolutely mandatory! Jx

  30. Totally with you on the couch cushions! I have to straighten the throw rug and readjust the cushions to upright position once my son has stopped jumping/climbing on and leaping off it!

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  1. […] thought that my beloved swiffer was broken. You know, my Dyson stick thing. I have written about it many a time before and if you lived nearby you would hear her dulcet humming tones coming from my windows a few […]

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