NEW!

21 July 2025, Richard

Lost & Found

New Little Kettle

I've bought a new (soft-bodied, travel) kettle. It's fine if anyone wants to borrow it but please:

Household Checklist

7 June 2025, Richard

With Bobby back soon we'll have five people sharing the house, so here is a reminder of what we need to be doing and some useful tips.

Please take the time to read through these notes so we're all working to the same standards, and they may clarify a few things that sometimes might not have been made clear before. We're largely doing all of this already but it always helps to be clear.

Maybe come back to this page and reload it later: there may be updates!

General / Rooms

Please leave the doors open after you have finished in a shared room (bathroom, lavatory, kitchen). This allows air to flow and helps fight mould etc.; it also lets others know that the room is free.

The door to the cupboard under the stairs should also be left open: it houses a freezer which could over-heat if the air flow is restricted.

Please leave windows closed or largely closed if you are going to be out of your room when there is any danger that there might be rain. If you see e.g. the kitchen window open and it looks like rain, by all means please close it too.

Beware of the Mice!

Being near a small park and sharing a roof / floorboards with neighbours, there is a risk that mice will enter the property from time to time. What encourages them, and induces them to stay and multiply: is food.

Please tightly shut all cupboard doors where food is stored. When storing food in your rooms, make sure it is in an air-tight container and cannot be smelt or accessed by any rodents.

Storage

We are short of storage space and recently some suitcases have been left in the hallways and even the bathroom. The bathroom in particular is not a good place to store things for the long term, it's best to try to find space in your room.

Lavatory

Please always leave the seat up when you have finished! As people get older, back pain can make it really painful to bend down and reach things. Combine that with possibly having less notice that you need the loo as you get older, and failing eyesight in dim conditions — so that leaving the seat down is like setting a booby trap! Please always leave it up.
Update 21/7/2025: We are now leaving the seat down to reduce the spread of germs.

Don't use the toilet bin for papers etc. Bobby exclusively uses the bin for cleaning product containers etc. and empties it out himself.

We used to have a yellow cloth in here but it was probably taken away during general household cleaning and not returned. Please leave it (or another cloth) here so that we can all do a little cleaning in the moment if necessary.

Shared Kitchen Facilities

Work tops

This catches a lot of people out: the kitchen tops are not real marble! They don't have the strength and resilience of marble. Don't put very hot items onto them and don't try to clean them too harshly. I noticed a small scratch and I think signs someone had tried over-cleaning back in March.

Washing Up Sink

We currently have no plug for the sink. You can borrow mine but it's much too small and takes some effort to make it work. I have in fact got a new plug on order that I hope will be the right size, and I'll then leave it near the sink if it's any use to anyone else.
Update 21/7/2025: Supposedly 6mm wider, my new plug was actually the same size, but I'm looking at how I might yet make it work.

Always working and cooking here, my stuff is often taking up space in the drainer, but I do try to wash up and then to pack away dry stuff within a few hours. We all need to avoid leaving things around in shared facilities for too long, especially things that take up space or we have taken shared things that others might want to use.

Shared small appliances

The microwave, toaster and food mixer are available for general use if you take care of them. See notes on cleaning the microwave below; to avoid mess, there is a cover, usually kept on top of the microwave, that you can put over your plates of food etc. as they warm up. After using the toaster please tip out any crumbs and take out and wipe clean the crumb tray. If Bobby has said that you can use the food mixer, he will have explained to you how to clean it very thoroughly after each use, and then leave it to dry for maybe 24 hours.

If you have been told you can use any other applicances, please use them according to the instructions. I have actually got a small (one cup) kettle on order. If it seems appropriate, I will keep it on the counter for anyone's use (just don't over-fill it, and leave it empty after use).

Cutlery

Cutlery is available in the drawer next to the sink. Note that we are short of cutlery, especially spoons, where there are so few that I know each one individually. As well as a plain spoon, there is one with a leopard like pattern made from round stamps, and a soup spoon, and a very thin, cheap spoon that seemed to turn up a couple of years ago (I think it may be the last survivor of a set of cutlery I bought for Bobby's son; he lost the rest in a house fire). I also left a plastic spoon there to build up the numbers but it melted in a hot drink and isn't now much use.

In the last month or two, I've noticed that the spoons started to disappear; I presume they've been taken away on extended loan? I've not seen Soupy or Slim for well over a month now. Then plain one disappeared a few weeks ago; and then Stampy also went, leaving none to share between the four of us. The plain one did suddenly turn up a week ago, only to disappear again in the last few days.

Now that we are going to have five people in the house, it would be great if we could reunite the entire gang. I have searched my room's nooks and corners to see if any could have been lost here; if you've been using them, now it's your turn.

It's a very similar story for teaspoons, where we used to have plenty, more than ordinary spoons I think, but have recently been down to about two.

It is best not to use the long-stem teaspoon as Bobby uses it constantly and it's the only one we've got.

Also seemingly out on "extended loan" is the metal can opener that's usually kept in the cultery drawer. It probably disappeared in the last month or so; I know I've also been unable to eat tinned fruit and veg. (or open a bottled drink) for two or three weeks. I've searched the kitchen for it (no need to search my room for this one, I would never remove it to there). It makes me wonder what else may be missing that I haven't noticed? Now there are going to be five of us in the house we do need to manage the share pool better than ever, so let's restore the absentees.

Dishes and crockery

The crockery available to share is on the bottom shelf of the wall unit next to the sink: three large black plates, three small ones, and seemingly now two bowls, one of them very chipped. The other black bowls kept on the middle shelf are for Bobby's use. There are also two mugs (since the day Bobby left; there had always been three; perhaps he moved the other one) which are kept in the stand on the window sill. Only use these black items.

To relieve the pressure, I recently bought myself a couple of mugs and bowls. They are also black but you can tell them from Bobby's as mine are chunkier and have a white rim at the top as well as on their bases, which Bobby's ones don't.

Very soon after buying them, one of my new mugs also disappeared. I presume it's also been taken out on extended loan and will reappear at some point, although if anyone does know that anything unfortunate may have happened to it, I'd be grateful if they'd at least tell me.

Cleaning Notes

As a general rule, take a look back at what you're about to use or have just used. It should have been spotlessly clean before you used it, meaning that no-one left you to do their cleaning for them. If it is again spotless when you leave: it means you've not left your cleaning for someone else to do.

Shower

Wash the shower after every use; all four walls and the tray. It's frustrating that when you're in a hurry, it takes longer to wash the unit than to use it. But with the shower in regular daily use, it's the only way we're going to keep it respectable.

As we're using it all the time, try not to step on the mat with wet feet, to avoid it getting permanently wet and then going mouldy.

Microwave Oven

Please keep clean as noted above. This is particularly important when cooking African food or a heavy / soupy meal that's going to bubble a lot. I took a photograph of a very messy microwave I had to clean up before I could use it about a month ago. (I may try to add it to this page, but: yuk!) Always cover your food as much as possible, and be prepared to wipe inside the oven (particularly the roof) after use.

Main Oven

Always clean the top after use. The standard is: when you run your fingers over it, and if it feels entirely smooth, and if your finger tips remain clean, then it's OK. You can use any cleaning liquids that work for you; for example there is some lemon cleaning fluid under the sink that I bought for the oven top, which you may use. I also have a metal scourer by the sink which you can use and is probably safe for the glass top itself as it's fairly scratch proof. But be careful and avoid scratching the the metal sides. If you act before things get burned on, a simple cloth should usually do the job.

The washing machine

To keep the machine in top condition, don't use the tray but instead put liquid (in a plastic cup) or capsules directly into the drum. For best efficiency and sharing: wait until you have a fairly full wash to do. Always empty the drum very soon after it's finished, so damp things aren't left hanging around. Do not slam the machine door: a gentle push is all that's needed to close it.

The vaccum cleaner

I have now repaired this and it seems to be working fine, but we want to avoid having to fix it again.

Always take care not to run over the cable when cleaning; hold up the cable so that it's above the machine, particularly when you are pulling the machine back. Also be careful not to pull too heavily on the connection between the cable and the machine: always leave a few coils of cable wrapped up on the machine and only unwrap as much cable as you need.

There is a purple button which switches on "extra power" but this should be used sparingly if at all. It is probably the main cause of the cable getting chewed up and broken; it is also probably (even more) harmful to the red carpet. Try to work mainly without using it, and when it is on be careful.

To Do:

Whoever has the original electronic outside key (a green one?): could you be ready to swap it with Bobby* for one of the red duplicates that Aiden bought? (The spare is on the coat rack.)

*UPDATE: I've given Bobby my original and I've now got a red copy; please swap with me instead.