Thanks for joining me. In today's episode, I'm going to
talk you through cleaning your kitchen.
We're going to get those dishes done and get some other work
done in the kitchen. And I'm also going to give you
an update on something I talked about in an episode 5 years ago.
But don't worry, I'm going. To play the clip.
And catch you up to speed on what's going on.
Hi everyone. I'm Ronnie and you're listening
to Clean With Me, the podcast where I talk you through.
Cleaning your house. It's time to gear up for your
cleaning session. Maybe you need to freshen up a
little bit for the day. Get dressed, run a brush through
your hair, wash your face, whatever it takes for you to
feel presentable and ready for the day.
Or maybe you want to do a laundry switch.
Get that. Get that laundry from the washer
into the dryer. Hopefully you don't have a load
that you have to rewash because you forgot about it from the day
before. If so, no worries.
Put a little bit more laundry detergent and a little bit of
white vinegar in there. Rewash that.
Or maybe you're just starting a new load from scratch.
I like to get my machines running, and by that I mean my
washing machine and my dishwasher at the beginning of a
cleaning session. And of course, if you don't have
a dishwasher, the equivalent is just getting your dishes
started. Another thing you might want to
do to gear up for your cleaning session.
If you're like me, you might want to straighten up your
immediate front entrance area, whether that's a separate
entryway or it's just your front room.
Wherever people enter your house, you want to get that
first impression area quickly straightened up.
But this isn't a deep clean or anything because this is a
kitchen episode. But I like to get myself feeling
presentable, the entrance of my house feeling presentable.
And then I like to get my house smelling good because I'm going
to be throwing away things as I clean the kitchen anyway.
So I'll take out that kitchen trash.
That way I'm walking outside, getting some sunshine and fresh
air, getting some exercise, getting my blood pumping, doing
a little bit of grounding as far as my feet touching the outside
world, which I like. Going barefoot.
I know it's the dead of winter, but it's not that cold today and
I've already been outside barefoot.
And yes, it felt good. And sometimes getting the house
smelling good involves starting a wax warmer or lighting a
candle. And another thing that I'm
really big on lately is opening up the blinds or curtains and
letting in some natural light at the beginning of a cleaning
session. And I've said this before, but
that really motivates you to straighten up that front room or
whatever people can see when you open the blinds or the curtains.
But even if you don't want to be quote UN quote on display, as my
mom calls it, you might want to just open your blinds and have
them pointing upward a little bit.
Or maybe you have like darker drapes that you open to expose
the shears if you have like that shear curtain underneath and
you're letting light in that way.
These are just some ideas. Of course, I can talk faster
than you can do these things, but these are just some ideas on
where to begin because a lot of times you don't feel like
cleaning when you click on an episode like this.
And I'm trying to help you feel motivated and just get you
started. So over the next 9 1/2 minutes,
you're going to be listening to a clip from an episode that I
recorded in January of 2020 entitled Has Is My Mail Carrier
Gone Postal? Everything you're going to hear
for the next 9 1/2 minutes is from that episode, even the part
where I encourage you to get started on your dishes, but
obviously that still applies. And then after I play this clip,
I'm going to come back on and give you an update on the
situation because this person is still working as a mail carrier
in this town, and there's been a new development.
And it's just funny because one of my longtime faithful
listeners just made a comment on the Facebook page Clean With Me
podcast where she mentioned that what got her kind of hooked on
the show was that episode Has My Mail Carrier Gone Postal?
And then I remember that I've been reading the Facebook posts
of a local friend who's having trouble with her mail carrier,
and I realized that it's probably the same person.
So I'll get I'll come back with that update.
Here's the old clip from 2020. Our mailbox is kind of far, so I
often stop at the mailbox on my way home from somewhere because
it's on the right side of the road.
So when I'm on my way home I'm in the correct lane to pull over
and stop at that mailbox. One day I was on my way home and
I noticed that the mail truck was parked there, loading it up
or whatever, putting our mail in the the cluster box and I parked
behind her, not directly behind her.
I mean there was plenty of space between us.
I just pulled over because I was excited to get my mail and kind
of wanted to wait till she was done.
And it was not like I was breathing down her neck at all.
There was plenty of space between our vehicles.
And she looks at me and just this is kind of a visual thing.
I'm, I'm waving my arm and you can't see it, but she just kind
of makes an angry face at me and waves me away.
Like, go ahead and go past me. I feel it was pretty obvious
that I was waiting for my mail. I mean, if, if you're going to
be a mail carrier, you're going to see people who are excited to
get something waiting for their mail.
So I found that really irritating.
And I, I thought, really, it's not like I got out of my car and
just stood there watching her put the mail in each box or
something. I mean, I was just parked on a
public street. So that that kind of irritated
me. And there was an also an
incident where my husband and I had both ordered some packages
and they were marked as delivered like placed in parcel
locker or whatever it said when we checked the tracking.
But then they weren't. So it was like she put down that
things were delivered and then they were not.
So she may have given them to someone else or just said they
were delivered when they weren't.
But he went in and did a complaint and he didn't even
know about the packages. I was expecting because who
tells her husband every time they order something anyway?
But he complained about his and then once he did that we
received a bunch of packages on the same day.
Some of these items were marked delivered like a week before
that. So we were like OK this is
weird. Fast forward to Christmas my
brother called to ask if I got my Christmas gift which I did
not and he had the tracking that it was marked delivered at a
certain time. So I thought well I'm going to
get her on this one because I think there are more than one.
They told me before it's not the same person every time blah blah
blah but it usually is a certain women because I see her.
So I took that information and filled out a form and they had
the time and date of when she said it was delivered to the
parcel locker. Then I ran another errand.
When I got home about an hour later, I see her at the mailbox
checking all the parcel lockers. And it wasn't the usual time
when she delivers the mail. So it was like, OK, she got a
talking to and she's looking for that package.
But if it was placed in another box by now somebody might have
kept it or whatever. And then, you know, my brother
did a thing on his end so he could redeem the insurance and
stuff like that anyway, that that package was never, never
delivered. So I mean, there's there's
probably more, but I'm giving you the short version of it.
You've probably had plenty of time to gear up for your
cleaning session. So let's move to the kitchen and
I'll continue on. With the.
Story but you're going to want to gather up any dishes from
around the house or maybe just other parts of the kitchen and
move those over to the sink area.
And you're also going to want to just remove clutter, whether
it's on the. Floor the countertops.
Maybe you need to put some food away or containers away, or just
relocate things to other areas of the house.
You're going to want to just kind of get your countertops
cleared off and get the dishes either into the sink or by the
sink. And then of course.
You're going to do the dishes, whatever that means for you,
whether you need to empty, reload and run your.
Dishwasher. Or pre rinse some dishes and
start that first sink load to wash by hand.
Maybe you're doing a little bit of both.
You're going to gather up dishes, straighten up your
kitchen and wash the dishes, whatever that means for you.
So be working in your kitchen. And then of course after that
we'll work on surfaces. So we got a package.
It was homemade beef jerky from my father-in-law, and he had it
kind of vacuum packed and the sealed plastic thing.
He has one of those things, whatever it's called, that seals
it up and everything. So the food was safe, but the
box that it was delivered in was just totally crushed.
There was a big hole in it. I mean, if I didn't know better,
I would think that the mail carrier just stomped on our box
because obviously she knows I'm the one who complained.
When I complained about not getting my Christmas gift from
my brother, I mentioned that story of how she waved us away
and I gave her physical description.
I mean, obviously with that form about the package, she knew
which person had complained about her.
I mean, she may not know what I look like, but she knows which
address complained about her. Let's put it that way.
Which name and address? Unless she really remembers
waving me away, but that was months ago.
But I just recently brought it up when I didn't get my
Christmas package early January. So anyway, I just thought could
it be that she just stomped on this just to spite me?
But obviously it could have gotten smashed before that or
whatever. So I was just kind of like
whatever. Then a few days later I was on
my way home from somewhere and my kids like checking the
mailbox, especially my daughter, and I pulled over and kind of
handed her the key so she could check it.
And she's like, mom, the box is stuck.
The box is stuck. I was like what?
OK, so I hopped out of the car. There is a box inside of my
mailbox. Now, in case you don't have a
cluster box and you don't know how it works, there are several
little mailboxes, and then you use the key to open that box.
Ours is number 12. OK, so you open up box #12 and
there's mainly letters in there, or small packages like padded
envelopes or whatever. Things that would fit where your
letters go, if you have something bigger, they either
put it in a parcel locker, these bigger boxes underneath, or they
drop it off on your doorstep. So if you have something in a
parcel locker, when you open up little box #12 you see your
bills and stuff, and then you see a key.
And then you grab that key and you open one of the larger
parcel lockers. And then the key just stays in
the lock and you leave it there and then you get your package.
Some of you are familiar with that.
So anyway, there was a box in our little #12 it wasn't in a
parcel locker and it was the same, it was a the same size box
from the same company I regularly order from that's
always in the parcel locker. But this time it was wedged in
my mailbox so tightly that my daughter couldn't get it out.
And then I was having a hard time getting it out.
And I was like, you're kidding me.
How did they even get this in here?
I feel like this woman purposely just shoved it in there.
I mean, this, this is happening shortly after somebody stomped
on our box of beef jerky. So I'm just pulling at it and
I'm having to kind of smash the box.
And I felt comfortable smashing it because I knew what was in it
and I knew that the box was larger than the contents.
And then it was going to be well padded and everything.
Just I knew that because it was something that I ordered
regularly. So I was having to kind of
flatten part of it to get it out.
I mean, by the time I got it out, it was pretty mangled.
And yes, I took a picture of that and the other box, I took a
picture of that one being, you know, when it was still wedged
in after I removed it, how, how it looked.
And then of course the. Stomped on beef jerky box.
I also have a photo of that. I haven't been back in there to
talk about that, but I don't know, you know, sometimes you
just, you feel like you've got better things to do.
Than to just. Gripe at the post office again
and again. So anyway, yeah, I have this
nemesis. Apparently part of the reason
why I haven't gone into the post office and shown the pictures of
the damaged boxes is that since then I have not seen that
particular mail carrier I saw. Someone else?
So what I'm hoping best case is that other people have
complained about it and she's not working there anymore.
Maybe if she's not fired, maybe they should switch her to a
neighborhood that has different types of mailboxes because
obviously she gets confused with the cluster box because they
open it in the back and they have to stick things in the
correct box. So hopefully by now you've
gotten your dishes done, but no worries.
If you're facing a dish shaster today, meaning you've got more
dishes than would fit in one dishwasher load or you need to
watch wash several sink loads, that's fine.
If all you get done during this episode is your dishes, that's
something. It's a start and you can always
listen to another episode after this, however most.
Of you are probably. Ready to start working on the
surfaces of your kitchen? You're going to want to work for
the from the top down. So if this is a day that you're
wiping down your upper cabinets, start there.
But for a lot of you, you might just be doing the minimum today,
which of course would include wiping down your countertops,
your stove top, the controls of your stove, the fronts of your
large appliances like your dishwasher, your refrigerator,
your oven. Of course, when you're wiping
down the countertops, you're going to pick up small
appliances, you're going to wipe those down, you're going to wipe
under them, you're going to do all the things.
And of course, since you did your dishes, you're going to
scrub out your sink and shine that up.
And and then lastly, you're going to sweep the kitchen
floor. While you're working on all of
that, I am going to give you the update on the mail carrier
situation. So years later a friend of mine
posted that she received a notice not to block her streets
cluster mailbox, which happens to be on their property.
And the mail carrier had told a neighbor that if she continues
to block the mailbox, she will not deliver anyone's mail to the
cluster box because it's dangerous for her to park there
and blah blah blah. And then of course the neighbor
reiterated to my friend that please don't block the mailbox
because I don't want my mail to be stopped because basically
everyone using that cluster box would be punished.
However, this lady's husband, my friend's husband, had parked his
personal truck in the same areas on the street for almost 20
years with no issues and they measured it and he's parked like
8 or 9 feet away. She talked to the postmaster who
said it's fine and he'll have a talk with the mail carrier.
The neighbor also has photos and videos of this mail carrier
parking the mail truck and delivering the mail to the
community mailbox without any issues in the past.
And the neighbor even drew a chalk line 8 feet from the
mailbox to the truck to show that they weren't blocking it.
And even the local Police Department advised my friend to
file charges for harassment if this mail carrier continues to
complain about where they're parked.
She basically it sounds to me like the woman doesn't know how
to parallel park or something. I don't know but.
It's her job. So she's going to have to get it
figured out. They're not going to just clear
off the whole street for her. And when I read these posts it
was starting to dawn on me that it might be the same person
because of how this mail carrier didn't even like it that I
pulled up behind her after the fact when she was already
parked. So she just wants nobody near
her while she's working on a public street.
So after like the third post on this topic, I messaged my friend
and I basically asked her the description of this woman.
And it's a small town and I'm like 99% sure this is the same
woman because the woman she's having a problem with fits the
description of that mail carrier that I had a problem with back
in 2020. So apparently she's in another
neighborhood right now, but they've still got her delivering
to cluster boxes which she just can't seem to handle.
One of the reasons that I'm telling you this update is that
this friend of mine who is dealing with all this drama from
this weird mail carrier has lost a child.
Can you imagine? She's gone through the
unthinkable and yet this mail carrier seems to have this
vendetta against her now and, you know, doesn't want her
husband's truck anywhere on the street.
And this is a family that has teenage children, adult
children, and so they need a place to park.
We're the same way. We've got 2 vehicles in the
driveway, one on the street, so totally normal situation.
The message here is to be kind to people.
Obviously you should always be kind to people because you don't
know what they're going through. And here, this mail carrier,
this psycho mail carrier is giving my friend a hard time,
probably not knowing that she lost a child recently.
Anyway, it's infuriating, but I wanted to give you the update on
that. Hopefully you're wiping down the
surfaces of your kitchen and you're going to be sweeping soon
while you're finishing up in the kitchen.
On a more positive note, I wanted to kind of relay
something that I was talking to a friend about.
She works remotely from home. And she was saying that part of
her morning routine is to quickly pick up her entire
house, you know, remove any clutter off of the floor, put
her shoes away and whatever else dog toys are out, things like
that. And basically get her house
Roomba ready. She has one of those robot
vacuums. I don't have one, but I know
some of you do. So I wanted to kind of share
this, that she gets her house Roomba ready before she sits
down to work. Then she's out of the way and
her house is working for her while she starts doing her job.
And one of the reasons she got the Roomba is that she has a
hard floor and she has multiple dogs that shed.
So for you pet parents, this might be something that you need
if you despise vacuuming or sweeping the other way.
And let's face it, we're all busy.
If you're like me, you would rather be walking on the
treadmill or going for a walk in the neighborhood then vacuuming
or sweeping. So at some point I want to get
one too. In the past I've thought that
maybe it wouldn't work with kids and pets, but I like what what
she does because she does the quick pickup, right?
Before she sits. Down and she's going to be home
alone for a while and that's the perfect time to let your robot
vacuum get to work. So just a thought there.
When you're done with your kitchen, maybe you want to get
your whole house vacuum ready if you've got one of those
automatic vacuums, but I don't know how many of you have those.
So if you have a Roomba or similar device, go to Glen With
Me podcast, the Facebook page and post a comment under this
episode, whether or not you have a Roomba.
That way I'll know whether I should mention that in future
episodes. If enough people have them, I'll
start talking about it in future episodes.
Another thing I want to remind you of in case you're new to the
show, is that if you're overwhelmed by dishes, there are
a couple things you can do to prevent pile UPS.
Number one, of course, you can get some disposable products.
The only ones that I really get. Lately.
Are just the paper plates We use regular bowls.
We do use regular plates in situations where we're cutting
steak on a plate or whatever. I get my husband prefers to eat
off of those hard plates at dinner time.
You know, sometimes the meal is kind of a wetter meal that has a
lot of sauce or whatever. I get that.
But a lot of the time we're using paper plates.
And the other thing that I've done is I've taken a lot of our
dishes out of circulation, meaning I've hidden them in a
hard to reach cupboard. So we have them for Thanksgiving
or when, you know, we decide to have a lot of people over for
whatever reason, but that they're not always in
circulation. So if my husband and I are out
and about. For the day.
It will be impossible for the teenagers to dirty very many
dishes because they simply don't have access to them they're not
allowed to get into. Those overflow cupboards.
If that makes sense. So I hope that helps you.
And another thing that I've implemented recently in the
kitchen is emptying the drying rack and the dishwasher first
thing in the morning because we all know that we're supposed to
do dishes after dinner or before bed, basically get down to dish
zero at the end of the day. You know, most days, you know,
we're going to fall off the wagon.
Life's going to happen. Sometimes you're going to come
home late and just crash. I get that.
But the routine should be to wash all your dishes at the end
of the day. But most of us are letting them
air dry or the dishwasher is going to dry them.
OK, in the morning, instead of just patting yourself on the
back that your kitchen's clean, put away that clean stuff
because that's that's the stage for washing dishes throughout
the day as you use them. So that's such an important tip
that I hope you are all implementing.
Another thing I wanted to remind you of while you're finishing up
with sweeping your kitchen or whatever you're doing, is when
you're preparing food or brewing coffee or waiting for the teapot
to whistle, use those minutes in your kitchen to clean.
Just get in the habit of cleaning during those waiting
periods, waiting for water to boil, waiting for even your
Keurig to dispense the coffee. You'd be surprised what you can
get done. Lately.
I've been emptying my drying rack while my Keurig is
dispensing my coffee. And yeah, I take a little longer
to empty the drying rack than it takes for that coffee mug to
fill up. But it's going to be there when
I'm done emptying the drying rack and when I'm cooking and
I'm waiting for water to boil. I'm looking for things to do in
my kitchen, whether it's organizing the pantry or
throwing away some empty packages that were left out
somewhere. I don't know about you, but we
often have empty water bottle packages in our pantry.
Even though we have the big water dispenser, we do buy those
individual waters for various purposes and sometimes when the
kids take the last water, they're leaving that package in
the pantry floor. So while I'm in the kitchen
cooking, I'm throwing that stuff away.
That's just one example, but use those hidden moments where
you're in the kitchen and another benefit of staying in
the kitchen while you're cooking.
You're not going to forget about the bread and the oven because
you're going to smell it, start to get toasty and then you're
not going to end up burning it. So just make yourself stay in
the kitchen and do something productive.
I realize you clean your kitchen before you cook, but while
you're cooking, you're going to clean as you go.
You're going to maybe scrub a shelf in your refrigerator or
organize your pantry. You're going to stay busy in
your kitchen so that you have less to do during your deep
cleaning sessions because of course you're going to clean up
after the meal or at least at the end of the day.
If you do let dishes pile up throughout the day, I don't
recommend it because a lot of us are just, if you're like me,
you're overwhelmed by a huge mess.
So that's the key to to keeping a clean kitchen and avoiding
overwhelm is just cleaning as you go and then cleaning up
after each meal. But cleaning up after a meal is
not going to be as daunting if most of the work was done before
the meal was even served. You were cleaning as you were
going. You were looking for other tasks
to do in the kitchen. You see what I'm saying?
Anyway, I hope you got a lot done during this episode.
Don't be like that mail carrier. Be kind to people because you
don't know what they've been through.
By the way, special thanks to my financial supporters who support
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Go ahead and check that out. You can also find cleaning
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Subscribe to bonus episodes or purchase products through my
link. Just keep listening.
Even just listening to these free episodes helps me.
And as always, happy cleaning. I'll talk to you in the next
episode.