Cocktails and Records

Knowing that we are thinking about doing some ‘home improvements’, our next door neighbour kindly lent me some of her vast collection of interiors magazines to inspire us.

One of the magazines (called Inspirations for Your Home) has a feature on ‘ways to declutter your home’, and knowing some of the interests of readers of this blog, I’d thought I’d share a few of them so you too can be inspired:

1. Edit your CD collection as your taste changes. You probably don’t listen to the same music now as you did at 17, so get rid of those old tapes and records.
2. People think that books are trophies that show how smart they are, but that’s not true! If your shelves are too full for new ones, then give away or sell your old books.
3. Keep one photograph of an event and delete the rest. Get rid of anything that makes you look bad.
4. One of the most important things is to reward yourself for having a clear out, whether its taking a bath, enjoying a glass of wine, or inviting friends round to see your decluttered rooms.

Right, I’m off to get rid of my clutter then. When I’m done, I’ll invite you all round to look at the lovely, neat spaces where my life used to be.

Each morning at the gym I usually ignore the telly, preferring to wrap myself up my carefully crafted (ha!) running mixes. However, this morning something on the box caught my eye – an ad for a new CD compilation, one that would be a perfect gift for Mothers Day. It is a CD called 101 Housework Songs. Yes, I can just see the look on my mums face if I gave her a CD to do the chores to as a  Mothers Day gift…

But anyway, 101 Housework Songs contains a peculiar selection of tracks. There are some absolute pop classics in anyone’s books (The Turtles ‘Happy Together’, McFadden & Whitehead ‘Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now’ and Blondie’s ‘Heart of Glass’), quite possibly some of the worst songs of all time (Guru Josh ‘Infinity’ and Stars on 45 – their Beatles and ABBA medleys) and some downright strange ones (Nat ‘King’ Cole ‘Unforgettable’ and Peggy Lee ‘Fever’ – what kind of housework are you doing to those?!).

Typically, this got me thinking about my favourite ’housework music’. Or more to the point, how limited it is. I have five favourite housework albums which I’m going to unashamedly share with you here:

1. Let it Bleed – The Rolling Stones
2. 30something – Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine
3. Born in the USA – Bruce Springsteen
4. Golden Afrique Vol.1 (70s dance music from West Africa)
5. Diana – Diana Ross

I tend not to listen to anything else other than these albums, and perhaps the radio. I don’t know why. These records just always wind up on the stereo. Any ideas on how to broaden my housework playlist?