"Whip Your Kitchen into Shape"

"A place for everything,
everything in its place."

-- Benjamin Franklin





The final week of the first month of my challenge is entitled, "Whip Your Kitchen into Shape." This was a little tricky for me as I was away from home four evenings last week, and two of those evenings I was even out of town. It was a fun week but it zipped by very quickly without my finding any time to do the organizing encouraged in this chapter. We have, however, managed to keep the dishes washed, dried, and put away, and the counter and the island clear of clutter for an entire month now. And what a great feeling that gives me.

I had read through the chapter at the first of the week and then again later on. But, as I said, I just didn't have the time to accomplish any extra tasks. They just had to wait until the weekend. Fortunately, it was a very quiet weekend and I was able to roll up my sleeves a bit.

Regina suggests choosing the time of day when you are "at your physical peak", so I chose the morning. As it was the weekend, I slept in a bit, then had breakfast with Mark on the porch and enjoyed the lovely day. Then, I felt ready to begin.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had already made some changes in the kitchen, so there was less to do than there would have been. And I was very thankful I had done these more difficult things beforehand.

Over the past few weeks, I had created two cupboards/pantries: the larger one for dry and canned goods, and the smaller one for everything concerned with baking. I had organized my bookbooks and put them in a cabinet where they would be easily accessible, but not get dusty. I had also thoroughly cleaned and organized the fridge and freezer and made the decision to re-clean and re-organize the fridge the evening before each garbage/recycling day. I can remember my Dad saying, "A fridge is just a place to keep food until it becomes bad enough to throw out." And as my Mom used to say, "I'm sick and tired" of doing that.

So, this weekend I had the remaining three areas to tackle: the junk drawer, the cooking/baking pots and pans, and the dreaded, frightening area under the sink.

I started with the junk drawer. It really wasn't too bad, I was surprised to see. Probably because so much junk is scattered everywhere else in the house! I was also surprised to find two identical lint brushes in the drawer. It is quite appalling to me now to think of all the money I've wasted over the years buying items to replace unfindable items! How ridiculous is that?

Next I took all of the pots and pans out of the shelves in the island and washed the interior out very well. I then replaced everything in a more sensible order. Frying pans all together, pots together, lids together, and on another shelf, everything to do with baking including mixing bowls and cake pans and cooling racks.

Earlier this week, in preparation for this task, I had bought two matching plastic totes for storing the various cleaning products that live in the dark cave beneath the sink. And, do you know what? It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I took all of the (many!!) products out and placed them on the counter. And then, I did what any right-thinking person would do, and asked my partner, Mark, if he would scrub up the cupboard. And, thankfully, he swiftly agreed. He's a very good guy to have around in such circumstances because whereas I have a strong tendency toward squeamishness, Mark does not. He just got right in there and very quickly had the cupboard nice and clean. Then, it was easy to put all of the spray bottles in one tote and all of the non-spray bottles in the other, and the job was done.

I'm very happy about all of these kitchen changes; it really has made a big difference in such a short time. Of course, there are more changes to come. For about a year I have wanted to paint the kitchen as I have grown so weary of the blue walls. I want a combination of terra cotta and mustard to give it a lively and earthy vibrance. I was never very clear about just why this project had been postponed so often but I think I now understand.

I couldn't begin to make even such a desirable esthetic change to my kitchen because all of the chaos - even the chaos behind closed doors - kept me from carrying through with the redecorating project. The chaos sapped my energy and my creative spirit.

But now, at the end of the first month of my challenge, I am feeling optimistic. I can feel my energy rising. And I feel so happy just imagining my gloriously re-painted kitchen. How sweet it will be. I can feel the warmth already.

Cheers!


Diane