Catching Up...Day 6!

The bad news is...I'm still doing boring catch up projects.

The good news is...I should finish catching up on Wednesday!

Today I dealt with the kitchen.

BEFORE...

Forgot THE TOOLS...I was a little distracted.

Today was the 5 year old's first day of Kindergarten!

She was SOOO excited to show me what she picked out to wear on her first day!

She felt pretty proud about how well the yellow stripes on her pants matched the yellow on her shirt.

I praised her for her fashion sense and then talked her into a different outfit :)

THE PROCEDURE

I basically went over the entire kitchen...cleaned a few drawers, cleaned the top and inside of the stove and microwave...

Vacuumed out the floor of the pantry, cleaned out the fridge and freezer and mopped the floor.

AFTER...

D says, In regards to heavy cleaning, some system is better than none, and some systems are better than others. Here's one I would suggest. Instead of it being a time of great upheaval with rugs rolled up, the furniture in the middle of every room throughout the house, tables covered with everything but food, and general havoc prevailing, it can be a time of satisfying orderly accomplishment.

Now that I've accomplished my project for today, I am free to read my latest book.

Mockingjay.

If you haven't read this series, you should.

Start with The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins,

It's great!

The Drawer

BEFORE...

I just have a few drawers in the kitchen that need cleaning. My time is limited today so I decided to only do one...the one that has been bothering me the most.

THE TOOLS

THE PROCEDURE

This drawer held a variety of stuff...a few forgotten art supplies, play dough, receipts, old checkbooks and registers from 2002, and appliance manuals.

I emptied, vacuumed, then wiped it down.

Thanks to one of my first projects the manuals now have a home so I put them away :). The beautiful princess paintings, receipts, and checkbooks/registers went into the recycle bin.

If you are wondering what moldy playdough looks like, well now you know.

Please don't call the health department.

Quite a few things ended up in the trash.

AFTER...

So get this! I had NOTHING to put back into this drawer...not one thing.

I have no idea what to put in here, the possibilities are endless!

I'll have to use my imagination I guess. When the inspiration comes I'll let you know.

D says a homemaker's only hope in keeping on top of things is in that use of the "odd moment". It's with an odd moment that she's able to get her kitchen drawers cleaned--perhaps while she's on the phone or waiting for the soup to bubble or even while expecting a ride to come along. (Yes, drawers can be straightened even with the best clothes on!)

And FYI drawers can be straightened in your pajamas too...it worked quite well for me this morning!

What will you do in your next "odd moment"? I'm having one right now--got a craving for cheerios (weird) so I think I'll go eat some.

The Spice Cupboard

BEFORE...

Let me introduce you to one of my favorite gadgets...

The TIMER for my mood lighting in the kitchen!
It clicks on in the morning to greet me when I wake up, and then clicks on again in the evening when it starts to get dark.

THE TOOLS

THE PROCEDURE

We've cleaned out enough cupboards by now that I think you all know the drill.

I should really pick up some shorter extension cords.

I probably don't need 3 containers of the same spice so I condensed the 3 down to 1.

There was quite a bit of condensing, relocating, and of course, chucking.

AFTER...

That about does it for my cupboards...the rest are in pretty good shape. I should probably move onto the drawers.

I really like D's advice for today...

"Remember, Mom, you're not the family doormat. Don't let your family walk all over you. Don't let them force you into slave duty. Have some practical family policies. Insist upon their cooperation and respect. They'll think more of you because of it.
Until next week, repeat over and over in your mind, "I am not the family doormat! I am not the family doormat! I am not the family doormat"

More Cupboards!

I need to thank Trish (from our Desperate "Dirty House" Wives Club) for inspiring me to clean out this cupboard! Ever since she mentioned cleaning out from under her sink I couldn't stop thinking about the mess mine was in.

BEFORE...

THE TOOLS

THE PROCEDURE
Thank goodness I decided to clean out this cupboard...I discovered a little leak problem.

Yes, those brown spots are mold. It looked even worse in real life. Thankfully it was just a loose part...I tightened it up and it was as good as new. And the mold cleaned up quite nicely.

Who knew so much stuff could be packed in there.


Does one really need 2 million plastic bags?? I sent most of them to the recycle bin, put the water bottles out in the garage, and chucked a few things (that is becoming my favorite part of all my projects). D says HAVE THE COURAGE TO THROW AWAY.
You bet I do D! For those of you who currently do not have this courage...try it, you'll like it!



AFTER...



I went totally out of my comfort zone today and did a little over achieving by cleaning out not one, but TWO cupboards!

BEFORE...

I haven't used this since I nursed my 2nd baby (she's now 13)...to the DI it goes!

I put all my canning jars at the top of the cupboard. Since the only thing I can is freezer jam I don't need to get to them very often.

This freed up almost an entire shelf in another cabinet :)

AFTER...

I can almost hear all my little gadgets thanking me for de-cluttering them and finding the strays a home.

Today I will leave you with a little BBA--if a cold, allergies, or your sinus's are getting you down, I highly recommend you pick up one of these...

It will bring sweet relief, I promise!

Above the Cupboards

D says A Mother's Motto could be: "EVERY WORD I SPEAK WILL ADD TO THE PEACE AND HAPPINESS OF MY HOME."

After this project my motto was, "IF I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING NICE TO SAY I WON'T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL."

I cannot tell a lie, I hated this project. Every minute of it.

BEFORE...

Not so bad from a distance...look closer...

These babies were once a nice shade of barn red...until the dust got to them. Yes, I know they are cheesy but I made them when I was first married, it's rare that I get crafty so I'm kind of attached to them.

As I'm taking this picture the 5 year old says, "Make sure they can see that cobweb mom". Such a good helper she is! I can see I need to work on my photography skills, everything looks like it's tipping forward.

I love this little guy...poor thing was just caked with dust.

Take a guess at what that that brick is sitting on top of...

I know what you're thinking...but in my defense, in order to see some of the items on my cupboards they need a little lift.

Apparently 4 years ago when I put up all this stuff I was feeling real creative in what I used for the "lifts". There used to be a tiny little bird house that sat on top. Take a guess at what this gadget is...

It's not every day you see one of these laying around, I'm not sure how I ended up with it.

THE TOOLS

My 5 year old loves to give me ideas for my "splash of yellow". Today, as I was making eggs for breakfast she said "An egg would be a perfect splash of yellow". I think she's right!

THE PROCEDURE

The plastic vinery (I think I made that word up) was so dust infested that I just threw it into the sink...it didn't go well. All the grapes leaked purple and fell apart into tiny little white balls. Thankfully the vinery with sunflowers did fine and cleaned up quite nicely.

All my dried flowers and potpourri were beyond saving.

Especially after this...

crawled out from under some of the flowers.

At this point I lost all patience.

I vacuumed, washed, chucked, DI'd, and wiped as fast as I could.

I was wishing I hadn't gotten ready for the day as I worked up quite a sweat.

AFTER...

Look a little closer...

I certainly wasn't going to eat that after all these years so I thought I might as well put it back to good use.