I hit the weekend, and after a busy week I don’t feel like doing much. I could sit and have coffee in my bathrobe for a couple hours. However, somehow the kitchen counters and island have just become totally covered with stuff.
You know what I mean – not really dirty, but things have just accumulated. It looks messy. Most it does not belong in the kitchen anyway.
I spend much of my time in the kitchen – it’s my favorite place in the house – so when it’s disorganized and overrun with items I feel more easily overwhelmed. Time to tidy up. Although I don’t practice Feng Shui, the Asian Art of prosperity and and health, built around many organizing principles, I do like the idea of Universal Energy, and keeping my space a happy place.
So here’s my clean up & organizational method.
- Gather the cleaning supplies you need – for me that means some antibacterial wipes for the counters, & microwave, glass cleaner for the windows and patio door, and clean rags/paper towels for the wipe downs. And a scrubbing sponge.
- Put away all the kitchen things, since they belong here – any canned goods from the last shopping trips need to go in the pantry (that’s another whole morning to organize!), dishes or pots left drying form last night, empty the veggie bin out in the compost pile and wash it out. I put away other items like batteries in their box on the shelf. I only leave my cast iron skillet and dutch oven on the stove in their regular place. Empty the sink of dirty into the dishwasher.
- Sort out the rest – all the little items my husband wanted to go the garage or barn are in one box, my writing stuff goes back on the shelf where it lives, pet items (like the comb and hair ball gel) back in their storage box. Magazines I am done with in the box to pass on to others.
Looking better already. It almost feels calmer. There is open space now.
A bare island!
Next I start on one side of the room and move everything on the counter – wipe down the whole counter then start replacing things and clean as I go. Wipe down the dog biscuit jar, clean out the bottom of the k-cup carousel, dust off the coffee maker. Next counter same thing. Island last, which has always accumulated the most stuff.
I’ll also wipe down the edges of molding (really dusty this time), and the top edges , handles and around the handles of any drawers. And then around the handles of the upper cabinets of the stove, which also get grimy.
Use the glass cleaner on the stainless steel appliances to remove all the fingerprints, smears and food particles. Floor vacuumed to clean up and quick damp mop to wipe up any spills.
And water the plants, before I forget for the week. If I get ambitious I might get out the oven cleaner and give the glass stove top a good cleaning. This had taken me an hour already…so maybe I’ll tackle the pantry and stove top tomorrow.