The kitchen, it is cleaned. (Now onto the laundry room!)
(In case you missed yesterday's post, I'm working on restoring some order to my house this week.)
I really, really did not want to start with the kitchen, which is exactly why I did it first. Better to get the worst over with right away, I say!
It's not like my kitchen was unusable, but things had definitely gotten a little disorganized and messy. It was hard to find things in the cabinets and items were prone to falling out once you opened the door.
The number one spot my kitchen accumulates clutter is here, on top of my cookbooks.
It's just so very convenient to shove stuff in there, where it is almost immediately forgotten about. 😉
I went through almost every single cabinet in my kitchen and decluttered, organized, and rearranged.
I also decided to move a few rarely-used items (Hi, Crock-Pot!) to my laundry room/storage room. I figure if I only use something a few times a year, it makes no sense to have it consume precious storage space in my kitchen.
I'm not sure why things like this are so slow to occur to me.
Along those lines, I decided to change up the way things are stored in a few cabinets, and boy, I really have to work hard to make myself realize that the current storage method isn't set in stone.
Just because the tea has always sat on that shelf does not mean it must remain so for eternity.
Isn't that amazing??
(Not really.)
The part I was dreading the most was the fridge.
I knew it contained some rotten food, which is both disgusting and depressing.
And I was right...I have some doozies to share with you on Food Waste Friday this week.
Like, Kristen-from-2008 doozies.
But I did use up some things yesterday, and the fridge is actually not quite as full as it appears here because a lot of what's taking up space is three heads of lettuce.
My produce delivery somehow came three weeks in a row instead of every other week and very little of anything has been eaten at my house during the plague, so I'm a little backed up on greens.
Also, I was not expecting a delivery yesterday, so I bought spinach at the store. Shortly after I arrived at home, the produce box arrived and it contained ANOTHER head of lettuce (What the what??) plus a spinach bunch.
Seriously, how many greens can a girl consume??
I guess I'm about to find out.
Mr. FG and I both ate salads yesterday, and I read that Romaine lettuce does actually work in smoothies, so I'm gonna give that a try.
(Obviously I will also use spinach in smoothies.)
Ooh! I also cleaned off all the papers on the side of my fridge. I deposited checks (yay smartphone!), filed coupons, paid bills, and recycled a bunch of things.
I got all the Christmas candy neatly put away in cabinets, so my main kitchen counter is much clearer now.
And my other counters are in pretty good shape now too.
Now that it's done, I'm super happy that I decided to tackle this job first. And since I spend an awful lot of time in the kitchen, I really get to feel the effects of a good clean/declutter.
Today, I'm going to do my best to tackle my laundry room, which is just in a really dreadful state right now. I don't spend as much time in the laundry room as in the kitchen, but I do go in there really frequently to put things away, change loads of laundry, and put stuff in/take stuff out of the chest freezer.
Right now, it's sort of hard to even walk in there, so I would really, really like to get that room into more useable shape.
Tomorrow I'll let you know how it went! And I'll probably post some in-the-midst photos on Instagram (my username is thefrugalgirl) today as I work.
______________________
I know some of you are tackling your houses this week too...tell me how it's going, so we can cheer you on!
If you've blogged about it, feel free to leave a link in the comments, and if you're wanting to share pictures but don't have a blog, you could upload them to Facebook, make them public, and then share the link here.
Not quite as impressive as yours, but I am pleased to be working through both food-could-be-waste (chicken corn chowder happened - yum!) and all the new things that have to be placed in my house. I moved a short bookshelf into a hallway nook, making room for a new card table in my living room for eating as well as crafts. I put back a few baskets and keeper items, but reserved judgment on all the odds and ends. I'm hoping to have more energy today to tackle the rest of that declutter, as well as keep up with the dishes and such. (I was whomped after the first day back to work!)
Thanks again for the encouragement. I love seeing pictures of things getting cleaned!
Oh I am tackling my kitchen and pantry. It looks like Chex Mix threw a fit in there and my Crockpots (which I do use a lot) have ran out of room to be put on the shelves. ~Sigh~
What do you mean produce delivery? Can you give details on that? 🙂
Sure-it's a CSA-like service that I signed up for, and they deliver a box of produce every other week, right to my front door! It's a mix of local and not-local produce.
We just got home last night from Cg
Oops! ...from Christmas travels after having only two days at home after spending six months in Chicago. So our whole house is a mess of boxes (thankfully a few of them are now empty!). Sooo much to do as my kids head back to school again after homeschooling in Chicago. School supply shopping in December?! And my husband is out of town for five days to top it all off! Fun times!
I've been out of commission recovering from knee surgery, but I an so READY to start tackling my house again. Like you, I want to start with the kitchen, especially the fridge and freezer. We managed to acquire another whole turkey, so that must be cooked, divided, and stored. I also want to make lists of some freezer meals to make. I love my crock pot!
great work on the kitchen! A couple of suggestions though. Eggs do not have to be refrigerated at all, I never do and haven't got sick yet. As students we eat lots of eggs as they are cheap and healthy. Also maybe you could benefit from scheduling leftover dinner or lunches. I hate to throw food out. Other people are paying for us to study and so don't want to waste food. Since I homeschool we have leftovers for lunch several times a Week! I also do huge amounts a freezing of leftovers. Ie spinach, I would freeze it in the bag, you can't eat it fresh ofcourse but it works well for smoothies! (Ofcourse you all being sick doesn't help, hope you all feel better soon!) PS made your overnight cinnamon Rolls for guests we had, a huge hit!
Great progress there! Way to go just diving in to the tough stuff! I am pretty excited about a book I got for Christmas called "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo. I'm only halfway through but it seems the point is to discard and tidy by category. My spouse and I have only gotten through a few categories (books, clothes, shoes, linens, toiletries) but the changes are so immediate that even our behavior toward tidying has changed! Just like you mentioned above with the kitchen, you get these immediate benefits of having a clean and peaceful space and hopefully less waste at the end of this. Today we're tackling tools and electronics. Should be interesting!
I have been teaching myself how to cook and bake. I am struggling with what things in the kitchen I really use and what needs to get the boot. There are things that I never used before that I am using now. They need to find a new home with easier access. So to make room for them I started to get rid of my duplicates in the kitchen. I am not sure how someone that did not really know how to cook ended up having duplicates of things that never get used?
We also freeze spinach if we know we can't get to it all before it starts going bad. Great to be able to grab a couple hand fulls and throw into a pot of pasta sauce or some eggs in the morning.
Your kitchen looks great! Things fall out of my cabinets too, lol.
I've been tackling my office and play room areas of the house first. I did the kitchen right before Christmas, but it may need a bigger overhaul soon. I'm loving all the organization. Keep going strong!
My sister made a Verde soup last night with the leftover salad from a lunch we had on Sat. She cooked the lettuce and pureed it in a food processor. She works on a ranch in Colorado and doesn't like to waste food. I googled lettuce soup and lots of recipes came up. Just don't let anyone see you making it, since lettuce is not generally a soup ingredient; some people will refuse to try it.
Very nice. We sadly have a lot of clutter that we're slowly starting to work on (well, I did pull out my bin of NES carts to start sorting so I guess that's a start ...) but the kitchen seems to be the catch all for most things.
One thing we're trying to do is to get designated places for things. For some (junk mail and the like) that designated place is the recycle bin. One habit I'm starting is tossing out junk mail in the recycle bin in the garage before it even gets in the house!
I substituted a bag of spinach for basil last night when making pesto. Super quick and easy meal.
I love the before and after pictures! I love that you keep it real and that you shared the ups and downs of organizing! Well done! Inspiring!
Great job on getting your kitchen into shape! You know, my main take-away from your pictures was that I had waaay too many cookbooks. I acquired a bunch of them but most of them haven't been used. And staring at a shelf full of cookbooks can feel overwhelming. Seeing your picture of only a few cookbooks made me decide to try keeping my most used cookbooks (which I would never part with) + 5 more (12 total) and then box the rest of them up. So I can spend the rest of the year poring through and trying recipes from 5 cookbooks and then deciding if I want to keep them or donate them. Then I can go "shopping" next year and pick out five more from the box to try. One less source of guilt and anxiety to bring into the new year. 🙂
Yes! If you have just a few really GREAT cookbooks, you're good to go. Mine are mostly Cook's Illustrated/ATK, and they're failproof.
Yes! I go into instant spring cleaning mode the minute I begin to undecorate for Christmas! And I have to redo my pantry every other month because I'm a "stock up when it's Bogo" girl so we have frequent pantry avalanches. I'm still plotting my fix it forever solution...As for laundry rooms, I have a little laundry closet that used to look similar to your photo. Too much stuff got shoved in that closet yielding additional avalanches. Here is a link to my post on it but it's sadly missing before pics because I wasn't blogging at the time. Hope it gives you some ideas and thanks so much for sharing yours! http://missfrugalfancypants.com/laundry-room-makeover/
I love end of the year clean outs! Thanks for sharing your progress. I've been doing our freezer this week. Over the next couple weeks I'm going to do toys and several small areas (my sock drawer, the shelf in the laundry room.) Have you previously blogged about how you keep the toys under control? With four kids who spend most of their time at home it must be a constant battle.
Oh, Kristen- hoping a wave of healing arrives pronto!!
Hang in there!
Happy, HEALTHY New Year!
Thank you! They've improved a LOT in just the 24 hours or so they've had the new meds, so I am feeling cautiously optimistic that they're turning a corner.
Looks great! And I'm glad to hear that your family seems to be on the mend. Here's hoping it's nearly over by now.
Hubby and I have been tackling all the worst (most disorganized) areas of the house. We've spent two partial afternoons (thus far) in the basement, and probably have another couple of hours to go there -- hopefully tomorrow. It's cold and somewhat depressing down there, so we agreed we'd tackle it in small chunks rather than try to do it all at once.
We also cleaned out the kitchen junk drawer, the pile of magazines, some of the linens, our bedside tables, and several shelves in the closet.
I even went through all my jewelry (mostly earrings) and arranged them in containers I already owned to make them easier to see and choose from. I love that I'll be able to get ready for work that much more easily in the morning, just pick earrings and perhaps a necklace and be on my way. 🙂
The bad news is that vacation is nearly over. Back to work on Monday.
Just want to say thanks for always showing the real side of life. I appreciate you showing your kitchen clutter and it makes me feel better about my own!