The Organizing Bug: Episode 1: Kitchen

A couple of times a year it hits me. The organizing bug. I start to get a little more antsy in our house. The amount of "stuff" we have around irritates me. I feel like I can't FIND things... and if I let it come to a head, I start to want to just pitch everything. Usually it's about this time of year that I start letting the organizing bug take over - and this time around I thought I would chronicle this little bit of wackiness and share it with you.

I started with our kitchen. Our kitchen is.... irritating. When we bought our house I thought - this is awesome, it's big enough for a kitchen table, has a big window over the sink... fabulous!

Then we moved in and it started to sink in that I only had 2 drawers in the whole kitchen. 2. Drawers. That the corner had a cupboard that was basically completely blind and in order to get at anything in those corners you'd  have to take practically everything out and then perform some kind of contortionism to get the things from the corner out. That the floor was SO not level and that the tile that I actually kind of liked wasn't actually marbled... it was really dirty - and had a TONNE of little nicks, nooks, crannies and such that just were magnetised for dirt.

There didn't seem to be a way that made sense for putting things away... and as such, every now and again, when I let the bug take over, I go "deep clean" mode. It started with emptying out all the cupboards and the 2 drawers. Absolutely EVERYTHING came out. I cleared off our counters completely, and then with a bleach/dish soap solution every counter top, bit of molding, cupboard, shelf, etc got scrubbed and wiped down. Then the purge.

At this point I need the hubs to come in and slow me down. Left to my own devices we'd have 2 plates, cups, bowls, and set of cutlery each ... and that'd be it. Honestly, I'd just started throwing everything out. The rule that I abide by is: if it hasn't been used in a year OR we have more than 1 of an item, it can probably go. There are exceptions of course. I only kept 1 peeler, but I kept 2 pizza cutters.

Now - I apologise, I don't have any before pictures... I was honestly far too embarrassed by the state of our kitchen to even consider taking any. I DO, however, have after pictures to share with you. Yay!

Magic Cleaning Solutions!

Kitchen confession time: Our kitchen floor - it's gross. No joke. I mean, we vacuum and we mop it every now and then... but it's a high traffic area, our backdoor is in the kitchen, and there's a lot of wear/tear/slop/spill/traffic/dirt etc that goes through there.

And I hate cleaning the kitchen floor. Seriously - in fact, cleaning anything in the kitchen is hands down my least favourite thing to clean. I could make beds all day! Fold laundry? No problem! But dishes? Ugh. Clean the oven? Let's just burn it off. Wash the floor?.... couldn't we just replace the tile? Blech. Hate it.

And I'm an avid pinner (quick explanation: pinning is what you do on pinterest - like a social media style bulletin board, where you "pin" good ideas and things you find on the internet, can see other people's pins and repin their pins, etc etc etc). and every single time I see a magic-cleaning-solution-type-pin I jump on it.

 

www.pinterest.com

Incentive...

Just a quick post:
I've discovered an incentive to get the kiddos to clean up their rooms/playrooms.... apparently standing at the door with a garbage bag in my hands is great incentive to get moving and start putting things away....

I wonder if it would work with the hubs?

Ha ha. But seriously. Some incentive is definitely needed to keep them from sabotaging my KTP on a regular basis.

KTP Sabotage!

SO - Saturday evening just past we had a HUGE party at our house for the hubs' 30th birthday. It was a "surprise" and by that I mean - he pretty much figured it out, but was def. surprised at the fact that we fit about 50 people in our little house. Frankly - I was surprised at that. There was some cheeky talk about whether or not the floor would hold... but it turned out to be a pretty great night.

The house was immaculate (for like the first time since we moved there I think), the food was great (done up right by me, my Mom, and the Moms-in-law), the people were awesome (all our friends are, obvs.) and the party was generally considered a success.

And then I had to clean up. Again. Ugh.

It wasn't so bad, really, I mean, it was cleaning up the plates and cups, and the absolute MOUNTAIN of dishes that comes after a party like that, but otherwise, not bad at all. And Monday started the official first day of KTP.