Life in 409

This blog is about my quest to declutter my apartment. It focuses on clutter, decluttering, and the endless quest to separate the junk from the important stuff - at home and in life.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Kitchen Confession

Well, as Flylady's kitchen week is just about over and I didn't finish the kitchen, I decided to take a little time in there Sunday morning. I wanted to reorganize the cabinets under the sink, so I could fit the empty fishtank back in there, but ended up having to do a thorough clean because - UGH - ok - I have trouble admitting this, but I'm here to keep myself honest. I pulled out a couple of boxes from under the sink, and realized they were gritty with some substance. Looking more closely, I realized there were dead, dessicated insects stuck to some of the inside walls of the cabinets... and some were stuck to these boxes... EWWWWW... The exterminator had come on Saturday, so I'm guessing the bugs came out of the walls to die, but still... UGH UGH UGH.

I pulled everything out of the entire cabinet (it is one large cabinet with 4 doors)and sucked the little suckers up with the vaccuum, then scrubbed the inside of the cabinet. It wasn't too bad and most of the dead bugs were limited to one corner, but the whole cabinet is pretty water-stained and grungy inside. I suppose dead bugs are better than living ones, but still. YUCK. Luckily the only food I keep down there is in sealed cans and bottles. Most of the other stuff is things like cleaning supplies, paper towels, grocery bags and so on. So, it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but afterwards, I still felt gritty... ewww ewww eww.

I want to take this time to say I have been in this apartment for over four years and have never never really seen bugs. We had grain pests for a while, and every few months we see one of those giant waterbugs, but I don't have roaches and I keep my kitchen pretty clean. The exterminator comes every 2 weeks. So, I'm really upset about the whole thing. I'm just going to keep telling myself they came from the apartment next door, where a lot of work is going on.

Anyway... confession time over... I did manage to throw out a bag with a few lbs of playground sand (we were using this in the hermit crab tank at one time), combined a few boxes of Swiffer supplies and other cleaning supplies, made room for the empty small fishtank and the fish accessories, and neatened everything up. Then I went to the upper cabinet on the other side of the room and threw some stuff out of there - a bunch of Ragu Express pasta dinners (gotten as freebies from my old employer, but icky tasting, and the single serving doesn't even satisfy my 3-year old) and a jar of ice cream sprinkles that I've had probably since we were first married (we never use them). I found a sealed jar of salsa, which has been in there a while -- I opened it up to check it out, and it seemed fine, so I put it in the fridge and will buy some chips this week. I found two half-empty bags of sugar (each in its own sealed ziploc bag, lest you think I am inviting more pests), and combined the two. Found lots of wine and liquor that we will never drink, so I have a mental note to start asking friends & neighbors what they like.

I also got to the supermarket Sunday morning while everyone was sleeping and picked up a few things we needed. While there, I returned two bags of deposit bottles (just $0.50 cents worth, but getting them out of the kitchen = priceless). Last night I even managed to put together a lasagna for hubby to cook tonight.

I am trying to stick with Flylady's schedule this month, which means that I work on the bathroom and another room this week. My bathroom is probably the neatest room in the house (too small for any clutter) so I will focus more on the "other" room, which for me will probably mean dealing with the clutter in my closet and the linen closet. There is always the kids' room - but I think I will wait for school to let out, so they have more time to help me in the evenings. As for Apartment Therapy, I think the 8 week plan might have been a little ambitious for me, and I'm thinking of expanding it to 16 weeks, spending 2 weeks on each lesson.

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