Tackling the Kitchen

FLYlady is in the kitchen this week, and Apartment Therapy's week #2 also focuses on the kitchen. 'Tis fate, no? I am going to combine the two and try to make some headway there. Apartment Therapy suggests a thorough cleaning and decluttering of the kitchen, while Flylady reiterates, 15 minutes at a time. Again, most nights I can barely find 5 minutes, so I'm hoping I don't burn out too fast. I tried to divide the kitchen into 5 "zones," so I can work on one per night. Last night was the window/stove/small microwave cart. I cleaned off the windowsill and threw out a dusty candle that was sitting there. There was also an ivy bowl (from a wedding favor) with a large candle that I had stuck inside. I wanted to toss the candle and keep the bowl, but it was wedged/melted in there so tight that I couldn't get it out. I wanted to toss the whole thing but was afraid the glass would break in the garbage chute, so it's still sitting on my stove. Hmm. I also cleaned out a cookie jar full of old, stale candies - tossed out most of the melty, stale hard-candies and starbursts and lollipops - kept a few lollipops for my daughter and a big bag of gummy bears for me (bought these from my niece's school fundraiser and forgot all about them). Then came a real emotional wrestling match - only it wasn't as hard as I feared, in the end. I have this little knicknack that was given to me when I was in the hospital, during a very rough time. It's dusty and faded and looks horrible, but I've held onto it this long as a memory of that time. I finally realized, with the help of Don Aslett and Flylady, that it was giving me more pain than pleasure when I looked at it. So, goodbye! I dusted the windowsill and the few things I put back on there (bud vase, wooden turtle we got in Jamaica, suncatcher that my son painted, the cookie jar, and a small basil plant). I cleaned off the microwave cart, dusted, and straightened. I did a brillo job on the bottom/broiler section of the stove - it's not perfect, not even nearly, but I made some headway. And then I swept and scrubbed just that area of the floor. So a small part of my kitchen is in much better shape.

I added pictures to the weekend update post below. They are the "before" pictures.