Spring into Summer Cleaning--time for the kitchen!

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Well, our busy weekend is over.  First it was getting things ready for the bookbuster sale, cleaning for company, and shopping for several hours at the sale (I found a lot of great things at great prices--yippee!  History, Grammar, the reading book I needed, some math, and lots of workbook extras for their workboxes~!)  Then we had a lovely afternoon/evening with the in-laws and Rob's sister's family *and* a friend we hadn't seen in many, many years, which was great!  Sunday I sent everyone off to church and kept my little guy at home while I baked a cake and decorated because he had a fever Thurs/Fri and was a bit warm Saturday, so he was my shopping buddy for V's birthday party in the afternoon.  We had a very fun birthday party with dear friends . . . I'm so grateful for our family and friends! 

     After our company left, I started clearing out bookshelves and the desk in my living room so I could get going on what was supposed to be the next room, only to find that I don't yet have a place to put all this school stuff that needs a new home--we've got new (read: EMPTY!) cabinets for the kitchen "desk area-to-be" on the way later this week, and the laundry room cabs haven't been emptied yet, either.  So . . .  I'm starting in the kitchen today, instead!  Whew!  I'm finding myself very easily wiped lately!

     So here's the kitchen plan.

     Starting at the area farthest left of the sink and moving clockwise . . .

     Spray oven with Easy-Off so it can work while I do everything else.

     Open all cabinets and see if everything's located in the best place for it's use . . . are the baking utensils near the countertop I usually use for baking?  Empty top cabinets.  Dust off top of cabinets, scrub inside and out, and replace liners.   Throw away anything broken/missing something/never used. I may decide to head to Target and buy some wire shelving for some of those cabinets (I'm thinking especially the ones with baking mix items in them--there's lots of wasted space in those cabinets; also I think I'll get an over-the-door spice holder because my spice drawer isn't quite big enough to hold everything anyway and I need a drawer for towels!) Replace items after wiping them down if they need it. 

     Scrub wall and countertop underneath that cabinet, then repeat process with lower cabinets.   Move clockwise around the room doing the same thing. 

     Bleach sink and run a drain-cleaning product in it (preventative!)  Replace drain plugs, because one is mysteriously missing and the other broke.  Get R to fix sprayer, which is loose for some reason.  Throw away old sponges, replace.  Empty out everything under sink, scrub and install wire organizer.

     My windows need a good cleaning inside and out, and I've got lots of walls to wash.  I hadn't planned on it, but I can tell after talking to R last night that he'd like the color to change so I'll probably be painting in there, later in the week.  We need to pick a good color but I need a new cabinet door to look at, first!   

     I'll hit my fridge almost last, so I can empty it out by putting everything on the counter.  Throw away anything old/missing lids/etc.,  put the fridge drawers and shelves to soak in a hot tub of water with a little Tide added (seriously--this is the best tip ever; it makes them very simple to clean--just rinse!)  Scrub out the inside with some bleach and soap, replace shelves and drawers, and put all the good stuff back in.  I'm going to try a trick I read about lining the shelves and drawers with wax paper which you can just replace whenever it gets dirty instead of having to scrub them again. 

     The pantry is last on the list.  I'm going to rearrange it, putting another shelf of some sort on the top because it's got all this practically unreachable/useable space up there, replace liners on the shelves, wash the walls and door, and put everything back in. 

     Sometime in there I'll have to wash out the Easy-Off.

     Then, I can hit the floor!  I do love my floor, because it's a great French-Country type tile in blues and mauves and greens and hides things well, plus we have dark blue grout.  I'm not especially looking forward to getting that grout scrubbed well because it's a big space and I'll need to do it the old fashioned way on my hands and knees, LOL, but it'll look great when I'm done!

     I'll hit the baseboards and re-paint them, same with the doors, and . . . that should be it until we're ready to paint. 

     There's something very fulfilling about this deep cleaning and reorganizing.  I think that since I'm usually so busy, especially during the school year, things get out of hand and I always have an underlying awareness that it *needs* doing, only I don't have time to do it!  Hurrah for summer!  We definitely will need to take one day this week to head to the beach and have a fun-only day, for sure!  The boys have two jobs this week; doing some landscaping for a couple of ladies from our church, and Z will be babysitting for friends during the next few days, so I'll have to enlist the youngers as helpers whenever they complain about being bored of the pool and their toys. 

9:11 AM - Jun. 8, 2009 - post comment

Untitled Comment

I'm tired just reading your post!! (as I sit here in my messy house eating pine apple upside down cake) Will you come here next???

lexi - 4:28 PM - Jun. 10, 2009

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