How to clean your kitchen so it will stay that way - A Walk-through.

All of my friends know that I hate any sort of tidying or cleaning. It always feels to me like such a waste of a day - because about 24 hours after the big clean it looks filthy again. However, with writing my post about minimalisation I have begun to realise that this might just be because I have to many things and not enough space to store them all.

I thought I would document my struggle to combat this disgusting mess in my kitchen. Not because I wanted to shout about how disgusting my kitchen is... but because I want other people in my situation to not think that it is impossible to set yourself up in a kitchen that you can manage. It's about finding the methods about how to do it. Reducing the stuff around you and working out what food shopping habits best suit your lifestyle will really help.

These decorative signs pretty much sum up my feelings/views on the matter.... But I think they might be becoming a self for-filling prophecy.

So the plan for today (Monday is the second day of my weekend) is to reduce stuff in the kitchen so that I can actually keep it tidy easily. Then spend some of the afternoon learning how to build an Adword Campaign from scratch. I'm hoping I can fit some knitting/patchwork in somewhere to... but that might be pushing it today.

Some of this will also cross with my #minsgame blog - will try and get ahead for the week :)

Here's what it currently looks like (Time: 9:50am Date: 17/05/15)):

Before looking at this please be aware that I have spent most of my spare time this week helping prepare for an Airsoft trade show... but it still looks awful.... I am not winning "domestic Goddess of the year...."

So first thing to tackle - The fridge --> Which will mean throwing some stuff away. Much to my shame - apparently planning meals in advance does not currently suit our lifestyle. Need to learn how to freeze prep everything! I also have some knew shopping I've brought this morning that needs to get off the floor...

Before Shot - Actually going to have to clean the fridge pre putting new food in.

Lesson = Seriously need to make time to sort through this twice a week.

Another lesson = Stop accepting random gifts of food from mother-in-law. 

It's lovely that she gives us food. But pointless if it all ends up not being eaten anyway.

The after shot = 

I'm actually quiet disgusted with myself about how much food I've just had to chuck out.

Such a waste of food - most brought because it was on offer, or it was reduced.

This culture to grab a great bargin seems to be predominant over the need to buy what you require.

If everyone amasses more than they need - then we can start to understand why the world is in such a bad way.

Yes - I just made my fridge a metaphor! (Do I get a blogging achievement for that?) 

On a positive note - I found a half used block of cheese I didn't know I had.... Win!

So I then emptied out the stuff I was going to keep and then gave the inside a wipe with a couple of these wipes. They are great and stay moist for ages. Not the most cost effective - but ideal if you run out of kitchen towel (really should have made a shopping list this morning....). 

So the shopping from this morning is now off the floor and into the fridge. 

Get slightly distracted by sorting through a pile of paperwork that has been abandoned at the side... This did include a recipe for a rich rice pudding that I photocopied from a friend's cook book. So definitely need to try this. Win! Paperwork sorted.

The easiest way to tackle this chaos is going to be by going from area to area of the kitchen. This will hopefully keep motivation levels high as you can easily see where you have been!

I have a black bin-liner and a recycling bin at the ready.

Area one:

Before

There is some cardboard here that I have kept for no particular purpose and other general it of stuff I don't need or is just rubbish. In the bin/recycling.

I got everything else I was going to keep off the side some I could clean the work surface. Once that was clean, I wiped down all the trays and the serving tray they are sat on. There is a tin, you can just see it behind the spray bottles here, that has been organised to just include the disposables - straws, long cocktail sticks, and party poppers. Everything else in there that wasn't rubbish went in the random drawer below. The large blue mug went in with my camping stuff - it's got a hand-warmer in that I don't need this time of year.

The surrounding mess: The bike rack has gone upstairs and is now being stored on top of a wardrobe. Cleaning stuff has now gone into the small blue bin for storage. Bags went in the bog storer. Things went in the rooms they were meant to. The unused placemats went in the charity bag, I also found a tin of unopened shortbread (still in date!). So yummy for now and then I get a new storage pot for my crafting stuff :) Happy Kirsty.

After

Area two:

Before

So welcome to the main dump zone of my kitchen. Everything seems to get dumped on (or under) the table and it very rarely gets used unless we have guests. So this is going to take a while....

Wish me luck....

So this exercise has been totally worth it because I have just found which bag I left my fountain pen in :) My husband got it for me for my birthday in 2014 and I love writing with it :)

A couple of hours later and the chaos is a lot tidier. The chairs have been moved into a spare room - we hardly ever use them anyway. I've sort through everything in the drawers of the unit and on top of the table. Because it was a dump zone some stuff just had to be put back in it's actual home. The rest was either rubbish or things I can donate to charity shops. The surfaces I then wiped down with an antibacterial wipes.

I hovered the floor and cleaned off any stains using bleach. The room smells better already!

After

Area 3:

Before

This area of my kitchen was selected as zone 3. Part of the theory being I could tackle putting the washing up before having to do more.... Perk is I have already tackled the fridge this  morning. So hopefully this area won't be a huge job.

But I'm going to use this as a chance to sort through all the random collection of stuff on the windowsill.

Area 4

Caption