Cleaning Up – weeks 1, 2, & 3

I am joining in with Michele who blogs at Family, Faith, and Fridays. She has begun a weekly series: 34 Weeks of Clean. Her goal is to help us get our homes tidier and closer to clutter free by the time the next holiday season rolls around. You can read more about it in her first post.

Due to some things that have been going on around here, I didn’t get a chance to work on the first two weeks’ tasks when they were first posted. But, they were good tasks and needed tasks. So, I am combining all three of the first tasks but I am modifying them a bit to keep from overwhelming myself.

Week 1: Christmas décor

We did finally get our Christmas decorations put away. And while we were doing that, I purged. I do this every year, whittling out the items that are torn or not in good shape or we just don’t love any more. The girls are just as sentimental as I am so not much goes away. That being said, I was able to combine a few things and get rid of several boxes. In the process, we also mended and repaired a few items that were broken either in storage over the year or in the joy of the holiday season. The most serious repair was a nutcracker who had lost his head! It was a grumpy elf day so you don’t get any pictures of it. Instead, enjoy this lovely picture of holly berries, representative of all the Christmas joy that we were packing away.

Week 2: Pantry

This one was not too bad for me because the kitchen is one area that I am pretty conscientious about keeping straight and knowing what we have. I keep the pantry purged pretty well and I worked hard on organizing it about two years ago. I must have done a decent job because it has stayed and everyone puts things up where they go. It has stayed with this basic organization for at least two years. I did do some tidying and tossed a few small items. I don’t have a picture of the entire pantry after the bit of work I did but here is a before picture. We keep our aprons and lunch bags hung on the door with those hooks that don’t damage walls.

Here are the shelves of the pantry.

Week 3: Kitchen Cabinets and Drawers

This is where I modified big time. Part of the reason I modified is because I like the organization of the kitchen. When we moved in but before we unpacked, we talked about where things would work best for the way both my husband and I cook and clean. We were thoughtful about where things were put and we like where things ended up. The other part of the reason I modified is that since I didn’t need to reorganize – only purge – and I was combining three weeks worth of tasks, I didn’t feel it best to pull everything out of the cabinets and drawers. I tackled several of our problem areas. Here are the after pictures of the areas I tackled.

I still have a couple of areas to work on, like the one where we keep our food processor, extra plastic containers and aluminum pans to be able to take food to those who need it, and a host of other larger items and the one where we keep our cookie cutters, toaster oven, and miscellaneous items. (I think it is the miscellaneous items that always get to be the problems. Hmmm – something to think about…)

I can’t wait to see what Michele has for our task for the next week but I am sure it is an area that can use some attention. At Home.

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