Tidy Home Tuesday: Week 1 - The Kitchen

This week we'll be tackling the kitchen! 

I feel like the kitchen is the heart of every home.  It's the room where we nourish our family with food and conversation.  We begin our day by putting on a pot of coffee.  We end our day with a family meal or maybe even a bedtime snack or cup of tea.  And I know a lot of us will be spending quite a bit of time in our kitchens in the coming weeks preparing for the most important meal of the year - Thanksgiving Dinner! 

Let's get our kitchens organized and sparkling for the holidays! 

Here are a few "before" pictures.  These were taken before I got to any daily cleaning so there are dishes in the sink, things displaced on the counters, etc.

Ick!


Here is our assignment for the week:

Step 1:  Declutter! 

 - Start by putting any dishes that are sitting out in the dishwasher (Or washing and putting them away if you don't have a dishwasher). 

 - Put everything that doesn't belong back in its place and throw away/donate anything that you don't use. 

 - Next, tackle your pantry and fridge.  Throw out anything expired and donate anything you're not going to eat (no use letting it sit around to spoil if you know you're not going to use it!).

 - Organize your cabinets.


Step 2:  Clean!

 - Wipedown (I don't think "wipedown" is a real word, but we're going to go with it.) your countertops with an all-purpose cleaner.  Remember to move everything out of the way to clean underneath and behind appliances and don't neglect the backsplash or that little top ledge on the back of the counter. 

 - Scrub your sink and faucet. 

 - Wipedown all of the things that have a home on your counter - coffemaker, mixer, canisters, teapot.

 - Wipedown your kitchen table and chairs, your appliances, and cabinets.


Step 3:  Tackle the floor! 

 - First, sweep the floor using a broom and dustpan.  Throw any rugs into the washer.

 - Now, go along your baseboards and wipe them with a damp rag. 

 - Finally, mop your floors.



Here's after I was able to clean the kitchen top to bottom!

Ahh!  Much better!  Still not perfect, but unfortunately with my small kitchen and limited storage space this is as good as it gets.  Also, the CrockPot is sitting out because it's cooking our dinner for tonight :)  At least it's fresh and sparkling in person! 


Here's my plan to keep the kitchen under control:

Daily Task:  Empty/Load Dishwasher

In order to keep everything that we've worked so hard on tidy we need to incorporate small, daily tasks to stay on top of things.  This week we'll begin keeping the sink free of dishes.  That means, every evening before bed the sink should not have stacks of dirty dishes waiting to be handled the next day.  Make sure to unload clean dishes from the dishwasher as soon as possible once they are finished washing (I am TERRIBLE about this!).  That way, the dishwasher will always be ready and waiting to hold your dirty dishes!  A dishwasher full of clean dishes waiting to be put away is just going to cause your dirty dishes to be displaced in the sink.  Let's keep on top of things by putting the clean dishes away ASAP so that dirty ones can be loaded right away! 


Weekly Task:  Dry sweep the floor (or more frequently as needed).


Bi-weekly Task:  Mop the floor (or more frequently as needed) and wash rugs.


Alright everyone, let's see your kitchen before and afters! 

You have until next Tuesday (November 23rd, Just in time for Turkey Day!) to complete the assignment and blog about it (feel free to right click and save my "Tidy Home Tuesday" graphic to use in your post!).  If you don't have a blog just leave a message in the comments about your progress!