Spring Cleaning

This is not my kitchen. 

Country Living photo

I live in a 1625 sq. ft. home with 7 other people. Not exactly a large house, but we're comfortable. If we were dividing up that square footage, the kitchen is the room the rest of them would give me. "Mom, what do we have to eat?" is something I hear around here often. 

 My kitchen does not look like this one. 

Country Living photo

This is beautiful, although I wouldn't want glass doors, because then you would see all the things I don't want you to see behind them. 

Cleaning is a never ending job around here, especially in the kitchen. The more we have, the more we have to clean. When there are 8 people, that makes for lots of stuff to clean. I recently stumbled onto a  wonderful site called The Christian Homekeeper that has just started an event called "5 Weeks to a Clean And Organized Home". This really caught my eye. Sylvia takes you step by step each day on what to clean and gives an abundance of tips as well. I know we all know how to clean, but sometimes I do a rush job, with an "out of sight, out of mind" attitude. The 5 week event is not this type of cleaning, but a day by day, thorough cleaning of the house. 

This week we are cleaning the kitchen. Monday we started by cleaning out the refrigerator, freezer and oven. Tuesday we cleaned under appliances and also cleaned floors. Today was the biggest job yet for me, cleaning out the cabinets and storage areas. I was actually starting to appreciate my "smaller" kitchen. If you want to jump in and give it a try, tomorrow we clean counter-tops and small appliances and Friday is woodwork and windows.

I'm also throwing out a few things. Like this. 

 I found it at the back of a cupboard, never opened. I must have bought it for a recipe I thought I'd like to try, and then didn't get around to it. I'm throwing it out because it says this:

Yes, that's Aug. 1998! In my cupboard! I'm a bit embarrassed, and I almost didn't show you. I can't even use "having twins" as an excuse, because this was two years before they were born. 

I'm also getting rid of a bunch of coffee mugs. I have way too many, and I've kept some of them because they match my plates. 

The only thing is, I don't drink coffee. I never have. I'm a tea drinker. Iced tea mostly, too. I know, some of you are shaking your heads right now. How can someone not drink coffee? I just never liked it. Sorry to all you coffee drinkers out there. My husband used to be a coffee drinker, but stopped drinking it a few years ago. Several of my kids like it, but it's not something they drink often. We live in the desert, so half of the year we only want cold drinks anyway. The mugs are going, along with a few other odds and ends I never use. 

I'm looking forward to clearing out a few spaces as I go through the next few weeks. If you want to join in, stop by and visit Sylvia, she's got some great organizing and cleaning ideas.

Blessings,

Marcia