Keeping it Clean: Maintaining Your Home- Part 1, the Kitchen

I've decided to do a little series on keeping your home clean. I know I struggle with it so there must be plenty of others who do as well. I've been inspired by many home-making blogs that I've been reading, and today I tackled the mess in all of my rooms! I started with the kitchen. Unfortunately, I do not have any before pictures, but you can well imagine that it was not looking too hot.

Tada! Clean smells good, yes it does! Look at those countertops- they are shining with happiness! (BTW that's a towel drying by the window :-)

Ok, so as I was going through this process, I decided that I needed to make some changes in order to keep it looking this way. I came up with some RuLeS for myself:

1. Never go to bed with dishes in the sink. As you can see, I have a dishwasher, but it is broken at the moment :-(. So this is really a challenge for me! But, I am hoping to stick with it, because I love the look of a shiny sink!

2. Clear away all appliances that are not in use. I have a nasty little habit of collecting all my appliances on the countertop, leaving the look of a cluttered mess! By storing them in the cupboards I not only have more counterspace to work with, but the kitchen looks cleaner as well.

3. Put away all cookbooks/menu plans/coupons ect... in a cupboard. Once again, this helps prevent cluttering. I also have a tendency to spread out my coupons and cookbooks all over the place. I end up losing things in the end and spend needless time searching for them.

Ok, here's a picture of my new and improved PANTRY:



Rules for the pantry are as follows:

1. Keep all items in view at all times. My pantry was disatrous for the longest time in our old apartment and unfortunately it carried itself over to the new one. This is the very first time that I have had an organized pantry! Sad, I know. My newly organized pantry allows me to see everything upon first glance and things are categorized accordingly.

2. Keep things organized by category. I now have all my spices in clear view on the rack on the door. All of my extra appliances are stored on the top shelf, baking supplies are on one shelf, as are canned goods, sauces, snacks and breakfast items.

I feel so much stress relieved from having accomplished these two areas, and I know that when I go to cook and prepare foods I will be able to do so with peace of mind!

Stay tuned for more on keeping the bathroom, bedrooms, living room and dining room clean and tidy!