Thursday 3 January 2013

Operation House 2013: Part One

Regular readers of my blog with know that I really struggle to keep my home uncluttered and tidy! Every year I start off determined to sort it out but for various reasons I always end up failing miserably. So once again I'm going to try and get my house in order... this time I will not fail! 

Yesterday whilst cooking for my new Hairy Diet I got frustrated with my kitchen so decided it was a good place to start making it more organised and feel more spacious. First step was to clear out the foods and spices that were far too past their use by dates. Some had been put in the cupboard when I moved into the house in August 2010 and hadn't been used up! My bin soon started to smell amazingly fragrant as it was filled with the contents of various jars! Its hard to throw food out when you think about how much it cost but enough was enough and space was being wasted by stuff that was no longer any good. 

With my newly downsized cooking essentials I could swap them to a smaller shelf in a top cupboard and move the metalware from the side into a cupboard. Then I tackled the food cupboard and again found some dodgy items lurking at the back. Once only food that was still useable went back in it seems a lot easier to find things and there are no longer tins lurking under the cupboard!

When I moved in my family had helped unpack my kitchen equipment into whichever cupboard seemed good at the time. Over the last 2 years I've sometimes struggled to get to various bits of kit due to the cupboards being awkward shapes. Today I emptied everything out and put them back into the 2 cupboards in a much more organised way. Some items were put on one side to give to charity as I don't need them.

The re-jigging of these cupboards freed up enough shelf space to move glasses, serving dishes and tea set from the lounge storage into the kitchen. This meant I could then put away the new games etc. we have accumulated this year doing toy reviews. A nice bonus! Freed up work surface has meant I can re-jig a bit so that my bread bin now has the extra mugs on top of it and my cooking spoons and knives are much more conveniently positioned.

Next step is to look at the rest of the work surfaces to remove all the stuff that doesn't belong in the kitchen (I spend a lot of time in there so paperwork etc. tends to migrate there!). A nice start to Operation House 2013 but there is a long way to go... Just mustn't get distracted by the view from the kitchen window:



As and added bonus all the bending and stretching has really made my calves ache so its been great exercise too!

2 comments:

  1. MidlifeSinglemum4 January 2013 at 13:28

    I love the knock-on effect of clearing one space leading to filling up with stuff that in turn frees another space, etc... In that way you could get round the whole house and only stop when you reach the kitchen again. You'll know when that is when the only clutter left is in your underwear drawer and the only space available is the cutlery drawer. When that happens you just stop and throw out your old knickers. Goof luck!

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