The 14 Week Home Organizing Challenge!

Photo Credit: A Bowl Full of Lemons

Last week was the first full week of the 14 Week Home Organizing Challenge and our focus was on the kitchen. My kitchen was a disaster and now it is only half a disaster. Seriously this challenge has already helped me so much and I can't wait to tackle the rest of the house.

I knew that I wouldn't have a whole block of time to clear the clutter out of the kitchen so I decided to separate the kitchen in to zones and focus on a zone a day.

I started by clearing all the drawers, wiping them out and then putting stuff back in. I moved some lesser used items to the basement storage and put more in the donation bag on the back porch. I also took this opportunity to deep clean the baseboards, the front of the cabinets and a few other areas that never seem to get cleaned.

The biggest challenge for me was tackling the counters. I have a lot of stuff on the counter because we have an extremely small pantry. Also I find if I keep fruit on the counter, we all reach for that as a snack before anything else. I decided to clean off the counters and look at them with a critical eye. The counters look so much nicer when cleared but since I need a functional kitchen, I had to move some stuff back onto the counters. I tried very hard to only leave items on the counter that are used every, single day.

Once the counters were set-up, I cleaned out under the sink where the trash/recycling is kept. That was quite the chore and something I really need to clean out more often. I was so pleased with the kitchen that I decided to wax the kitchen floor and make everything shine. 

Now when I go into the kitchen, I smile instead of groan. I'm excited to open the drawers and not have to shove things down in order to close them again. This week, we are focusing on the laundry room and my first task is to get all the laundry washed, folded and put away. I have a few ideas on how to make my laundry area more inviting and I can't wait to implement them. Some of my ideas might not happen this week but by the end of the week, the room will be cleaner and all of my laundry will be done.