Clear out one place, no matter how small, at least 4 times a week.

part of it was the “document what I do” and part of it is that it’s just time to get out from under all the crapola.

After 5(?) failed personal challenges, it’s nice to mark one complete!

Whooppee!

jkd

Ick!

jkd

as it isn’t “clearing” anything but munge. But my thinking when I made up this goal was to tackle some new place or place I hadn’t obviously in a long time. The ironing board counts. We’ve had the board since we got married? Or shortly after.

That makes it like 25 years old or so. I have NO idea if I ever dusted/cleaned the legs and/or bottom of it before, but I did today.

jkd

went out of here yesterday. They either were bought by a customer or put into the storage. The boxes (or their contents) came from the attic, the bedroom, the kitchen, and the living room. Yeah!

Better than that, the customer bought 2.5 boxes of magazines, so those are gone…forever.

More progess!

jkd

Polished the front of it (it’s stainless), wiped off the top of it, took the tray down that’s on top , cleaned it out, put in a fresh cloth napkin (lining the tray). Wiped down the stainless box that holds our kitchen towels. Removed the stainless box and wiped down the counter underneath.

DH and I agreed he’d move the microwave tomorrow so I can clean the counter under it then. (He did and I did.)

jkd

is under an old flat top school desk and behind an old retail grid (two hold our pots). There’s a post between. At the base of each grid is an old rectangular box.

The school desk was originally going to be a telephone desk, but there’s nowhere to put it and who uses telephone books these days?

The grids were obtained (with Ringo’s help) to do exactly what they’re doing. The boxes were bought at a flea market and for years were used in the bookstore to hold up books in a row for customers or to transport the needed stock to the shelves.

Anyway, I haven’t cleaned under the desk, moved the trashcan & boxes for a long time, so I did that today. No more dust bunnies!

jkd

We bought a new trashcan, but alas forgot to measure, so it doesn’t fit underneath where the old one was. It DOES have a cover however, which solves one problem. I moved boxes in under the desk where the trash had been. 7/28/08

and a stack of books beside it. They aren’t there any more, as I’ve gone through them and they’ve been researched, sorted, etc.

Anyway, my new cleared place is one corner of our kitchen table!

jkd

I cleaned it out, sure enough. But this is one of those corner cabinets from hell. Well, it’s worse than I thought.

There’s a hole big enough for a small rabbit to get through between this and under the sink (on the leg of the L). It ends up that this is a double cabinet! The side near the sink is the cut out for the 2nd door and drawer that’s not being used as it’s under the counter. Well, the “fix” that I originally thought I’d get DH to make isn’t going to happen because there’s no way to do it without really mangling that cabinet front.

But a lot of today I spent in this cabinet, on my hands and knees with a flash light. The most “interesting” piece probably was when I had the portable vacuum cleaner, the flashlight, me with a headset-type pair of ear protectors on cleaning out the back corner, just at the end of my reach.

Then I got it with all purpose spray and thought, “Oh good! Now I can put paper in, put the wooden crate I put all the stuff we next to never use in the back corner, then put the stuff we use all the time near the door, and I’m done.

Alas, no.

Have you ever tried to place shelf paper in a cabinet where you can just barely reach the back corner, and, oh yeah, there’s a shelf in the way too.

Inch it in a little at a time, think you have it, let go of the paper to shine the flashlight down to the corner and my hair falls in my eyes OR the paper curls up? So I do it again and again and… then finally get it “good enough.” Unroll the paper up to the door as I’ve been inching, butt first, out of the cabinet and then realize the cabinet was still damp and the paper looks dirty because it’s wet in splotches, all over. Sigh.

Yank out the paper. Ooookay. Plan D?

Put the crate against the back of the cabinet, without paper. [There wasn’t paper before and we’ve survived all these years. Who do you think you are, Martha Stewart?]

Take all the asst. kitchen junk out of the crate, take the empty crate to the cabinet.

I measured it; it’ll fit!

Well, it will fit inside the cabinet, but it WON’T fit through the door, no matter what.

(I walked away.)

When I came back, I realized that I’d left the flashlight on; its battery was now flat. So now I can’t see anything in the back corner of the cabinet anyway.

DH returned from his bicycle ride about then. He’d had a terrible time: a flat tire, his bike computer had fallen off the bike and gotten run over.

He was all set for wifely tea and sympathy! Unfortunately, I had very little to give him, but I did tell him MY tale of woe.

Being wise, long-married folk, we retreated to a different parts of the house for a while, then regrouped after recharging our batteries.

So, the cabinet got cleared out and cleaned, but this 4.5’w cabinet has about 10 small items in it and that’s all. All the other stuff is now littering up the kitchen!

(Stay tuned for episode 2 of “The Cabinet from Hell: will it get shelf papered? How will she organize it? Will she give up, or just go after the cabinet with an axe? Find out in tomorrow’s exciting episode!)

g’night—

jkd

Episode 2 is boring, I’m afraid. I didn’t do anything in particular. The wooden box is NOT in the cabinet with all of the asst. stuff, it’s still sitting out in the kitchen, sigh. The stuff we use all the time IS back in the cabinet, but the other storage problem has not been solved, yet. 7/12/08

I think that this was so discouraging that I just couldn’t stand to tackle anything really big afterwards! The crate ‘o stuff is still littering up the kitchen. I do have other crates. Hmmm….. 7/28/08

cabinet I cleared all the not often used stuff from and then put away some of the stuff I pulled out.

This will count as my 2nd place this week.

jkd

Under/behind the dish drainer. 7/2