Cleaning In the Kitchen

A part of decluttering is also cleaning parts of the house that really need it - like the kitchen, bathroom and the floors.

You feel so much better when all of that is done and you look at it and wonder why you left it for so long!

Yesterday, it was a nice cool day and I had time up my sleeve to clean the kitchen blinds and the cupboard doors above the stove... and believe me when I say that this part of my kitchen was really, really horribly disgusting with grease!

I've been in this townhouse for 15 years this September, and I've cleaned the rangehood (not that it's a useful bit of kit for the kitchen - it doesn't take the smoke from cooking anywhere but the smoke detector in the living room! So I don't use it!) around 5 times. Every single time I've come away with sticky muck all over my hands, fingers and arms... oh, yeah, gross!

So, yesterday, I grabbed the ladder from the upstairs wardrobe and really seriously got into the cleaning. 

Now, I've been slowly cleaning the blinds with sanitising wipes from under the sink every few nights - one by one - and they've been getting cleaner. But, now, they were out of my reach and I needed the ladder. It took me another half and hour and 8 wipes to clean the blinds. I also fixed up the long stick which had seen better days so it doesn't break or gets stuck, with duct tape. 
Then, it was onto the cupboard doors and the top of the rangehood... yep, leave the messiest part of this till last! I couldn't get the grease off there until I used Gumption and a green scourer! But it worked well!

I hated being up the ladder - because I hate heights. 

It took me around 2 hours to get the blinds, the rangehood and the cupboard cleaned. While I was up that ladder, I also cleaned the window sill and along the top of the window frame where a lot of grease gets trapped too! 

I felt exhausted, filthy and greasy afterwards and seriously wanted a shower from it all.

But it's worth it... don't you think? 

Bedroom Closet

I'm at it again. Yep, I've just jumped right in and decluttered something on a whim and have enjoyed the results. 

This time, it's my scarves - and believe me when I say that I didn't know I had so many of the darned things! I still have a few from when I was working at the RACQ! I had others which really aren't my style and then I thought to move the two boxes which house the Summer scarves and the Winter scarves down a shelf so I can see what's in them. This wasn't a bad idea when you really think about it... seeing I'm not a tall person, and the boxes are lovely, have a handle and hold everything I need in them, it really does neaten up the whole cupboard.

But this did mean moving everything on the bottom shelf to the top shelf... and I didn't mind that either, I found a few things I had been looking for and I could put them away into other places around the room as well. This was great!

The best thing was that I finally got to use the scarf-holder I scored for Christmas years ago and it holds so many scarves! And I have that hanging on the inside of the door - as you can see - and I'm hoping to put one of my belt-holders next to it soon... so I don't have to go rummaging through the wardrobe for belts anymore. 

But that, my friends, is another item for another day! So, how is your decluttering going? All good I hope. Do drop a line below in the comments and let us know how you're going with your place. 

Moving House

Oh! Not me.

Not yet in any case!

One of my neighbours moved house in the last week, and they moved into a bigger place; as they were expecting a new addition to their family. 

However, I have noticed something about people when they move house:  they don't clean out the house until they move from the place.

This is exactly why I'm decluttering my place now! When you declutter your home, and get rid of the things you no longer wish to keep, and have the things you want to keep, you only take the things to the next house that truly belong there.

I know this sounds so very basic, it sounds as though it's the dumbest thing I'm telling you. But really, I've watched so many people move from this unit complex; and they throw out bag after bag of rubbish on the days after the moving van has been. I mean, exactly what did they take with them to the next place for them to leave all the junk behind? 

I'm constantly looking through my cupboards, cleaning out bags of paperwork, donating books, clothes, old sheets, old towels, shoes, Christmas decorations and other things I seriously won't be needing in my house just so I won't be dragging them to the next place to clutter up my home. 

And that's just the thing:  when I do move into a larger place, I will be moving into a place where I'll be spreading out my furniture, hanging pictures on the wall I've had hidden behind doors and in wardrobes and I'll be decorating my next home in such a way I won't be needing to buy anything for it really - well, okay, a new Christmas Tree or a large floor rug, but that's about it!

I don't see how keeping so much crap and not cleaning out a pantry once every 6 months, or cleaning out the laundry once a year can hurt people - especially when you know you have to move at some point in the future. And just like Peter Walsh has been telling us: it only takes 10 minutes to start out cleaning one drawer. You have to remember a couple of things: be honest, be brutal and be positive about what you're doing. 

I'm always that way when I declutter and clean. It takes time and patience, but really, once you get going (and you know you're going to move house in a month's time), you will feel better for it when you have cleaned out the kitchen and you are only packing what you're going to take with you.

Just think:  when you return to clean the house, most of what you'll be cleaning will be just a quick wipe-down... that's if you clean as you declutter. If you don't, you create more work for yourself. 

Under The Tub

The little cupboard under the wash tub is always something people miss. I find it's a place I throw everything and try to ignore it as it's out of sight, out of mind.

But over the past few weeks, I've bought some work caddies and really, I can't ignore that space anymore - I have to really work on it to make it work better. 

So, last week, I sat down on one of my dropcloths for painting and pulled everything out and sorted through what I needed, what I didn't, and what could be worked on - found it wasn't as daunting as I first thought it was going to be. 

The main things which made it so daunting were all the bottles in there - the empty, half-empty and glass bottles - all sitting around in there looking intimidating. So, I pulled them out and looked what was inside them, which was shoe polish, polishing rags and brushes, and put them into ziplock bags. This keeps the cockroaches out of the polish, out of the brushes and rags and keeps the whole place neat and tidy. I added those two bags to the work caddy, freeing up plenty of space under the tub. 

Then, I found about 3 or 4 spray bottles. They all had either water or vinegar and water in them... they were all half full and too big of the work caddy - all but one, which was nice and small enough for it. So, I emptied out the water inside that, and put the vinegar and water solution from one large one into the smaller one and added that one to caddy.

Yay! Even more space... and three empty spray bottles. Well, okay, two, one of them is for terrariums; so I keep that filled with water, in case I need it for my terrarium in the living room or my bedroom. 

Well! How was that! I cleaned out all those empty bottles and spray bottles and found so much more space! Now, to put back the things which are needed for the laundry. I put back the bleach, the vinegar, detergent and bi-carb soda and stain remover and now, there's more than enough room in that little cupboard to have everything in there, instead of it all sitting around the washing machine. And the best thing is that I can get in and wash the floor so much better too without having to go around things that should be living inside that cupboard. 

I'm so glad I can go back and clean out a cupboard like that and not be worried about what to find in there. Seeing I've done this one before, all there was in it was too much of one thing and not enough of another. Now, it's got just enough room for everything it needs to be a small laundry. But in all seriousness, I can't wait until I move from this townhouse and into a place with a big enough laundry where I can put my clothes horse, ironing board and fit everything into their own cupboards without downsizing everything all the time and encroaching on my living room. 

So, how are you going with your clean out? Let us all know in the comments section below.