My brain has been on overdrive with things I want to share with you, but we’ve had a truly insane and miraculous couple of weeks. The funds we needed to replace our daughter’s birth certificate were miraculously provided so that we can complete her immigration process. My husband finished his Masters in the same week we were getting our house ready to list. In a matter of days we were approved to lease our house and buy, found tenants, put an offer on another house, negotiated and signed a contract. Whew! Nothing short of divine intervention could have made all of the pieces fall into place with such perfect timing. And all through that I was thinking of you and about 10 different topics I’d love to write to you on!
Getting our house ready to show really lit a fire under me to get my kitchen in picture perfect order so I thought I’d share how I tackle the kitchen when it is my Focus Area of the week. Remember each Focus Area comes around once every 6-8 weeks depending on how many rooms you have in your home, so your kitchen can expect this kind of love about once every 2 months.
You can get your kids of almost any age to help with these! If they can hold a rag or broom, they will LOVE “helping” you.
Monday
Put away everything in the kitchen that doesn’t belong there.
Clean ONE shelf in the fridge and throw away any food that is expired or won’t be eaten before putting other items back.
If your oven has a self clean mode, set it and let it do its thang!
Tuesday
Take all items off the counter and give it a good scrub
If you have granite or other stone countertop, you may want to use a granite cleaner, or use a hot wet rag with a non-toxic dish soap.
Wipe down all the small appliances and put them back. If you use them daily put them back on the counter, if not, find a spot in your pantry or a cabinet if possible. The less you have on the counter, the easier it is to keep clean!
Clean ONE shelf in the fridge and throw away any food that is expired or won’t be eaten before putting other items back.
Wednesday
Get another hot soapy cloth and scrub the fronts of your cabinets, handles and appliances.
Remove the rotating plate from the microwave and load it in the dishwasher. Wipe down the inside of the microwave. Clean ONE shelf in the fridge and throw away any food that is expired or won’t be eaten before putting other items back.
Thursday
This one is pretty nasty so you might want to don some rubber gloves. We’re going after the grime on your stove top, the under side of your microwave (if it’s above the stove) and the sink.
Clean the under side of your microwave by dampening the cloth, and using a heavy duty cleaner of your choice. Norwex Cleaning Paste is my non-toxic go-to:
Clean ONE shelf in the fridge and throw away any food that is expired or won’t be eaten before putting other items back.
Friday
Sweep cobwebs from corners and where the ceiling meets the wall.
Sweep and mop floors.
Clean ONE shelf in the fridge and throw away any food that is expired or won’t be eaten before putting other items back.
If you didn’t get to all the shelves in your fridge start where you left off the next time the kitchen comes around as a Focus Area.
Saturday
Relax, have a glass of wine and enjoy your clean kitchen. You’ve earned it! The kitchen gets dirty every day so it is the most labor intensive room to clean, but it only comes around every 6-8 weeks so you can put the extra muscle into it and enjoy that you don’t have to again for awhile! What I love about the Focus Cleaning rotation is that I can let little things slide knowing I’ll get to it when it comes around again. I’ve found that when my kitchen is clean, I enjoy cooking more, I’m more eager to try new recipes and my family gets the added benefit of eating healthier with less food boredom. BONUS!
Grace upon grace to you this day. Whatever is wooing your attention away from the essential things, let those things fall away into the peripheral. Your most important relationships… these are the essentials.
With fullness of joy,
Crystal
See the previous post Making Room for More “Yes”
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