I walked into the kitchen a few days ago early in the morning and I felt so happy.
I remember how it felt when I didn’t have it together…
when my kitchen was always a wreck and I would have to wash a mug to have my coffee because the sink was always filled with dishes from the night before… and I couldn’t sit and enjoy the coffee even if I had a mug to use because I had to cean up dinner from the night before…
I felt find myself saying… “No-one should live this way!”
Right then and there I was inspired to post a picture on Facebook of my kitchen (below) with this caption…
Well, it turned into a “Clean Kitchen Challenge!”
Day 1:
Let’s get started with the dishes
Commit to doing the dishes every day as you use them & not going to bed with dishes to do.
Do you have a backlog of dishes to do? Get a hot sudsy sink full of water going… put dishes in and soak all that you can.
Set a timer for 15 minutes and when it goes off, start washing. If you have a dish washer get as much as you can into it and start the dish washer. Set a timer for 40 minutes and put the dishes away when it goes off… but keep going washing by hand till all the dishes are done.
Then make a commitment that it will not happen again. Create a new standard and get the family on board. No more dishes in the sink. More on this later.
Day 2:
Let’s talk about Dinnertime Cleanup
Create a new standard and get the family on board.
Today we get into some of the pitfalls of being Organizationally Challenged.
I talk about how the Organizationally gifted do dinnertime cleanup even when they are sooooo tired and in difficult life circumstances and how we can adopt their additude and standards to get the results they do without us becoming stuffy or regimented as they often are…Creating new standards for what is acceptable is something that everyone that I speak to about it finds it to be a game changer, and realize that change can happen and we even begin to create a plan to get the family on board.
Day 3:
De-cluttering Food Storage Containers
Here is the outline for de-cluttering storage containers:
1. Take each container out and put them in piles according to shape and size.
2 Put all the lids together.
3. Match the lids with the containers and store (if possible) with the lids on.
5. Do all the dishes to be sure all the containers and lids are accounted for.
4. Get rid of all the containers that do not have a lid, or a lid that does not have a container.
Note: If you are afraid of letting go of something and finding its mate latter on employ the “Box it up Plan” Watch video.
Day 3 Bonus:Real-time De-cluttering Food Storage Cabinet
This is a video I did a few years ago as part of a “Dejunking Together Series”. I thought of it while talking about dejunking.
It is a perfect video to compliment and give additional help and motivation to get this particular job done.
Everything I talk about in Video 3 and all that is writen out as instruction is demonstrated in this video.
Be sure and email me with beofre and after pics! And let me know how you are doing.
Day 4:
Let’s Tackle the Refrigerator
Cleaning the Fridge can be done in steps.
1. Take out all containers and dump what’s not good anymore.
2. Clean out the containers.
3. Dump any containers that isn’t worth salvaging.
4. Get rid of all loose food that isn’t good anymore.
5. Make a plan to clean the refrigerator one shelf at a time, plan on being done in 1 week working on one self a day.
6. Make it a habit to clean out the fridge before every time you go food shopping.
5. Always make a list to get only what you need before you shop.
6. Designate one day a month to thoroughly clean the fridge (This can be done easily AFTER it’s been all cleaned and implement the habit to go over it once a week)
5. Implement the “Do it Now” habit” and wipe up spills as soon as they happen.
Bonus
Click to get the meal planning template discussed in Video 4.
Thank you and LOVE the program. I have successful gotten several areas in my home to be tidy and so relaxing to family and friends. Really life changing! The program is phenomenal and really does work!
Susan MacNeil
© 2020 The Tidy Tutor