I’m still trying to get the house in shape for the holidays. Spending the weekend with a toddler may have set me back a month or two but eventually I’ll get caught up! I get easily overwhelmed so I have to take little bits out of big jobs if I want to get things done. If I bite off too much at one time I get discouraged and walk away halfway through. You can imagine how much worse that makes the mess.
Today I am cleaning under my kitchen sink. I really try to do a good job with cleaners, I try to use mostly vinegar and baking soda, but still, the mess under the sink multiplies. It’s so bad right now that in order to open the door I have to stick my foot in when I’m opening it to keep things from falling out. Very embarrassing
First I took everything out from under the sink. This is where I store my trash can so I gave it a good scrub as well. Once everything was out from under the sink I threw away anything that was crusty, empty, old, unidentifiable or that I no longer use. This included sponges, scrubbies and scrub brushes of any sort. Many of these I had forgotten were even there so I’m sure I’m not going to miss them.
What was left I consolidated. I’m pretty sure I haven’t bought window cleaner in the three years that I’ve lived in this house, yet I have three bottles. I don’t even like window cleaner. Vinegar does a much better job and hardly ever streaks. After consolidating everything I had several bottles of cleaners that I no longer want to use in my home. I’ve listed all of those on freecycle so that someone else can use them. I don’t like to dump chemicals down the sink.
Next I mixed warm water with vinegar and scrubbed the cabinet, inside and out. For stubborn grime I mixed baking soda with water to form a paste and scrubbed away. If the bottom of your cabinet is bare you can cover it with either shelf paper or vinyl flooring. Vinyl flooring is inexpensive and easy to cut with scissors and will really protect the bottom of your cabinet.
Once everything is clean, find a bucket, basket or bin that will hold your cleaners and keep them organized. If you store plastic grocery sacks under the sink (guilty) you can find many different methods of corralling those, you can even make a holder for those out of a milk jug or an old sock. The best thing to do with old grocery sacks is to take them back to the store and dump them in the recycling bin.
It’s so much nicer to open my cabinet know, I’m no longer afraid of losing a toe!