The kitchen sink

So the cleaning continues. It’s not exactly a thrilling blog topic, but I want to tell you, *I* am thrilled.

You see, it all started a week or so ago. I looked around the house and wanted to run away. Completely overwhelmed. It’s not that the place was terrible, terrible. But I hate disorder and have never seemed able to conquer it. As I said a couple of posts ago, if one thing is out of order, my house looks cluttered. Twenty things out of order and I’m done in.

My main problem is that cupboards and closets with doors offer me an opportunity to pitch stuff in and never have to look at it again. Out of sight, out of mind. Then, when there is no place left to put anything, finding a home for those few things out place in the rest of the house is an overwhelming project.

I discovered FlyLady last week. She said that if I made sure that my kitchen sink is shined and spotless before I go to bed at night, my life will change. What an intriguing promise. How hard could that be?

Well, now I can laugh and say, she is on to something. I’ve had the shiniest sink in town for the past week. And it has wrought miracles. Because, somehow, it starts a process that just seems to grow. Having a shiny sink every night before bed means the dishwasher has to be filled with the previous load of dishes put away. In order to do that, the cupboards have to be neat and tidy. In my case, extra storage space was necessary, but easily added. And when that happens, the counters are suddenly spotless. Before you know it, the kitchen is gleaming and it’s easy to keep it that way because everything is where it’s supposed to be and there is a place for everything. It’s an incremental thing, but it sure works. I had no idea that promising to have a shiny sink before I go to bed would have such a ripple effect. I am convinced now that not only is the kitchen the heart of the home, but it’s really the kitchen sink that’s the nerve center.

Man, I’d recommend this FlyLady to anyone. At the end of one week, my downstairs is neat enough EVERY DAY for company. Twice a day...two minutes is all...putting away items that want to gravitate to the clutter hotspots. When I go to bed at night, there is no clutter. That makes the morning routine a breeze. Sweeping and vacuuming goes really fast because there’s nothing to maneuver around. Dusting is fast because there’s not much to move.

Downstairs is under control and on easy daily maintenance now. Although I’m still doing about 10 minutes of kitchen cabinet cleaning every day. Doesn’t really take much each day to add up to an overhaul at the end of a couple of weeks. As FlyLady suggests, I set my timer for 10 minutes and when it goes off, I’m done for the day—even if I want to continue. My goal this week is to get the cereal boxes off the top of the refrigerator and into a kitchen cabinet.

This weekend began the upstairs cleaning. Over the weekend I cleaned the lad’s room. Cleared out his closet and his drawers of outgrown stuff. I washed them and bagged them up for the Salvation Army. The bag is now in the car. I cleaned out his laundry hamper, laundered everything and put it all back in his drawers and hung stuff up in his closet. All of a sudden there is room for everything. Made finding the floor a whole lot easier which meant vacuuming was a whole lot easier. Last night when he got ready for bed, he dropped his dirty duds in the laundry basket by my bedroom door. This morning it all went right into the washer. And the basket is now empty. Sheesh, that was easy.

I also bought him a large trash can that fits under his desk. With four garbage bags folded in the bottom, under the one lining the can, all he has to do is pull the full one out and reach in for a new one. He thought that was a great idea. Even more, he liked the idea that at the end of his day, all he has to do is spend a couple of minutes sweeping trash off his desk into the can and putting his supplies away in the narrow baskets that I put along the back edge of his desk. Right brained solutions for right brained people. When he wakes up in the morning, it’s a nice room to wake up to. He was totally thrilled this morning. With five or fewer minutes at the end of each day to put stuff away (with a place to put it), I think he’ll be able to stay on top of it all.

My room is next. And then the bathroom closet. Once that’s done, a little bit every day, the upstairs will be on daily maintenance.

Then on to the basement.

And it all began with a shiny kitchen sink. Sounds dumb, but it works. Last night before bed, when the lad brought his dishes down to the kitchen, he held them over the sink for a second, then opened the dishwasher to put them in. I laughed and asked what that was all about. “I didn’t want to get the sink dirty,” he said. Ah, miracles.