My Kitchen--IT IS FINISHED!

Today I finished cleaning and organizing my kitchen. I have a very small kitchen and you would think that it would be easy to keep it clean. Well it is not.

Here is a before of my kitchen.
This is a shot of the back wall of my kitchen. The microwave cart is the only space that I have open to work on--and even it is pretty cluttered. I was constantly kicking my toes on various pot and pans -- or even sacks of potatoes. It was very frustrating and I hated cooking at home.



I could not even bring myself to take pictures of the rest of the room.
Let's just say if there was a counter, there was jars of food or pots and pans on it.

Here are the after:
View from the wall to the counter. This is left of the sink. HOORAY, I have a workspace!!!) The paper towel is going to be hung on side of counter.



This is the other side of the sink. Even with dishes in the drainer (we do not have a dishwasher), it does not look cluttered. This corner has always been very hard to work at so it works great in this capacity.



Against the wall is a 4 or 5 ft metal wall unit that is 2 foot deep. I use this to store appliances that I use often and my foodstuff. It is wonderful to be able to see all that I have.





I don't really want the step stool in the kitchen but I need it to reach some of the shelves and the girls also use it to reach the counters better.

This next areas are the stove and the fridge. I have to confess that it has been many many moons since I had a stove that did not have to have pots and pans stored on top of it--and lets not even get into all the crap that you can store on top of a fridge. Now they are neat and clutter free.





The only things on the fridge are my foil, one cookbook, my pasta maker, my toaster oven and finally, the sports bottles that we take to the park with us. All nice and neat.

I Have Finished . . .

cleaning my dining/computer room.

What a silly thing to blog about. But maybe if I do I will feel more accountable to keep it tidy. I am a "piler"--when I was young I had piles of stuff in my room. My mom is not a "piler." She thought my room was a mess. I could go directly to anything I wanted. She would just shut my door. I guess being a "piler" when it is only you that has to worry about the stuff is okay but add three more people and all you get is an unorganized mess. I still have to work very hard at not piling my stuff. Maybe if I give an update on the condition on my rooms about once a month I will feel more inclined to keep them clean. Well, anyway, here are "before/after" pictures.

For those who did not see it--this is the "before."


Here is the "after."

I know there is still a lot of stuff, but I need it for school. I have metal grid walls--the type that retail stores have on the corner wall to hold a lot of my stuff. The bench--my Mom and I made. This is the girls computer.


The work table was completely covered with stuff. I am actually doing a project on it. YEAH!


I even had the inclination to clean up my computer area. It is so nice not to feel hemmed in when you are working.

UPDATE: The living room is still clean!

BTW: I have three cucumbers, at least three squash and many tomatoes in my garden.

House cleaning

I never thought I would be excited about cleaning my house.


~MY CLEAN LIVING ROOM~
My camera is slowly dying but you get the idea. I do not have much closet storage space so I have had to stack my scrapbooking totes by the white cabinet. Not the best but it will have to do for now.


The same cat and yes, I do have a barber chair in my living room. It is actually quite comfortable to sit in.

I finished the living/school room. It took me probably a total of 24 hours to clean it completely. I even opened all the cabinets and cleaned them. I ended up with three bags of garbage (mostly VHS tapes of shows we recorded off telly). I now have my school stuff organized and I even have an empty cupboard in my entertainment center. YEAH! Now the big test. To keep it clean. I have made a new rule for the living room. Toys that are in their room stay in their room. I will know that some stuff will end up in the living room. Every night before bedtime, I have the girls do a quick clean up of their room--I want to start that in the living room. I was thinking of letting each girl have container to pick up their stuff from living room to put up.


YUCK!

Next room--I need to deep clean my computer/dining/not sure what it is room. In my defense, I knew this was going to be the next room I cleaned so I moved stuff from the living room (that I was not sure what I was going to do with) to the dining room. I don't know if this is how other people clean, but I find that if I am stuck with something that I do not know what to do with it, I set it aside and then I can figure it out. The computer/dining room became that space. Even though this room looks really bad in the picture, I don't think that it will take me as long to clean. I know I will have to break up the cleaning because I have to pick my hubby up when he gets home from his business trip in Orlando.

Will post the "after" pictures when done. (Hopefully, tomorrow!)

A Terrible Injustice

Hard to believe--two posts in one day. I must be ill! LOL

I have been really thinking about my role as wife and mother. I have read many posts from my friends' blog, Keepers At Home and also from Generation Cedar. They have really got me thinking. I used to tell my girls that they need to go to college before they are allowed to date (it was said somewhat in jest, but the meaning was perfectly clear). I have done them a terrible injustice, which I am now trying to rectify. I cheapened the great profession of being a wife and mother. I think I can thank the "women's movement" for that.

I have been a SAHM since my first was born. I will say that the first time someone said to me "Oh, you don't work" I was terribly upset--my self-esteem plummeted. I had bought into the idea that unless I was financially contributing to the household, I was not worth much. WHAT A BUNCH OF FOOLISHNESS! I have been called to be the keeper of my home.

I know this is old-fashioned, but they got it right. Need to get back to the "old-fashioned" ways.

Do I think girls should not go to college? Absolutely not! I have no idea what God has in store for my girls. But I want to prepare them for all avenues. I want them to the seek God and do what is pleasing to Him NOT society.

I also fell into the "2 kids are enough" mentality. I was 35 when I had my first child and 38 after my second. I decided that would be my last--I didn't want to "burden" my children with an older parent. I had a tubal ligation. I would say that two was enough and if God really wanted me to have a third, He could make it happen. How arrogant of me. I do mourn the thought of what God might have planned for me if I trusted Him. Maybe two children was all He planned--I will never know. I have asked God to forgive me (which I know He has) and am making sure that my girls are better equipped not to fall in the same thought processes of the world.