Tag Archives: clean

Nudged: Wipe down the kitchen cabinets

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Backstory: Our kitchen…sigh. It is not in any way a passionate home cook’s dream set-up. It is oddly configured and even more oddly decorated. We have an old miner’s inspired lamp hanging in one half; a bare bulb hanging in the other. The decor dates back to the 1970s and features worn linoleum that…wait for it…some previous creative (and cheap) owner decided to use bits of extra to run up sections of some of the walls. I dream of our home being selected for one of those great makeover shows where a team comes in and redoes everything in just one week! (Notice I did not say a “reality” show.)

What is often my greatest challenge with this heart of our home, where I make almost all of our meals, is that my only work space is a cramped 20″ x 30″.

But…I have a kitchen. I have working appliances. I have money for food and skills that make it possible for me to serve up more than mac ‘n’ cheese from a box every day. I also have friends who create gourmet feasts for parties of it in a kitchen half the size of mine.

So it’s time I shift my perspective and show this room a little love, starting with cleaning the grimy (and good grief, they’re disgusting when you really look) kitchen cabinets.

What room in your home could use a little TLC this week?

What Happened: All the fingerprints, splatters, smudges…gag. I spritzed, I scrubbed, and I buffed.

Cabinets Before 2

Before…

Cabinets After 2

…and after.

It took me less than an hour to get the whole room done, and while my work wasn’t perfect, it was progress. I notice the difference.

The Ah-Hahs: After the first couple of cabinets, I started looking around at the rest of the room. The floor is clean, though it would benefit from a deep-cleaning. I really should use a mop to wipe the ceiling and take down some of the cobwebs in the corners. (When did those take up residence?) And I should also tackle cleaning the doors throughout the house that show signs of dirty hands and noses (thanks, Louie). But I stopped myself from pulling an all-nighter. Those tasks can be future nudges.

The real ah-hah though was that as I worked, I found myself appreciating all that I do have. See that list above: home, actual kitchen, food. I remembered back to when I moved apartments many years ago and a friend who helped with the unloading showed up with a blessing. We asked that my new space be filled with friends and love and laughter. So I did something similar this week. I thanked my cabinets for all they do, and I blessed this space that–despite my complaining about its flaws–makes it possible for me to receive a lot of joy.

Nudging: Wipe down the kitchen cabinets

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A note about Passes: Hello, all! For anyone who has been following 52Nudges, you know  one of my “rules” is that I allow myself four “Passes” during the 52 weeks. The intention behind this is to “nudge” me into doing things that are truly outside of my comfort zone. Unfortunately, during this interesting time in our lives, many of my original nudges are simply not possible. This week, for example, I drew “Browse a consignment store”, “Try out a new bar”, and “Work for 2 hours in a remote office space.” I tossed those back in my box for future nudges, and pretty much have given myself a “pass” on passes for the duration. I’ll do those other nudges when sheltering-in-place and COVID are in our past. Meanwhile, please stay safe and healthy! Wear a mask and wash your hands! xo

Backstory: Our kitchen…sigh. It is not in any way a passionate home cook’s dream set-up. It is oddly configured and even more oddly decorated. We have an old miner’s inspired lamp hanging in one half; a bare bulb hanging in the other. The decor dates back to the 1970s and features worn linoleum that…wait for it…some previous creative (and cheap) owner decided to use bits of extra to run up sections of some of the walls. I dream of our home being selected for one of those great makeover shows where a team comes in and redoes everything in just one week! (Notice I did not say a “reality” show.)

What is often my greatest challenge with this heart of our home, where I make almost all of our meals, is that my only work space is a cramped 20″ x 30″.

But…I have a kitchen. I have working appliances. I have money for food and skills that make it possible for me to serve up more than mac ‘n’ cheese from a box every day. I also have friends who create gourmet feasts for parties of 10 in a kitchen half the size of mine.

So it’s time I shift my perspective and show this room a little love, starting with cleaning the grimy (and good grief, they’re disgusting when you really look) kitchen cabinets.

What room in your home could use a little TLC this week?

Nudged: Do something I hate (i.e., weeding)

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Backstory: Ugh. Remember when I/we did something that scared us? (Read that post here.) That was scary (obvs), but it also had an element of fun. Not so much this Nudge. This has a taint of must-do, take responsibility, be an adult.

Or…I need to see this as spreading my wings and taking a leap of faith out of my nest.

That seems much more exciting, doesn’t it? 🙂 Let’s do this.

What Happened: The actual slip of paper for this Nudge includes “(i.e., weeding)”, so I initially thought about weeding at least part of the backyard, but couldn’t bring myself to do it. (Seriously, I do not enjoy gardening, as we learned in this post about finding a new bookstore. When I win big in the lottery, my first outsourcing will be to hire someone to clean up my garden—and maintain it—for me.)

Instead I decided to tackle the refrigerator. This is one of those household tasks that ends up on my to do list almost every week, and almost every week gets bumped to the end of the line.

So… I pulled on the ol’ rubber gloves, grabbed the trash can, and dove in.

Two words: Bio. Hazard.

Is sticking to a new diet on your list of New Year’s Resolutions? Then I’ve got a sure-fire trick for you to achieve your goal. Just pull a few condiments out of your fridge, read the expiration dates (oh, sweet god), then try, just see if you can open the lids that have become glued to the jars by what is now unidentifiable muck.

Gag-o-rama.

But it got done. All of it. And honestly, it wasn’t all that bad. Nothing pre-dated my marriage, which made me feel a tiny bit better about things. (I say this because there was a time when I went through the spice rack and discovered some items lurking in the back that should have been added to the compost pile ages ago). And there wasn’t a lot. I was definitely shaming myself for wasted food as I tossed unused items, but I couldn’t dwell on things that at this point were way beyond saving.

Ah-Hah: So fresh start. Clean shelves. Open spaces. When I popped out to the market this afternoon, I only purchased ingredients for our next several meals, and you can trust that moving forward I’ll be conscientious about only buying what we need for now.

It’s not perfectly organized, but it’s clean and I know what’s in there. Progress!

I’d like to tell you that during the process I also experienced a personal ah-hah, one in which I chose to embrace that every day is a fresh start with open spaces for new opportunities. I didn’t.

I also could have looked at this as an opportunity to examine the things in my life that have the potential to make me “sick”, physically, emotionally. I didn’t really do that either. But somewhere in the back shelves of my subconscious, the ideas are there, and maybe I’ll find myself making healthier choices as a result.

What did you weed out of your life this week?