I do love pottering around tidying up but I also love pottering around when things are already nice and tidy, as I can get more clarity of what else needs to be done and have more room to sort things out. As I had cleaned the kitchen and put the dishwasher on before I went to bed last night, it was very pleasant walking into the kitchen for breakfast this morning.

The friendly engineer had to pop round again this morning to fit another part in our oven and he needed to switch it off at the mains. I couldn’t remember where the plug was, and because we had to respect social distancing I had to get him to search through all of the surrounding cupboards, and we eventually realised that it was in the one above the oven. Some of the cake tins had to come out and so I asked him to leave them on the side. Being a cupboard that I hadn’t yet tidied, I thought that it would be perfect for today’s blog.

After the engineer had left, I took the rest of the items out of the top cupboard, and because my kitchen surfaces were clear there was room to sort everything out. I found a pile of instructions for all of our appliances, which really ought to go somewhere else; however, I thought it was best to put them back for now as I want to focus on paperwork another day. I decided to move the cupboard shelf up to the highest notch so that I could temporarily put the paperwork up there along with some cardboard cake boards that we don’t use very often.

I counted seven round loose bottomed tins (where bottoms hadn’t been put back with its respective tin). When I’d finished with them they all stacked nicely into each other even though some of them didn’t match. Not sure why we need that many tins, but I decided to put them back for now as there was plenty of room. We’ll see what gets used. I know that my daughter uses one of them for the delicious cheesecake that she makes. I tend to use the fixed bottomed sandwich tins myself for victoria sponge cakes, so I placed them in the cupboard at the front.

I have got my eye on another couple of kitchen cupboards to sort out later in the week. I am also looking forward to taking everything out of the utility room so that I can start with a blank canvas. It’s only a small area so it needs a purpose otherwise it fills up with clutter very quickly.

At dinnertime

When I cooked this evening, it was lovely starting with a clean kitchen.

I only had to boil some pasta and heat up leftovers but everything we used got put straight in the dishwasher ready to put on before I go to bed. I’ve also just washed up the items that couldn’t fit in the dishwasher which I would usually just leave on the side to catch the next run tomorrow.

I’m feeling positive

I’m confident that we can all keep on top of the kitchen and dining room now, which will allow me to focus on other areas of the house. Let’s see how I do. I’m feeling very positive and upbeat about my challenge at the moment.

Until tomorrow…

Sandra