Starting the year on the right foot

This week I happened upon a very interesting challenge. The 52 Weeks To An Organized Home Challenge from www.home-storage-solutions-101.com caught my eye just at the time I was wishing the house was more "put together."

The kids and I spent the week after Christmas swapping rooms around and getting a handle on the overflow of stuffed animals, so organizing was on my mind. I happened across this challenge (yep, you guessed it) on Pinterest.

It's a running challenge with one task per week, starting on Mondays. Hey! There's something I can handle!  And I stumbled into it right at the "first" week. (The author actually "started" about 2/3rds of the way through the list in October.)

So, Week 1's challenge is the kitchen counters and sink. I came across it last Monday night, but still thought Tuesday thru Friday would be more than enough time. I could throw in the table, too!

Tuesday I cleared off the first counter. Fabulous! Who knew there was so much space hiding under my not-often-used appliances? They were relocated in favor of actually having some counter space I could use. *Gasp* Wow! I also cleaned the microwave, which hadn't been done in waaay too long.

I got a tip from the crafty little gnome blog (this is her microwave, but mine looked about the same -blech!). Put a bowl of water with a squirt of vinegar in the microwave for 5 minutes. Everything came right off with a damp cloth!

Wednesday I conquered the sink, with the help of my brand new counter space. My favorite tip for the week is making sure the sink is clear at least twice a day (after breakfast and dinner is easiest for me). I know that logically, it's the same amount of work as tackling the whole thing after dinner, but it just seems like so much less when it's split up! I don't have that Ugh! Dishes! feeling that made me hate to even go into the kitchen. Not that I enjoy it, but it seems like no big deal now.

Thursday I managed to clear off the 2nd counter. Tossed some of the more bottle-like sippy cups into my consignment sale box. Also took care of the bubble blower I had intended to clean about a year ago and just never got around to it. It was dead. As a doornail. But, voila! More counter space!

And then life kicked in. Never got around to the other 2 counters (although they are rarely used even when clean because they're on the wrong side of the kitchen) and the table -ha! The one item that needs organization the most never got gotten to.

But still, I'm proud of myself for what I did accomplish. Now the only hard part is staying on top of it so it doesn't revert to its former cluttered state. And a couple weeks are duplicates for me. I don't have a pantry so the cupboard week will be my food storage organizing. I'll have time to catch up. But if I don't, that's okay too. I am not going to guilt myself about housecleaning. Any progress made is better than it was.