A Clean Kitchen Makes Me Happy

This morning Craig and I talked over our plans for the day:

• go to church and copy the bulletins for tomorrow
• help mom take her lawnmower to Craig's sister's cabin
• paint the foundation blocks on the cabin
• stack wood
• clean the kitchen
• do laundry

What a list! It almost made me tired just talking about it. We decided to start out doing the things away from home. Craig dropped me off at church to do the bulletins, and he went over to his mom's and helped with the lawnmower. Then he went to the shop to start stacking wood. I walked from church to the shop. Craig decided that he could finish the wood next week, so we headed back home (stopping off at a great garage sale, but that's tomorrow's post). 

I decided that the next thing on my list had to be the kitchen. I had run the dishwasher last night, but hadn't washed the pots and pans. After making quiche for breakfast this morning my kitchen was a mess. (I wish cooking good things to eat didn't make so many dirty dishes.) See?

I couldn't take a picture of the kitchen island, because of the sunshine, but it was messy too. 

It was time to tackle the mess.

After about an hour, my kitchen looked like this - much better but not done.

It was time for lunch, however, and after we ate Craig wanted to get started on the painting, so we headed outside.

After finishing our painting I came back in and finished the kitchen. Now I am happy - I have a clean kitchen. But it's time to make supper!

I did learn a couple of things along the way.

1. Finish the job each day. I read on pinterest one time that finishing each job during the day will help your house (and your life) to be more free of clutter. My kitchen today is proof of that. If I had finished all the dishes on Thursday and Friday I wouldn't have had such a big pile today. This principle applies in all areas. If I put my makeup back in the drawer when I'm done, then my bathroom vanity is cleaner. If I hang my clothes up when I take them off, then my bedroom stays cleaner. You get the idea. It only takes a few seconds to finish the job, but when you don't finish it takes more time another day. 

2. Cleaning up one part of the kitchen and seeing it so nice encouraged me to go on to the next section.

3. It's easier to clean when I have itunes playing. I just put on my favorite playlist, and the music made me happy.

Just for fun, here are the before and after pictures of our painting project today...