scrubjayspeaks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
scrubjayspeaks) wrote2020-12-12 07:41 pm
scrubjayspeaks) wrote2020-12-12 07:41 pm
Today's Keyboard Smash
Cleaning report! This week was a mess, on account of the dog-based crises, so I only worked on cleaning three days this week. I made up for it by spending multiple hours on it this weekend, at least.
Well, I attacked the spice cabinet and did not end up requiring rescue. It was a near thing, though. I made the reasonable decision to start at the tops of the cabinets--these are the ones hanging over the stove area--and immediately regretted it. There was a truly distressing quantity of aerosolized fat that had settled up there, as it is wont to do over stovetops and microwave vents. My arms ache from scrubbing now.
That ended up being the worst of it, though. The cabinets themselves were not as scary as I expected. The tea shelf had some real questionable nonsense, but only a few things. The actual spice and baking supply shelves suffered mainly from disastrous disorganization, rather than actual crap in there. Lots of jars and bottles and bags of spices, just sort of pitched in at random wherever they would fit. We find them by virtue of being good at remembering what the officially designated Wrong Location is for each item, but...not ideal. Now everything is alphabetized. I'm not saying it's super easy to get things out--there really is a lot in there--but it all technically belongs somewhere. And the stuff we use most often for dinner prep is in the skinny pull-out rack down on the lower cabinets for easy access.
I also cleaned out the rest of those hanging cabinets, which contain dry pasta and, uh, miscellaneous overflow, as well as the snack area. The snack area had the most to just throw out. Ancient lollipops and stale cookies that got lost in the back ages ago. And finally, I sorted the lazy susan, which is where bulk materials like sugar, various grains, and shelf-stable condiments are stored. That just needed a bit of organizing, nothing intensive.
These are, unfortunately, all areas that pretty much require an all-or-nothing approach. It's not stuff that I can tidy a bit at a time on weeknights. The only thing I did this week that was bits-and-pieces work was tidying up the top of the piano, which was mostly clean already. Probably the cleaning is going to become more of a weekend thing going forward, because I just have to be able to dedicate a few hours a day to the areas left.
I spent 4.75 hours on cleaning this week. I listened to Hidden Almanac 2018 from April 16-May 11, plus some Youtube videos and music. I've been using the stopwatch app on my tablet to keep track of the time I spend, since my listening habits continue to be pretty random.
Well, I attacked the spice cabinet and did not end up requiring rescue. It was a near thing, though. I made the reasonable decision to start at the tops of the cabinets--these are the ones hanging over the stove area--and immediately regretted it. There was a truly distressing quantity of aerosolized fat that had settled up there, as it is wont to do over stovetops and microwave vents. My arms ache from scrubbing now.
That ended up being the worst of it, though. The cabinets themselves were not as scary as I expected. The tea shelf had some real questionable nonsense, but only a few things. The actual spice and baking supply shelves suffered mainly from disastrous disorganization, rather than actual crap in there. Lots of jars and bottles and bags of spices, just sort of pitched in at random wherever they would fit. We find them by virtue of being good at remembering what the officially designated Wrong Location is for each item, but...not ideal. Now everything is alphabetized. I'm not saying it's super easy to get things out--there really is a lot in there--but it all technically belongs somewhere. And the stuff we use most often for dinner prep is in the skinny pull-out rack down on the lower cabinets for easy access.
I also cleaned out the rest of those hanging cabinets, which contain dry pasta and, uh, miscellaneous overflow, as well as the snack area. The snack area had the most to just throw out. Ancient lollipops and stale cookies that got lost in the back ages ago. And finally, I sorted the lazy susan, which is where bulk materials like sugar, various grains, and shelf-stable condiments are stored. That just needed a bit of organizing, nothing intensive.
These are, unfortunately, all areas that pretty much require an all-or-nothing approach. It's not stuff that I can tidy a bit at a time on weeknights. The only thing I did this week that was bits-and-pieces work was tidying up the top of the piano, which was mostly clean already. Probably the cleaning is going to become more of a weekend thing going forward, because I just have to be able to dedicate a few hours a day to the areas left.
I spent 4.75 hours on cleaning this week. I listened to Hidden Almanac 2018 from April 16-May 11, plus some Youtube videos and music. I've been using the stopwatch app on my tablet to keep track of the time I spend, since my listening habits continue to be pretty random.