24 November 2015: Kitchen Counter Section 1 - That Counter
You know how people have those parts in their household where random stuff collects? This part of my kitchen counter is one of them.
It hadn’t had a proper wipe down in quite some time, and the walls had grease buildup. Not that you can notice from the before photo, because there’s all this stuff covering the counter.
#1: 60/30 (because I forgot to set a timer to keep myself in check)
I put away the things that had homes elsewhere, then moved everything off the counter so the walls and countertop could get wiped down with sugar soap (❤️)
I made the “mistake” of looking under my cupboard. I would’ve had to clean under there eventually anyway as part of my deep cleaning, but it wasn’t something that I needed to do in this clean. But still, I’m glad I’ve done it, even if pregnancy means I can’t bend at odd angles under things properly. It’s a lot better than what it was under there.
Rubbish got thrown out. Anything that had a grease buildup got a wipe over with the sugar soap. The mobile phone recycling bag finally got sealed (albeit with duct tape because the sticky seal on the bag was that old it wasn’t sticking properly), and will be getting mailed off at the first opportunity. Mail that needs to be passed on got moved to the pile near my front door. Photos got put back on the wall. The crevice under the stovetop also got cleaned as well.
As I had made far too much sugar soap, the doors on the cupboards above and below the counter got a quick wipe down as well They’ll get a proper clean once all the counters, pantry, fridge and floors get done… My priority at this stage is for things to look presentable and clean, not fix years of neglect.
A couple of my glass containers are currently soaking in the sink along with my dishes, because sugar soap is bad for glass if it’s not rinsed properly and it also forces me to do the dishes that can’t go through the dishwasher. A few things still need to go back on the counter, a home needs to be found for the random tech cable pile and I need to go through the contents of the Cars box.
Turns out there wasn’t as much to do as I thought there was going to be - I was expecting a 30/15 to finish it off. Some more things got moved to more logical homes, and, like the bag of random stuff they’ll need reorganising later. Things also got put back onto the counter.
The counter is done enough. It’s passable, it’s clean, stuff isn’t scattered everywhere. There’s a couple of things I need to fix when I get paid later this week:
Get the SodaStream gas bottle refilled and put away
Purchase a cheap toothbrush for cleaning (I couldn’t get the grouting as clean as I liked, and it would’ve made cleaning under the stovetop a lot easier)
There’s also a few things I’ll need to do after this week to reduce on clutter:
Sort through the contents of the Cars container
Check to see if the torch still works
Go through the tool container
Check the batteries in the battery container; see if we still have the battery charger for the rechargeable batteries
Cleaning products used: Sugar soap, dishwashing liquid
