Evening everyone!
As you all know by now I have been trying to do some self improvements and part of that goal is to try and live a more mindful/minimal life. Although trying to live a more minimal life won’t be 100% since we have a newborn I am still determined to give it my best shot!
One of the steps to live a more mindful/minimal life is to start removing clutter from your life and home. So, I have decided to start a seven day challenge. Picking a different area of the house to de-clutter each day. Today I picked the kitchen because I spend a lot of time in there! Extra clutter just adds extra stress to your life. I feel like I can actually breathe in our tiny tiny kitchen now! I literally threw away two huge black garbage bags after my cleaning spree (our kitchen is literally a sink, fridge, stove, dishwasher and a few cupboards) So that was A LOT to remove from such a tiny space.
Some of the rules I followed to get rid of the clutter were:
- If I only used it for one recipe and than it sat in the back of the cupboard, toss it.
- Has it been sitting in the cupboard half empty for way too long? Toss it.
- Do I actually plan on making anything with this? If not, toss it out.
- If it doesn’t have a purpose, don’t keep it.
- Make catergories for everything.
- Give everything a home and put it back there
- Put away appliances that hang out on the countertops.
Same rules applied for the fridge, I could not believe what kind of stuff was sitting in our fridge, some of it was NOT pretty. I didn’t know pineapple could look that kind of way..
Like all of my crazy projects I put myself through I went to the dollar store to pick up supplies. For about $25 I picked up more than enough to tackle the mess of my kitchen. My favourite thing are the cute labels, they are mini chalk boards so I can change out what is in the basket or clear containers.
Once I had cleaned out the stuff we didn’t need in our fridge and wiped everything down, I spread out some non-slip mats. They are pretty handy and come in a roll so you can cut the mat into what length you desire. Hopefully these mats make it easier to clean out the fridge and prevent things from spilling.
While cleaning I tried out the natural cleaner I had made, of course Pinterest inspired (what does this app not have?!) The all purpose cleaner actually worked super well. With only three simple ingredients 1tbsp dish soap, 1 cup vinegar, 1 1/2 cup water. Shake the bottle, and you are done! Next time I am for sure trying to lemon lavender linen spray, since we own two dogs things can get pretty smelly quick.