Dust Bunnies Banished from the Bedroom!!

Weekend two of Apartment Therapy's January Cure and I didn't get nearly as far as I had hoped.

A few weeks ago I spent the day cleaning the mattress (peroxide and baking soda and a toothbrush and most of the grody stains were gone!!) And I also washed all the pillows (more peroxide!) So I had a tiny head start on the bedroom situation. Friday I managed to clean everything else but the sheets. I didn't go crazy under the bed. There isn't a whole lot of room to move it aside but I did get under with the vacuum a bit. I dusted everything from top to bottom. Turned all R's hangers around backwards and organized the bed linen on the top shelf of his closet.

Saturday I had to work job number two and ended up catching a cold and woke up pretty miserable Sunday almost afternoon. Zero energy but I still manged to tidy my room and tackle a pile of towels that needed be folded weeks ago.

Today I left work at noon, because I couldn't breathe and didn't have any drugs. I advise against shopping while sick AND hungry because I ended up with some bad bad things. Ooops.

Anyway, I took some pictures of the bedroom before and after :)

 A bit disheveled, but not terrible

R's dresser. 

 My end table. I swear it didn't look that dusty until I turned the lights up!

View of R's closet - We didn't bother putting any closet doors back up either. Eventually we're going to combine some hall and closet space into our bedroom to enlarge it and then "my" room will be turned into a kick ass walk in closet. 

 Freshly washed comforter, vacuumed curtains, dusted alllll the things

 

 My end table. Much better. Found a box that fits on the shelf to hold my extra blanket. It's a bit too big, but it was something I had handy.

 

 Much better!

Hangers turned around, laundry put away, extra junk from the closet gone (ahem... to the table in the kitchen :( ... working on it) 

Skylines by local JPH photography 

Cured Kitchen

I accidentally deleted a bunch of these photos. sorry!





Phew. That was quite the effort but I hauled ass and have the spiffiest kitchen to prove it. Let's see the madness!

See this post for all the exterior cleaning I had done a few weeks ago. 

I started with the junk drawer. I forgot to take a picture before I dumped it all out. But here are the contents! Ready for sorting. In here I discovered a fancy drill bit that R was happy to see. Lots of hooks and hair elastics. A video store card that was my dads from probably 25 years ago

Below is the drawer with all its organizers in it. All these are all containers I found throughout the house. Nothing was purchased for this organizational cleaning frenzy.

I then moved on to my utensils. I really do love kitchen things and end up getting many as gifts. No complaints though, I love them, just maybe too much. I have quite a few spatulas and whisks, but I am not willing to get rid of many of those, I use them all so much.

I did manage to purge a few things. I also found a nice little pairing knife that I got from my mom, in the back of a drawer that I hadn't used in forever. So I sharpened it up and oiled the handle. These are all the things I don't use, see I'm down one spatula and two whisks even!

Annnnd since I had the oil out I had to oil the rest of the wood things.

Then I decided to pull nearly everything out of the cabinets and start sorting and cleaning and purging. Man oh man that felt good. I got rid of a big pile of containers I haven't used in years. I'll have lots for the donation pile come spring for sure.

The contents of most of my cupboards and drawers! I keep the plastic containers in those two damask containers. Lids in one, containers in the other. It works pretty well, as long as I have plenty of containers in use elsewhere, otherwise it overflows!

Then I did under the sink. Pulled it all out and cleaned and got rid of all the bottles with a teaspoon left in each, or that were empty. Why I was keeping them I have no idea.

I had used Ikea place mats as shelf liners when we moved in. I only had four :(They don't have these ones anymore.

I put it all back together and rearranged a few things, so you wanna take a peek inside my tidy drawers??? ;)

Above is my hand mixer, mandolin, Kitchen Aid Immersion blender cup and chopper. Ikea cheese grater/container and my Fasta Pasta. My mom gave me the Fasta Pasta some years ago from Christmas and I LOVE IT. Use it all the time. Probably too much since I don't need to eat as much pasta as I do. Whatever. CARBS!

 
Below is the glass containers that I use for lunches and some leftovers. The square ones are from Ikea and the round ones are Anchor. They are now right next to the stove and very convenient.

The overflow utensil drawer! Stuff that I don't use as often and doesn't fit in the pot on the counter. 

Measuring tools and some other stuff. When you count calories, like I was, having lots of measuring tools is super important. I love the sets of stainless cups from Lee Valley. Digital thermometer, another cheese grater (Yes we have 3 graters that live in 3 different locations, based on frequency of use! Plus a micro-plane in the drawer above)

Knives. So many knives. I have a decent chefs knife that I picked up on sale for 40 bucks from Superstore one day and although it has a slight dent in the blade, that I am slowly sharpening away, it works well. We got the colorful set for Christmas from R's grandparents, and they are bright and colorful and having the covers make them handy to take camping or to friends houses who have questionable cutting devices. I have a collection of serrated "commercial" knives that I acquired while working for a sandwich shop many years ago. They are still sharp and are the best best things for slicing tomatoes.

Pretty self explanatory ;)

Can't ever have too many dish towels. One day when I'm rich, I will have a drawer of totally matching ones! It will be awesome.

Cutlery, bag clips and bottle openers. The containers I found at Superstore fit totally perfectly width-wise but were a tad short in the back, so I crammed some cardboard in the back to keep them from sliding around when I have to slam the old and shitty drawer shut!

 

More junk drawer, because it doesn't look like a junk drawer at all!

 And now inside my cabinets!!

 Pots and pans. I kept my original pressure cooker after I got my instant pot, just for the fact that it's a big ass pot. And sometimes you need a few big ass pots. Also, the fourth burner pot that I bought on a whim, and don't really use all that much, but am not quite willing to part with it yet. And our indoor grill.

Plastic things and an ice cream maker.

Under the sea.... sink.

Baking things, Salad spinner and party bowls. Gravy separator.

 Tada! Organized, purged and clean. Loving it... Now just to KEEP it this way! Hahahahaha yeah right...

January Cure Time!

WORDS! 

I never thought I would see the day where I was excited to clean something. What the heck is wrong with me? Lots of things, I know. Anyway, It's time again for The January Cure. If you're new to this, it is an awesome month long cleaning marathon hosted by Apartment Therapy (You may have seen our pantry featured on its sister site, The Kitchn) Each day and weekend, they assign a new cleaning and organization task. Some are pretty invloved, like the first one. CLEAN ALL YOUR FLOORS! No joke, this was a weekend long task. Though I managed to pull it off without a hitch. Ok.. ok.. I didn't clean R's Office, because I don't want to mess with his "organized mess" ;) But all the rest of the floors got a really good cleaning. Kitchen scrubbed until it actually almost looks clean! I didn't take any pictures, because honestly, you can't tell. The floors are in such bad shape that when they are clean they just look slightly less dirty.

A week in to The Cure, and I'm pretty much on schedule. I allowed myself to skip the Pantry purge, because, well, I just don't need to. Having a pantry as clean and organized as mine has been for the last 5-6 months makes a heck of a difference. I use stuff up, because I can see it. I don't buy too much or duplicates, because I can see what I have and what I don't without much effort at all. I've got a pretty good min/max system going on too. So far so good anyway. Check in with me again next year and see how it holds up haha!

I didn't get a drawer done last night, due to a late night out (fun!) but since I'm sort of ahead of the game on this weekends task, (See this post for all the kitchen cleaning I've done recently)  I figure I can roll it up and tackle it all at the same time, since the questionable drawer is in the kitchen anyway!

I'll be cleaning drawers and cabinets this weekend and should have some fun new photos to share on Monday :)