Y'all.
Today was rough. My sweet little Henry was such a sad sack all day. He truly didn't sleep more than 20 minutes at a time all day and cried, and cried and cried. Then I cried. It's so heartbreaking when you can't console your little baby and you don't know what's wrong.
I was able to clean my kitchen, my fridge and organize my drawers. The project itself probably took 1.5 hours tops, but I had to stop so many times and console Henry. I also made Eric and I Shashuka for breakfast with sausage (because meat is life) and our neighbors baked ziti, salad and cookies for dinner. I was really proud of myself. Today was a day for others, and I'm okay with that <3
I thought this challenge would make me be more engrossed in my computer and the internet but truthfully I have been so busy- I haven't wasted much time scrolling like I normally do. If anything, this little challenge of mine has taught me to use more hours in the day productively.
Here is the step-by-step guide on how to effectively clean and organize your kitchen in less than two hours:
Step 1 CLEAN OUT FRIDGE- Take everything out of your fridge and wipe it down. It seriously is so gross and amazing how quickly things get dirty in there. I do this everytime we go grocery shopping.
Step 2 ORGANIZE FRIDGE- This is seriously my favorite thing to do every week. Ask Eric or my mom, or mother-in-law, when you come to visit and we happen to go grocery shopping... don't try to be sweet and put stuff away in my fridge. I will inevitably rearrange.
When I lived with my girls in Washington, D.C. my best friend Courtney would get SOOO mad at me for letting food rot in the back of the fridge. She must of wore off on me because somewhere along the way I got really OCD about it. My method is simple. Each row has it's own type of food or drink. Here is what I do:
Top Shelf- Drinks. Drinks only. Don't you dare put anything else on the top shelf, even if it's empty. We always have Topo Chico for Eric, a seltzer for me and usually a few types of beer. I like putting drinks on the top shelf because they’re eye level. We also have a beer fridge in the garage so this shelf isn't completely stocked 24/7. Just overflow.
If you want you could get gravity
Second Shelf- Fruits, eggs, yogurts, or anything in a circular container-- like hummus. Don't ask my why but I just like it that way. I think of this shelf as "healthy" snacks. I recently bought a four pack of really cute ceramic fruit containers from Amazon, but it only came with one by accident! So I'm waiting for the other three- and since Amazon is really supplying all of America right now- I'll cut them some slack.
I also love my little egg holder from World Market, which technically holds 12 eggs but I can get 18 on there by stacking.
Third Shelf- Leftovers and cut up vegis for salads. We try to prep everything weekly so we can just easily make salads. Otherwise the lettuce rots lol. This week I have: copycat Panera broccoli cheddar soup, pot roast, Shashuka, sauce And various cut up vegis.
True Life: our fridge doesn’t ALWAYS look 10/10 like this- but I had to do it for the gram.
Fourth Shelf- Meats and cooked meats. I like to put all raw meat on the bottom because otherwise it could leak down the fridge and get over all the fresh produce. OSHA would be proud.
Step 3 ORGANIZE DRAWERS- Why is it that no matter how hard you try... the drawers always get messy? When I first moved in, I put all utensils lined up perfectly... you know what happened? It turned into this...
... and with a little help with some acrylic organizers from STORi (Amazon) it looks like this...
Tip: I don’t like when the plugs or light switches show when I’m trying to style a space with a eclectic vignette so I try to cover it whenever possible. (There is an outlet behind that cutting board.)
Step 4 ORGANIZE GLASS WEAR- We recently got rid of our little bar so I decided to re-organize our glass wear and put all of our wine and champagne glasses in the kitchen. This may not apply to you so you can easily skip this step!
Step 5 MAKE YOURSELF SOMETHING DELICIOUS- I'm a big fan of rewarding yourself after a day of hard work, whether it be rewarding yourself with a workout or some pasta- I know now (more than ever) that it's important to take time for yourself or listen to your inner fat child!
Tonight I made our neighbors some homemade sauce & baked ziti-- so I reaped the benefits of that sans cheese because Mr. Henry can't handle the dairy. However, it would have been much better with cheese, let's be honest.
So there ya have it kids, a quick way to clean up your kitchen. What I like about this challenge is that it can be done any time of the year or broken up into multiple days. It's really made my house feel so much cleaner and will be nice to have everything even more organized when I go back to work!