Day 26 was another dark day with lots of rain, so I kept myself to the kitchen since it had the most light. Also, I thought it would be easy to tackle a cabinet or two. I made the mistake of starting a work out program yesterday, and now my legs feel like flaming, boiled noodles.
I planned on tackling the sink cabinet, the cookie sheet cabinet to the left, and the pull out cleaning supply cabinet to the right.
After I pulled everything out and started planning where I would place everything, I quickly realized I couldn’t do the pull out cabinet without doing this cabinet.
And I couldn’t this cabinet without doing that cabinet.
So much for an easy project. I took it like a woman and pulled everything out of those cabinets, too.
ONLY FIVE MORE DAYS UNTIL THIS SERIES IS OVER.
The sink cabinet is now bare except for a watering can, distilled vinegar, and ammonia.
The visual difference is slight in the cookie sheet cabinet, but removing four pliable cutting boards made a world of difference for me. Pulling out the remaining sheets and boards is much easier.
In the cleaning supply pull out (which isn’t as great as it seems since most items are too tall to fit), I put cleaning supplies up on the top shelf and ingredients to make cleaning supplies on the bottom self. I used to make all our cleaning supplies, and it’s a habit I need to revisit. Almost everything I made worked better than what I bought in stores and was healthier for us and the environment.
My small collection of wooden plates and bowls (all in desperate need of conditioning) sit on the bottom pull out shelf. On the top shelf is infrequently used party platters and my sushi making plates and supplies from my birthday last year.
As for the two extra cabinets that got pulled into the project at the last minute…
They turned out well. I put the dishwashing detergent in the cabinet next to the dishwasher. The beer steins need to go, but I couldn’t move them without tackling the rest of the upper cabinets. No, thanks.
The final cabinet stores almost all our small appliances. Bonus: I found that coffee grinder I thought I imagined receiving as a wedding present.
Whew.
Did I mention ONLY FIVE MORE DAYS UNTIL THE END OF THIS SERIES?
New here? For the next 31 days Im living according to the famous William Morris quote. You can learn more about the project here.
Hi Jules,
I stumbled upon your site after visiting Rachel at Smallnotebook.org. Let me just share that I’ve been loving this William Morris series! Thanks for sharing all your hard work. Very inspiring, indeed. I love that you’ve broken down the project into manageable daily portions and also that there is an end. I’m pretty good at staying focused for about 30 days. Much longer than that and I get bored. You’ve given me tons of ideas. Keep up the good work and I’m looking forward to your next series!
Thank you, Jeannie! I’ll try to make you proud. :)
I just love your kitchen :)
Thanks! I love it, too. :)
Jules, you know you’ve been terribly distracting for me these last 26 days don’t you? Everytime I pop into your blog here, I have this urge to go clean out a cabinet or drawer. Right now I’m thinking about the cleaning supply closet – the one that things jump/fall out of when I open the door.
(seriously though, your blog as been terribly inspiring – as well as distracting :-) )
Well, you know my motto: “If I’m going to procrastinate, the rest of the world is going to procrastinate along with me.” ;)
p.s. My closet where things jumped out at me was the entry closet. That thing was a shop of horrors!
Are there really only five days left? I have to say I really admire you for this series. I love that Morris quote, and we have been doing our own purging here on my house (but mostly large, useless items…like my baby grand piano, extra furniture, baby equipment we just haven’t used, etc..) It was a little hard at first, but I’m so glad we’ve done it. But the smaller stuff like cabinets and closets fill me with dread! lol Anyway, I’ve really enjoyed following your process this October. This is one of the very few 31-dayer blogs I read this time around. :)
Thanks, Erin! Getting rid of a piano! YOU WIN! :)
Is it just me or does it seem crazy that there could only be five days left of the series. Didn’t you just start it like, yesterday?!
Nope! I started 26 days ago. Not that I’m counting…. ;)
Wow, 5 more days? Your house looks amazing. What kind of cabinets do you have? They look just like the ones we got for our kitchen.
They are shaker style by Kraftmaid. They are cream with a white glaze overtop. I think you can see in some close up pictures (look for the day where I cleaned the cabinets) the white glazing in the corners.
Yep, the same cabinets but ours are painted white, no glaze. Well they look great! Gives me an idea of what my kitchen will look like in 10 yrs.
I hate to make a suggestion for a later post idea, with you counting the days and all, but, well, here it is…
Pull out that stuff you use to make homemade cleaning supplies and do some tutorials. There are lots of recipes for homemade cleaners out there, but I don’t always know if someone is just reposting something they saw once or if it’s a tried and true recipe that they’ve used. I would love some recipes with your stamp of approval.
Just file that away for later. I’ve become a permanent follower through this series so I’ll just stick around and see if it ever comes up. ;)
Hang in there, it’s looking AWESOME! So inspiring and necessary. I agree with Pamelotta, I’d love to see homemade cleaning supplies tutorials. I’m imagining your cleaning supplies pull out with all these pretty Ball Quart jars and fun scoops.
I would love to do that! I found a dishwasher detergent recipe for hard water that I am dying to try out. If it works, it’s all yours.
The best part of this series is the single element that makes your blog special: the honesty.
I really appreciate that you show closets with stuff strew about the bottom–stacks of stuff that represent reality for most of us. It’s not the sort of thing that one sees on even lifestyle blogs. It seems everything is about image and creating the perfect illusion–vapid.
You have photos of parts of your home that are lovely, and you also have real photos of the not-so-lovely elements, behind the closed doors. You’ve made temporary chaos permissible–desperately needed in our society–and given a cute plan for restoration of order. I’ve really enjoyed the series.
PS: Would also be interested in the home-made cleaning supplies, especially if they save $$!!
{blush.sniffle.blush}
Seriously, only 5? October has gone by so very fast. Next Tuesday is going to be weird. I will be fine though. Really. :)
That is quite a lab you have going on. What kind of cleaning supplies did you make?
Oh, you know I was all mad scientist with my recipes. None of this “vinegar and water” business. I wanted my products to smell good and really, really work.
Would love it if you’d share them.
“I took it like a woman.” You are too, too good.
what, we don’t get a day 32???!!! I will be sad to see this go! great job so far. I will savor the next 5.
Ditto on the cleaning supplies. . .also I asked you a while ago about what you use to clean your cabients, but forgot to check back for your answer. So now that we are talking cabinets again, please let me know what you use. I have similar painted ones and generally use spic n span/water mixture but I don’t think it does a great job. Why are these finished painted cabinets so hard to de-smudge? The kitchen design guy said NEVER use Murphy;s or you will have a big sticky mess over time. Maybe there is something better I don’t know about . . . I will SOOOOO miss this series!
Jeanne–I answered that question on the original comment. Short answer: all purpose cleanser is what I used for the easier to clean cabinets. Once cabinet door over the range required hot, soapy water. I have yet to find something that cleans the cabinets better than my homemade cleanser, so I will post a recipe for that sometime soon–probably next month!
p.s. Don’t ever use orange oil, either. It may work great on stained or varnished cabinets, but it was a disaster on my painted finish cabinets. I tried it years ago and had to wash the cabinets to get off the orange oil and then clean them. I wasn’t pleased.
Ok. Great job! Honestly, you gotta share those cleaning supplies recipes. No really, because I have to have one more thing in my life that makes my husband think I’m crazy… Wait, I don’t need your help on that!!! But a cleaning supply how-to would be awesome! Please. ;)
I inadvertently got into this same project a few months ago, when we received a bunch of our wedding gifts. I wanted to put them away, so I had to re-organize and purge a few cabinets, but then it would impact one more cabinet and then one more and eventually I had every single thing I owned on the floor of the kitchen at once. It’s so hard to do just one cabinet.
It does feel great when it’s done, though. So good.