How I Turned My Kitchen Into A Cash Machine

Have you been following Karen Ruby’s ‘Just For Today’ challenges? If not, I recommend you check them out. Yesterday was Day 17 and probably one of the most challenging to date. (Having written that, I just checked out today’s and it’s updating your CV. Sorry Karen, that could be one challenge too much for me ) Leaving the scariness of CVs aside for the moment, yesterday’s challenge was to get rid of some stuff. As I remarked to Karen, reading her post felt like she’d been reading my mind. If you’d been in our house yesterday morning when I was trying to clean up before my mum and sister came over, you’d understand

Suffice to say that we have a lot of stuff in our house. With three children, I guess it’s an occupational hazard. Looking around yesterday, it frustrated me slightly to remember how de-cluttered and clean the place looked when we moved in seven years ago, me heavily pregnant with number one.

So this morning I decided to tackle the challenge head on. I started in the kitchen and with the exception of the box of plastic tubs under the sink and the bucket of children’s clutter in the corner by the back door, it’s done. (OK, I accept that my little caveat is a bit loose but at least I’m heading in the right direction.)

I’ve even taken all the pictures down off the wall units. When my son saw what I was doing he looked slightly concerned. When I told him I was just making space for more of his pictures though, his face lit up. That alone was worth the sticky-tape stained cupboards I’m left with. I guess I need to add ‘cleaning cupboards’ to the list of things to do in the kitchen but it’s still a massive improvement. (Thanks Karen )

Karen suggested that if something hadn’t been used in twelve months it could be safely recycled, donated or sold without any fear of said ‘stuff’ being missed. As a result, I now have two recycling bags full of paper-based documents, one bin bag to send to landfill and a gigantic box full of items to sell.

Usually I would take such items straight to my favourite local charity shop. (My favourite is based on how easy it is to get to in the car as I have no desire to carry multiple boxes of goods from my house to town.) However, thanks to the large number of saleable items in my grandmother’s flat, we have plans for mega-car-boot sale attendance in the Spring. Whilst I wouldn’t hold out much hope for my kitchen items on e-Bay, the car boot sale could be the perfect location for the barely-used Kenwood Hobbs coffee machine, vases (we had literally four as wedding presents) fruit bowl and hand-painted egg storage tray I found whilst de-cluttering.

As an aside, my other half has to work away from home until late tomorrow night. When I told him of my plan to de-clutter our home he looked delighted. (He is by nature a much tidier person than me and his frustration with my mess is barely hidden.) However, even he looked slightly uneasy when I said I was going to sort out our wardrobe. He needn’t have worried though, I promised I wouldn’t get rid of any of his stuff without him checking through it first. My word is my bond

If you enjoyed this post, please Give A Brick. It’ll only cost a quid

photo credit: Katie@!

So what about you? Are you a hoarder like me or do you prefer to live in a more organised space?

Please add a comment and retweet.
It’s just another one of the ways you can Give A Brick and then tell your friends