The Great Kitchen Clean-Up! (Week 4)
Excerpted from Just Clean Enough ON Jan 3, 2011 at 12:34PM
The Kitchen Calls
Week 4: Monday
Pare Down Plastics
20 minutes
A familiar slapstick scene played out in kitchens far and wide is opening a cabinet door and being awash in a shower of tubs and lids. Don’t let this happen to you! First, buy plastic containers in a single shape. Go for square or round, but don’t have both. Mismatched shapes will take up extra cabinet space and prevent you from stacking to the max. Mount a separate rack for lids inside the cabinet door and your shelves will look department-store neat. Also, are you still squirreling away the plastic tubs and containers from cottage cheese, margarine, and Chinese takeout? Do you really need to save every last one of them? Instead, recycle them or donate them to a school art class.
Week 4: Tuesday
Hang It Up!
20 minutes
Are you running low on cabinet space but have some good looking pots and pans or mugs that you wouldn’t mind putting on display? Overhead pot racks suspended from the ceiling are a creative use of air space. Make sure the rack is securely bolted in place and up to the task of handling a heavy weight load. Hanging pot racks run the gamut of styles, from ornate ironwork to thin minimalist wooden strips, to match just about any décor. Some have built-in shelves for lids or additional display storage. You can also install a few hooks underneath a cabinet to hang attractive mugs or teacups. This will free up some cabinet space while adding a homey touch to the look of the room.
Week 4: Wednesday
Attention, Magnet Maniacs!
15 minutes
In many homes, the refrigerator winds up becoming a giant, messy canvas for magnet collages. While it’s nice to have the phone number of your favorite pizza delivery service handy, and it’s easy to tack up all the photos of your nieces and nephews you get in holiday cards, you can put the refrigerator’s magnetic properties to better use. Instead, make your magnets into a work of art. Buy a magnetic board and install it on a wall in your kitchen. Display magnets from trips you’ve taken or choose a few of your favorite photos and put them in magnetic frames. Just don’t go overboard.
Week 4: Thursday
Find a Place for Pesky Plastic Bags
15 minutes
From grocery bags to the bags the newspaper comes in, plastic bags are everywhere. While they are useful to hang on to, things can quickly get out of hand. Instead of just shoving them in the cabinet under the kitchen sink or stuffing them into a drawer, come up with a system that saves space by making the bags as compact as possible. For instance, pick up a plastic bag holder that can be mounted on the inside of a cabinet door, or a hanging sleeve that can go in a pantry or closet. Load bags into the top of the device, pressing down in order to remove all the air, and then, when you need a bag, just pull one from the bottom.
Week 4: Friday
Filter Water at the Source
20 minutes
If you’re someone who doesn’t like to drink water straight from the tap, you may be the proud owner of one of those large, plastic filtering jugs. While it’s nice to have cold, filtered water at the ready, this device takes up a lot of space in your fridge or on your countertop. An alternative is a filtering fixture that can be installed right on your kitchen faucet. Most of these fixtures have on and off settings or can simply be moved aside when you’re just washing dishes and don’t need filtered water. This device does have a filter that will need to be changed every so often, but overall it will save some precious space and make your kitchen a little less cluttered.
Week 4: Saturday
Do Some Drawer and Cabinet Maintenance
40 minutes
Take a tour of your kitchen. Are there any drawers with missing pulls or wheels that have come off the track? Are there any cabinets with creaky hinges or doors that don’t close all the way? If you have missing or damaged drawer pulls, take this opportunity to choose a new design and replace them all. For creaky hinges, apply some household lubricant and open and close the cabinet door two or three times to help it circulate. If you find a cabinet door that always hangs open just slightly, pick up a cabinet magnet kit. Simply affix one magnet to the surface of the open cabinet and the other to the inside of the cabinet door. When you close the door, they should meet and attract, keeping the door closed.
Week 4: Sunday
Get a Knife Makeover
20 minutes
What kind of shape are your knives in? Are the blades dull and the handles loose? Dull blades require you to put in twice the effort, and loose handles can cause you to slip and cut yourself. While you don’t need more stuff on your kitchen countertop, there is one item that is worth the several square inches it takes up: a knife block. Essentially, it’s just a block of wood with slits of different sizes for all your different size knives: the chopping knife, the bread knife, the paring knife, and so on. Some knife blocks also come with a sharpener so you can sharpen your own knives at home. Others include slots for kitchen shears and other handy tools. If counter space is seriously at a premium, another option is a wall-mounted magnetic knife strip.
MY THOUGHTS
i plead guilty. once again on all counts. but i've taken action. yes, i've thrown away all those plastic containers. for someone whose meals are almost always store-bought, those containers can accumulate.and i promised myself to just keep on throwing them away. washing them and stacking them up defeats the purpose.
Excerpted from Just Clean Enough ON Jan 3, 2011 at 12:34PM
The Kitchen Calls
Week 4: Monday
Pare Down Plastics
20 minutes
A familiar slapstick scene played out in kitchens far and wide is opening a cabinet door and being awash in a shower of tubs and lids. Don’t let this happen to you! First, buy plastic containers in a single shape. Go for square or round, but don’t have both. Mismatched shapes will take up extra cabinet space and prevent you from stacking to the max. Mount a separate rack for lids inside the cabinet door and your shelves will look department-store neat. Also, are you still squirreling away the plastic tubs and containers from cottage cheese, margarine, and Chinese takeout? Do you really need to save every last one of them? Instead, recycle them or donate them to a school art class.
Week 4: Tuesday
Hang It Up!
20 minutes
Are you running low on cabinet space but have some good looking pots and pans or mugs that you wouldn’t mind putting on display? Overhead pot racks suspended from the ceiling are a creative use of air space. Make sure the rack is securely bolted in place and up to the task of handling a heavy weight load. Hanging pot racks run the gamut of styles, from ornate ironwork to thin minimalist wooden strips, to match just about any décor. Some have built-in shelves for lids or additional display storage. You can also install a few hooks underneath a cabinet to hang attractive mugs or teacups. This will free up some cabinet space while adding a homey touch to the look of the room.
Week 4: Wednesday
Attention, Magnet Maniacs!
15 minutes
In many homes, the refrigerator winds up becoming a giant, messy canvas for magnet collages. While it’s nice to have the phone number of your favorite pizza delivery service handy, and it’s easy to tack up all the photos of your nieces and nephews you get in holiday cards, you can put the refrigerator’s magnetic properties to better use. Instead, make your magnets into a work of art. Buy a magnetic board and install it on a wall in your kitchen. Display magnets from trips you’ve taken or choose a few of your favorite photos and put them in magnetic frames. Just don’t go overboard.
Week 4: Thursday
Find a Place for Pesky Plastic Bags
15 minutes
From grocery bags to the bags the newspaper comes in, plastic bags are everywhere. While they are useful to hang on to, things can quickly get out of hand. Instead of just shoving them in the cabinet under the kitchen sink or stuffing them into a drawer, come up with a system that saves space by making the bags as compact as possible. For instance, pick up a plastic bag holder that can be mounted on the inside of a cabinet door, or a hanging sleeve that can go in a pantry or closet. Load bags into the top of the device, pressing down in order to remove all the air, and then, when you need a bag, just pull one from the bottom.
Week 4: Friday
Filter Water at the Source
20 minutes
If you’re someone who doesn’t like to drink water straight from the tap, you may be the proud owner of one of those large, plastic filtering jugs. While it’s nice to have cold, filtered water at the ready, this device takes up a lot of space in your fridge or on your countertop. An alternative is a filtering fixture that can be installed right on your kitchen faucet. Most of these fixtures have on and off settings or can simply be moved aside when you’re just washing dishes and don’t need filtered water. This device does have a filter that will need to be changed every so often, but overall it will save some precious space and make your kitchen a little less cluttered.
Week 4: Saturday
Do Some Drawer and Cabinet Maintenance
40 minutes
Take a tour of your kitchen. Are there any drawers with missing pulls or wheels that have come off the track? Are there any cabinets with creaky hinges or doors that don’t close all the way? If you have missing or damaged drawer pulls, take this opportunity to choose a new design and replace them all. For creaky hinges, apply some household lubricant and open and close the cabinet door two or three times to help it circulate. If you find a cabinet door that always hangs open just slightly, pick up a cabinet magnet kit. Simply affix one magnet to the surface of the open cabinet and the other to the inside of the cabinet door. When you close the door, they should meet and attract, keeping the door closed.
Week 4: Sunday
Get a Knife Makeover
20 minutes
What kind of shape are your knives in? Are the blades dull and the handles loose? Dull blades require you to put in twice the effort, and loose handles can cause you to slip and cut yourself. While you don’t need more stuff on your kitchen countertop, there is one item that is worth the several square inches it takes up: a knife block. Essentially, it’s just a block of wood with slits of different sizes for all your different size knives: the chopping knife, the bread knife, the paring knife, and so on. Some knife blocks also come with a sharpener so you can sharpen your own knives at home. Others include slots for kitchen shears and other handy tools. If counter space is seriously at a premium, another option is a wall-mounted magnetic knife strip.
MY THOUGHTS
i plead guilty. once again on all counts. but i've taken action. yes, i've thrown away all those plastic containers. for someone whose meals are almost always store-bought, those containers can accumulate.and i promised myself to just keep on throwing them away. washing them and stacking them up defeats the purpose.
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