Spring Cleaning

When great grandma was a girl there was an annual event called SPRING CLEANING. Great grandma and great aunt Susie donned their kerchiefs, tied a pillow case over the broom (to sweep the cobwebs from those eleven-foot ceilings), took down the lace curtains, washed them, poked them painstakingly on the curtain stretcher, washed the windows inside and out, beat the rugs, vacuumed the carpet, waxed the furniture, took all the china, crystal and silver off the cabinet shelves and washed and polished it. They also washed and ironed all the linens stored in the drawers of the buffet. At the end of this great event which took between two weeks and a month, the whole house sparkled and grandma and great aunt Susie collapsed. The rest of the year their cleaning was "only what showed."

Some of us are stuck between grandma's world and modern methods. We attempt to "clean house" by taking everything out of the closet, cupboards, drawers--whatever--and piling it--wherever. But with our current lifestyle, the phone rings, the kids have a crisis, we have to run taxi service to football practice, ballet lessons and cub scouts. There are a multitude of other interruptions and then it's time for dinner. "All that junk" is piled in the hall or wherever, so we shove it back. Did all that fit in there before? It looks worse than before we started. Feeling frustrated and angry at the interruptions, guilty for not being a better housekeeper, we yell at the kids, the dog, even the goldfish, but the house is "still a mess." What's the answer?

In our pioneer grandmother's day all the kitchen utensils she had to cope with were a huge pot hooked over the fire and an equally huge spoon to stir that pot. On the other hand, we have a food processor, blender, mixer, toaster, slow cooker, electric frying pan, pop corn popper--the list seems endless. Sally said she had 27 appliances that could be kept on the counter top. Most of us don't have enough space to prepare meals and allow for clean up as it is without keeping 27 varieties of appliances sandwiched in between.

Later, in the section on KITCHEN RE-DO, I'll show you what to do to better organize those 27 varieties of appliances. Now that I have an empty nest, I've found I can do without many appliances I once thought imperative to my life. That could be an option for you to consider.