Enough Already

Photo courtesy of *Ann Gordon

(This isn't my kitchen. I was too lazy to take a picture of mine.)

It's time to get your kitchen counters clean. There is no tidy house fairy that will be visiting your home to do it for you. It is up to you. ;)

Now, here is what I want you to do:

1. Get a nice clean dishcloth, but don't go putting in a load of laundry or run to the store for a new one or anything. Just do your best.
2. Next, get it wet. You don't need to find Grime-O-Remover or Sudsy-Suds or any product; just some nice hot water will do the trick.
   
3. Start at one edge of the kitchen and get wiping. If there is something crusty, I find a green scrubbie pad helps (but for heaven's sake, don't go buying any in the middle of my lesson!). Otherwise, it is just you and the cloth and some hot water. Please move every single thing out of the way temporarily to another part of the counter and wipe the WHOLE thing. You might have sparkly counters, in which case you can ignore me and this entire bossy post, or your counters might be really cluttered. If so, just move the stuff, wipe the surface down and put the stuff back for now. When you are all done...GOOD FOR YOU!! Isn't that nice? No crumbs or sticky stuff anywhere.
   

What you have done is the easy part. The hard part is training yourself to be in the habit of maintaining. Every time you do anything in the kitchen that makes even the smallest mess, grab that cloth, wet it and wipe it up. Every time. EVERY time. Don't leave the crumbs from toast-making until after breakfast to do a 'mass clean-up'. Clean people don't do mass clean-ups. They clean as they work. I know from watching my super-clean friend, Leslie. Wipe it up right away because knowing that your kitchen is tidy will make your breakfast better. :)

You can do this. I promise. I used to have a sticky, crumby kitchen counter. It would drive my husband nuts that when I cooked, I made a huge mess in the kitchen. Now, I am so used to cleaning as I go that when it is time to serve dinner, most of the time the kitchen looks very nice. I had prayed that God would give me a vision for homemaking and He helped me to see that doing little things right away makes my job a million times easier. If you have an icky counter, please just try for the Christmas holidays to wipe your counter constantly. You will love it and by the end of the holidays, you should have a well-established habit.