When Life Gives You Lemons...

Clean the kitchen!  

Okay, I know this isn't exactly a living large in small spaces thing, but I figure it's helpful, and it's been far too long since I posted!  Plus, part of keeping sane in a small space is keeping it clean.

I love the smell of fresh lemons, and have found that frozen lemons can do fabulous things for cleaning.  I like to take a lemon and slice it into quarters, then each quarter into half, and then thirds.  I drop the pieces into an ice-cube tray, squeeze some of the juice into all the compartments, then fill them up with water.  

Once frozen, they are great for a variety of uses.  I just keep 'em in a plastic baggie in the freezer door.  

For the sink disposal: toss two or three lemon cubes in to grind up and clean, sharpen and deodorize the blades and disposal.

For the microwave: drop one or two into a microwave-safe bowl, add water, and microwave for 2-5 minutes (depending on the wattage) on high power.  Let sit for another 5 minutes, and then wipe microwave down immediately.

You can also do something similar to this to help with the oven cleaning.

For hard water stains/boil marks in pots and pans: fill pot or pan with water, bring to almost boiling, let simmer and add a handful of the lemon cubes.  Cover with lid, turn off heat, and let steam.  This doesn't completely remove the stains, but it helps when it comes to elbow grease time.

And as a bonus, the lemon juice is good for freshening up your wooden cutting board, and if you really want to get all Martha-Stewarty, the lemon cubes make a "fabulous addition to any afternoon get-together" (insert creepy chuckle here).  

Rules to Live By #5: Compartmentalize, compartmentalize, compartmentalize.

One of my favorite scenes from the movie Happy Gilmore is when he's trying to learn how to putt and it's going badly. After several desperate attempts, he kneels down and screams at the golf ball, "Why won't you go to your home? Are you too good for your home?!?" Mayhem and hilarity ensue.

Whenever I see clutter around our house (does it breed when we turn the lights out?), that's what I find myself saying--"Go to your home!" I've found that if everybody has an easily accessible home, then instead of just dropping the hammer, pencil, remote, etc. wherever, there is a better chance that we'll put it back neatly where it belongs.

I think a fancy-schmancy garage with lots of storage space (what is this "storage space" of which you speak?) has a lot for a small home dweller to learn from, despite the dissimilarities in size. Particularly, the tool part of the garage. Because most people want to leave room for their cars, there can be some great examples of Rules to Live By #2: Think vertically as well as compartmentalization. I love the pegboard tool holder. Especially when it has outlines drawn on it to show which tool goes where. It looks a bit like a crime scene for a tool mass murderer, but it sure is handy to have all the tools laid out where they're easy to get to, with all their little homes, but vertically, so they don't make a large "footprint."

We have lots of hooks all over the place for hanging flashlights, keys, ponytail holders, potholders, etc. This means that they don't just get tossed anywhere and then get lost. No outlines, just hung in specific places (the potholders over the stove) that make sense and in some sort of order for multiple items (the flashlights in descending order, largest to smallest). Especially since we have very little drawer space, this is great.

But what to do with the drawers we do have? How to keep them from getting cluttered and useless? It's really frustrating to have to rummage through a drawer for 5 minutes just looking for the can-opener. The answer I've found is lots of smaller trays. Most people have a silverware divider that keeps the spoons from fraternizing with the forks. I like to apply this to other drawers, and shelves as well.

They have clever subdividers in stores that expand and lock into place to keep your kitchen utensil drawer in neat segments. They're expensive, however, and I've found that the shallow plastic trays that you can get at the dollar store and other chain stores (for pretty cheap) work well, too. And there's an actual bonus that you can pull out one subdivided section to get to one that is further back, somewhat like the way the top part of a handheld toolbox comes out to reveal the space beneath. This makes it nice to have homes for the less-used gadgets and such that are still easily accessible. A drawer within a drawer, if you will.

There is a caution I've found in subdividing, and that is not to go too crazy. Some personalities may be different, but I can get overwhelmed by too much subdividing if I can't remember where things are supposed to go. If the spaghetti holder, the spatula, the whisk, etc. etc. all have their own homes, it might work, but it might also get confusing. I like to group like items and let them hang out together. What would be an easy way to split up kitchen utensils to narrow down the choices when it comes time to fish something out? A good way to categorize could be bladed/sharp (can opener, veggie peeler, cheese grater--a bit dangerous but well-organized) vs. "heavy" (rolling pin, meat tenderizer, potato masher, etc.). Or, if your utensils--like ours--were added over time and don't all match, categorize them by material (metal utensils vs. plastic. ), color or even brand.

The point is to find what works for you and this may take quite a bit of experimenting. Try one way of compartmentalizing a kitchen drawer. Be faithful to use that system for a week. If at the end of the week, it's still driving you nuts and doesn't seem to be helping, try something else. Eventually, you'll find a system that is easy to use, efficient, and keeps the utensils from getting all tangled up. It's amazing how a whisk, a potato masher and a spaghetti scoop can all form a new creature that is of no use and keeps the drawer from closing!

Give everybody a nice home and be diligent to help them get back there after they get used. Clutter, be gone!

Rules to Live By #4: But sort through stuff often!

This goes hand-in-hand with Rules to Live By #1 and #3, but I think it's good for it to have its own post. Because there's a certain strategy that I've found to sorting through things that doesn't land me too badly in overwhelm, feeling like de-cluttering is a never-ending, impossible task.

Lately, I've really been re-learning the value of scheduling things. Everything from vacuuming behind the sofa to spending time with my husband. I schedule monthly calls with my grandmother, bi-weekly trims of the cats' claws (good times!), and daily going through at least one chunk of our STUFF to see what can be weeded out, given away, used more efficiently, or quietly returned to its little home.

Some tasks I actually put on the calendar, like calling my parents and date night with my hubby. Other things I go with standard practice (spring and fall deep-cleaning just makes sense, and I can't believe I'm just now getting that!) or I do because there is an actual link (such as sorting through our games, etc. at the beginning of every football season when I go to find the football). These are good triggers that keep me feeling efficient, not burdened.

I'm still developing my routines for cleaning and clearing. New things get purchased, old things get given away, habits change and needs change. Until we have a baby living in the house, I don't need to develop a routine for disinfecting the diaper pail or sorting through clothes to see what the little one outgrew in the last five minutes. And once we have saved up for a new entertainment center (oh, I dream of the day), keeping our DVDs and other multimedia equipment clean and tidy will be much easier. So I won't have to be quite as vigilant about dusting and tidying as often.

For now, we have our little schedules. The cat box gets scooped every other day, our closets get sorted through when the seasons change, and the schmutz on the fridge door gets weeded out before we have people over for Thanksgiving, 4th of July, etc.

And don't let this post fool you. I forget, often, about when I'm supposed to sort through this or take out that. Our house is not pristine (anyone who's been over knows this, and is laughing). But I find that having goals means they at least get done most of the time, and keeps the clutter at a bare minimum.