Let's Clean and Organize {Journey to} Under the Kitchen Sink!

“If you want to make room in your life for peace and patience, take small steps on organization, know the value of time. Snatch, seize and enjoy every minute of it!”

~ Emilie Barnes

Some may think that there are certain areas of the home that are best left alone. Perhaps they are too dangerous to discover! I am one of the odd ones that think the path to homemaking serenity leads to uncovering them. These are the spots we must tame in order to maintain that precious feeling of order! Though it may be a bit dark and dreary, would you like to clean and organize this place with me? In hopes At the risk of sounding like a Jules Verne novel, let's journey to the center of the earth to underneath the kitchen sink!

"Our real journey had now commenced. Hitherto our courage and determination had overcome all difficulties. We were fatigued at times; and that was all. Now we were about to encounter unknown and fearful dangers... I had not as yet ventured to take a glimpse down the horrible abyss into which in a few minutes more I was about to plunge. The fatal moment had, however, at last arrived."

~ Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

The first thing we must do is remove everything from the area and start with a clean slate. Now is the time to place some shelf paper down if your area is undesirable. You can also tile the area (like we did) in order to make it nice and wipeable. Even laying down any leftover tile you may have (without gluing it down) will work nicely. Either path you choose to take, wipe your area down with a damp rag and some all-purpose cleaner. If your area is really unsightly, you may also consider painting the sides of the walls to freshen it up.

The next step is to go through all your items and determine if anything needs to be relocated or disposed of. I found some chemical cleaning products from days gone by that I removed. What we store under each of our kitchen sinks is going to be different. Don't ask me how or why my flower vases ended up down here but they are. I suppose I had nowhere else to put them and keeping them sanitized wasn't an issue so this place worked for me. 

Now that our inventory is decided, begin by wiping down anything gross (with that damp rag) and place like-items together. Corralling the similar goods in dollar-store baskets keeps everything looking tidy and somewhat protects from small pools of water in the event of pipe leakage. Here we have put away our DIY un-paper towels which we use for quick clean ups in lieu of their disposable counterparts. 

We gathered all our common cleaning products used in the kitchen in another basket. There is our countertop cleaner, window cleaner, cleanser, dish soap, extra soap pump (that is too pretty to part with and we use occasionally), dish rags, sponges and an old toothbrush we use for cleaning any nooks and crannies (sorry you have to see it but I am trying to be "real" here :). We have more dish rags than this but they are drying on the line right now as we replace them daily and wash them weekly.

To the left of the under-the-sink space we store our white vinegar and dishwashing tabs (yes, I finally got a dishwasher!). We use vinegar often and include it here for quick access and in a small bottle for easy pouring. I don't place anything behind those items because we have a detachable metal hose there which I use to fill up our large stock pots, etc. 

And finally, we have just enough room to store our bulk store vinegar (which we use to refill our glass jar of vinegar). Not long ago, I also stored my wash tubs down here but due to some fancy sink-work from my husband, that is no longer necessary :)

"This was our final surprise after all the

astonishing events of our wonderful journey."

~ Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

Now that everything is neat and tidy, it is time to close the curtain and bring this tale to an end. How often this needs to be organized depends on how quickly you let it go. We can get away with twice a year in our home because I don't keep much items down here in my effort to simplify. I know this wasn't the most exciting of posts, but if you now have the desire to tackle this project, then my homemaking mission to journey "under the kitchen sink" has been accomplished! The end.

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