I predicted that I'd be cleaning out the refrigerator and freezer sometime soon, but Michele surprised me by adding floors into this week's assignment.
I started working on the refrigerator and freezer last Saturday. Thankfully the weather cooperated and it was warm enough to completely defrost the freezer in the garage.
Before (inside freezer):
A little over a year ago, Lauren could not get enough frozen grapes. Of course, she quit eating them when I stashed five gallon ziplock bags of them in the outside freezer. Even though a few looked a bit frost bitten, they made delicious raisins.
Modern art created by very, very old popsicles:
After (inside refrigerator and freezer):
After (outside freezer):
Apparently, I have a larger selection of gluten-free flours than I remembered. I better start baking soon.
The floors in the kitchen are large ceramic tiles and simply needed a good down-on-my-hands-and-knees scrubbing.
After:
I did get a bit carried away while cleaning the outside of the refrigerator and decided to clean the sides. And since I had pushed the refrigerator out from its cubbyhole, I went ahead and cleaned the floor under the fridge too. This cleaning challenge is turning into deep cleaning for a lot of areas that are often ignored around here.
The best part about finishing up the huge tasks of organizing the kitchen is that it is now much, much easier to see which foods I'm running low on. This past week I was able to plan meals around food we already had. My grocery list was so short this week that I could go through the self check-out lane at the Commissary (40 item limit).
I think Michele indicated that we'd be spending another week finishing up cleaning challenges in the kitchen. I've already started looking at the weather in hopes of finding a cool morning to use the self-cleaning cycle on my oven. I might be wrong about the upcoming assignment, though. In that case, I suspect I'll clean my oven and then do next week's challenge.
If you'd like to join me with the challenges, you can find Michele's posts on her Family, Faith, and Fridays blog, on the Facebook page, or by clicking the button below. She posts a new challenge every Friday and will also be hosting a weekly link-up for any other bloggers who are brave enough to share pictures of their progress.
Great job! And behind our fridge as well- yuck! How DOES that stuff get there? Tell the kids I love the Popsicle art and I can't wait to hear about all they goodies they eat when you start using all of that flour! ;) Thanks for linking up. Oh, and tell the stove to wait one more week! ;)
ReplyDeleteThe pictures of the stove will wait, but I couldn't pass up today's rare chance to heat up the house with the oven's self-cleaning cycle on a cool rainy day. Next weekend looks like it'll be too hot.
DeleteWhat a difference it makes to have a straight freezer. Sometimes that is all it takes to plan better meals. I tossed some very old popsicles last spring. I couldn't even remember when I had bought them and we almost never eat them. I didn't feel bad about it because they had a clearance price tag of 50 cents and most of the box was gone.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes have to tell myself that it doesn't matter how much I paid for something if nobody will eat it.
DeleteI think about cleaning under the fridge, but I'm not too sure if I could actually move it to get under there. But yeah, it's in my mind though. :o)
ReplyDeleteThankfully my refrigerator is on wheels and slid easily across the tile floor.
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