Cooking: Ways to a cleaner kitchen

There are a few  ways to keep your kitchen clean and organized.  I'm going to list some of them for you here.

1. Color coded sponges- I use two different-color sponges in my kitchen.  I use yellow sponges for my dishes and other items related to food.  I use blue sponges for cleaning, especially stove tops and the floor around the fridge and any other nasty areas that might be a bit more grungy. This ensures that you do not get cleaning chemicals on to anything that touches food.
2. Cheap paper plates - I use the cheap paper plates that are very thin as disposable cutting board liners.  This ensures that you do not cross-contaminate food because you have a clean surface under each food item that you cut.  You cannot leave some of the wetter items on the plates, like tomatoes, but it's worth the peace of mind that comes from a germ-free surface.
3. Proper use of the garbage disposal - the name is misleading.  The garbage disposal was mainly invented to clear your drain of the bits of food and crud that comes off your dishes after normal washing.  You are NOT meant to peel a ten-pound sack of potatoes and try and stuff all the peelings down there.  Use a compost pile or a wood chipper for that.
4. Smaller garbage can - If you are living in an apartment building or other area prone to infestation problems, it's wise to use a very small kitchen garbage can and empty it frequently.  A large can is just a bug-buffet... starve the little bastards out.
5. Shelf-lining - My apartment has cheap, particle-board shelves in all the kitchen cabinets.  I bought two yards of oilskin (that rubbery plastic some diners use for tablecloths) for about four dollars and cut pieces to fit all my shelves.  The rubbery underside keeps it from slipping around, and the top is easily cleaned by a damp (blue) sponge.  And buying oilskin by the yard is cheaper than that shelf liner they charge an arm and a leg for at Walmart.

Miscellaneous: Spring Cleaning

Since I am still on that hateful Shadow Cardigan, no true knitting post today.  Instead I'll talk about what's going on with me... spring cleaning.

I have been tearing the kitchen up all week, figuratively.... no remodeling.  Just a lot of hands and knees type scrubbing, getting a butter-knife under that lip on the fridge that collects goo under it, that kind of thing.  We've lived here almost... what, six years?  Take Hurricane Katrina, add a year, and that's about when we moved into this apartment of Hobbit-esque proportions.  That's a lot of goo.

Next project might be my closets, because they are a nightmare.  And if I clean my closets, I can move the four space-bags full of YARN and roving into a closet instead of stacked behind my couch.  The closets aren't messy, they're just full of boxes of stuff my husband apparently can't seem to part with... old stereo components and things.  There comes a point where if you're not going to sell it, and you're never going to use it, then THROW IT AWAY for Pete's sake.  I don't care if it was a gift!  What's the point of holding on to it?

De-clutter is the word of the week.  I'm doing my best.

Sprung

Ah, spring. Warmer weather, goofy pastel colors everywhere... in the grocery store, on the tv, in little dyed eggs. And pollen. Yeah.

Spring break for the little moppet ended today... it's back to school. This means mom gets to go back to work (especially now that I'm not at death's door). I had *fully intended* to go ahead and do some video blogging during spring break, but between my bout with that virus, and monkeypants being home, my HOUSE was not presentable enough. And my energy level just wasn't up to a huge cleaning. Now I'm getting that urge to spring clean... get the germy nasties out, etc. So expect the video to start again soon.

But no, I will not videotape me *cleaning*. There are lines I will not cross.