Clear kitchen worktops

My intention today was to clean out a couple of cupboards in the kitchen.  Nothing too dramatic.  One of those cupboards had DH's stock of spices, so I thought it would make sense if I asked him to check the pots out.  A couple of hours later, and we had cleaned out all the cupboards, cleared all the clutter off the worktop and re-arranged the layout of what was left on the worktop (microwave, kettle etc), and moved the contents of one or two cupboards as well.  What was really great was that we did this together, and actually got a lot of satisfaction from our efforts.  Of course, it'll take a little while to remember where we've moved things to, but we gave the reorganisation some thought, and we think it'll work better.  Already we can't believe what a difference it has made - the kitchen seems so much lighter.

Un-cluttered worktops (with a bit of polish and elbow grease, the 3 EPNS servging spoons came up beautifully!)

It's funny how our lives seem to be changing this year.  Before we left work, almost 18 months ago, we rushed around, on the 'work-eat-sleep' merry-go-round.  Last year, to celebrate DH's retirement, we were fortunate to do quite a bit of travelling, in this country and abroad, and we really enjoyed the wonderful experiences we had.  The second half of the year was not quite as we had planned (a completely unforseen family crisis), and it left us with a sense of uncertainty and disorientation.  This year is really the first time since we finished work that we have been living at home properly on a full-time basis.  We are beginning to see how we might change things to suit our new and quite different lifestyle.  And we are also starting to see some things that aren't quite working for us.  The size of our kitchen is one of those things, so decluttering today was a very worthwhile activity.

Our kitchen is small.  It has to serve many functions - cooking, storage, laundry, food preparation, freezing, recycling to name just some.  I am beginning to yearn for a bigger kitchen so we can both work in it at the same time; it's not really possible at present.  A small utility room would ease the pressure.  In the meantime, we will make our kitchen as tidy and efficient as we can.  

Any spare plastic bags we collect are automatically stuffed into a bag that hangs on the back of the kitchen door.  DH and I try very hard to reuse plastic bags (we always take our own stash on Tesco trips), and have our own bags ready for purchases in town.  So I was horrified to find we had accumulated no less than 81 plastic bags!  I have sorted out the sturdiest to add to the supermarket bags in the car, another pile will be used to line the recycling buckets in the kitchen, and I shall have to be inventive for uses for the rest.  I have meant to make some attractive cloth ones to take shopping and now I am inspired (and shamed!) into doing this as a matter of urgency.  I think I shall make some for future presents as well.  For the moment, however, I commit to No More Plastic Bags - we have too many!