30 Days to Ultimate Clean - Week Two

If you are following along in the 30 Days to Ultimate Clean challenge then you know this is week two.  You should also know that I am still on week one.  I did finally get the pantry finished, and for that I am very thankful!  It feels great to have the pantry cleaned out and organized.  I managed to get five of the seven things on last week's list done.  I have moved cleaning under the kitchen sink and the coat closet to this week's list.  I hope that works out okay since this week is VBS week for us.  If you've had any experience with VBS you know how fun, but exhausting, VBS can be.  Toward the end of last week when I had planned to work on the last two items on the list, my thoughts turned to planning my Bible School lessons and decorating my room.  (I will have a post later this week on that.  Our church is using LifeWay curriculum - Agency D3.)  Our whole family is involved so it can get a little crazy around here.  

Anywho, back to the Ultimate Clean Challenge.  Here's what is slated for this week.  It's a very daunting list, I must say.

Sunday, June 8 - Refrigerator (I don't know about you, but I did not get this done yesterday.  I'm planning to knock it out today.)

Monday, June 9 - Kitchen cabinets and drawers

Tuesday, June 10 - Laundry Room

Wednesday, June 11 - Linen Closet

Thursday, June 12 - School Closet

Friday, June 13 - Master Bedroom Closets

Saturday, June 14 - Kids' Closets

I think the name of the game for this cleaning challenge is flexibility.  There are jobs that are rather small that can be doubled up with other jobs.  There might be some things on the list that you don't need to do and on those days you can do some make-up work.  Don't get stressed out here (*talking to myself*).  The beauty is, anything we get done is better than doing nothing and is a step in the right direction for getting our homes cleaned and organized.  Some work is better than no work, right?  

Okay, lastly today I have some pictures of my pantry.  I just have after pictures.  I didn't manage to take any before.  There's nothing fancy or spectacular about this.  It sure feels great, though, to have it done.  (I have repeatedly reminded the members of my family to keep it this way.  I hope we do!)

That cardboard box you see is for holding grocery store bags.  I save them for lining small trashcans and picking up after pets and other things.  They're pretty useful so I try to keep some around.

I have this little cart on wheels for potatoes and onions.  I keep an insulated bag behind it and a container of cat food sits on the floor.  A few more cleaning supplies are on top, for easy access.  

To corral all of my baking supplies I used two baskets.  This is so much better than all the loose ingredients stuck in different places.  When it is time to bake everything should be easy to find.

Our family likes to go on lots of picnics, and take lunch to the pool and things like that, so I made a little place in the pantry for picnic supplies.  I just used a cardboard box to hold all the plastic utensils so they're easy to grab when we are packing up.

One of our furry little family members likes to eat bread.  She doesn't bother anything else, just the bread.  Oftentimes someone would leave the pantry door open, just a little bit, and she would find her way in and get into the bread.  I think (hope) I have fixed that problem.  I bought this basket with a lid to store our bread in.  Now if we can just keep everyone remembering to put the lid on the basket, problem solved.  :)

I've got some Command hooks to keep aprons accessible and in that little area I also store my cleaning tools.

I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it was a great way to store cupcake liners.  We had packages of liners all over the place and now they are gathered into one location.  The glass jar makes it easy to see what we've got.