..."baby steps"

this isn't really de-cluttering...it's just cleaning...
if my bathroom wasn't in the DR...
[and soon to be in the kitchen & office as well...]
I could do actual de-cluttering...

but I'm not there yet, so I have to be patient...
and be satisfied with cleaner...
even though still cluttered...

yesterday [and this morning...]
my kitchen looked like this...



partly because I was insanely busy the weekend before Christmas...
& didn't do the usual stuff... dishes, floor etc...



and then this past weekend...
just as I had the mess in my sights...
I decided to take Molly for a walk first...
[dislocating my middle finger on my left hand in 2 places...]
and spent the rest of the weekend, incapacitated...
which also included Monday, Tuesday & yesterday...

so today, I've spent about 5-6 hours...
sorting & throwing out "dead" fruit & vegetables...
sweeping bales of cat hair & cleaning up other cat, uh..."stuff"...
stacking & storing, putting things away...
[or at least...out of the way...]

I washed a bunch of dishes...
the hot water was good for my finger, but I was really slow....
I roasted, skinned & stored several sweet potatoes...
prepped & roasted a bunch of Brussels sprouts...

scrubbed several seriously crusted pots...
and the stove top[including the grates]...
I washed every surface I could see...
put the chair pads in the washer...
and swept the floor...

I'm hesitant to clear a lot of kitchen counter space...
because certain felines consider it an invitation to perch there...
I'd rather deal with having to clear space to do things...
than having a clear spot awash in cat hair, or worse...

so now, here's the sink area...it had stacks of dirty dishes...
on the cutting board and a lot of stuff sitting out...



now ALL the dishes have been washed, dried & put away...
as well as the stuff that was sitting on the counter...

the stove top is now clean[not at all easy with a sore hand...]
to match the clean oven...
before I ran the self-cleaning cycle for the oven...
some beef stew had boiled over and caused a lot of smoke...
staining the sides of several pots...which are now clean again...



the large yellow pot is sitting out because I may use it tomorrow...
it's cast iron and not easy to put away when I have 2 good hands...

tomorrow, I have to get the boxes from the vet....
as well as bags & cases of food for all of them...
[Costco & DP...]

I have to set up choir anthems for Epiphany tide...
and get out the Epiphany Gospel Acclamation for the cantors...

then start in cleaning up the LR...

washing pet beds & slipcovers...de-cluttering dog toys...
and cleaning up destroyed plants, bits of gnawed dog bones...
& bales of cat hair...
vacuuming, sweeping, dusting... and watering all the plants...

my finger was really loose earlier...
now it's very stiff, sore & swollen...

a pretty active start to 2009...
I hope I can move tomorrow...