Time to Clean this Old House (It's been 3 years)

This year, before Christmas, I committed to become more organized, cook ahead, and work towards getting my house back in order.  You see three years ago a chain of events began and it has been a wild and blessed ride.  For nine months we fostered three babies two and a half, one and a half, and six months old bringing our household up to a family of seven.  Within a month after they went home, we fostered again and eventually adopted a three month old and a four and a half year old.  Shortly after they arrived, we found out that God had blessed us with an unexpected but long awaited pregnancy.  Life was a whirlwind, not a bad whirlwind, but busy and different.  We were emotionally and physically drained from a roller coaster ride of emotions and life lessons about love, control, peace, and grace.   Our baby is now almost eighteen months and life is finally settling in to a new normal as once again a family of seven.
Yesterday as I was working on deep cleaning and organizing in the kitchen, I was reflecting on the last three years.  I realized that for three years, deep cleaning, organizing, decorating, and crafting have taken a backseat as we worked hard to care for our precious little ones and figured out how to manage life as a large family.  These kids have all eaten yummy homecooked meals.  The house has been cleaned, not deep cleaned, but cleaned.  Best of all we have had fun but those personal, fresh, decorative touches have been missing.  Those touches that tell my family I love them and make me smile when I walk by them. 
After three years, the clutter, dust and cobwebs are starting to overflow out of their hiding spots, behind closet and cabinet doors.  It reminds me of the song by Sanctus Real called Whatever Your Doing.  In that song, there is a line that I replay over and over in my head.  It says "Time to face up Clean this old house, time to breathe in and let everything out."  It is time...time to declutter to create room to breathe, time to organize to create peace, time to let my family know that I love them by lighting a candle or making our home look pretty with those loving touches.  I want people to be able to drop by without feeling that panic in my bones that says my home is not good enough because I haven't made time in my busy schedule to make it, not perfect, but good enough.  It is funny how God always seems to send a blog my way right when I need it.  Yesterday Better Mom was sharing about "keeping your house and your heart clean."  How fitting.
The chorus goes on to say "Whatever You're doing inside of me It feels like chaos but I believe You're up to something bigger than me Larger than life something Heavenly."  It describes life so well right now.  God has created this Heavenly Chaos but there is immense peace in trusting that this is bigger than me but He is in control.  So I start in the heart of my home...the kitchen.  I clean, declutter and light a candle because "It's time to breathe in and let everything out."
Read more: SANCTUS REAL - WHATEVER YOUR DOING LYRICS 


BEFORE...Even with dishes done and things more picked up the counter was still cluttered with crock pots, dish soap, cups, etc.  It never felt clean.
 

AFTER...I cleaned basically everything off of the counter tops except for the bare necessities.  I cleaned out the island cabinet and threw away old crock pots and overflow plastic containers to make room for the crock pot and coffee pot that sat on the counter.  I moved the radio to the living room and put dish soap and scrubbers etc under the sink.  I made a permanent home for everything I didn't want out.
 

I have a basket for my papers and bills in a nook beside the fridge because they never make it to the desk downstairs so papers need their place.  I also created a cup station from a 9x9 glass pan (kind of hard to see).  The kids cups needed a home instead of an area so that they have concrete boundaries for where cups need to be.

This is my kitchen cleaning list broken down into two weeks.  Obviously the day to day washing dishes etc isn't on this list.  My original list and ideas came from flylady but I have modified them quite a bit to make them fit our home.  I have a total of eight weeks worth of "zone" lists.  Originally these zones were designed to be done in a month but that is not realistic around here.  I broke it down even further to make full deep cleaning last two months and maybe just maybe be more doable.  The kitchen is the hardest room for me to get done and move on from.  I have been stuck on it for about three years now :).  So I am taking two weeks and then moving on...done or not.