nichepoetryandprose

One way to keep warm is to expend energy.

~

The cold days are perfect for housekeeping projects. I am a collector and my house is overflowing. I am trying to downsize, make my world a little easier to navigate. During November, I want to attend to my kitchen, to return it to the beautiful space it was meant to be.

~

A few years ago, we decided to open the wall of a closet to make a throughway between our bedroom and bathroom. To do this, the closet had to be emptied and all of the closet contents ended up in the kitchen!

~

Our kitchen is quite large, 14′ by 14′. It has white cupboards with green knobs, faux-granite countertops and a grey faux-stone floor. As I did with other rooms in the house, I decorated the kitchen according to a theme. Strawberries! A thin decorative border of strawberries, leaves and berries, runs around the room about a foot from the ceiling.

~

~

The curtains are white with tiny red dots. I have a ceramic cookie jar shaped like a strawberry and a set of vintage cans with the same motif.

~

~

~

On the wall is a strawberry cross-stitch started by my grandmother and finished by me.

~

~

The wooden top to my dish-washing machine is painted with strawberries and my dishes are mostly (you guessed it) strawberry themed.

~

~

Sounds nice, right? Not so much. There are so many things crammed into the kitchen, you would be hard-pressed to name the theme!

~

So part of my ‘keeping warm’ in November is to empty my kitchen of non-kitchen things.

~

My process is:

Make a plan for the next day: identify the item to be removed;

Dust and clean the item;

Decide if it is to be kept, discarded or given to a second-hand charity;

Move it to the appropriate place.

~

So far, I have tackled a large Coleman cooler, my suitcase collection and a tote filled with swimming pool supplies. It is hard for me to let go of things. The Coleman cooler was easy to give away: we have another, newer cooler. The suitcases were harder; they included a set my husband gave me when I traveled so much in the 1980s. In the end, I decided to let them go; I have a smaller, newer suitcase. The pool supplies were harder. We don’t have a pool, but they include a beautiful inflatable palm tree. Every woman needs a beautiful inflatable palm tree. The tote remains in the corner of the kitchen.

~

Next I need to remove several items under the kitchen table. They include: the above-mentioned strawberry canister set; a tote of items collected for use at our camp; a set of plastic fruit that once belonged to my Mom. Any guesses which of these may be kept, discarded or given away????

~

Cleaning the kitchen will work in two ways to warm November:

1. the activity will be warming as I expend energy

2. making the decisions about keeping, discarding or giving away will take so much thought,

I will forget all about being cold.

~

~

All my best!

Stay warm!

Jane