Kitchen Keeping

My kitchen has been getting pretty bad lately. It's one of those deals where you flea in terror when you look upon the mess. The idea that it can be avoided wars against the notion that it will take hours to be acceptable. Sometimes, we come home and I can hardly bare to look at it, taking comfort in any other place in the house. The fact that that particular room in the house is the central dumping ground for every member of the family, drives me to despair.

This morning I was checking in on a little blog reading and the person (Laura at 'I'm an Organized Junkie') who has had me thinking about all things "kitchen",(this is her "kitchen month") was sharing her notes from an author's interview on the Op*rah show (which I despise with a passion, but it isn't the author's fault!). She summed it up this way...

"The kitchen is the space that nourishes the family,

no one can have a healthy diet in a kitchen that is cluttered and messy."

Ouch. I realized then and there that all the objectives I've been striving for with healthier food and better habits were being defeated because of my inability to address the issues of our kitchen. Read the rest of her notes here.

The children and I sat down and began talking about stewardship, nutrition, and health. Both were very interested, but when we concluded our discussion with a tour of the kitchen, with new eyes, taking it seriously took on new meaning. My son asked me if we could write down some kitchen rules. Great idea! We talked about the difference between "cleaning" and "keeping": We felt "keeping" was being more in tune with Godly character. This is what we came up.

Ten Commandments of Kitchen Keeping:
1. Always clean up after yourself.
2. Think about others before yourself.
3. Always be on the look out for things that need "keeping".
4. Don't wait for later, when you have a moment now.
5. Never let the trash overflow.
6. When you don't know what to do with something, ask.
7. Be aware when you are making a mess.
8. Sweep everyday to keep the mice away.
9. Always treat the kitchen, as if you are expecting company for dinner.
10. The kitchen is NOT a dumping ground.

While this is all well and good, a list does not automatically change the situation. What we have succeeded at doing, however, is sharing our awareness of what needs to happen not only in the kitchen, but all over the house.

We dove right in---all three of us (the 4yo too!)--and began putting our kitchen to rights. Son was so motivated, he took on the task of organizing a couple of cupboards that he has been the primary mess maker in. He did a fine job, too!

It always seems to come down to character and habit. Both things I would like to work on a bit more. Teaching about character is great, but how much better to incorporate it into habit.

This all took me back to one of my favorite organizing books of all time, "Organizing from the Inside Out", by Julie Morgenstern. This is the book that teaches you to have things put away WHERE you use them. So we continued with a lot of organizing and cleaning! At one point, son began working on an adjoining room. When I asked him why he was in there, he said that room needed it too! That's my boy.