Read more slices at the Two Writing Teachers.
The advantage of having a big kitchen with lots of cabinets is that you have more places to clutter. In my kitchen, not only do I have a junk drawer, I also have a junk cabinet. It’s right at the end of the counter where I place my purse, so it often catches things I take out when I clean out my purse. It catches mail I want to keep and old cell phones, a gift card or two, and so on.
On Monday, I had the day off. I didn’t have much planned, but I definitely wasn’t planning to clean out the cabinet. I’ve been hearing about the art of tidying up as professed by Marie Kondo. I watched a few episodes at my daughter’s house. I haven’t bought the book or embarked on any life changing goals of being more organized.
However, I was looking for something. Tickets to an event this week. I was sure they were in there, but when I started looking, stuff started to tumble. And before I knew it, I was looking at a pile of “junk” on my kitchen counter. I couldn’t leave it there, and I couldn’t put it all back, so I had to sort it all out.
Before…
I found some trash: receipts from two Christmases ago, expired credit card, punch cards from out of business yogurt shops, etc.
I found some treasures: a can of cash that we were collecting for our food pantry, the tickets I was looking for, a gift card to a nice restaurant, and a pair of earrings I had bought for a gift.
Sorting, tossing, finding, remembering…
This was cleansing and satisfying. A really productive winter afternoon. This weekend, the bathroom cabinet.
Do you enjoy cleaning out or do you put it off, like me, until the task forces itself upon you?
After.
Reflections on the Teche 
Happy you found the tickets. I cleaned a lot when I moved, which helped, but now I keep a box in my library & it’s for donating to a group that picks up. Some things are easy, but some are things I’ve had forever, still using very little, but…
At least you did that special place, now leaves room to fill up again!
Tidying and deep cleaning does not come easy to me, Margaret. I’ve been binge watching Tidying Up and feeling inspired. You never know what treasures (and memories) you might find. Giggling that Marie Kondo appears in my Slice this week, too! https://wonderingandwondering.wordpress.com/2019/01/23/currently-sol19/
I both enjoy it and put it off! Then once it is done I keep it that way for a quite a while before the junk creeps back in (expect my nightstand…can’t keep that straight!)
It would be nice to be able to put cut flowers on my nightstand but there are too many books stacked there.
Recently cleaned out my wallet and found a voucher for 25,000 miles that would have expired the end of January. That was my treasure. I mostly put off cleaning out, but need to find more time for it. I like the end product of seeing things tidied up and finding treasures along the way..
I’ve spent the last two days in our bedroom, dusting, throwing things out, vacuuming and it feels GREAT! 🙂 Little by little, our house is changing for the better.
Thank you for the fresh, clean slice! 🙂
I am like you – I put off organizing until I must deal with the “Drawer of Doom” in my kitchen. So glad you found your treasures.. it was time well spent!