Home and Garden

Open Kitchen Shelves

January 6, 2020 by Lisa Leave a Comment

I think I am in the minority when I confess to you, dear reader, that I do not like open kitchen shelves. They are pleasing to the eye when I first gaze upon their aesthetically pleasing utilitarian free-range displays of colorful porcelain. I want those open shelves. I crave having them in my home. Thankfully, this is where my practicality kicks in. If I had open shelves in my kitchen they would become a magnet for greasy dust build-up and would look like they were shoved onto a shelf without a care in the world.

open white shelves with bottles and dishes — Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

Now that I am an empty nester we don’t use as many dishes as before. Not like we did when the kid was home and I had a house full of teenagers. Back then I was lucky if there was a clean dish left for dinner.

Don’t get me wrong, we considered open shelves when we built our house four years ago. That lasted a whole hot minute. My dreams of artfully styled gorgeous crockery meant two things: 1) I need to learn how to style and 2) I would need to procure gorgeous crockery.

Of course, I can also picture my grandmother stopping in for a visit. Nearing 90, she has issues many women her age have — she forgets things on occasion and is moving slower. But, I can also guarantee the one glass she would grab off of my beautifully styled shelves would send her to the sink in search of a bottle of Dawn dishwashing liquid and a scrubber. Hazel knows a thing or two about household storage and this would be a calamity in her eyes.

The kid still comes home frequently and is, at best, a bull in a china shop most days. I think the chips in our cups and dishes have increased due to his shorter visits. He has been gone just long enough for all of the bad habits of college life to kick in while the established good habits leak out of his brain to make room for something… When I ask him what he learned, it’s the same answer he’s given me since kindergarten — “I don’t know.”

There is also the issue of clutter. The older I get, the less I like clutter. It exhausts me, so I take time every day to tackle spots that are clutter magnets and clear it out. (I’m cleaning out my closet soon – if you don’t hear from me in a month, send help.) The less clutter you have, the more organized you are and since I am not the naturally organized woman my family members are, I will do anything I can to stay on track of organization. This means hiding dishes behind a cabinet door as the stacks, no matter how neat they are, look like clutter.

There are a few instances where I would try open shelves. If I had odd-sized spaces where a cabinet wouldn’t work, or if I was a master of vignettes. I do have collectible dishes that I can display, but there are usually only one or two pieces out at a time. A friend told me I might like them better because I cook a lot and they make it easier to put my hands on the things I need, but I learned long ago to approach cooking with organization, so I gather everything ahead of time.

What are your thoughts on open kitchen shelves? Love or hate them?

Spring Cleaning: 10 Household Items You Can Clean in One Minute

March 21, 2017 by Lisa Leave a Comment

I’ve been spring cleaning for the past few days. My boys have moaned and groaned, but when I reminded they had spent more time complaining than cleaning, they got a move on. Here’s my list of 10 things to clean that generally take less than 10 minutes. It is quick cleaning anyone can do and feel the satisfaction of checking things off their list quickly.

1. Ceiling fan — Grab a microfiber cloth or Swiffer and run it over your ceiling fan blades. It will pick up all of the dust and you’ll be breathing easier. (I do this once a month and never get dusty, greasy build-up.)

2. Lint Trap — You would be surprised how many people forget to clean the lint trap. (My husband.) No matter who has used the dryer, I always check the lint trap before each load and clean it. It’s quick and easy, saves drying time, prolongs the life of your dryer, and lessens the risk of fire hazard.

3. TV Remote — I use a 50/50 mix of rubbing alcohol and water on my TV remotes. If I’m feeling particularly OCD, I’ll grab the Q-Tips and scrub between each button.

4. Silverware organizer — I take this out and pop it into the dishwasher with a full load of dishes once a month.

5. Showerhead — We have low-flow shower heads which need cleaning more often as they hold water in the heads. Once a month I pop a plastic baggie filled with white vinegar on them overnight and secure it with a rubber band. My showerheads are clean and any mineral deposits (which can affect water pressure) are gone.

6. Makeup Brushes — I clean these once a week with a cleaner formulated for the job. Run some warm water in a clean bathroom sink with brush cleaner, swirl the bristles in the water to clean them, rinse and dry. Never dry them upside down as the water sits where the brush hairs and handles meet, which can loosen the glue and shorten the life-cycle of your makeup brushes.

7. Kitchen sponges — I don’t use kitchen sponges very often, but if I am using them they go into the dishwasher every night on the sanitize cycle. If you don’t have a dishwasher, pop your damp sponge in the microwave and nuke it for one minute. (Make sure your sponge is wet, or you risk setting fire to in your microwave.)

8. Pillows — Toss your pillows into the dryer to freshen them up. If you’re not allergy prone and have outdoor space, put them outside on an old sheet and let them air out.

9. Central Heat/AC Air Intake — Dust these once a week with a microfiber cloth. It takes seconds, removes dust build-up and, along with regularly changing your air filters, might help extend the life of your HVAC.

10. Refrigerator handles — Clean those handles with a clean rag and a 50/50 water vinegar mixture weekly. I have a teenager and his friends are always at my house. Their hands are always grubby, so I tend to tackle this chore once they have all gone home.

What are your quick and easy cleaning tips?

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Laundry Room Fantasies

January 28, 2013 by Lisa 3 Comments

Laundry room fantasies are a big part of what I’m thinking about today. Yet, the only thing dirty in this fantasy are my clothes. I’m more focused on the big picture, the “designer” laundry room.

Growing up, I lived in a ranch house where the washer and dryer were built into the kitchen. Everything was built around the housewife (it was built in the late 50’s/early 60’s) and making things more “convenient” for “womanly” duties.

Fast forward to 2013 and my husband is just as likely to toss in a load of laundry as I am. That being said, I still consider the laundry “my” domain. I like clothes washed a certain way, hangers have to be hung by color (I promise I’m not OCD) and everything organized a certain way.

I find it ironic that Stephen King and Nicolas Sparks both wrote first successful books in the only place they could find quiet — the laundry room. There’s something about the sound of the washing machine and the white noise from the dryer that is conducive to writing.

I wonder if their books would have been more popular had their laundry rooms looked like this:

Traditional Laundry Room design by Other Metro General Contractor Valiant Homes

Seeing as how we’re on the hunt for a new house, I thought I’d find some of my ideal laundry rooms. After all, that could be me working in the laundry room on my first novel.

Laundry Room Fantasies

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