Fruits of my labours

I've been a bit grumpy lately, entirely due to fed up-ness and a general lack of oomph. A cause and symptom of this has been my untidy and uncared-for home. You know how it goes: the place is a mess; it makes you grumpy to know it's a mess; you're too grumpy to sort it out. It's a sort of Catch-22. Or it might be laziness. I'm not quite sure (I couldn't finish the book...)

So, in an attempt to snap out of it, I decided that this weekend was the time for spring-cleaning. And then the weather joined in with the party, being the perfect spring-cleaning weather, that it was.

My skin is a big excuse for avoiding housework. It really exacerbates it, despite using those 'green' products (that don't really work nearly as well as good old chemicals). However, I decided to just moan a lot about it and get on with it anyway. (Incidentally, I usually wear disposable gloves, but they irritate too, so I did half the day with gloves and half without - it made no difference...)

Yesterday I cleaned the bathroom, top to bottom. I threw away all the toiletries I really don't (and won't) use. All the out-of-date sunscreens and expensive creams and lotions that do me no good at all. I chose not to think about the waste of money... I washed every surface and threw away the horrible bath mat that just won't get clean, even with bleach. Lovely clean and tidy bathroom.

Lovely clean bathroom - note empty laundry basket lower left...

Today it was the kitchen's turn. My kitchen always seems to take ages to clean properly, and my skin was suffering from the effects of yesterday, so I decided to just see how far I could get. I also had a grocery delivery due this morning, and had determined to get all my laundry done. In the end, I decided to start at the very, very messy 'dump everything' end of the work surface. Over the last couple of months, this has spread across half the kitchen and has been annoying me for ages, so it seemed like the biggest 'win' to get that cleared. It was also dominated by a bread machine that I rarely use.

My groceries arrived and took up the other half of the kitchen. So, a big load of throwing out of unused and out-of-date food from cupboards and fridge was called-for. I chose not to think about the waste of money... That done, and the piles of junk on the worktop binned, recycled or 'filed' (well, that'll be another day...) and I could stow away the bread machine, reclaim my fruit bowls and load up all the fabulously healthy stuff I'd ordered online. Phew! That's probably only about a third of the kitchen done, but it's so nice to have clear worktops again.

Neat and tidy cupboard. Just avert your eyes from the many packets of 'Pasta 'n' Sauce.

If only I had a 'before' picture, you'd realise what a triumph this is!

Not only that, but the laundry has been on the go the whole time and, with perfect drying weather to boot, the lines have been full. Now my least favourite job: the putting away...

So, I have a kitchen full of fresh healthy grub. But can I now be bothered to cook any of it after such a busy weekend...? What do you think?

My well-stocked fridge. Now I just need a personal chef...