And when I say baby steps, I mean it’s going to be a while before we’re even toddling. There are just too many other projects ahead of the cabinets to get in much of a rush here. But it will be a major makeover when it happens. These sad doors and drawers will go from dark and disgusting to bright and glossy. Just you watch.
But first they have to be emptied and cleaned.
One thing about buying as is – you get to do it all yourself. Right down to packing up the dishes.
I don’t think the kitchen has been touched since the previous owners entered the nursing home. There was still salt in the shaker and sugar in the sugar bowl. I packed up pots, pans, dinnerware, glassware, appliances and gadgets from every shelf. Here’s my growing pile of kitchen items for the garage sale we’re having.
The previous cook was certainly frugal. No store-bought contact paper for her. I pulled all of this out of the cabinets:
She used old paper bags, calendar pages, box tops, scrap linoleum and brown paper to line the shelves. I applaud both her thrift and her ingenuity, but I’ll probably splurge on pretty contact paper.
Then I got down to the hard part. Scrubbing.
Our de-greaser of choice:
The cabinets definitely needed a good cleaning. They were, well, grimy. As in, plain old gross.
Here’s a closer look:
Somehow, when I have to do a major cleaning job, it helps me to put on a bandana. It’s like Rocky and his sweatshirt or something. It gets me in the ”zone.” And now I have likened housecleaning to boxing. Because they are so similar. Sometimes I even crack my neck and bounce on my toes a bit before I begin. I’m going to start yelling “Danny” around the house in a Sylvester Stallone voice.
Yes, this is a cheesy self-portrait. But I couldn’t resist. I just look so HGTV here.
So I got outfitted for the job. My dear husband, who must have known daisies and pink would be much cheerier than plain yellow for such a thankless task, bought me new rubber gloves and new scrub brushes.
It took a quite a bit of elbow grease to get rid of the cooking grease, but the difference is pretty noticeable.
I still have a lot of cleaning and scrubbing and scraping to do before the kitchen sports a truly clean look, but these are baby steps. I just keep reminding myself how amazing the before and after pictures are going to be.
What difficult cleaning projects have you tackled? What is your go-to cleaning product or de-greaser? Have you ever been surprised by the difference a little scrubbing made?
