Sometimes you just need a mouse in the house. Well, we got one – or five! Ugh. I do not like having a mouse in the house, in my kitchen cabinets and drawers. It’s rather disgusting, really. We put up with it for several days, with half the drawers strewn about the house. But after multiple trips to the hardware store for traps, foam sealant and shelf-liner, we think we got ’em!
And now, I’m happy to report, every inch of every cabinet, drawer, surface, corner, etc. is spotlessly scrubbed and sanitized! Every dish, cup, pot, vase, basket and utensil also is disinfected and clean. Yeah, I’d say this is the cleanest our kitchen has been in, oh, a decade or so! And it’s so neat and tidy – everything in its place.
The good thing is it forced us to deal with a long over-due project. The bad thing is it required a week of dealing with the critters and stepping around drawers. And it consumed a full day of our three-day weekend – truly a “labor” day! The clearing and cleaning was time consuming enough, but then there was the decision making, the long game of Trash or Treasure. What’s this? Is there a lid to this? Have we used this in the last ten years? Will the kids miss this? Will we ever use this again? Do we need ten of these plastic cups from every walk/run/party/event?
We had to decide if we could part with the last remaining baby bottle tucked in the deepest corner of the cabinet. Well, let’s see, the youngest kid is 19. We just took him to college. Memorabilia? Hmm, perhaps. Would keeping it be gross at this point? Maybe. Oh, but what about the Hello Kitty plastic sandwich holder? Hey, now that might actually be cool again. That one went into the box to be delivered, someday, to our daughter . . . along with the Shamu visitor’s cups. I believe we also did retain the Anakin Skywalker cup with bulbous podracer lid.
When all was done, we ended up with an exciting amount of additional shelf space! And three boxes. One we’ve dubbed “apartment living” that’s full of various useful and appropriate items for kids living in that awkward apartment stage. One is full of giveaway goodies including sets of matching mugs along with a variety of still functional items that we envision some child happily giving his or her mother this Christmas. The last box does, indeed, hold items of memorabilia . . . little forks and spoons, mugs lovingly painted by small kindergarten hands, water bottles, cups and glassware from vacations and events that the kids will most likely pitch one day when they go through the box and ask, What’s this? Who made this? Will I ever use this again? 🙂

Next up . . . the attic? Basement? Oh, wait, I have books to write. So I’ll ignore those nooks and crannies a while longer, or at least until there’s another mouse in the house!