I think one of the first places I have taken action to bring things under control is the kitchen.
The very first thing I did was create one rule.
No Dishes In the Sink!
Perhaps it sounds odd, but I do not have a dishwasher and I live alone. I also get very depressed and sometimes “chronic fatigue” or the complications of my diabetes or similar and I can’t do the dishes that might have lingered. The only situation is to never have many dishes to do. So I always do my dishes right away when it is only basically one dish to do — or a dish and a pan. That means that if I am sick there is space on the counter to prepare my next meal and as well the sink is empty so that I can indeed wash the dish I do have dirty.
That one rule has helped me keep my kitchen in order for over a year now… or perhaps for 3 years? It is a small victory, but it is one area that is under control.
I also try to make sure there are no leftovers going mouldy in the fridge.
What I am now planning on — for the kitchen is to go through all the miscelaneous plastic goods whether margarine container or tupperware and determine which has to go back to Mom’s and which are mine and which really should hit the recycling bin. I saved a lot of containers because I had “no” money for things like sandwich bags or stretch wrap. I also for a while could take home some left-overs from Mom’s dinners, but had problems bringing back the containers.
So now it will be time to gather the containers, seperate them — clean them as necessary — and put ones for Mom in a bag, put most of the others into the recycle bin, and the few that are mine put into a box or basket to go on a shelf for use. I suspect I will try to cut back on the recyclables used for storage containers — I have way too many. I do know I’ll be keeping my 4 quart glass jars for display purposes mostly. I am not sure about the 2 quart brown plastic coffee whitener containers though… they really work well for pasta, unbagged cereal, or powdered goods.
That is that now for the kitchen.
~ Dusty
D Cluttermouse
No A's B's or C's 
I’m using 2 of the 4 quart jars for display purpose. One of them has my marbles in it and sits on the kitchen bookshelves in my combined living room/dining room/kitchen. The other is on my bedroom/library bookshelves holding my polyhedral dice collection. They’re the dice I use for playing games like Dungeons and Dragons with.
I also use two of the jars for making iced tea and coffee with. I prefer to make them in glass containers rather than plastic because pour the hot coffee and hot tea into them to cool. Although I don’t mind too much having the cold beverage in the fridge in my Rubbermaid pitcher, I worry about the plastic deteriorating and leaching chemicals when heated.
I’ve also started using 1.4 Kg coffee creamer/coffee cardboard canisters for putting the oatmeal into. These are the containers that used to be the large coffee tins. They’ve replaced the tin with cardboard tubes construction. It works well with the dry goods. I also use them with my raisons and might with the pasta if I feel the original boxes are not safe enough from bugs. I have three plastic storage bins for cereal that I got from the “Dollar Store” and two of them hold the contents of one huge box of Bran Flakes and the third my whole wheat flour. I might get rid of those brown plastic creamer containers yet.
The kitchen is still under control…