I know you all know the feeling. Your kitchen will never be clean every again. Dishes are piled everywhere, there is STUFF all over the counters, the floor is dirty and you are tired. The last thing you feel like doing in the world is cleaning up anything. I've been there. I find that even when I am in the depths of "Ugh! I hate cleaning!" I will feel better if my kitchen is a wee bit tidier. The key is to create the appearance of clean with as little effort as possible. Here's what I do:
1. Put all of the dishes in the sink, stacked in as orderly a way as you can handle.
2. Put whatever needs to go in the garbage in the garbage/recycling/compost.
3. Take a dry cloth and wipe all of the excess crumbs onto the floor.
4. Grab your counter spray and spray the counters and oven down - wipe them off.
5. Sweep the floor quickly, dust pan it and dump out.
6. Take a deep breath and leave the kitchen.
This whole process should take no longer than fifteen minutes. If I am trying to do this and it is taking a long time then I will grab a container of some sort and use that as a holding cell for the kitchen junk. This is a short-term solution but there are times when your sanity is worth more than thoroughness.
Visit my cleaning site at: www.obsessivelyclean.ca to find my Clean Freak Calendar and my Renovation Checklists!
