Winter Cleaning

Sometimes it can be extremely difficult to stave off the winter doldrums.  The fall was filled with endless and exciting hostess-ing possibilities; pumpkin carving, costume parties, thanksgiving dinner, holiday baking, tree trimming and cocktail parties.  I for one felt like I spent the entire fall and early winter shopping, cooking, serving and cleaning, and loved every minute of it! While they are a blast, once the holidays are behind you it is easy to convince yourself that now is the time for lazing about, counting the days till spring. But to this I say NO! It is time to cook fantastic meals for yourself and/or your partner, to revisit your closets, your cupboards and the nooks you have items squirreled away and commit to another purge.  While you may have succeeded in giving your domicile a nice cleaning and re-organizing in the fall, I guarantee that there are one or two projects  that you were unable to get to because you were swept away by the holiday fervor.  Now is the time; February is brutal and while it is our shortest month, it has the ability to drag on endlessly.  The only way to get through it is to hunker down and refocus your attention to your home.

Clothing: Remember all those sweaters you cleaned in the fall? Well, that was months ago and I guaranteed there are a few frequently worn favorites that could use a mid-winter sprucing washing. I never got around to cleaning my winter accessories, so have decided to start small with my hats, scarves and gloves and see where it takes me. 

Linen Closet: Organizing my linen closet was on my list of fall cleaning, but it never got done. My linen closet is usually a source of great pride, something I show off to new houseguests under the guise of showing them where they can find an extra blanket or towel; I then “humbly” accept accolades for my perfectly folded and organized closet. Take everything out and wash it all.  Take advantage of your local laundry mat. For however depressing they can be, you can spend a miserable Sunday afternoon reading trashy magazines and novels while simultaneously accomplishing the huge feat of washing your comforters.   Once everything has been cleaned, weed through your stuff to determine what you will use personally, for guests and for cleaning.  In my book, linens are not acceptable items to donate to charity. I usually rip up old sheets and towels and use them as dust rags until they can no longer be recognizable as fabric. 

Kitchen/ Fridge/Freezer: It is truly amazing how long one can manage to hold on to near empty boxes of cereal and jars of mustard. When you use a sharp and discriminating eye when tossing stale and expired food and condiments, you will be surprised as to what you will find lingering. Once every thing has been disposed of, take all the remaining food and wipe down/scrub the inside of your fridge with soft scrub or any bleach-type product you are comfortable with.  Cleaning out and scrubbing down your refrigerator may be one of the most satisfying jobs you will ever do.  It makes you feel light and healthy and gets you excited about all the fresh and delicious food you can get to re-supply your now beautifully barren fridge. 

Buy/ Rediscover a Cookbook: As this is a blog entry, I know I should be gushing about the wonders of food blogs how inspirational they can be.  While I do like to peruse them occasionally, I am an old fashioned gal and will leave the blog education to others. I love to peruse cookbooks, but more than that, I love to buy new cookbooks. I recently purchased a new Williams-Sonoma cookbook titled “Comfort Foods” and it has made me so happy, I am almost ashamed.  If you are having cash flow problems, become a member of your library and check one out.  There is no better way, in my opinion, to become inspired to go to the grocery store with actual meals in mind than flipping though a cook book (new or old) waiting for that perfect recipe to find me.