I am predicting pain on the horizon.  No, I’m not being negative, just realistic.

It all started when I decided to wash up a few leftover dishes this morning.  No, I don’t always have leftover dishes, but I think most of us do leave a few on occasion although I’m not proud of it.

I had washed a plastic bowl and was going to put it away and couldn’t get it to fit anywhere properly; it was at that moment I decided I had procrastinated long enough.  The corner cabinets in my kitchen, the ones with rotating Lazy Susans in them, needed attention and there was no more delaying it.

These are located in the corners of my kitchen.  One of them holds dishes and the other, food items.  The cabinets are oak and the revolving shelves are white of course.  After all why on earth would they be a color that actually hides dirt and gunk?

I was on a roll with the one that holds dishes; it wasn’t that dirty since it holds clean dishes. I had a bucket of hot soapy water, my purple plastic gloves on and a rag ready for business.   It was no small feat because I had to get down on my hands and knees and bend into the cabinet to get to the back and I had to spin the carousel and try to get underneath it in sections, all without spilling my now amber colored bucket water.

As I was leaning in scrubbing, my husband entered the kitchen and asked, “What are you doing?”  As I unfolded from my contortionist position I replied, “What does it look like I’m doing, love?” not a hint of sarcasm in my voice.  He quickly made himself scarce after I explained my plan to do a little early spring cleaning today.

After a bit, I had that one done and all of the dishes loaded back up, a couple of things in the trash and had started a box for the local thrift shop.

It was time for the other one.  As I began to drag out the food items, it occurred to me (mostly because of the dates on the packages) that I think I must have skipped this one the last time I did cabinets.  This was not going to be fun.  There was plenty to throw out and it was empty, but dirty.  How does a cabinet shelf get dirty when you are putting clean containers on it?  I don’t understand, but since it had been longer with this one, I had to employ a toothbrush and comet thanks to the grooves in the carousel.  I understand why they’re there, but what a pain.

I was practically standing on my head trying to capture a stray tea bag and pick stray pieces of something unrecognizable out of the cracks in the back of the cabinet when the phone rang.  Of course, it did.  Does it EVER ring when you are lounging in your chair, wishing someone would call and talk to you?  It was my daughter and I was thankful for the interruption, but soon told her I was on a roll and didn’t want to lose my motivation.  She completely understood and said, “Go, get off the phone, and go clean”.

I finished with the kitchen a little later and sat down to eat some lunch.  It was then I felt the elbow pain.  And I began to realize that I was probably going to be in for it tomorrow.  With that realization settling in, I thought I’d sit down and write a while and now that I’m sitting, I think my big cleaning binge is over for the day.  However, I still feel pretty accomplished as it’s only 2 and I’ve conquered the kitchen.