Make A Clean Sweep Of That Cluttered Kitchen

With the holidays behind us and our focus shifting to resolutions and resuming our regimens, why not streamline the kitchen in a few simple ways? Here are some tips to get you started:

De-clutter the counters, put recipe clippings and coupons in Ziplock bags, or better yet, file the recipes in your recipe box.

Get rid of the junk drawer. That may seem radical but much of what ends up there is useless junk. Toss mystery keys, dried-up markers and expired coupons. Put tools in the tool box, tape and string in the desk drawer and small nails in a small jar in the garage.

Put cleaning accessories under the sink in a tote with a handle so you can carry the cleaning supplies around the house with you to streamline that job.

Hope’s great, but: Metropolitan Home magazine profiled the summer getaway of film and TV producer Hannah Hempstead in its January/February issue, which is of interest only because it boasts some impressive views of Lake Pend Oreille.

It’s not really a summer home that Hempstead has created near Hope, Idaho. Actually, it’s more of a gazebo with canvas walls and netting for windows atop a broad wooden platform/deck. No electricity. No plumbing. She built the outhouse from a big conduit pipe. Of the seven-acre plot, Hempstead says: “We decided it was the closest to Switzerland we’ve ever seen.”

Hope residents shouldn’t expect to see the Hollywood celeb around town a lot, though; she says she and a friend have bought an old parish house in a tiny town in Ireland.

Do-it-yourself: Finding resources to help with home improvement projects just got easier. A 20-page booklet filled with ordering information for videos and project instructions for 75 projects is available from Georgia-Pacific. Of course all of the projects include Georgia-Pacific building materials. Nevertheless, the Idea Library booklet is free and is available by calling (800) BUILD-GP.

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