Did I mention the other day that my kitchen is looking like a tip? No, really. I don't mean it's a bit untidy. I mean I have stuff dumped everywhere, it's a bit out of control.
Bits everywhere - chicken related stuff, chick related stuff, cat related stuff and bee related stuff, new-oven related stuff.... I've got tins of paint,pain tray, rollers, bits of beehive, boxes for incubator bits, plinths from the side of the kitchen where the new oven will go standing against cupboards, bits of hive frames, grass seed, chicken-grass-seed, a box with the old catflap in ("just in case"), the contents of DH's car boot, bits emptied out of kitchen cabinets that no longer have an obvious home...
The mess had spread to the smallest bedroom - where we were hatching chicks, the guest bedroom - where we'd dumped stuff from the small bedroom to make room for the incubators & tables, and the lobby/utility room where we'd had to put a temporary mat in to cover the cables for the new cat flap and the cat drinker thing.
Up to now, we've had good reasons (excuses) for the mess... but it's time to take action. A lot is happening next week, and I'd like to get the house back to some sort of normality at the end of it.
Yesterday I started washing and sterilising all the chick hatching equipment, and it was easiest to do this in the bath. I filled the bath with water and Milton sterilising fluid, put a towel in the bottom to protect the bath*, and put everything in. Last night, everything was out of the bath and all over the bathroom floor, drying.
At last, the incubators, the inside brooder, the fold up tables etc, are all cleaned, put back together, and stacked ready to be put away. The spare bits for the beehive have been painted, so hopefully they can come out of the kitchen and be put away as well.
I'm going to tackle this sensibly. Today, I will clear out the small bedroom. By the end of the week, we will have some semblance of normality restored.
*Note to self: next time, use an old towel. The one I used now looks like it's been tie-died - and not in a good way.
