Paying it Forward (in the Kitchen)...Attempt #2

The staff room refrigerator at HTMMA had become a disaster. In fact, the goo from a rotting bag of food on the shelf above mine dripped down into my lunch the other day, alerting me to the fact that the fridge was becoming a disaster-area. Who would be willing to get their hands dirty in everyone else's mess (as well, as their own, of course) in order to make the refrigerator clean and functional again. Why, someone participating in the Pay it Forward Project, of course. And that's where I come in.

This is a photo of the goo at the bottom of the fridge after I took out all of the food. It was decided at a meeting the previous week that after Friday, anything left in the fridge could be thrown out. I threw out everything that was past its expiration date or just not dated. I scrubbed and scrubbed and disinfected and scrubbed and scrubbed until the refrigerator shined again.

It felt good to make it sparkle-y white again. So, I kept going. I cleaned the toaster oven, the microwave, the sink, and the coffee maker. I took the trash cans down to the dumpsters in the back and suddenly, the kitchen was like new again. I don't use all of the things I cleaned, but I liked knowing that everything in the kitchen was clean, again, like at the beginning of the year. Our space feels more clean and functional, now.

I left a note taped to the fridge with "Pay it Forward" cards for the taking. I'm hoping that the movement will be channeled through the teachers at HTMMA who are grateful to see the kitchen clean. Now is not the time to pay back favors and random acts of kindness; it is the time to pay it forward!

Can you think of a similar, simple way you could use your cleaning skills to pay it forward in your own life?