A note here, I have arachnophobia. I am terrified of spiders. My typical response to this would be to fling my leg around and scream until it went flying and they avoid the kitchen until I was sure it had wandered off... but for some bizarre reason, that was not my response this time.
Instead, I calmly reached down with both hands, put one hand on either side of the spider, let it crawl onto my hand, and then raised my hand up to the mass of houseplants in the kitchen window over the sink. If I'm going to share my home with spiders, I prefer they have one area they can safely be in. But it wasn't that easy... no.
When I reached up, the spider fell. I didn't see where it dropped, but below the area was a stack of dirty dishes in the sink that I was preparing to wash. I carefully moved the dishes around, but couldn't find the spider. I decided I'd just have to me watchful as I reached for the dirty dishes to wash them.
As I do when home alone and washing dishes, I pulled up my favorite YouTube guy for an educational video, and set my phone to the side so I could be educated while I washed. As I turned to the left to set the phone on the counter, a movement caught my eye. My little spider friend had managed to get onto my shoulder. Perhaps she'd never actually fallen but had caught herself on a web thread and stayed attached to my hand. Whatever the case, there she was... in close proximity to my face.
Again, my normal response would be to fling it as far and as fast as I could and probably escape the room for a while, but again - I reached up, let her crawl on my hand, and carefully released her above the sink onto the mess of pothos vines. She almost immediately started her spinnerets going and started to string her way down. I caught her by the web line and put her back in the plant. This happened several times, until I decided I couldn't have her repelling down into my face or the dish water, so I grabbed an empty water bottle and prepared to catch her in it on her next descent.
She came down again, but upon seeing the looming water bottle, decided to climb back up. I observed her for a couple minutes more as she traveled along the pothos vine and found a nice spot where a leaf met the stem, and seemed to curl up for a nap. If spiders take naps anyway.
I decided to call her Clarice, since she wasn't forthcoming with her actual name, and it would be unlikely I'd be able to pronounce it anyway, since arachnid is not my first language.
I watched my video and washed my dishes, all the while checking back in to see Clarice, tucked away, appearing to be comfortable and napping. I finished my dishes, cleaned out the sinks, and went to dry my hands. Clarice woke up and again decided to come down. I grabbed the bottle and she climbed right down into it. I put the lid on and set the bottle aside. I can't have a free-roaming spider in the house and it's clear that Clarice is not happy in the plant.
When the kids got home from school I relayed the story to them, and at first they were horrified that I had a spider in a bottle in the kitchen, but once they stopped to look at her, they softened. I asked for suggestions. Where can we release Clarice that she might be happy? It has to be somewhere with food sources where she won't get eaten by the cats or the chickens.
After some thoughts and suggestions, #3 suggested the garage. There are other spiders in there, and plenty of bugs. Sure, it'll be cold soon, but spiders don't typically live that long anyway, and it would afford her protection from predators. So #3 released Clarice into the garage. Good luck Clarice! We wish you well!