Home Organization 101 - The Kitchen

I LOVE the idea of being organized.  I used to be organized.  When I was single.  Now I am just a mess of piles just trying to survive.  I really dislike this about myself but I really do try.  

(Mom, I know you read this...really, I do.) 

Kids are now back in school and our routine is back - so I signed up for Home Organization 101 and this week's assignment was the kitchen. 

 

 You all know I was in serious canning mode last week, right?  Because when I was done, my kitchen looked like this....

 

 Uh...yeah.  Horrible, right?  

So I emptied out every.single.cupboard and started all over.

Before

 After

  

Before

 After

This might not be my kitchen for too much longer.   Dan and I have decided not to move but we I do want to upgrade the crud cabinets.

 My heart is set on white cabinets, but with three kids I am totally scared of them not looking pretty for too long.  

Any thoughts?  Who has white cabinets with kids and has lived to tell about them?  I would love to hear!

 I would love to make the ones by the sink have glass doors so I can put some pretty things in there.  Not just bowls and multi-vitamins! We also want to expand our island out at least 12-18 inches.  Right now I just have wasted space and not enough shelves.

 Dan's reply to this is "People in Germany live with kitchens half the size of ours."  

True..but last time I checked, no one in my family has lived in Germany since the 1700's. 

 And I added a new addition to the cupboards to balance out all the junk I threw out...my perfect fall treat.  Let me get a little closer for you...mmmmmm!  I love this stuff and now Wal-Mart has it!  

 Hello! I'm so excited to try it!

It's not too late to join in the party...come over to A Bowl Full of Lemons - see her darling kitchen and start to get your home organized!

                                                                      Linking up to:

Serenity Now

Home Office

There are a lot of pros and cons to having a home office.  My biggest con is that mine is right when you walk in the front door.  

 

 What you see when you are standing in my entry way. See?  EMBARRASSING! 

The plus?  

I am on the main floor where I can hear and see everything going on and if my boys want to use the computer, I have full vision and hearing of that activity.  

I am not at all a trendy person - but I am considering myself as much because I doing what everyone else and their dog/cats/and children are doing this week - cleaning and organizing!

 

Master Bedroom done - this is the bag of trash to prove it! 

I have ZERO motivation today.  Not sure why.  My only thought of this mess is "Well, this is embarrassing.  I should pick this up."

And so that has led me to posting some pictures.

 Coupon binder and mess of coupons.  I am actually NOT couponing any longer.  It's just too much for me right now.  I needed a break. 

 Paper piles and clothes to list in my ebay store today.

 Bookshelves.  I see all these pretty blogs with their perfect offices.  WHERE do they put their STUFF?  Do they not have any?  Where do the printer labels, extra paper, and things go?  Am I the ONLY one alive who has things?  Or do I just have too much? 

 Archaic attempts to become organized.  I love the idea of this.  I just stink at it. 

 This gorgeousness belongs to the a la mode maven, Shelli.  I can't really get rid of my black desk at this point, but I LOVE this room.  It's just beautiful.  

I never said MY blog was one to make you envious!

If nothing else I hope you read this and leave feeling a spring in your step and better about your own situation since you are not in mine today!  

I'll report back later... 

Organized Pantry

My house is totally overwhelming to me some days.  Not because of its size by any means, but due to the mess.  I am trying really hard to stay organized while digging myself out of a clutter black hole.

I've decided to stop looking at the whole and only take pieces to work on.  Doable.  Not stressful.  I like it.

First stop - my pantry.  It was GROSS....look, I'll even show you a picture to prove it's disgustingness.

See...oh yuck.

I stopped in a Home Depot and picked up this awesome shelf by ClosetMaid.  $37.50 was a bit to spend, but honestly...can you put a price tag on organization?  Not so much.  Plus it wasn't one of those hang over the door organizers.  You can see this door from my main living room and I thought that would look ugly.  Dan the Handyman hung it in a flash. 

The next morning I cleared everything out and gave it a good scrub down and threw out anything old and expired.  

Lo and behold a new and clean pantry!

I love it! There is so much extra space now!

 Room so I can see this every morning....

(mailed to me from Mississippi, it makes me laugh!  I don't dare use it!)

 Whoo hooo!  Nothing fancy.  There is no added paint, trim work, vinyl, etc.  Just a normal pantry that I can now find things in.

The simple things make me the happiest.

Getting Organized - Day Twelve!

Day 12 - The Spice Cabinet

This one was a cabinet that really needed to be done.  

 What a mess.  Who lives here?

 Gross.

 I don't think I have taken everything out of this cupboard since we moved in six years ago.  So I gave everything a super good cleaning and scrubbed it out.

I even found the electric knife that we have been looking for, for the past two years.  So that was exciting!

 Ahhhh.....here we are for the after shot. 

So much better!  I threw out a lot of things and some I moved down to the basement food storage room since we rarely use them.  

The kids and I are spending the rest of the afternoon making apple spice muffins and zuchinni bread.  

Graham is still really sad about losing his brand new watch from Christmas at IKEA the other day (he took it off in the bathroom because he was afraid to get it wet and forgot it) so he is being a great helper trying to earn money for a new one.  

Sigh. 

I wonder why someone couldn't have been honest and just turned it in to the lost and found?  

Getting Organized - Day Eleven!

Day 11 - The Freezer!!

Dear Fellow Organizers,

I know I have been hit and miss in my participation.  But some of these projects (for me) require major construction to be finished:

Like the laundry room that I will be moving my machines into shortly. 

However...I did do my freezer this morning!

It wasn't too bad really...just a little mixed up.

I did take everything out and give it a good cleaning though.

I have a LOT of chocolate chips.  I thought I was going to do quite a bit of holiday baking and I just didn't. 

 

My goal this week is to use up some of these half packages of veggies.  Maybe Chicken Pot Pie for Sunday dinner? With chocolate chip cookies for dessert of course!

 Done!

The freezer I REALLY need to organize is my garage one.  It's cold and the car is parked inside so it's not really a great day to do it...it looked like this last January...

I need another great sale on chicken - I'm almost completely out!

I love this freezer...I got a super deal on it at Lowe's for $450 and then the delivery guy made a small dent in the side of it when he delivered it so I got another 10% off!  With all the coupons I use this is a great thing to have for stockpiling.  I don't think I could live without one now! 

I'll clean this in the spring when it's not 15 degrees out in my garage!

Getting Organized - Day Eight!

The Coat Closet!

I know I skipped a few days.  The projects I missed were my dresser (already done) and my pantry.  My pantry is a lengthy project and I just didn't have time for it this weekend.  

I had a good excuse, Dan and I were in charge of hosting a Pinewood Derby for 16 darling little Cub Scouts!

 Ready to race!

 Look at that cute Cub Master!  

Dan is so great at this and we have fun working in Cub Scouts together.  If you haven't been reading  my blog very long, I am the Cub Committee Chair right now.  It's a pretty busy calling and a lot of work but again, these boys make it worth it!

 I've been doing this calling for my church for the past 1.5 years and finally, FINALLY....my son is now old enough to be in Scouts and he got his Bobcat award on Saturday!  

I was one happy and proud mom!

This was my coat closet tonight....ugh.

 Double ugh.

 Oh look - here's my winter coat from college...do the shoulder pads date me?  Can you tell I went to school in Southeastern Idaho where -20 below is not uncommon?  Brrrrr.

 Sexy stirrup ski pants from the same era.  I think both these items are great additions to the garage sale pile!

 A bit of cleaning and straightening out and I was set.

 Ahhhh...I won't be afraid of games falling on my head now!

I even got all the flashcards back into their homes!  Yay me!  I'm going to try and be back on track now for the rest of the week!