Tackling My Kitchen

Since last Wednesday I have been working on my kitchen – purging, reorganizing, rearranging, and cleaning. I’ve been BUSY!

There’s still more to do (isn’t there always?), but here’s the highlights of how I spent this last week:

First, I purged and reorganized my pantry. The top two cabinets were crammed full of stuff – literally. See?

I pulled everything out (and then put it all away) and re-designated the space for plastic and paper supplies, and small appliances.

Also: How’s this for recycling? Take one empty, extra-large tissue box, cram it full of as many plastic grocery sacks as you can (this one is holding 24) and *poof!* you have a free grocery sack dispenser.

And remember when I was doing my bedroom challenge I mentioned wanting to convert the bottom cabinet in the pantry for laundry storage? Now I have!

The bottom right half of the pantry holds the hot water heater, so the laundry isn’t actually near any food. The middle section of the cabinets holds the food stuffs, but I didn’t really do much with that area – yet. Soon I’ll be installing a shelf in there.

I also rearranged the other cabinets in the kitchen, and created a little “drink station” area. I bought some hooks to hang a few coffee cups from the underside of the cabinet, but I need to borrow a drill and bits to install the hooks.

One thing I learned doing this is that things look less cluttered if you group them in small groups rather than lining them all up in a row. Makes it look like there is more available space somehow. Before, all the things on my counter were lined up in a row along the back wall. I also took the key rack that was hanging where the picture is now and moved it to the end of the cabinet – even closer to the door.

Above the coffee pot I congregated all the teas, coffee filters, sweeteners, etc and conveniently stored them along with my downsized coffee cup collection. The other half of the cabinet contains mixing bowls and measuring cups – measuring cups that I also happen to use when making tea. How convenient. 🙂

The counter on the other side of the sink was a spot that kept easily getting cluttered. Dirty dishes would get stacked here, my catch-all bowl was here, and being next to the desk, many papers and books would end up here also. Between all three of those, I rarely saw this particular piece of the countertop.

I’ve been staying on top of the dishes and keeping that clutter down. My catch-all bowl was cleaned out and re-designated as the cell-phone bowl (since this is the most convenient outlet for charging.)

And I moved my computer monitor to the end of the counter which frees up the top of the desk for working on papers, amazingly doesn’t look like it’s taking up too much space, and (by swiveling the monitor) enables me to watch past episodes of House online while I clean- thereby keeping me entertained so the cleaning actually gets done. 🙂

The cabinet above this end of the counter already held my dinnerware, but now it also houses my serving platters and bowls, which is good because it’s right across from the stove and near the dining room.

One of the biggest changes in here (besides the top of the pantry) is the stove area. It was okay before:

Moma Nut gave me a rolling 3-drawer unit (Thank You!) and now the utensils, dishcloths and towels, and pot holders that were in 2 of my 3 measly kitchen drawers can be kept by the stove and the two drawers now hold the kids plastic dishes and aprons/tablecloths. So now it looks like this:

You wouldn’t BELIEVE how much stuff had gotten lost under my stove! I pulled it out and this is what I found! I’m gonna have to do this more often. 😛

Tucked away under the cart is my cookbooks, some Pampered Chef tools, my box of cookie cutters, and a few baking things.

One of the best things about all this is that I still have some available room in all my cabinets and spaces – so things don’t look too cluttered, and I have a little bit of room to grow if need be.

So now that all this is done, I need to tackle the front and top of the fridge! I de-cluttered the side a little, but I want to make one of those photo board things to hold my pictures.

If all goes well, I’d like to repaint and make new curtains and that sort of thing. But that’s at least a few weeks away (if I can even talk Big Daddy into it.) Until then I’ve got plenty of other purging and scrubbing to keep me busy!

Tackle It Tuesday (Making Housework Bloggable) is hosted by 5 Minutes For Mom.