Three kids, all dressed in shades of brown (have I talked about how I subconsciously do that ALL of the time??!?! Except today I am not wearing brown...usually I fit in!) all sitting on the counter. They looked so cute, I had to capture it. And they COMPLIED!
Happy Wednesday!
...I love to organize!
(what I really love is when you already write this entire post once and then a kid climbs onto your lap and suddenly the whole post disappears and you you are left with a whole lot of nothing. Oh except for that giant chip on your shoulder where you pout and don't post for two days because you are grumpy that you lost what you had written to begin with!! Whew, that feels better getting that off of my chest!)
No matter. Last week I "had the itch." Things were just bugging me (read: falling out of the pantry when I went to put stuff away) and all sorts of things were stacked higher than they should be in some cabinets (read: crap falling over and pissing me off bad).
So one morning after a trip to the Y I ripped it all apart and started from started over. My kitchen looked a little something like this...
And once your kitchen looks like this ... you are really forced to move forward and get it DONE!
It started with just the side cabinet next to the oven. It honestly has been a catch all for a long time. Platters, serving wear and all sorts of measuring tools and mixing bowls. All jumbled up in one space. One space that honestly fell into my hands each time I opened the doors. Ugh. It was time for a change.
The left is the before picture. Hard to tell just really how much space or how much stuff was even in there. In fact, I found one of my Kitchen Aid Mixer attachments I'd misplaced! YEA! And clearly the boys were a HUGE help in the whole process!
But during the shake up I contemplated turning that cupboard into a "baking center." I thought about putting all of my baking utencils AND food (flour, sugar, etc) into that space. Therefore I ended up emptying out the contents of my pantry as well! In the end, I decided that was not the best way to go. But it was a great opportunity to go ahead and organize (and purge) both spaces.
Once the cupboard was finished I felt a whole lot better and lighter! I mostly reorganized, cleaned it out and picked a few things out to pare down. Those thing are being donated!
Oh now that looks pretty and it doesn't look dangerous to open like before! Yippee!
On to the pantry.
Pantries are hard. You are constantly in and out of food. Buying and restocking. Using a little bit here and there. It's a real storage dilemma. I am fortunate to have a space downstairs for a lot of bulky extras and for that I am grateful. But I think I needed to make better use of my upstairs pantry space.
Kind of hard to tell but it has a bit of this and that. I have a baking shelf and a staples shelf and so on and so forth. However things start to get messy when you are quickly pulling out stuff for dinner or grabbing snacks or closing the door quick to keep tiny hands from grabbing the contents onto the floor! One of the big problems is the BOXES that stuff comes in. Things like crackers, granola bars, snack foods, cereals, etc.
So often there could be one of something left and a whole box is still in the pantry. With this little re-org I fixed all of that and eliminated the boxes. I simply used tupperware I had on hand to organize. One container is holding the granola bars and another the squeeze applesauce. You get the picture. I also re-used some stacking storage wire racks that were being useless elsewhere and they now have a new home in the pantry.
If you are like me, you also have a tiny helper and this little view as you are working diligently!
You bet your BOTTOM dollar, he was a big help! ;)
Here is the finished pantry:
Here are my key learnings:
Whew! And that was that. From start to finish this project took about an hour and a half. That is with kids "help" and dealing along the way. I am quick, decisive and fairly organized already so I think the process was a little easier than other things I might take on. And the satisfaction? That feeling is much longer than 1 1/2 hours!
Got any tips of your own!?!?!? SHARE THEM! We all want to know!
Sometimes I think Bella and Noah look alike. I know, I know. Not even possible. But sometimes I do. When I came across this old picture of Bella, it just reminded me of a baby Noah. I think there is something about those blue eyes, bright faces and chubber cheeks. Perhaps it is just a mother's love and adoring of her babes that is causing the "mash up!"
Happy Weekend.
I LOVE simple tricks for cute hair. Especially as a busy mom on the go who DESIRES to still look chic and put together! I am sharing this Pinterest find with you here because it's just that great -- for people with and without bangs! I could so see many of my friends and my little sister doing this simple trick for fabulous hair! ENJOY!
Off to ready myself for the day ... with this hair tip in my back pocket! Enjoy and let me know how it works for you!
**Just tried this myself. It took a couple of times playing with my hair to get it figured out just right. I think her's looks a little more "french" like than mine but I still need to play more. I already do a twisty type thing with my hair so it seems to just be a more secure version of something I already do. However, this is a great way to keep my long hair out of my face as I am constantly putting it behind my ears anyhow! Here are two pictures!
Happy twisting!
Oh I love a quickie! Get your minds out of the gutter! A QUICK easy reorganization that is!
On Sunday when I was putting away the dishes I had one of those moments when I was squeezing everything into the gadget drawer and then I nearly blew a gasket because stuff was EVERYwhere and driving me mad. In fact, I emptied it out in such haste and so quickly that I never got a picture of it! But I did get a picture of the major mess I made when I emptied that crazy drawer!
It was crazy!! How did I cram so much stuff in there!?!? The hard part is that I use a good amount of the stuff! As I was piecing through it all I really only had a tiny pile in the "donate" section. It became apparent that I needed a system! Then I remembered that I had bought a sock organizer at Ikea (tried to link but I couldn't find the exact item). I actually bought two at the time -- one for my craft area and the other for my underwear drawer. Unfortunately, the gadget drawer wins as it has the greater need right now!
Here was the result!!!
Oh my goodness, isn't it pretty? I opened and re-opened the drawer all day since I was so impressed with how much BETTER it looks and works! I think this 5 dollar solution was WAY worthwhile.
Oh, and while I was at it I FINALLY removed my saran wrap, baggies and foil from the small side drawer they were living in and moved them into a corrugate magazine file and then now store that in my pantry! Here is a picture of that from Pinterest so you can better see what I'm talking about. Major space saver and opened up room for some of the over flow from my gadget drawer. I moved my "most used" measuring items to this new location! YAY.
Yippee skippy! I love easy ways to create more space!! Just cleaning out that clutter made me feel better. I have no idea how hoarders live with all of that stuff piled around them!!! I'd have an anxiety attack!!
Happy day friends and happy organizing!
