Week One - Kitchen

Having just moved in to our new home, the kitchen wasn't really as bad as it could have been.  We had a few problem areas that I knew I needed to recreate organization and I scoured Pinterest in search of some ideas.

You can see my organization board by visiting HERE

Here's a walk through my kitchen.

This cabinet stores my cutting boards, stoneware and bakeware.  It also had a rice cooker crammed on the top shelf.  Upon taking everything out of this cabinet to reorganize I discovered empty space behind my cutting boards that I didn't realize was there.  I took advantage of the newly discovered space and moved some small appliances from other cabinets to the space and added another rack to hold the cookie sheets resulting in even more space under the shelf.  With a new open area on the top shelf, I moved my serving platters to this area to open up space in the tupperware cabinet.

My tupperware cabinet was a HOT mess!  This cabinet I really hated.  I have been contemplating getting a buffet for the dining room so that I can move my serving (white) dishes there as well as some other items from the pantry like paper plates, cups, napkins, etc that are only used at parties.  Eventually we may go this route but until then, I need a home for everything.  I took the dishes out and moved them to the cupboard you see above.  This opened up the whole left side as you can see and it looks MUCH better now :)

The cabinet that housed the Children's items has always been over crowded.  So I added a wire basket and moved some things around.  Even after I took this photo, I did another move where the bowls went to the wire basket and the plates that were in the basket went where the bowls are shown below.  I am truly happy with this cabinet now and it's way more functional than it was.

The cabinet that held the pots and the crockpot along with some small appliances was the one that I called the dangerous cabinet.  Every time you'd open the door, something fell out.  Now that I have minimized what is in the cabinet, it is much  nicer and things don't fall out at me!  The command hooks now hold the pot holders which allowed me to put the extra towels in the drawer above it.

That dreadful under the sink cabinet.  Upon taking everything out so that I could line the bottom with some cabinet liner, I discovered that this area is in need of repair.  It was this way when we first moved her a few months ago, but now it has gotten worse due to the weight of my (too many) cleaners.  I have purged some cleaners and will purge again I'm sure, it's finding that magical cleaner that works with everything that I am looking for.  We also purchased some wire baskets that will be installed on the cupboard doors but that is something that will be done after we renovate this cupboard.

The medicine cabinet was moved to this bonus cupboard as a way to keep everything close when needed.  I originally started organizing with the baskets from the dollar store that I saw HERE, however, they simply did not work in my cupboards due to the size.  I have been keeping my eye out on new bins at Walmart with flip tops that I use in other areas and decided to move some around and test it out in my medicine cabinet.  I was shocked at the space it freed up which allowed me to reorganize the mail center (blank cards, birthday cards, etc) 

This cabinet also houses our extra Keurig Cups which are organized in the basket on the bottom shelf.

Here is a close up of the flip top bins that I moved to this location and added labels to.

Some cabinets stayed the same because they were already pretty organized and had already been purged. 

First up...The glasses and cups. I did add the travel mugs from the children's cabinet over to this cabinet and they like their new home.

 Plates, Bowls and Mixing/Baking Items

Wine Glasses, Shot Glass collection (we collect them every trip we take) and although you see some liquor in there, I can't remember the last time we even used this (at our new years party perhaps) we are not big drinkers (with the exception of wine every now and then) but we always have stuff on hand for our guests.

Here is a close up of our Italian Hand Painted plates on top of our cabinets.  

 Now on to the Fridge and Freezer

The fridge I had read you shouldn't keep your eggs in the door, so I moved them and put the butter in its place.  We usually have two dozen eggs at one time anyways so moving them is actually more helpful as two dozen will fit in the new spot next to the yogurt.

I also lined the shelves with plastic placemats bought from Target.  I got the inspiration to do this from HERE somewhere on Pinterest, and I thought I pinned it but cannot locate the original source, so if you know, please add a comment to this post with the link (I like to give credit where credit is due!)

 I also added one of the placemats in the freezer because I take the ice cream bars (low carb of course) and put them on the top shelf and they always fall through.  Now, they can't which I love.  Generally the big pan in the middle isn't in the freezer but we made a pie for a birthday so it is in there for now.  That shelf usually holds the hubby's lunch for work.

This is the top of the Fridge which holds our cereal and small decor items

And now some pull back shots...This is the coffee bar (which originally is a desk but we turned it into a coffee bar)

And the counter with the sink.  The fruit bowl is new (Target) and there is a wine rack to be hung yet from Ikea that is leaning in it's new soon to be home.

Thank you to A Bowl Full Of Lemons for such a great challenge and a great way to kick off the 14 weeks of organization.  We cannot wait to tackle on the garage next!