Kitchen Organizing Roundup

Laura at I’m an Organizing Junkie is at it again with her organizing madness. She is hosting a monthly challenge called Monthly Organizing Roundup. Each month she focuses on a different room in the house to whip into shape. For February, it was the kitchen. So, under the cover of darkness, I have been rearranging my kitchen to make it more user and kid friendly. I have also been purging a lot of stuff and containerizing what I can. I’ve done this before, but it never stuck…and I always forgot to tell Dave when I would do it. This time, I actually stopped and thought about what I do when I’m in the kitchen and where I would like everything to be. And every day (much to his amusement, I might add) I would give Dave an update on what had been moved where and why. Because, you know, he cares and all that. And likes to know where the can opener is.

And of course, I’ve been taking pictures along the way. Lots and lots of pictures.

I’ve got a pretty big kitchen…and that’s not always a good thing. I don’t really consider myself a cook or any kind of entertainer so I don’t have a lot of need for the STUFF that I had collected over the years. I found myself keeping it because I had the space to, not because I actually needed it or even wanted it.

Basically, I got rid of a bunch of stuff and just rearranged everything else. Here are some before and after pictures of the biggest changes with a little bit of explanation…

Corner Cabinets	Upper Cabinet Before	Lower Lazy Susan Before

This corner cabinet was really bothering me. This is where I spend most of my day when I’m making food. All the pots, skillets, pans, and plastic storage is all in this cabinet, as well as the kids plates, cups and bowls. All of the kids stuff was up high so they couldn’t reach it and there was breakable glass lids on the lazy susan. I basically just switched the two cabinets around: I put the kids stuff on the bottom so they could reach it themselves (I had to buy some containers to keep the cups and plates from tipping over) and I put the glass lids and corningware on top. I also moved my CrockPot to this cabinet. I use it twice a week and I used to have it on the other side of the kitchen so I moved it closer to my “prep station”. This is what it looks like now, and the kids love they can get their own stuff.

Upper Cabinet After	Lower Lazy Susan After

And then comes the cabinet with nearly nothing in it. It was the cabinet right next to my stove, the busiest part of the kitchen. It used to hold the bottles, baby food, and formula when the kids were babies, but has pretty much been home to just their medicine and my food scale since then. I ended up moving their medicine into the cabinet where ours is (more on that later) but I kept their vitamins where they were since it was close to where I make breakfast every morning and that’s when they take their vitamins. I also got rid of my 1 cup coffee pot and 12 cup coffee pot and got myself a 4 cup pot at a resale store. I relocated my coffee maker to this counter and set up my drink station with all my coffee stuff and all of Dave’s tea stuff in the cabinet above on the bottom shelf. I kept my scale where it was. I also relocated the cookbooks to the top shelf of this cabinet so they would be right next to the stove come dinner time. They used to be on the opposite side of the room…

Cabinet by stove before	Cabinet by stove after

The next thing I tackled was the black void of extra plates and glasses that I was storing in a bottom cabinet in plastic bags and old boxes. My kids used to crawl in the cabinet and knock the stuff all over the place. I went through all the plates and only kept the ones that I needed when my whole side of the family comes over (20 total), about once every 2 years (I’m the youngest of 6 kids so family holidays are on a rotating schedule…I really do love my family and see them much more often than every two years…I swear). I then relocated the plates to the unused cabinet above the refrigerator. My mom is going to make me plate holders for them to protect them. Now the original cabinet is empty and is where I put my newspaper and paper recycling.

Plate storage before	Plate storage after

Then there was my desk area. I’ve never used it as a desk. There was almost nothing in the drawers, the desktop itself had only pens, paper, and a little bill filer, and the cabinet above was where I had kept the cookbooks, our medicine, and my purse. Oh yeah, and lots of electrical cords for all the different things that need charging.

Desk cabinet before	Desk cabinet after
Whole desk area	Shiny new computer

So, I already told you that I relocated the cookbooks, so that freed up a lot of space. I also created a paperwork command center that would work for me and put it here in the cabinet. I just got a tiered file holder and then took some regular file folders and cut them in half so they would be more the size of a business envelope. I have folders for receipts, bills, to file, to do, and then the slot in back is for address labels. I also keep all my postage stamps up here. The big white basket is all of our medicine, and the small white basket is the kids’ medicine. The little blue container holds the downsized electrical cord pile. And of course, my purse.

So that’s about it! I hope you enjoyed a tour of my kitchen cabinets. It’s exciting isn’t it?? I thought I would leave you with some pictures of what I purged and what I spent to get the place fixed up. I bought 13 containers, 2 napkin holders (one to hold potholders on the counter and one to hold my Weight Watchers paperwork), new potholders, new flashlights (I discovered the ones I had were dead), a coffee pot, and a letter sorter for $45. Everything else I used was something repurposed from another part of the house. I hope to recoup some of the money by selling what I got rid of at the resale shop. And there’s a lot to sell! And now…the “trash”!

Old food	Coffee Mugs	Everything Else