Project: Organize

These last two weeks of organization have been a bummer for me.

The garage is the husband's zone--not my place to organize, but his. And he has done a fabulous job of doing so!

The office is a no-go, too. In dividing up our "chores" the husband so graciously (and thankfully!) took the job of doing the bills. I don't feel as though I can go in there and mess around with his organization. It works for him, and he does the bills. I'm not about to get in the way of that. I would be upset if he took it upon himself to organize my craft space. So I will sit another week out, and enjoy the fact that I don't have to take care of the bills for this household.

I may take some time tonight, though, to pick out carpet colors, wall colors and hardwood floors (upgrades to the ol' hacienda coming soon!).

Project: Organize #4 The Pantry

Sadly, I didn't get around to organizing the garage. It has been a very busy week and I decided to take most of it off from the blogging world.

I do love the blogging world, though, so I couldn't stay away too long! Although, I will not be participating in A bowl full of lemons.' pantry organization challenge. You see, I organized the pantry not too long ago. Surprisingly, it is still in great organizational shape. Typically after I take time to organize something, it falls apart after a month or two. Which probably means that my system isn't working, but I'm not a professional organizer...I don't really know what I'm doing.

Here is a link to my pantry organization.

Project: Organization #3 The Kitchen

Well, my friends, I've completed the kitchen as part of A bowl full of lemon.'s Home Organization 101. Honestly, it wasn't difficult as I have kept my kitchen rather organized since I moved in with the husband.

I did make a few changes, though. Over the course of the year that I have lived here, I have come to realize that I do not like counter top clutter (especially since my counter space is so limited). When I found the perfect white pot for a buck at Bethesda (the thrift shop!), I knew it needed a home on the counter that was easily accessible. Away with the knife block, hello magnetic strip from IKEA.

I also moved the coffee maker to the other side of the sink. Because of where the bottom of our upper cabinets sit, the coffee maker cannot be directly underneath any of the cabinets. Which means it needs to be right. next. to. the. sink. It's kind of annoying, but that's where it has to be. It now sits next to the canister of coffee beans and the grinder. Makes sense, right?

I also found this dish at Bethesda and couldn't find it's home for the longest time. It has now become the harvest bin. Any veggies that we pull from the garden will sit there until used (except tomatoes...too many for the harvest bin!).

Although there weren't huge changes to the kitchen (husband will be happy!), I feel refreshed and energized to organize other parts of my home. The contents of the fridge and pantry have been cleaned out. Expired items discarded, Shelf stable items I know I won't use have been unloaded at the food shelf. The drawer of utensils has been cleaned out (I just wish I had enough room to get the more frequently used utensils off the counter).

I've linked up at A bowl full of lemons.

Organize Schmorganize

I love to organize. The look of a beautifully organized cabinet, fridge, bedroom, anything brings a smile to my face. I've come to realize, though, that I lack the know-how to be a truly organized person. I try, but the organizational system seems to fall apart in a day.

Because of this, I've enrolled in a "class" per say. I follow the blog A bowl full of lemons. and am super excited for her 14 week organization series. My plan is to follow along and post about my trek through the world of organizing.

She's starting with the kitchen, so it is probably best that I start there, too.

Did you go check out her first post in the series? Isn't her kitchen amazing!?

Project: Organize #?

I haven't organized anything in a really long time, which is a bummer. I get such a sense of accomplishment after organizing a part of my life.

I do, however, have an idea for what I would like my next Project: Organize project to be. Project: Organize #1 was a huge success. I truly enjoy the new look of my pantry. It has made cooking that much more enjoyable. Project: Organize #2 was also pretty awesome, but not as fun to complete.

For Project: Organize #3, I would like to complete the office. The one that is filled with all of our "stuff." The one that has an almost empty closet, but a door that doesn't open all the way. To fix this, we really do just need to organize.

Good thing it is my last day of work for the summer and my projects can begin!

Project: Organize #2 ~ The Kitchen Sink

When I read about this project idea on The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking my plan was to do one organization project each week. That didn't go exactly as planned, as I started a week or so late. I finished Project #1 last weekend, and finished the kitchen sink an hour or so later. I just haven't had time to post until now!

Ahh, the kitchen sink. You can read about organizing underneath the sink at a lot of blogs and on a lot of other websites, which is great. Most of them portray similar ideas: that cabinet can become a catch-all of stuff that doesn't otherwise have a home. It can also be a place where items get lost: think "Land of the Misfit Toys." Only we aren't dealing with toys here.

Like all kitchen sink cabinets, most of mine is hard to access because of the plumbing and the garbage disposal. Not many things can get beyond the sink's drainage system. I attempted to organize away anyway. This time, I gave myself a rule:

Do not spend any money.

I found that the change in the kitchen sink cabinet wasn't that crazy (unlike the pantry organization!). It just became a bit more "tidy" if you will. It is definitely more appealing to the eye, and only a couple of items were removed from the cabinet all together. Those items were removed to the laundry room, which I thought was a better fit (I don't need the CLR in my kitchen!).

Here's the before:

And here's the after:

You see, it isn't a huge change by any means. But, having it this way makes me feel a little better (even if the only real change was putting the sponges, never-been-opened rubber gloves, and microfiber towels in a bucket). Eventually, I will let myself spend a few dollars on this cabinet, because I really like the way this looks at The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking.

Project: Organize #1 ~ The Pantry

Because our kitchen is so tiny, our pantry isn't actually in the kitchen. It's in the hallway. I know it sounds weird, but our kitchen is weird (and I kind of really don't like it). But, I love everything else about this house so I can put up with the kitchen (remodel plans are in the works!).

Anyway. The pantry is in the hallway, and it's a pretty good space. And today was the day to make it organized. I had a few places I needed to stop before I could actually start organizing (any excuse to go to The Container Store, right?). My first stop was at Crate & Barrel in search of freezer safe opaque storage, but that's an entirely different project.

Crate & Barrel wasn't that impressive today, so I headed down the road to The Container Store. My oh my, that store is beautiful. I could lose myself there for hours, and I could spend thousands. I found what I was looking for cabinet shelves and under-shelf baskets.

Pretty, oh so pretty. I'm extremely happy with these two products, and cannot wait to go back to The Container Store to show my husband the amazing elfa storage system. And the elfa stuff isn't just for the kitchen! It can be anywhere. Ahh, I'm in love with the entire store.


Back to the pantry project. Husband and I shop at Costco and stock up on our canned goods there. Which means we have a lot of the same item at times. Being that my pantry is in the hallway, taking one picture of the entire thing was..well, not good. The picture doesn't look that great, see:

Here's what I'll do: give you the before picture (on the left) AND the after picture (on the right) at the same time.  Ooh, special.

This first pictures are of the top, left side of the pantry. You can see that it originally was the cereal storage. Not ideal, because there are chips and stuff behind the cereal and if you know me at all, you know I'm short. And unable to reach things at the back of that shelf. So now, it is the lesser needed items: napkins, paper towels and the "back-up" toilet paper rolls.

Below that shelf now the Kitchenaid attachments, extra Ziploc baggies and some cough drops are found. It used to be ALL of the canned items--the only other shelf that used to hold food items in the pantry.

The bottom two shelves on the left side used to hold appliances that didn't otherwise have a home in the kitchen (and the rice). These ones stayed the same because everything fit so nicely:

The liquor cabinet also stayed the same. Again, everything fit so nicely and it is up high. Mr. Husband and I don't have any kids, but we will someday. It's important to keep naughty things out of reach.

Next, the napkins, paper towels, Pledge, and paper bags were kicked out and some food (cereal, chips, pancake mix) found their new home.

Then, we had the paper plates, table clothes and other random stuff that didn't really have a home otherwise. It was one of those shelves that was the catch-all. Now, it has most of the canned goods (which are mostly tomatoes and a few other random things). Hopefully next year, the canned tomato items will be homegrown, but that's another post for the future.

Then came the shelf with the pointless dividers. I took those right out with Mr. Husband's drill, hung the under-shelf basket and packed in the cream soups, oils, noodles and popcorn kernels. Popcorn on the stove is the only way to go. We always have popcorn kernels on hand for a quick snack (and, it's just plain fun to make). I'm glad I ended up taking the shelves out, though. It was difficult to store anything there in the first place.

And finally, the bottom shelf, that used to house some cleaning supplies. It now has boxed items (instant potatoes, stuffing mix), some sauces, seasoning packets and a few packages of noodles. The cleaning supplies that started there are now hanging out in the front hall closet, near the Swiffer mop, steam mop and broom. It seemed like a much better place.

Now, after that crazy-long post, I've already started organizing some other aspects of my house. The front hall closet, cabinets in the kitchen (under the sink!) and under the bathroom sink.

I love long, productive weekends!