The Kitchen

A couple of days ago I mentioned that I'm joining in on a challenge to organize our home.   

This might be the only time it's ever organized again.

This week's challenge was the kitchen. Can I tell you how much I love kitchens?  After Craig and I were married we completely refinished the kitchen.  We painted the cabinets, installed new flooring, and put in granite countertops.  When we decided to move I was so torn because I knew I'd be leaving our kitchen.  So when we stumbled upon this house and I walked in and saw the VERY SAME granite counters as our old house, I knew we had to buy this one.  :)  And here we are!

So.  Back to the organizing.  I cannot lie.  I thoroughly gutted and organized our kitchen about a month ago and it has stayed pretty tidy since then.  So I don't have much in the way of "before" pictures.  I went back through and straightened things up and did a good cleaning.  That's all there was to do this week for me!  (But just wait.  When we do closets it's gonna be tough!)

I started with the kid's cabinet.  I'm working with Nathan and Alex on putting away their dishes after they're clean, so this one gets messy pretty quickly.

I took everything out first and then put away all of the nursing supplies.  (Won't be needing those anytime soon!)  Then I put all of the cups in the big blue bin and put the bowls in the basket.  Everything else just sits in the cabinet for easy access.

Much better.  In a week it'll be back to stage one and I'll get to do this all over again!

I also straightened the ziplock/potholder drawer.  This one seems to get cluttered quickly too!  

When I was organizing a couple of weeks ago I completed straightened out our cabinet under the sink.  In the left basket you'll find our dishwasher detergent and rinse aid.  The middle basket is cleaning supplies and the right basket is dish soap.  In the back is the dreaded fish tank cleaning stuff.  Bleh.  And behind all of that (unseen in the picture) is all of our cleaning rags.  We've officially gotten rid of paper towels, so I have lots of rags back there.  And you probably noticed our handy fire extinguisher.  Every house needs one.  But especially ours since we have a home study walk through next week!!

Here's my baking cabinet.  Complete with oils, spices, baking powder, soda, salt, and bowls.  See that curtain rod holding up my little spices?  Yep, that's a Pinterest idea!  A little tip - make sure you get the tension really tight.  Otherwise you might open your cabinet to find a bunch of spices falling all over you.  Not that I'd know that.  Ahem.  Hidden in the basket on the left you'll also find the kids' playdough supplies.  I keep them in the kitchen closest to the table because it's an easy way to keep them entertained while I'm baking or cooking.

Here's the back wall of the kitchen.  Baking supplies are top left, kids' cabinet is bottom left.  To the right on top are the plates and Pyrex bakeware (no picture - it's boring) and the bottom left is pots and pans.  Again no picture.  Sorry.  I know you're missing it dreadfully.

Here's the right wall of the kitchen.  I don't like this spot.  Because it's so ridiculously hot down here right now I'm not drinking coffee.  So all of that is stored on top of the fridge in that mess.  When it's cold there's a nice little coffee corner in this nook.  But for now it just looks weird.  I'm thinking about switching to tea since my taste for coffee comes and goes.  If that happens, I can stash the coffee away in a cabinet far away and only pull it out for company.  What do you think: coffee or tea?  And yes, I still need to clean the fridge.  You caught me.  

In our dining nook we have another Pinterest find: our family calender center.  I spray painted an old frame and created a scrapbook type layout to go inside.  It has our calendar, a weekly planner, a note section, our family picture, and some of my artwork from college.  It makes me happy.  And gets rave reviews from company!

And here's the breakfast nook.  Which is our "every meal nook" since our dining room is the school room right now.  Can I tell you how much I love this table??  It was Craig's grandmother's table that was passed along to him.  It was previously a pine color that didn't match the new house.  And the finish was almost completely worn off from so many years of love.  So we refinished it!  The legs are painted white and the tabletop and chair seats are stained a dark brown.  I then brushed some stain on the legs to age it a bit.  The white was too stark next to the stain.  I LOVE it in our kitchen.  It fits perfectly.  

And there you have it.  Our lovely kitchen.