The Kitchen~

I was not sure the day would come, but today it happened. It is the first day in well over two weeks that I am not sick nor am I taking care of sick kids or pets for that matter. With all the health issues under control it was time to tackle the kitchen de-junking project.

When I was preparing mentally for this room I saw lots of things I could get rid of. I also decided that it was time to reconsider there things are located. When we moved in I just put everything away in the same place that the previous owner had her stuff. Two years later, it's time to decide what is working and what is not. I already have some ideas going into this project but want to see how much room I have after weeding out unwanted items.
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After:









I started this project by getting a couple empty boxes to put garage sale items in. Then I start in one corner of the cabinets and went in order through all the cabinets removing items I want to sell or give away. I ended up filling 4 good sized boxes to be added to the garage sale pile. I have everything from wine glasses to a strainers. In the end I actually freed up a lot more space then I thought I would.

Next I took post it notes and put one on all the cabinet doors and the drawers. I wrote what items were staying there and what was being added to it. After I did a re-org post it style, I took the plunge and started moving things around. It all seemed to work just fine, however, it will take some getting used to the new locations. One of the biggest changes was moving the food from the pantry (which is located in the hallway) to the lower kitchen cabinets and the item's used once month or so moved into the pantry closet. It will be nice to not have to make the long walk back and forth all the time.

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After:













We did add baskets that pull out for the food to make it easier to see what we have. I am also going to use large canning jars for my bulk food items to get them out of the flimsy plastic bags. When I do that I would like to put nice labels on them like the Mabel canister and spices labels. But that will be a project for another day. For now I'm happy with the way things turned out. I'd have to say that I won this battle!

How did you kitchen turn out? Did you get a box full of kitchen goodies for your next garage sale?

Next will be bathrooms and linen closet. This should be a lot of fun since we will be moving back into the full bath after finishing the remodeling this coming weekend. Right now it's still a work in progress (but at least we have a floor again). Tune in next Wednesday to see how the new bathroom comes together!