Kitchen Cleaning and Organization

This might seem like a little thing to you, but it is huge for me. I like, no, I LOVE to have things organized and orderly. It makes me happy when everything has its place and I can find things easily. I know that we really need to tile the backsplash, but we had a lot of company last weekend, and Douglas had to work on Sunday, so there was not time to do it. We are hoping it will happen this weekend.

So, what is this organization of which I speak? I took everything out of the cupboards, cleaned them thoroughly and put things back in a more orderly fashion. I had decided what would go where when I moved in four years ago. For the most part, I planned well, and most of the cabinets made sense. However, when Douglas moved in two years ago, he brought even more things with him, and some of the cupboards were full or overflowing. I pared things down organized, so that we know where everything is, and hopefully everything will get used now. It may be necessary to do this more often because I found this in one cabinet.

I did not change much in the drawers. For the most part, we do not have trouble finding things in the drawers, and they are not too full. In case you are curious, here are the drawers in our kitchen starting in the cabinet to the right of the refrigerator and winding around to the right.

The cabinets held a lot more junk. Here are the before and after pictures. This is the black and white cupboard beside the refrigerator. Among other things it holds pet food, cookbooks, extra spices, freezer bags and wrap. I got rid of some things that did not need to be there and moved everything else around so that it is easily accessible.

This little cabinet to the left of the stove was a mess! It holds baking dishes, olive oil and assorted other things, several of which are now in the garage sale box in the basement.

The little spice cabinet above the last one did not change much. We use that handy spice rack (the white box) from Bed, Bath & Beyond for our most used spices, so the rest is not much of a problem. I did fill the canisters of grains that sit on the top of the cupboards with the remains that had been sitting in bags in the cabinet, and there is less clutter in there.

Our dishes are in the cabinet above the dishwasher. Nothing changed in here. I bought the corner shelves from Bed, Bath & Beyond several years ago, which allowed me to access the plates more easily and fit more in. This cabinet is not a problem.

The cabinet under the sink did not change much either. I have bottles and boxes on the left and smaller supplies in the box on the right. It works for us, so no change for now.

The cabinet to the right of the previous one was the most frustrating for me of them all. We kept all of our pots and pans in there as well as our plastic containers for food storage. Trying to access anything meant pulling almost everything out, and I hated to cook because of it. This is probably the cabinet that I am most proud of after organizing. I bought a lid organizer to store the pot and pan lids and moved the box of plastic containers to another cupboard. Now everything is much easier to reach.

The cabinet to the right of this one holds our small appliances. It functions well and did not change much. You might notice that my baking racks are now over there.

The upper corner cabinet has a lazy susan, and it functioned well for us. However, I wanted to move our travel mugs over. In order to make room, I took some of the teacups that we never use down to the basement.

The cupboards to the right of the corner cabinet function as our pantry. There is a lot in there that we rarely use because we forget that it is there. I hope that now that it is organized, we will use it.

In several of the cabinets, I found parts of what turned out to be an enormous collection of supplies for hot beverages. We have copious amounts of tea, coffee and hot chocolate. They are all now stored together and hopefully will get used up before anyone buys more!

The long cabinet by the back door was another triumph for me. It was a mess, and I had been wanting to organize it for a long time. It is now much more functional, as I can reach everything easily. The box of plastic containers moved over here. I also purchased more glass ones so that we will use the plastic ones less. I am pleased with how these cupboards look now.

The last step was to rearrange where things were stored on the counters. Random things were on the cabinet beside the refrigerator and the microwave took up valuable real estate to the left of the stove. We had the salt and pepper on the stove back and kept other oils and cooking utensils to the right. My Kitchen Aid mixer was stuck in a corner and difficult to use because I had to pull it out and push it back.

The mixer and microwave are now beside the fridge, while all of the cooking supplies are to the left of the stove. To the right there is NOTHING. It is beautiful, or it will be once the backsplash is tiled!

I am so happy with my beautiful and well-organized kitchen. No more sprouting potatoes! The best part was that the entire project cost me less than $10 for the lid organizer.

More things crossed off of my list.

• Remove the countertops (view post)
• Install new countertops (view post)
• Move electrical outlet
• Tile the backsplash
• Patch wall (view post)
• Paint
• Paint door
• Caulk moldings
• Polish cabinets and hardware (view post)
• Reconfigure cabinet storage
• Clean everything well and put it back
• Fix gap between cabinet and counter

Do not forget to stop by the Ugly Duckling to see what the other ladies are doing in their kitchens. I think that I am supposed to talk smack, but the truth is that I am more impressed with their progress. Carrie picked out some slabs of awesomeness. (That is a word! ;)) We would have been much further along if Douglas had not been derailed for over a month with pneumonia.

Happy Homemaking!