Kitchen Organizing

I really love organizing. I need organizer's anonymous. I kid you not. A fun afternoon for me consists of cleaning out my pantry and reorganizing its contents. :O

We recently painted our kitchen and I am starting to spruce it up with accesories but first I needed to clean and reorganize.

I sent my family out for the day and away I went. I was merciless when it came to throwing stuff out. If I had 2 of something, one went into the garbage. It felt so good.

I did a deep cleaning and then put everything back in its place or in a new spot that worked better for now.

Let's see what I did...

First off, is my desk area. This is where I write bills, look up recipes and fill out school stuff. I use the basket on the left to hold my current and most used cooking magazines. It is a Longaberger basket. The basket on the right is for important papers, bills, etc. I got that at a store called Hold Everything. And in between are note cards and a little thing of scrap paper. The drawer underneath holds envelopes and stamps. I like having everything I need to complete the task at hand all in one spot. I think I accomplished it here. :)




Under the desk area in my kitchen, I have my file box. I got this for $7.99 at HomeGoods and it fits standard file folders inside. I love it. When I need to look up something, I just pop it open and voila I have what I need. I love being organized. :D




The counter on the other side of the kitchen is near the fridge. I basically just use it to house the big appliances like my Kitchen Aid mixer and trusty Crockpot. :) Nothing too fancy here...



This was by far the hardest part of the kitchen for me. I don't like that everything is basically all the same height. So, I've decided that I need something tall for the end of the counter to balance it all out. I think I am going to go with a tall glass jar and fill it with lemons and limes. That should do the trick. :)

I also don't like the toaster out in plain view but we use it every day so I am not going to hassle with taking in and out of a cabinet every day. No way! I plan on getting a prettier stainless steel model that is also more compact. I think that will look better too. :)

Oh,and I need to switch out my little window topper as it is the old blue color scheme. All in due time.




And here is the area near the stove. I used to have a Pampered Chef utensil carousel but it was filled with too many unused tools. So, I had this pretty pitcher lying around and I thought why not use it until I find something I love. I pared down a lot and only kept the essential tools on display.

I also kept my Cutco knives near the stove but I moved them to the left side. And Stew's espresso machine used to be right near the sink. I hated it there. It blocked the light from the window and just looked so big and ugly near the sink. Since he only uses it about once a week, I relegated it to this corner that is not so right in your face. I like it better. We'll see if Stewie does come this weekend. ;)




This is my favorite spot in the kitchen. It is where I chop all my ingredients and read my recipes and get my morning coffee. So, I knew that this would be the place I would house all the essentials like flour, sugar, coffee and olive oil. :) All the canisters came from Target. The recipe basket is Longaberger.



We still have so much to do in here. Next thing we want to do is tile the backsplash. I already picked out the tile from The Home Depot. We just need to decide if we are going to change the countertops. I would love to but I'm not sure it is doable. If we are able to change the countertops, that would alter the amount of tile we need. Lots to decide...

So, in the meantime, I scour the shelves of HomeGoods and Target looking for accents for my kitchen. I need something for the walls in the eat in kitchen. Right now there is nothing on them. I'm getting tired of looking at empty yellow walls. Any ideas? I'd love to hear them. :)