2016 - Operation Organize Phase 1

I usually pick a project to work on during the week of my birthday - the last week in January. I always take the week, you know, the seven days of Stacey's birthday. Everyone does it, right? W ell, this year cash will be strapped so I have decided to organize and declutter - I want to organize my spice cabinet, closets, filing cabinet and generally de-clutter. I started with trying to make my kitchen a little more functional - I always felt like I didn't have enough counter top and if I had my way - there wouldn't be anything on the counters, but the house is small and storage is sparse. My solution?

I decided to make work spaces.

First, I decided to make my cool little cart I found at Sam's more appealing - I moved the food and cookbooks and decided to display some of my food toys:


Before:

You can't see but the third shelf I had food like cereal boxes and chips and bread - I relocated them into the cabinet when I moved my every day dishes








I  decided to move the food and go for an "open shelf" concept. I change the very top shelf based on the season but looking at the picture I need to organize the bottom shelf - missing is my fabulous yellow dish that I put on the third shelf between the two white dishes - adds a great splash of color - I love this dish scored at one of my friend Kristine's haunts - I scored big that day - ahh the days of being able to go thrifting and finding some cool things - I see the light...

Next I created work spaces and by doing this it seems I have more counter space - or it could be that just making any type of change makes things seem better to me (that is why I change the house over every season)


I was thrilled to find a function for that cool tin/tub with faucets - since I put the words Garden on it - well, how fitting to put my potatoes and onions and I also keep my banana



Here is bigger view - I'm using that cool coffee can that my friend Kristine gave me a plant to house some cooking utensils





My mixing station - with my cook book holder - isn't that a cool vintage cookbook? ( I will change this out with each season) My grandmother has really hooked me up vintage cookbooks - this one belonged to Mr. Man's late mother - it has some German writing in it (I can't read it)

To the right of the stove, I made the cutting  station, where I put the knife holder and the cutting board - I also used a decorative pitcher I found in a closet as a second utensil holder










What do you think? How do you have your kitchen organized?