The Kitchen

March was Kitchen Month!  This room was half disaster half not.  Let’s be honest, it’s a good thing I have pets. . .

I could not have my organizing friend come over and help with the kitchen until I actually did some work first as I was embarrassed by the state of that room.  Plus, after her help with the second bedroom I felt ready to tackle something on my own.  Here’s an overview of what happened:

• I went through and pitched any food that was expired or I knew I’d never eat again (those soba noodle from an ill-fated recipe, yeah those went in the trash).
• I also went through all my cookware and dishes.  My friend had made a good point; you can only use so many utensils at a time.  I threw out anything that was in not great shape or was cheap.  I have nice things so I may as well use those.
• I moved the spices from the jumbled cabinet to a drawer, thinning them out along the way (see photo).
• Threw out any other random crap.
• Shifted the kitchen table and shelves.

Now my countertops were almost completely bare and that made me uncomfortable.  So we moved the microwave off the shelf to the countertop.  It all works much better now.  You can’t quite see how much better it looks since there aren’t before pictures (too embarrassing), but believe me, not only is it neater and cleaner but it also works better for me as a space.  These photos also include the bonus of pets!  I do still need to do a little painting and decorating.

As a side note, I have learned that once I get going with this cleaning/organizing the shit needs TO GO!  No messing around with labeling it for resale or for Goodwill.  I. WANT. IT. GONE.  I threw out 4 garbage bags of stuff from the kitchen alone.  I did take about two boxes to Goodwill with some dishes and small appliances but that was it.  At first this made me feel very wasteful, but then I realized that this is never going to get done if I just don’t get rid of it and move on to the next thing.  So there’s a little something I’ve learned about myself through this process.

Second Bedroom–Improvements

I’m going to wait to post photos of the second bedroom until it is completely finished.  Right now it is all cleaned and organized, but I still have a few purchases to make.  The space will be a combo workout/yoga/sewing space, which I am really looking forward to.

Here are two photos of some improvements.  The first shows the bookcase, all cleaned off.  I have still put my pared down selection of books at the bottom of the case but at the top I’ve organized all my fabric.  Going through that was an adventure!  A friend came over and we went through 20+ years of fabric.  Some of it got pitched but most of it I kept.  You never know when you are going to need fabric with pigs on it. . .

The other photo shows the closet.  The square shelves were outside the closet before and fit perfectly inside the closet; it’s like I was meant to take on this project!