The Kitchen Re-org: Part 2

Last (and first!) post, I was blogging about my kitchen angst. While I am not 100% out of the woods, the kitchen has definitely become much more functional. Before the transformation, the space was underutilized and consisted of glass bowls and stacked papers.

The space was better suited to pantry items where bins fit perfectly and the depth was not so great as to lose items in there permanently. One half was dedicated to baking and related items. This has already made a huge difference and with items not buried behind one another, it is easy to grab out for meals. The baking goodies are great and when making breakfast the other morning, I didn't have to run between three different cabinets on three different sides of the kitchen to get what I needed. Yeah!

On the counter space below, I set up wine and coffee stations with all the fixings I add to make my better-than-Starbucks drinks every morning. Having my travel mugs, Keurig (oh, how I love my Keurig!), and vanilla flavor all in one place has kept me from going out and buying a Starbucks (at $4.05 a pop) and has put 10-15 minutes back in my schedule!

The old pantry became a combination area for glassware, storage items and kids pantry items. All kids items were corraled into bins and storage items went in the back. Plates, bowls, and related items moved from three places in the kitchen to directly above the dishwasher with glassware to the right. I can't get over is how wonderfully functional the kitchen now is; no more items falling on top of one another or getting lost in the cabinets. The kids are even involved in the action and did quite a bit of the labeling themselves.

The result is a kitchen that is organized, but very much a work in progress. I still want to:

• Create meal bins with all the dry ingredients needed for a recipe
• Finish labelling bins and add some more decoration to other bins

There are other areas to corral that I am just not sure what to do with. For instance, the table that ends up as the household dropping ground and the corner that collects all things bread, fruit and vegetable. After dinner, this is also the area where all the kids drop off their plates and other items. Please let me know if you have any ideas!



I am part of the Spring into Organization blogger home tour!