Organizing your Kitchen

Last week, I shared how I am taking the Organize Now! Organizing Challenge with some other bloggers and this week was organizing my kitchen cupboards! 

I actually enjoyed this week's challenge because I love being in my kitchen!

It was fun figuring out where everything should go.  

I had a lot of stuff....Probably too much!!

I tackled a lot of it with family.  We had an organizing party!!

Here is a picture my Mom and me!  OMG... we are twins!!  We are both bumming around in a grey sweatshirts and we are standing EXACTLY the same.... LOL!!!  Too funny!  I just noticed that now, bahahaha!!  

Are you like your Mom?  

Anyway, she helped me a lot!  Don't look at the half painted walls, we are still working on them, ha!

My sisters also came to help.  As you can see, things got worse before the got better but, we just cranked the music, drank tea and partied (I mean...organized!) 

Organizing is fun, right?

It took us a while to finish and I kept tweaking things as I used the kitchen.

My personal tips for getting organized 

Step 1: put on make-up/get ready

I always feel better when I look better and that helps me get motivated!!  It is not motivating to organize when you are a mess.  

Step 2: Crank the tunes!

I love organizing to upbeat music.

Step 3: START!!

The best way to get started is to actually start!  Stop thinking and start doing!

Here are some of Jennifer's tips!

*Empty each drawer

*Place items where they belong

*Organize by groups 

*Clean under sink

*Throw out old spices and trash bags

*Tackle the junk drawers

Here is how my kitchen looks now. 

 I will show a new, updated post as I re-arrange because I still have more to do.  I need to buy a few things still and I am missing one kitchen box.  We have no clue where it is.  It has our steak knives, smaller plates, cups and other stuff.  It's strange how we lost it but I still have some more boxes to open so it might be in one of those.

This is our "fancy" cabinet where I can show off some nicer, Crate and Barrel dishes that I got from my Mother-in-Law. 

I wasn't sure what to put on these little shelves so I added these cute little bowls.  We actually use these a lot so it's nice to keep them handy.

Here is a peek inside...

This is underneath.  It is a weird angled cabinet so I put a couple of larger serving dishes for easy access. 

Underneath that cabinet are these cute baskets for potatoes and onions. 

Next to that, I have another cabinet that I am using for my tea pot and popcorn maker....two things we use ALL THE TIME!!

This cabinet is under our stovetop so I just put our pots and pans in there.  Do you use cast iron pans??  They are awesome and the only way to go!!  I only have that other stainless steal pan in there for frying fish.  (I don't want our cast iron pan to taste fishy.)  Anyway, if you don't have a cast iron pan, go get one today because they are healthy and better!!  I think Target sells them now.

I need to organize this drawer a little better but it works for now.

Here is a small drawer of spices.  The drawer was so tiny that I had to put some of the containers upside down to open & close the drawer.  I really need to figure out my "spice" situation....Oh yes, it is a situation because I have WAY TO MANY!!  (I have more on the counter and the rest are shoved into the pantry.  I will save that for a rainy day!)

Next, we have my cabinet where I keep some of my most used items like, my protein, steiva, honey, kids vitamins, booster, cocoa powder (for making our own hot cocoa), chia seeds, bars, baby plates &  bowls, etc.

This is another "fancy" open cabinet!  I like that, now, I will be able to use this stuff because I will not have to go down to my basement to get the "nice" serving bowls.

I like how they look too!

Here, we have our wine glass holder.  My hubby loves this part! LOL!

Here are more of these shelves again!  I have no clue what they are for and I don't really like them but I found a few uses for them.

It's great for our salt shaker and mortar & pestle. Dang, our salt container is empty... how embarrassing!  We go through that pretty quickly around here!  It's easy to do when you use the good salt.

Cream & sugar!

I have all these little drawers all in a row.  I am not sure what they are for but they are cute so I just put some random things in them to clear up space in other drawers.

This is the bottom drawer.  

I LOVE these pull-outs for my Pyrex.

Here is the other pull-out cabinet.

Here, we took out the micro-wave they had here and used the space instead.  We have never owned a microwave and never will.  (Look up the health effects.)

My husband loves our wine chiller.

This is where we keep most of our everyday dishes.  (Like I told you, we are missing some still.)

This drawer is next to the dishwasher and I love the white wires to hold everything up.

I keep my silverware in these containers. (from Target).  Yes, we are still missing some silverware too!  Where could they be?? 

Here are our cups....yup, we are still waiting for more of these to show up.  (They were all in the same box.)

I love keeping some of the kids' arts & crafts in the kitchen because that is where we mostly craft anyway.

(containers are from Walmart) 

I have a love for vases so I like to keep those handy.

This is a bigger view.

Here, I store extra serving items.

These cute, colorful serving bowls were a gift from my friend, Alison.  Thanks girl! :)

These are sushi dishes from World Market.  (I love the Trader Joe's sushi!)

Here is another view.

I still have more space to fill, lol!

This is over the fridge.

On the counter, we have more spices.

More tea!  (Can you tell I love tea, LOL!)

Well, that is it for my organized kitchen tour! :)

How are you doing with your organizing?  

Did you tackle your kitchen too?

Happy organizing!

Bonnie :)

Thanks for reading, your next step is to follow on Facebook!  See ya there :)

Check out the other women in the challenge!

• Jennifer Dempsey: Jennifer, the voice behind the blog Mother Thyme, is a mom of twins, writer, author of Holiday Thyme and food blogger. She is an avid cook with a passion of combining fresh ingredients with common items already on hand. When not chasing around her kids, she likes spending her free “thyme” in the kitchen whipping up simple and delicious recipes at Mother Thyme one bite at a time.

• Linda DeFalco: Linda is a 30+ woman who lives together with her boyfriend in a 1,050 sq ft condo in Florida. She  loves organization but is inconsistent with how much time she spends on it due to the fact that she works so many hours in the corporate world. She is looking to find great ways to implement more organizational skills into her busy life. You can follow along with Linda’s organization journey at Tapas Lifestyle.

• Pamela Dayton: Pamela is surprised to find herself raising a family in the same town where she grew up, and is finding it easier to call her 7th-grade-Spanish-teacher-turned-mother-in-law by her first name.  In addition to educating her four children at home, Pamela is the owner, and creator of pretty useful things at Revel Handmade Goodness and blogs at the Dayton Time.

Pamela is excited about being a part of this challenge because she has discovered it is much more fun to sit on the sofa in pajamas while knitting custom pretty things for other people, than it is to sort stuff out. She’s taking advantage of this challenge because she knows it’s way past time to get organized.

Bonnie Donahue: Bonnie Donahue is a wife and mother to 4. She has been blogging at House of Grace for 3 years and is the founder of Project Dream Int. She loves talking about cleaning tips, & tools, organizing with what you have, healthy foods that kids will eat, simplifying your life, working from home, family fun and weight loss secrets! She is a down-to-earth momma trying to stay organized in her busy world and sharing her success a long the way! Join her now.

Michelle McDermott Murphy: Michelle has been married for over 15 years to a very supportive husband. They have 3 children, two daughters ages 13 and 10 and a son who is 8. Each of the children participate on sport teams through out the year and are all active in mixed martial arts several times a week. Michelle has always worked full time outside of the home. With all the activities, the organization of the home has taken the hit — there are only so many hours in a day. Through the years, the clutter has become overwhelming and quite stressful. Michelle is accepting this challenge to get her home in order, have less stress in her life and enjoy her home even more than she does already!!  You can find Michelle’s posts at www.eamich.wordpress.com