I finally got under my kitchen sink organized. I was really irritated because I bought this really nice under the sink storage with drawers and then it wouldn't fit under my cabinet because of all the tubes and pipes. I had intended to use the organizer on one side and then I bought 2 storage drawers for the other side. Unfortunately the only thing I could fit under there was 1 storage drawer. Not exactly what I wanted, but I had to make do. So... after cleaning out under there and finding lots of wood rot, I was able to put the storage drawer on the right side and I filled it with dish soap, brushes and sponges. On the left side I had to resort to just stacking my saran wrap and such. Can't believe how much stuff I had under there and how many things I have multiples of. Good thing is most of them were bought at the dollar store, so it's not like I spent a lot of money on the stuff. Here is a picture of the before (top) and after (bottom).
This weeks project was to clean off the counters in my kitchen which again too embarrassed to take before pictures of. Lets just say that I haven't seen my counters this clean in years. I've always felt that I had to keep stuff on the counter, because 1) I don't have a lot of storage, and 2) I didn't feel like I should get rid of stuff. But now I'm learning that it's okay to get rid of stuff. Today I decided to start on a project that would help me clear off my counter tops and has been in the works for over a year now. I searched and searched for just the right containers, then had to figure out where to put them. I even attempted to paint a portion of the wall above my stove with magnetic paint, but it wasn't working and now when I move out that will be interesting to paint over. Finally found a magnetic board almost a year ago and today I finally put it all together.
I knew that I wanted a better way to store all my spices and I really liked the magnetic containers but couldn't figure out how to get them without spending a butt load of money. Here is a picture of all the materials needed for this project.
Need: Spices, stainless steel containers, adhesive magnetic sheets, label maker (not pictured: ruler, scissors and pencil to measure and cut apart the right size magnets)
I applied a magnet to the back of each container.
Then I filled it with each of my spices. I also put a label on the front with my label maker.
They began looking really good and then of course my label maker ran out of paper so I resorted to sticky notes until I can get to the store to buy more.
I had a lot of spices and I know that the picture up above of all the materials doesn't show nearly the amount I have because many of them are the really small containers. So, because some of my spices had multiples I couldn't completely fit it all in one container. So with the leftover space at the bottom I decided to write in the ones I had extra's of to hopefully prevent myself from buying anymore until I'm completely out of them, then I kept them in the white basket and put them in the cabinet.
So now that that project was finished I could finally completely clear off my counters and re-organize everything. Thank goodness for the weekend because I would never get all this stuff done without my days off.
Here are a few pictures of my kitchen counters. I know that I still have a lot to do, but at least this is a start.
And I placed the spices up on my stove. You can see the black magnetic paint on the wall behind the board, but unfortunately the board doesn't have a way to hang on the wall. Would love to figure out something so that it's not on my stove and it covers the black paint. Although, seeing the black paint everyday will remind me that I need to work on repainting my house at some point this year.
So I've been busy as you can see and continue to organize, de-clutter and create a better living space for my family to live in. Next week it's back to the bedrooms again to clean out more clothing.
