A Weekend of Organizing Part II: What Wasn't Working in the kitchen

For Part I click HERE....

A tiny bit of background...

When we moved into our current house I had downsized our life dramatically (you can read more about this in part I). My former kitchen had so many cabinets I didn't really have to ask "where can I put this?" But that also led to keeping too much stuff!!!

What wasn't working...

Fast forward to our current kitchen which has a perfectly adequate number of cabinets for a family of 3 and has a small, but useful pantry closet. Still there were problems:

1. Where to put the potatoes & onions
2. How to keep non-approved junk from living on top of the fridge
   

First the onions & potatoes. These don't like the refrigerator and, frankly, our fridge is too small (due to being partially built-in) for them to live there. I tried the pantry but the trash can kept overflowing onto them (I know, I know don't let the trash get like that, but trash is teenage boy's chore--ok??) I tried a few different containers. I looked at wooden potato bins but couldn't bring myself to own something labeled "Taters." Still no solution. Finally I "settled" and went with these:

A pair of matching metal baskets to hold the onions and potatoes. These were to sit prettily on the floor beside the bench in the entry way. You can "sorta" see them with the broom leaning against one in the picture in yesterdays post (scroll down to the photos of the junk). Nice idea, but.....They collected junk because they were too big for the potatoes and onions, were't good cat napping spots in spite of the easy access to sun beams, and well, I was just too lazy to return them!


Now the junk on top of the fridge. I also "settled" for these not terribly attractive woven "cubes" to hide the seldom used coffee maker, and (I naively thought) my packed lunch dishes and bag as well as the only-ever-used-for-ginormous-batches-of-Chex-Mix cake carrier! (That doesn't stay closed, doesn't have a carry handle and.....why am I keeping this? Oh, yeah--Chex mix!!) I cringed even buying these since the kitchen is black and stainless and these are some kind of dried grass--mixing metaphors in my decorating!!!! I'm sure there's a law (or needs to be) against that! BUT, they DID hide the stuff and DID look (somewhat) better than the junk on top of the fridge. However, my lunch bag disappeared, I could never find a plastic container with a matching lid (except, of course, in the sink dirty) and frankly Cali has enough "spy kitty" places to hide in. This needed a change! One more "however" though.....My budget was about $10 so I needed to try to make things I already owned work.

Photo credit: kraft foods

I used the Organizing Junkie's P-R-O-C-E-S-S step-by-step. I threw out the disposable plastic containers ( I do not buy soft margarine or Cool Whip--ok once in a while cool whip--so I don't have THOSE containers floating around. Likely this is because we threw out multiple generations of them when my Mom left my childhood home. You can read more about my childhood home in part I.)

Here's my solution for now. If it doesn't work, I'll start over. The kids like it and praised it so that's all good!

Potatoes and Onions are in their pretty metal baskets at the front for easy access. (If I like this arrangement I'll probably spray paint them black or silver.)


The ugly woven grass cubes are at the back hiding the coffee maker, the cake-carrier-aka-Chex -Mix-container and a few holiday dishes. They're there when we need them, but not in sight. Cali has been up to inspected it all and left disgusted so I guess that's a good sign!


Tune in tomorrow, same bat blog, same bat time, for another edition of a "Weekend of Organizing" right here at Hopewell Takes on LIFE!!