~The Pantry~

Y'all, this is my most embarrassing "before" so far. But, it is also my favorite transformation so far! Since we don't have an official pantry in our house, I use a bank of cabinets near the refrigerator. It was such a mess and hardly organized at all, that whenever I would put groceries away, I would just get frustrated. Lots of stuff would just end up staying on the countertop because I just didn't know what to do with it (or we just wouldn't put it back when we were done). Okay, I'm nervous about revealing these photos, but here goes.

Before:

Before I took everything out of the cabinets and off the counter in front, I picked through it all and removed anything that could (or should) go somewhere else, so that I could limit this cabinet to food only. This included baby bottles, breast milk bags, pitchers, a blender, etc. I put all of these things in their rightful place.

Then, I stopped to think about how I should arrange things to make it most functional. Which leads me to my tip.

Tip of the Day: Function is the most important thing to remember when organizing. If your organizational method, no matter how good it looks, is not functional to you and your lifestyle, then it is NEVER going to work. Prioritize your space. Easy-to-get-to cabinets and shelves house things that you use often. Out-of-reach places house items you only need once in awhile. Items that you don't use have no place in an organized home. Donate them or have a garage sale!

I ended up changing up almost everything about my pantry with the hopes of making it more functional.

After:

I got this idea from another blogger. Instead of taking up space with all those bulky cereal boxes, just put the bags in a cute basket. I got this at Pier 1.

Yes, this is a hospital tub. I got it when my first daughter was born. They work very well for washing bottles and pump parts. Turns out, they also work well for holding pasta! Not the prettiest, but it will do until I can afford nicer containers.

After purging my pantry of any expired food and unnecessary packaging, I had plenty of room to store most of the items that had been cluttering up the counter top. I really love these white canisters, but I've had them for years and am getting tired of seeing them all the time, you know? They are still filled with sugar and flour, just hidden away now :) You can't see it too well, but in the corner is a black tin (like one that comes filled with popcorn). I used it to house partial bags of flour, sugar, and brown sugar that are just not fun to look at.

We don't use a lot of canned goods, but now they are all within easy reach.

Containers purged from your Tupperware cabinet make great ones for organizing, as well! These hold drink mixes.

I have a confession. I buy the more expensive, single serving vegetable cups so that my daughter can have vegetables at every meal even if I don't. However, they are super hard to stack in the pantry. I got these chip bowls at Target for $1 each. One holds veggies and the other holds various other food items my daughter likes.

Taking all of the various types of crackers out of their boxes and putting them in a basket saves so much room!

I got these cute little Ball jars at a garage sale several years ago. Seriously, I got 28 of them for $2. I didn't really have much use for them at the time, but I just *knew* they would come in handy some day!

Well, I know this was a long post, but this was quite a long process for me! I hope you are as happy with your pantry revamp as I am with mine!

Under the Kitchen Sink

It hasn't been too long since I have cleaned under our kitchen sink, so this one didn't take too long.

When we moved into our house, there was vinyl down in this cabinet. Instead of taking it out, I just gave it a good scrubbing. I decided I needed a change, though, so I laid shelf paper over it.

Tip of the day: Containers. They are great, even essential, for organizing. But, don't rush out and buy tons of them. Look around and see what you already have and buy them as you go. And, don't forget to think about containers around the house you can repurpose (refer to the breast milk bottles from Day 2). For instance, notice the dishwasher soap container with the pink, flip-top lid. Once it is empty, I plan on using it to hold plastic grocery sacks. That way, they will be contained and once it's full, I don't need to keep any more.

~The Linen Closet~

When I think of linen closet, I usually think of a closet in the hall with sheets and towels. We don't have that. We have a cabinet on the wall of the bathroom. All or our sheets are neatly folded in under-the-bed boxes in our room (under the bed, of course).

The problem I have always had with our linen cabinet is that it's not quite deep enough for our fluffy bath towels. So, as you can see from the picture, they usually end up just shoved in at all cost. Another challenge was all that "stuff" in there that is not towels. Before, I had our bigger bath towels on a cart in the corner of the bathroom, but that has been driving me crazy lately. So, I decided to do a set of plastic drawers there, instead, to hold all the "stuff" and put the towels back in the cabinet.

Tip of the Day: Experiment with folding your towels until you find a way to fit them perfectly onto your shelves. Mine was kind of a fold/roll combo.

Here is the before picture:

Here is the after picture (minus our current bath towels):

Re-purposed Wall Hooks

My most recent craft project has been re-purposing a wall hanger with hooks for Annabelle's room. Below is a "Before" picture. It used to hang in our apartment by the door to house keys. Moving was not good for it however, since you can see the paper is peeling off in the corners. I have always loved this piece for its functionality. So, I decided to make it into something "cutesy" to hang in Annabelle's room.

First, I peeled all the paper off of it. This step probably takes the longest and the most patience. Then, I sanded it with sand paper. This removes some of the chipped paint, smooths it out, and even gets off some of the last bits of paper.

Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of these middle steps, so I'll just describe them to you. First, I used a screwdriver to remove the hooks. Then, I painted the whole thing white (it took 2 coats to cover the cream color and bare wood). Once the white paint was thoroughly dry (about an hour), I taped off 1 3/4 in strips with blue painter's tape. I then added the purple stripes (again, it took 2 coats). Once those were dry, I peeled off the tape and replaced the hooks.

For this step, I used decoupage (found at any craft store) and scrapbook paper. I used paper from the same "scrap pack" as the paper I used to make the letters for Annabelle's name (I'll post those later). I used my paper cutter to make the green square, then very carefully cut out the butterfly and polka dots from some of the patterned pages. The "a" is typed into a Word Document (Times New Roman, bold, lower case) and sized to fit. I went to Format>Font>then clicked Outline and printed it on white paper and cut it out. I used the decoupage to glue it all down. After it had dried (about 20 minutes), I used a paintbrush and brushed two coats of decoupage over the entire surface (being careful to avoid the hooks).

And, here is the finished product! It can now be used to hang jackets, headbands, paci clips, or anything else a little princess might need!

Tupperware Cabinet

Who doesn't have a love-hate relationship with their Tupperware cabinet? Actually, mine shouldn't even be called a Tupperware cabinet; instead, I should call it a Rubbermaid cabinet. Because that's the brand of most of my "leftover containers." At least they don't all say Cool Whip on the side! I think I have 2 actual Tupperware dishes. And, they were probably borrowed and never returned : )

Anyway, here is my before shot: Such a jumbled mess!

And, here is the after:

Tip of the Day: Keep the items you don't use as often on the top or back. That way, you don't have to ask your husband to reach things for you as often :)

Computer Desk

I joined the challenge late, and I've been doing some other projects around the house, so I'm a little behind! I actually did this yesterday, but didn't get a chance to post until now.

The computer desk! The challenge said to do the top only, but I cheated and did a couple drawers, too, mostly because you can see into 2 of them when the desk part is fully pulled out. We have a massive computer desk with a bookshelf built into it, so it took me quite awhile to finish this one!

Before: I'm glad I got the motivation to tackle this because it was driving me nuts! And, this is one of the first things you see when you enter our house. I typically clean it off when we know we are having company, but it sure is embarrassing when people drop by unexpected. I have been longing for a way to keep it organized, not just cleared off occasionally. 

After: Much, much better!

Tip of the Day:  Keep cute, fun, or stylish containers on desktops for extra storage. That way, you can put less attractive things (like stapler, tape dispenser, calculators, bills) in them and it still looks nice!
Here are the drawers before: It was hard to even open them because they were so full. Part of my clean-up plan for company-shove everything in drawers. I'm sure you have NO idea what I'm talking about :)

And here they are after: Post It notes, a pencil case with extra writing instruments, highlighters and erasers

 

USB drives, scissors, White Out, tape, glue, ruler, and notice the paper clips sorted by size in breast milk storage bottles (they came free with a diaper bag I got at the hospital). Gotta get creative if you don't want to spend a lot of money to get organized!

Because I like it so much, I will post another "After" picture.

Stay tuned, because this bad boy still has 2 more drawers!

The Junk Drawer

The junk drawer! Everyone has one. Ours is in the kitchen. Where is yours?

Before:

After:

Have you ever seen the show Clean Sweep on HGTV? I don't think it's even on anymore. Anyway, this is much like that. You empty all the contents out of the drawer, then sort them into Keep, Donate/Garage Sale, and Trash. Keep only what you actually use. Then, use various containers to separate like items. 

Tip of the day:  Keep the things you use most often out of containers for easier access.