not a total betty, but a vast improvement

I have been spending way too much time at I heart organizing lately. Not only have I started a household management binder, complete with budgets, accounts, passwords, and cleaning schedule and a meal planning/recipe binder, but I also started an overhaul of the kitchen cabinets. Because really, how else would I spend a Saturday night?

Here is the before. Now just hold your judgement and be happy that I am indulging your voyueristic fantasies, mmkay?

Basically a disaster. In shambles if you will. Here is the after, the product of 2 hours and 2 glasses of late harvest Riesling.

It is kind of hard to tell, but one of the main tasks was setting up a work lunch zone. There is a spot for our lunch bags and containers. The snacks are able to be on a high (to me) shelf because of an awesome folding stool that I got from my mom that really should have been featured on my favorite things list, but I digress.

This little pantry project set several other mini projects into action. If you have a lazy susan you should store pots and pans in it instead of food. We made this change about a year ago and never looked back. I added the colander and boil over stopper (that's the technical term) to my large stockpot because they are rarely used without each other. Remember, like with like and one home for everything.

I moved rarely used small appliances to the top shelf in the pantry which freed up quite a bit of space in the island.

The cabinet that houses my pans, bowls, and cutting boards was also looking good. The removal of the colander made a huge difference.

I was repeating my "like with like and one home for everything mantra" and had the brilliant idea to put my bread pans, measuring spoons, and cooling rack with the flour and kosher salt. We've been eating exclusively homemade bread for the past couple of months, and the only time I use my measuring spoons is for baking (I just wing it when I cook) so it just made sense.

I decided to go through my utensil drawer next. There are several items I only use a handful of times a year, so it didn't make sense for them to take up premium real estate. I relocated them to a basket in the island:

Which left the utensil drawer looking like this:

The best part of this project is that it cost $0. I had the storage basket on hand, and everything else was simply relocated.  Be ruthless when you tackle your kitchen- if you hang on to something you don't use you are paying twice, once for the item itself and again in wasted real estate.

Next up are the kitchen counters. I am in awe of people that have miles of uncluttered counter space.