Mission: Spice Organization

Those of you have been reading my blog posts (and thanks to the one or two of you who are!) know that I've been working my way through the Organized Home Challenge.

The most recent area I tackled (this was last Thursday's challenge, but I got busy, so I did it today when there isn't a challenge listed!) was the spice area in my kitchen.  The challenge actually reads "Discard expired and old spices".  I did that...and more.  Here was the area in the kitchen where I kept my spices (and cookbooks, but they weren't officially part of the challenge):

What is in that bread box, you might ask?  Bread would be the logical answer, but no.  

More spices.  It really seemed like a good idea at first.  But, it just wasn't big enough, and I could never find anything.  So I had some duplicates.  Nothing as bad as the kosher salt from a few days ago, but a couple of containers of cumin, and two unopened jars of cardamom.

I had a drawer in my kitchen that contained a sifter and two power cords.  Really wasted space, if you ask me.  I moved the power cords (which I think are for the griddle and maybe the wok??) to the drawer with the pot holders and the sifter to the utensil drawer.  Now I have an empty drawer to make into my spice drawer!  I also threw out anything old or expired.  I put a few things in nicer containers (I love the containers that Penzey's spices come in.  I actually would buy all my spices there if we had one close by.  But when I need something and have run out, I have to go with the cheap-o stuff.  But I put it in the Penzey's jar to make myself feel better.)  The lids are smooth and black, which made it really easy to label the lids with a white paint pen.  Then I just lined them up alphabetically in the drawer.

I have a few random items in the back (Saltine seasoning - this was a gift and I haven't tried it yet, bags of cinnamon sticks and bay leaves, and a couple of nutmegs rolling around).  But it's so much easier to see what is in there!

And the counter space!!!

The only things I left out on the counter are the sugar dispenser, my salt container for cooking, and my bottle of Slim & Sassy.  I'm thinking about getting a new fruit bowl (my old one broke) or a banana tree to put here, but I like that I have a work space that is available.   I may also leave my cutting mats out here as well, since I always need them and they are so thin and easy to lose in the cabinet.

So, how do you organize your spices?  

Why we have 3 BOXES of Kosher Salt. (OR Why you need an organized pantry!)

I admit it.  I am guilty.

I am one of those people who goes to the grocery store and then just shoves things in the pantry without taking time to organize them.  This is especially bad on co-op nights when I get home at 9:00 (or later!) and am tired.  It's a bad habit.  I'll try to stop.  Especially after today.

Why today?  Well on the Organized Home Challenge for this week, today is Declutter Pantry Shelves.  I've actually been meaning to do this for a while.  My pantry was a mess.  I couldn't even shut the door all the way.  And the bag from January co-op with pantry items was just piled in front.  See?

And good luck finding anything in there! 

Now, in all honesty, it didn't take long to get this in shape.  Just going through, shelf by shelf, and putting things where they should have been originally.  I did get rid of a grocery bag of expired, half used items.   I also pulled out another bag of stuff for the food pantry.  Most of that was canned items I'd bought for a recipe and then either never used, or ended up substituting something non-canned instead.  Hopefully I'll be able to cut down on that with my new meal planning process that gives me time to make home-made substitutes.  

The biggest problem I ran into was duplicates.  I mean, who really needs three almost full boxes of Kosher Salt!?!?  I kept two in the pantry.  I mean, we will use it eventually.  The third I pulled out to go with my supplies for making household/beauty supplies.  I put kosher salt in my laundry detergent.  Helps make the clothes nice and soft.  I pulled all of those supplies (washing soda, baking soda, castile soap, essential oils, etc.) out and moved them down to the bathroom off the playroom.  Plenty of cupboard space there, and it leaves the pantry free for just food items.  I also moved the blender down to the cupboard where I keep rarely used appliances.  That let me slide the dehydrator farther back so the rice cooker would actually fit.

See the improvement!?  And the door closes now, too!  Here are a few close-ups of some of my tips for a cleaner looking pantry:

1.  On my "liquids" shelf (which also has my salt...), I have a metal cookie sheet.  See it on the left?  I put all of my oils, vinegars, honey, agave nectar, and cooking wines on this.  That way, if they leak, it's easy to pull out and wash off.

2.  Clear plastic bins for staples.  I have my most used pastas, sugars, baking soda, arrowroot powder, cocoa, breadcrumbs, etc. in these.  I also have ones for my flours, oats, cereals, and protein powder on the top shelf.  I do have a few boxes of special pastas that I've bought for a recipe: angel hair for sesame noodles, rotini for a soup.

At the bottom of the picture, you can also see my snack bins.  I have one for me and one for my husband.  I keep things like bagel sticks and pretzels in mine.  He has trail mix and Clif bars.

3.  Baskets to collect like items.  I have 4.  One basket holds snacks for the kids (mostly dried fruits right now).  That one is on the shelf with canned items.  I'm also using it to separate cans that I've bought for recipes or are just random fruits or soups from items needed for co-op recipes.  I'm really hoping to be able to cut down on the amount of stuff on this shelf.  But it's not bad.  A couple of cans of pineapple, some tomato paste, tomatoes with chiles, enchilada sauce, and stir-fry veggies (water chestnuts and baby corn).  The enchilada sauce and tomato paste I can probably make.  The tomatoes with chiles I might be able to can this summer.

I have another basket for crackers, taco shells, and croutons.  I also stuck my gigantic bag of dried chiles in there.  I didn't know where else to put it.

The small basket has mixes (ranch dressing and onion soup), yeast, and sprinkles.

The last basket is all baking supplies - nuts, coconut, marshmallows, and chocolate chips

I'm happy with it.  Now, how long do you think I can keep it cleaned up? :)

Organized Home Challenge: Week 1-1.5

It's time to get organized!  Check out the Organized Home Challenge over at Home Storage Solutions 101.  I'm excited to get my house all put in order this year.  It's part of trying to get my life put back in order.  I've felt just all discombobulated lately, and I want to change that!  (How often do you get to use the word "discombobulated"?  I love it!)

Weeks 1-2 of the Organized Home Challenge had to do with kitchens.  Surprisingly, this may be the most organized area of my whole house.  Probably because we have a pretty small kitchen, so everything has to have it's place or the whole room becomes a disaster very quickly.  That actually gave me an out the last week, because a lot of this was already done!

January 7 - Declutter small kitchen appliances.  Mine all have homes.  Most of them live in the pantry, on the bottom shelf: food processor, blender, rice cooker, dehydrator, and slow cooker.  The toaster and the mixer have cupboard space.  Done!

January 8 - Clear off kitchen counters.  This is a daily chore!  It seems like every time I go in the kitchen, there is a toy, the mail, or some random object sitting on the counter!  So, I'm just having to make myself more aware of picking things up as I walk through.  Done!

January 9 - Clear off the kitchen table.  We don't have a table in our kitchen, just in the dining room.  And it's usually cleared off so we can eat.  Occasionally the kids leave coloring books or something on it, so again, just being more aware and picking things up! Done!

January 10 - Declutter everyday tablecloths, napkins, placemats.  Do people actually use these everyday?  I can't remember where my holiday ones even are.  Maybe someday when I don't have little people who spill things...Done!

January 11 - Declutter excess plastic cups and water bottles.  OK.  This one I had to do.  How do we accumulate so many water bottles??  I didn't take pictures (OOPS!), but I think we threw out or donated something like 15 water bottles.  I kept the ones the kids got at summer camp - they are really good bottles.  Plus we have 3 large ones that we keep for camping - they went down to the camping tub.  The only cups I kept were the mugs (with lids) that we got from Walt Disney World last year.  They are awesome mugs, and souvenirs.  Done!

January 12 - Declutter ziplock bags, foil, plastic wrap, etc.  These already have a drawer that stays pretty neat.  Done!

January 13 (Reading Day)

January 14 - Declutter kitchen cabinet shelves/drawers.  This goes with...

January 15 - Declutter kitchen junk drawer.  Alright, this is where I had work to do.  I am constantly getting new kitchen gadgets.  I love gadgets!  But sometimes a good purge of the utensil drawer is necessary.  I have 2 drawers and a canister for utensils.  Here is what they looked like before:

Try finding something in that mess.  And who needs three ladles and 5 sets of measuring cups, anyway?  I went through and got rid of a bunch of junk.  Anything broken, stained, or starting to melt went in the garbage.  The rest of the stuff I got rid of went to Goodwill.  It made a huge difference just cleaning out those drawers!  Here are the after shots:

Up next is finishing the kitchen cabinets and then it's on to the pantry...probably the scariest part of my house! :)

My Planner System

Have you checked out the Organized Home Challenge yet?  The challenge doesn't technically start until Monday, but the first 4 days of January have been little things to help get ready.  Here's my progress so far.

Jan. 1 - "Set up a donation and selling collection station".  I admit, I don't really do this.  I have a large garbage bag for donation items and once it's full, off it goes.  Or if I'm heading to my chiropractor which is right next to the Goodwill drop off.   I do keep track of donations for tax purposes, but I'll talk about that in a minute.  As for stuff to sell...I don't bother.  I hate having garage sales!  It's just too much work, and I don't have enough to sell to make it worth all the time to me.  So, I donate everything instead.  If I decide to get rid of something actually worth much, I might try ebay or craigslist, but so far that hasn't happened.  I have sold some old text books on amazon, and that's been pretty easy.

Jan. 2 - "Create binder for household notebook".  I didn't really create a binder...and it's not really a household notebook.  But I do have a new planner system I absolutely LOVE.  After years and years of trying different things (Franklin planners, cheap calendars from the store, several different online things), I finally found something that actually works for me!

Have you seen these disc binders?  I love them!  First, they are so much easier to move things around than a regular three ring binder.  But best of all, THEY LAY FLAT!  Just like a spiral notebook.  Yes, you have to have a special paper punch for them.  But, it's a one-time, fairly small expense that is definitely worth it.  I bought this really cute binder, along with some tabs for it, at Staples.  I bought the hole punch off of amazon for a total of about $25.  That may seem a little much, but remember, all of that is reusable year after year!  It's just the pages that have to be replaced.

Ahh...the pages!  Where do those come from?  Most of them I ordered off of easy from a site called http://www.thepolkadotposie.com.  I love the layout, the fun colors, everything about them.  And all for only $10.  I could probably make my own, but this was so much easier.

The pages I really use are the calendar:

And the monthly meal plan:

I also have tabs for a to-do list (which I just do on the paper that came in the binder), plain paper, and for organizing.  The organizing section is new - this is my answer to this part of the organized home challenge.  I printed off the January calendar from the challenge so I have it in front of me.  I also will put any printoffs I get from the challenge that I find useful in this section.

I did add one other thing.  I found this donation record on www.clutterdiet.com (thanks to seeing it on the Today show), and it is really useful!  You just write everything down and add up the value.  Underneath that, I printed out the Valuation Guide from Goodwill, and stuck that in as well.

All put together, it makes a great binder!  I love having everything I need in one place.  I'll probably find more things to add to it over time, but I've been using it since July and so far it's been exactly what I needed.

Jan. 3 - "Create template for daily to-do list that works".  I'm still working on this one.  Right now I just use a piece of paper.  If you have any suggestions for what works for you, I'd love to hear them!

Jan. 4 - "Declutter or make place to store old Christmas cards".  I don't keep old Christmas cards.  Picture cards go on the refrigerator for a while, but regular cards I just get rid of.  I appreciate them, I do.  I just don't understand why I need to keep them.

So, I'm all caught up!  How about you?

Organized Home Challenge: Week 7 - Coupons (Or how I really save money on food...)

This week the Organized Home Challenge is all about coupons.  There are tons of couponing sites out there, and shows like Extreme Couponing, etc.  At times, I've really been fascinated by the idea of couponing.  And then I realized something.  We don't have a Kroegers.  Or an Albertsons.  Or really any of the big grocery chains that the couponing sites are always talking about.  We have smaller chain grocery stores.  Now I'm not complaining!  I'm a huge fan of both HyVee and Fareway.  They offer a lot of great products and have good prices.  But the coupon matching sites just don't cover them.

I tried subscribing to the weekend paper for the coupon inserts, but I wasn't getting enough coupons out of it to make up for the price of the paper.  Part of that is my fault - we don't buy a lot of processed foods, and coupons for fresh meat and produce really don't happen very often.  So, couponing, while it sounds good in theory, just doesn't work well for me.

I do have a couple of ways I save money on groceries, though, so I'll just share those with you.

First - I do a lot of my shopping for regular weekly groceries at Target.  Why Target?  Well, I can get coupons for things I use at Target.com.  So, that helps with some things.  Plus, I have a Target debit card that gets me a 5% discount (plus 1% donation to my son's elementary school).  I've done some price comparisons, and after the 5% discount, shopping at Target for a lot of my specialty stuff (organic cane juice, turbanado sugar, whole wheat flour, arrowroot, Clif bars, etc.) is cheaper than shopping at HyVee, and Fareway just doesn't carry a lot of that stuff.  So, that helps.

The biggest way I save money though, is my cooking co-op.  I LOVE my co-op.  First of all, it's a really fun group of ladies.  But it saves money, too.  Most months I come home from co-op with 12-15 meals for my family, at a cost of (usually) around $10/meal.  Since starting co-op, I have bought so much less meat! That cuts the grocery bill by a LOT.  Plus, I'm not having to buy a bottle of something for a recipe, only to use 2 Tbsp and never use it again.  Suppers for about 1/2 the month are covered by the co-op meals.  The rest of the time we have quick meals, or something we have on our stand-by list.

Now, how does this co-op thing work?  It's really a fairly simple concept.  We do it at our local HyVee store.  Our group started out as the original (way back before I got involved), but they now have over 50 groups!!!  They all work a little differently, but here's what we do.  There are 18 of us.  15 of us each pick a meal to make each month.  For example, next month I am making Cincinnatti Skyline Chili.  Then we pick how many meals of each of the 15 we want to buy - from 0-2 of each.  So you could end up taking home 30 meals if you really wanted to!  HyVee does all of our shopping, cooks all of the meat that needs to be pre-cooked, cuts all of our meat, does our dishes, and runs down to the store to get things we run out of/return items we have too much of, etc.  A prep team of 5 shows up 1 hour before everyone else to do all of the chopping, cooking, or any other prep work that needs to be done.  Then when you show up at 7:00, you just make however many of your meal were ordered - for example, I think I'm making 13 bags of the chili.  When everyone's done, we divide it up, have a short meeting and dessert, and go home.  Usually takes about 3 hours, and you go home with a bunch of freezer meals.  Last month, I brought home Lasagna Style Baked Ziti, Stuffed Pork Chops, Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Tacos, Slow Cooker Char Siu Por Roast, Enchilada Pie, Crock Pot Italian Beef, Salsa Mac N' Cheese, Marinated Grilled Flank Steak, Mexican Two-Bean Chili Chicken, and Crockpot Shredded Chicken and Noodles.  All good, healthy food (we are pretty health conscious in our group - using less sodium and mostly whole wheat pastas, etc.).  It's been great for our family!

So, I may not do the "traditional" coupon method of saving money on groceries, but I do have my little ways.  What other ways do you save money on grocery shopping?

Pantry Update!

I promised after photos of my finished pantry.... so here it is!

I bought all new matching canisters and put pretty much all of my staples in them.   We also added two pull out shelves for snacks - one for me, and one for my husband.  The kids' snacks are still in a basket, but that's easier for them to get into.  It is so easy to find everything!!

Organized Home Challenge - Weeks 5 & 6: Recipes and Recycling

These two weeks of the Organized Home Challenge are really easy for me.

Week #5 is recipes.  I do have some cookbooks, but most of my recipes are on the computer already.  I use a program called Sous Chef from Acacia Tree Software.  It's a really nice, easy to use program.  One of the things I really love about it is that they now have an app for the iPod/iPhone/iPad so that you can do your cooking without having to print out a paper copy of the recipe.  I have most of my recipes in there already.  So, I am currently going through my stack of cookbooks in the basement, marking which recipes I may actually make someday, and entering them in Sous Chef.  It's not a fast process, since going through each book takes a while, but when I'm done, I can just get rid of the cookbooks.  They just take up space anyway!  I will keep a few that I can't really put in the computer - cake decorating books, canning guides, etc.  But most will go away.

Week #6 is recycling.  Every locale seems to do recycling differently.  We have a pretty good, easy system where I live.  We can recycle papers, newsprint, cardboard, glass, plastics 1,2,&5, and aluminum through our garbage collection service.  We do have to separate the paper and cardboard from the rest, but all the plastic, glass, and metal can go together.  It's curbside recycling, every 3 weeks, so it's easy to do.  We have a rolling kitchen cart that has 3 baskets in it, that we use to collect recycling.  When it gets full, we take the items to the big recycling bin in the garage.  Pretty easy.




So, this week allowed me to catch up to where Taylor and the rest already are!  Yeah!  Next week is coupons.  I haven't been too good about couponing historically, but would love to learn how, so I'm hoping to get some great tips!

Organized Home Challenge - Week 4: Refrigerator and Freezer(s)

On to week #4 of the Organized Home Challenge, and our kitchen is finally complete!  This one took me a while, not because it was hard or time-consuming, but because I just didn't want to do it.  I hate cleaning out the refrigerator.  Ugh.  Seriously, it's one of my least favorite chores.  But, right now, it's SO clean, I may never want to have it get disorganized again! :)

The steps for this one, once again were pretty simple: empty, throw out anything you don't use or that's expired, clean, organize, put back.  Pretty easy, and really not that long a process.  You can check out the steps on the website linked above.

The first part was organizing the outside of the refrigerator.  Mine looked like this to start with:

Yes, I have small children!  This was actually the hardest part for me, but it made the biggest impact as well.  I threw out a bunch of the magnets that had been collected from dentists, pharmacies, etc.  I also donated the two big musical magnets (they drove me insane!).  We never use the marker board anymore, and all the kids papers have been moved to the message centers I made. If you missed that one, check it out here.  They have made a huge difference!!!

Then I moved onto the inside of the fridge.  Oops!  I forgot to take before pictures!  (Seriously, I forgot.  I'm not just trying to hide my mess...)  There were some leftovers that needed pitched, and some expired salad dressings, but really the biggest part was grouping things together.  Condiments are all in the door, which freed up a LOT of space, and then I grouped: drinks (milk, juice, etc), dairy products, lunchmeats/cheese, leftovers, fruits, vegetables.  It's so easy to find things now!

Then I moved on to the freezer part of the fridge.  I don't keep a lot up here, mostly lunch stuff (frozen soup, chicken nuggets) and some frozen vegetables.  The meat that I bought at the store to use this week is up here, too.  Here's where it started:

And here is where it ended up:

Finally, it was on to the basement and the upright freezer.  Now, we just bought this upright in December to replace to half-size freezers.  So, it hadn't had a lot of time to "collect" things.

I do keep a LOT of stuff in my deep freeze.  As you can see, I had a really productive garden, so I have a bunch of squash, zucchini, green beans, and rhubarb.  My father-in-law also gave me a lot of corn, so that is all in there as well.  Then at Christmas, my father-in-law always bakes cinnamon bread and sends us home with 4-5 loaves.  This year my mother-in-law decided to follow along, and made several loaves of quick breads, which of course had to go in the freezer as well.  Then there is my co-op.  I bring home 12-18 meals every month.  I've got a bit of a back log of those that need to be used up (and the next co-op meeting is on Monday!).  Plus there are some pies I've made that you can't even see in these before pictures!  So, I culled out some things that had been in there a questionable length of time, and reorganized, making better use of the drawers in the freezer.  And viola!

So, the kitchen is done!  Whew!  The next few weeks are covering associated areas, but nothing really huge for me: recipes, recycling, coupons, menu planning.  I'll still be doing the challenges, but don't expect stunning before and after pictures! :)

P.S.  The pantry is getting closer to being done.  I've gotten about 2/3 of my canisters now, so hopefully in the next few weeks it will be finished, and I'll post some real after pictures!

Finally! I can find their homework!

The routine has been the same since the beginning  of the school year.  Home from school, empty the backpacks, look at the papers, pile papers on the wet bar.  What was that?  You were supposed to turn in a form today?  YIKES!!  Where did that go?  Followed by frantic shuffling of papers and, more often than not, a last minute filling out of said form.

Not anymore!

I have a new solution!  I found this idea on Pinterest, and I LOVED the look of it!  Message boards for the kids!

To make these, I first did my layout on the computer, then bought supplies and cut the paper.

These are in a 16x20 black poster frame.

For the back ground, I used a 12x12 piece of colored cardstock that I cut into strips and glued onto the backing that came in the frame.  Next time, I will use poster board, but this was due to a shopping goof on my part, and I didn't want to go back to the store.

In the upper left corner is a 4.5"x6.5" piece of colored cardstock in a a darker shade than the background. This is topped with a 4"x6" black and white photograph.

The upper right corner is a 4.5"x8.5" piece of colored cardstock in the same color as the upper left.  On top of that is a 4"x8" black and white patterned piece, topped with a 3.5"x7.5" patterned piece in the same color as the background.  On top of that is the kid's name.  (By the way, I did all my cutting on the Cricut.)

The left side has a 6.5"x8" box with the days of the week.  Under that is a 6.5"x6.5" calendar, with the days labeled but no numbers and no month.

The right side has an 8.5"x11" page that I patterned on a diagonal.  Directly under that is a 8.5"x4" piece, also patterned on the diagonal.  Over the seam, I added an 8.5"x1" black strip and a 2.5" disc, just for decoration.

I glued all of these pieces onto the backing included with the frame, and framed it up.  Then I purchased some silver magnetic clips to put on the outside.  The magnet wasn't necessary, but I couldn't find anything I liked that wasn't magnetic.  I used hot glue to attach the clips over the top center of the 8.5"x11" piece.  Then I attached a circle cut to fit in the indent in the clip out of the black and white pattern and topped that with the kids' initials.

Using a wet erase marker, I can write on the frame! The day of the week section is for keeping track of playgroups this week, t-shirt day at preschool, homework that needs turned in, etc.  The monthly calendar has the schedule for the month.  The clip I can use to hold forms, homework, calendars from school.  In my youngest's case, his potty sticker chart.  At the bottom under the form area, I can write any notes that I need to keep track of.

So far, I feel SO much more organized!  Hopefully that is the end of the mad dash for filling out papers!

Organized Home Challenge - Week 3: Food Storage Areas

Oh, the pantry.  I have a love/hate relationship with my pantry.  I love it because it means I don't have to take up cabinet space in my kitchen with food.  However, it is a small pantry, and for someone who cans/preserves her own food, that's a problem.  It's also a deep pantry, which means it's very easy for things to get lost at the back of the shelves.  This week in the Organized Home Challenge, we are tackling this particular "problem area".  For me, it's really two areas: the pantry in the kitchen, and the area in the basement where  I store the food I've canned.  I wish there was a way to have it all together, but it's just not practical.

So, here are the before pictures of my pantry and canned-goods storage:

Yeah.  You can probably imagine why I can never find things in here.  It's become a routine of: bring home the groceries, shove them in the pantry as fast as you can, and move on to something else.  Well, I've ended up with duplicates of several things, expired cans, and a big mess.  So, it's time for a change!

Taylor gives lots of great advice on her site, and has several steps laid out.  It's really a terrific site, and I encourage you to pop over there and get started organizing your own home!  This week, though, I'm not going to lay out all of her steps.  It's not that I didn't do them, I just did it slightly differently.

The first thing I did was to draw out a layout plan for my pantry.  Then I began to sort.  My process was simple.  Take everything out of the pantry and put it in one of three piles:
1.  Trash - expired, stale, or opened but really not going to be used again items
2.  Put away - anything that needed to go back into the pantry
3.  Give away - anything that probably wasn't actually going to get used, or duplicates.  This will go to the food pantry.

Everything in the put away pile was then divided into categories:
1. cereal
2. grains (flour, oats, etc.)
3. cooking liquids (oils, vinegars, sauces)
4. drink mixes
5. staples (baking soda, sweeteners, arrowroot, cocoa powder, etc.)
6. crackers, popcorn, etc.
7. small baking supplies (baking chips, sprinkles, coconut)
8. spice mix packets
9. canned foods
10. snacks

Once everything was sorted, I began to put it away.  I had already planned where everything was going to go, so this was the easy part.
Top Shelf (1): Cereal and Grains.  Most of this is already in canisters that I've had around for a while.  However the canisters are different sizes and brands, so I do plan to eventually replace them with matching ones, just to look nicer.  (I also put protein powder on this shelf, since it didn't really fit in with any other group.)

Shelf 2: Cooking Liquids and Drink Mixes.  I took all of the bottles of oil, vinegar, worcestershire sauce, etc. and put them all on a metal cookie sheet.  This will help control drips, and also makes it easier to slide the tray out, look for what I need, and put it back.  Next to the tray, I'm putting miscellaneous things that don't seem to fit, but I need for a particular meal - spaghetti sauce, peanut butter,  taco shells.  Then I have all the drink mix type things - lemonade mix, koolaid for the kids, and my water flavoring packets.

Shelf 3: Staples.  This shelf still needs help.  Everything is in boxes, bags, or miscellaneous containers.  I plan to get new canisters to match and then label them, but so far I haven't found exactly what I'm looking for (that doesn't cost an arm and a leg).  So, instead of "after pictures" for this area, we'll call them "for now pictures".  I'll show you what it looks like when I get it all done, OK?

Shelf 4: Crackers, Popcorn, Baking Supplies, Spice Mixes.  I used baskets to group things together on this shelf.  We always have a lot of crackers on hand, and with a cub scout in the house we have several bags of popcorn.  There are grouped in a large basket.  I used a smaller basket for baking supplies, and an even smaller one for spice mixes.

Shelf 5: Canned Foods and Snacks.  Canned foods (meaning foods from the store that are in cans, not items I have canned myself) are not something I have a lot of.  Some people I know have shelves full of canned fruits and tomatoes and soups, but I don't like to use a lot of preservatives, so I do my own canning.  So this is a relatively small area, mostly containing cans that came home from my co-op and a few strange things like coconut milk and baby corn.  I do plan to get a little shelf to raise up the back row so I can see things more easily.  Next to the cans are snack baskets (or boxes).  The kids' snacks are all portioned out into snack bags (raisins, dried fruit, bunny grahams, etc.) and put in a basket.  They love being able to go to the pantry and get their own snacks!  My snacks (sugar free pudding, 100 calorie packs, nuts) are also portioned out and in a box.  My husband's Clif bars and a couple of bags of nuts are in a separate box.  I'm looking for some sliding drawers that go under the shelves to put the adult snacks in.

Floor: This is where I have the boxes for diet soda.  I'm also keeping my crock pot and blender in here.  Most of the appliances have moved to cabinets in the wet bar down in the den (small kitchen - wait until I can remodel!), but I use these two a lot.  So, I chose to give them some real estate in the pantry.

My canning shelves in the basement were already pretty well organized after this summer.  So, I didn't do a whole lot there, just a little straightening and putting away empty mason jars.

So, here are the "for now pictures".  Once I get my new canisters and slide out snack drawers, I'll give you the "final product"!

Organized Home Challenge - Week 2: Kitchen Cabinets

I'd like to report that my kitchen counters (and sink) have stayed clean and clear since the last challenge!  Woo hoo!  This is a major accomplishment!  I don't know if it's that things have a place now or if I just have it in my mind that I have to keep it organized since I did it, but it's working.  So, on to week #2 of the Organized Home Challenge!

This week we are organizing our kitchen cabinets and drawers.  This one really wasn't that hard for me, for two reasons.  First, I don't have a lot of cabinet space in my small kitchen, which means I haven't got a lot of space to collect unused items.  Second, I just sorted through stuff in the kitchen before Christmas, so there wasn't a whole lot to go through.

Step 1: Recall the Function of your Kitchen from Last Week
So last week, I decided my kitchen is for food prep/cooking only.  This means that the only things that should take up residence in my kitchen cabinets are items relating to this function.

Step 2: Declutter Your Kitchen Cabinets and Drawers
This was a two-part step.  Easiest was to declutter things that didn't belong in the kitchen and should be put away where they belong.  There was a screwdriver that needed to find it's way back to the garage, and (I hate to admit it) some "snakes" from the 4th of July that had gotten put in the cabinet above the sink with the paper plates.  Otherwise, things were pretty much good.

The other part of this step was to get rid of (trash or donate) things that were broken, duplicates, excess, or unused.  I did this when I cleaned out the cabinets back in December, but I was still able to find a few things that I really didn't need sitting around.  Several vases that I never used, a salt/pepper grinder set (how many do we need?), a BUNCH of water bottles.  I also found several mugs that were "sentimental".  We never drink out of them, and they were taking up valuable real estate, so they have moved to the basement to be dealt with when the time comes to address storage.

Step 3: Sort what is left according to how often you use it.
OK.  This was actually easy for me.  I'm short.  So, if I ever want to reach anything above the second shelf in my cabinets, I have to haul out the stool.  If I use it very often, it's already on a shelf I can reach.  So my cabinets were pretty well sorted already.  I guess being short does have some advantages!

Step 4: Strategically place everything in your kitchen cabinets and drawers according to their zones.
This was where my major cleanup came in.  I do most of my prep work on the counter next to the window.  The cabinets here held my good dishes and fancy serving pieces.  The mixing bowls, measuring cups and spoons, bakeware, etc. were all in the cabinets next to the stove.  So I did a big switcheroo and reversed them.  It makes a lot of sense, actually.  Especially since I have one of those annoying kitchen cabinets that goes back into a corner and you can't reach anything in it unless you empty the entire cabinet.  (In fact, as I was emptying the cabinet, on the top shelf way in the corner, I found a Betty Crocker hand mixer that must have been left here by the previous owners - at least 7 years ago.)  Now that is where my seldom used cut glass serving pieces are.  And I discovered I have way more cut glass serving dishes than I knew!

Step 5: Consider kitchen storage solutions for your drawers and cabinets to maximize use of your available space.
I have one drawer I'm thinking I may have to do something about.  It's that infamous "utensil drawer"?  The one with the measuring cups, rolling pins, whisks, ladles, etc.  Still going to think about how to handle that one!

So here are my before/after pictures.  Not as dramatic as last week, but the pantry is up next, and I guarantee there need to be some changes there! :)