simplify your kitchen - kitchen cabinet re-org! ... part one ♥

i have a little secret to tell you ...

i'm a piler

yes ... a piler

as in i make piles

...

but i don't like piles

i loathe them actually

 and i don't want any more piles

like ever

i've deduced (is this a word?) from my own psychological analysis

that pilers are also people who are indecisive

right?

cause the reason the pile gets made is because

a. there's no place to put said item

b. there is a place to put said item, 

but the piler is not sure which of the many options should become the home of the said item

(ie: do receipts go in the receipt file or with the owner's manual?)

(do flashlights go with the candles in case of a power outage, 

or with electronics? ... cause they're electronic)

(right? ... are they? i mean if they run on batteries, they're electronic right?)

(if the hubs is reading this post he's rolling his eyes)

(well he doesn't like eye rolling, so he's probably doing some other gesture of embarrassment)

see... my brain hurts now

back to the piles

for those of you just gettin' here :)

i decided at the beginning of the year to really go through the house and purge

just get back to basics

you can read more about that here, here and here 

and for you gals who have been following right along ...

i haven't jumped the "simplify your kitchen" bandwagon

i just left the kitchen for a while ...

to face the basement 

now that that's done ... i'm back on track

(no, there's no fancy organizing pics of the dungeon ... 

what happens in basement ... stays in the basement)

(it's not pretty down there folks)

let's get goin'!

we have a very spacious kitchen ... with lots of cabinet space

and lots of fun areas to organize

off of the kitchen is a little built-in office area 

home to our computer, printer and basically where all family household duties are managed

(finances, schedules, blogging, etc...)

come to think of it, this little area wears many hats

making it more of a challenge to keep clutter-free and organized

here is a short list:

- first aid supplies 

- houses miscellaneous household items 

- where i blog & manage my etsy shop

- shipping area for my etsy shop

- bill pay

- meal planning & couponing

- household binder & files

my challenge:

to get this area out of the pile zone!

and into a functioning command center for our family

in comes my girlie girl 

Jen @ i {heart} organizing 

every month she throws out a challenge to organize a different area in your home

and i just love how she thinks everything through for you, making it that much easier to tackle your problem areas! 

i copied her project list (from this post)

to my clipboard to keep me motivated ... turned on some music

and was off to a running start :)

since there's so much to cover in this little area of mine, i'm gonna break it down into a few posts 

starting with the upper half of the cabinets next to the computer area

so the before really isn't too bad ... 

i went through this cabinet last year and got things together

but after some time i realized the set-up would need some re-thinking

just a few things here that weren't working right for us:

1. the baskets were much smaller than the space they were in

if you've got the space for storage ... don't waste it!

2. the baskets were pretty full 

so the overflow was well ... overflowing ... everywhere else :)

3. we had to move or take some of the baskets out when we needed something in the baskets that were more towards the middle of the cabinet 

4. the amount of candy canes that were in this cabinet was ridiculous

5. and yes those mini chalkboard apothecary jars are so stinkin' cute, but they are for another project and don't belong in there ... so this cabinet started to become a catch-all!

to get this re-org in motion

i headed to my two favorite places and scoped out storage bins

(measure, measure, measure! before you go)

the wrapping paper & floral crates were from Target

(those crates are for the next post when i tackle the bottom portion of these cabinets)

and at Joanns i found the teal bins with the stripe and the mini chalkboards 

(my favorite go-to label item)

aaaaaand the cute phone case is from here ♥

(very random and not needed ... just wanted to tell you where to get a cute phone case)

since these bins would be holding heavier items 

i cut cardboard to fit into the bottom, to make it heavy duty 

then wrapped them in the paper for a little bit of cute factor :)

they fit nicely inside and i knew they would hold up better in the long run

i dumped all the first aid supplies & medicines (and gum?) on the counter 

and got rid of anything old or expired

for all of what was left i separated into two parts

first aid items: band-aids, cremes, medical tape, gauze

and cough drops

i corralled the smaller items into mason jars with white plastic lids 

then added some labels i made on the computer

(the white lids are sold right with the canning supplies)

the other bin holds the rest of the medicines: pills, cold & cough etc...

let's take a peek inside the other two! :)

thank you cards & envelopes are always great to have on hand 

(i need to be better about this!)

any extra grocery or notepads were put in here as well

the last bin holds water bottles and drink packets

the smaller baskets on top were from the dollar store ... they hold all the miscellaneous things: 

party candles, toothpicks, plastic containers, etc... 

chalk markers work great on these minis

the clothespins were from the $1 bins at Target 

... easy way to label and then change things up when needed

so that's it! phew ...  a lot of function for one cupboard!

let's do a before & after :)

next up! the lower half!

is your office area in your kitchen?

any organizing secrets to share?

let's do some more ... come back soon!

much gladness in my ♥

sweet parties! ♥

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