Organizing my Kitchen...

...was well overdue!



But thanks to Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie, I have gotten a jump start at it! I organized three cabinets, and this weekend, I'm planning on organizing the pantry and my cookbooks.

I have before and after pictures to share, too. They are blurry, but ... I still wanted to share them, because I have a friend out there (or two, or sixty) that mentioned at one time that she felt like she couldn't "measure up" to many of the bloggers out there that looked like they had their personal lives in 100% order. The thought of that just makes me snort. Loudly. Because I can't measure up either. So, I wanted to show y'all that not everyone has their homes in 100% perfect order. Please hide the children's eyes so they aren't frightened. Just kidding. Sort of.

Speaking of organizing, Laura does a fantabulous job at making you feel like a "normal person" and really encourages you to just roll your sleeves up and dig in and start to organize a wee bit here, and a wee bit there... I highly encourage you to join her monthly organizing challenge, and start with a little bit here, a little bit there... and soon ... you'll be caught up! (Just wait until you see pictures of my bedroom!!!! it's such a mess with piles everywhere!)

The first cabinet I cleaned out still had baby formula, bottles, and baby food in it. Hunter's 2 years old, and hasn't eaten that stuff for almost 18 months -- pitiful. In fact, most of it expired in 2006!!! I had snacks piled in, baking dishes shoved in, vases, and a ton of other stuff in there. I placed all the snacks in a large plastic container, and stacked all the serving dishes and pie plates. I know it still looks crowded, but it's not. It is much, MUCH better.

The second cabinet I cleaned out was my container cabinet. They were all just shoved in there, and the lids were too. It was a terrible mess. I took an old plastic Longaberger protector (pretty big) that was chipped, and re-purposed it for most of my lids. The, I stacked all "like" containers together (round with round, square with square). Then, the top shelf had some mugs that were just shoved in, so I organized them. Again, it still looks crazy, but it is much, much better now.

Finally, I organized the cabinet that contains some other baking dishes. Again... things were just thrown in. Are you sensing a theme here? Throw it in, close the door, and forgetaboutit. Sad, but true. Now the dishes are all stacked neatly. Please ignore the sagging shelf. That's a project for another day. I also took all of my kitchenaid attachments out of this cabinet, and placed them all in a wire basket in the first cabinet (since I had more room once I tossed expired baby food!).

So there you have it. My life -- a chaotic mess! Sorry the pictures are so bad... dark, blurry, yucky.




























































More AFTER pictures: