Organizing: Spice Cabinet

We moved into our house just over 4 years ago, and I was very pregnant at the time.  So, needless to say, packing and unpacking was done very quickly, and I didn't have much energy to put into purging and setting things up the way I want.  We had renovated the kitchen, and I had installed something which I loved (and still do) - a spice cabinet with roll out shelves, right next to my stove.  So, in went all the spices and condiments.  I have been enjoying this convenient cabinet for the last several years, but it has gradually gotten a bit out of control.  A few things were particularly bothering me:

• My spice tins were designed for the spice cabinet at my old house.  The labels were on the side of the tin, since my old cabinet was an upper one, and I would look at the spices head on. 
  In our new house, my spice cabinet is a roll-out shelf, and I am looking at my spice tins from above, so I can no longer see the labels without taking the tins out.  It is time consuming and annoying playing the "guessing game" every time I need a spice.  I needed to find a way to label the top.

**I have been asked where I got the tins from - they are from a store called Lee Valley Tools.  A great size and good value!

• The second shelf is where I keep extra spices. This one had gotten especially out of control.  There are so many packages of spices that I don't even know what I have anymore - and I keep buying more.  I needed to go through, throw out old ones and find a way to organize what I have so that I can easily refill my little tins when they run empty.

• The bottom shelf is where I keep things like sauces and oils.  Again, a little out of control, and some really old stuff in there that I just need to purge.  I had also noticed that the bottom was a bit "sticky" - time to give everything a good scrub.



Special things I was saving for "someday".
Got too old, now they are in the
garbage bin!


So, I embarked on what I knew wouldn't be one of those 10 minute jobs (like the time I organized my tupperware drawer) - but one that would take a bit longer but would be very satisfying.  So, I went at it - I started with the bottom shelf - took everything out - and scrubbed.  I ended throwing out most of what was in there - a lot of specialty oils I was saving for "some day".  This was a valuable lesson - use your specialty items now, don't save them for some day - because like mine, they may just end up getting old and thrown out. 


Labeling with a Sharpie now lets me
see what is in the little tins from
above.

 Then, I moved on to the top shelf (I'll admit, it's because the middle one was still intimidating) - I took out all the tins, emptied the ones I knew had been sitting there for a while, gave them all a good wipe down.  Then I scrubbed out the bottom of that drawer.   But the big thing I did here was use a Sharpie marker to write the content of the tin on the top of the tin (I tested it and I learned that you can remove Sharpie off of glass by rubbing it with alcohol).  So, off I went, labelling away - so that I will no longer have to play the guessing game everytime I need a spice!  YIPPEE!

Onto the dreaded second drawer, I started by emptying everything out - and putting the unopened bags of spices into alphabetical order.  I was shocked by how many of the same item I had, what a waste!  I threw out all opened bags (even though the general rule is that spices are only good for 6 months, I tend to stretch that out to a year....ok, maybe two).  It "hurt so good" to throw out so much stuff.  Then I put everything back into the drawer - with my unopened spices in alphabetical order so that when one of my tins is empty, I can just go to the second drawer and see if I have another package or if I need to take a trip to the store. 




TADA!!!  It took about an hour and half, but I think it really was time well spent!  What little space have you been organizing lately?  Do share!


Top shelf for easily accessible spices while I am cooking.





Bottom shelf now has room to spare!





Middle shelf to house "refills" and
some other small items.



Organizing: Kitchen Command Centre

In the spirit of spending just a few minutes tackling an area of the house that irritates me, I turned my attention to the small counter area in our kitchen which I'll call the Command Centre - really, it's a place with the phone, and where all mail and junk gets dropped off.  It's the first thing you see when you walk into the kitchen/family room area, and I am certain that my blood pressure rises a bit every time I see it! It had gotten out of control lately, so I decided to spend a few minutes cleaning it out.

The catch-all area for things without a home.

 About 20 minutes of work, (this one took a little longer, because I had to go through the mail and sort it) - and I am so pleased with the results!  Let's see if we can keep it looking like this!

I purchased the grey wooden box to hide all the little things that we need access to, but clutter the counter (like keys, hand sanitizer, etc).

I encourage you all to take a few minutes to tackle a problem area that has been getting on your nerves!  I have spent the last several weeks getting aggravated every time I walked into the kitchen, and 20 minutes is all it took?  Do you have any problem areas in your home?  Do share!

Organizing: 10 minutes of work....a weekend of Bliss!

I subscribe to quite a few organizing blogs, and many of them encourage you to spend 10 minutes tackling a small thing that bugs you.  They claim that 10 minutes is all it takes, and although I was skeptical, I thought I would give it a try, and you know what? They were right!

This past Saturday, I decided to clean out the drawer that keeps all of my Tupperware (i mean food storage containers, why is it that I still insist on calling it Tupperware, even though I don't actually own any of that brand, and haven't in about 2 decades!).  I had bought a few new containers, and I was worried they wouldn't fit in my jumbled mess of a drawer.  When we designed our kitchen a few years ago, I deliberately made a very large drawer for all these "Tupperware" type items to try and keep them in control. 

This drawer, as large as it is, is always a mess - a jumble of containers and lids - and even though sometimes it is neater than at others, it never really looks that great.  It bugs me.

Jugs in their new home.

So, I emptied everything out - put the matching lid on the right container, threw out all the leftover bits and pieces (there wasn't as much to throw out as I thought), and had a good long think about how it is that I can't fit everything into this huge drawer...... then it dawned on me that my plastic juice jugs are the problem - they are too large to stand upright, so they are on their sides, rolling about and making the drawer messy - taking up a lot of space.  So I found an alternate home for those few items and low and behold, it worked! 

TA DA!!!

All of my containers fit into my drawer perfectly! All of the plastic ones even have their lids on - INCREDIBLE!  It looks so great that all weekend, every time I went into the kitchen, I opened that drawer and let out a very contented sigh.  Hubby was a little concerned that I was so "turned on by Tupperware"  - but hey, whatever floats your boat!  It literally took 10 minutes, and it made my day!  So my friends, I encourage you to take the challenge and just spent 10 minutes organizing a small part of your home that bothers you (a counter top, a drawer, whatever!) - it's incredibly satisfying!