A Combined Effort.. Day 5&6.. Pretty up your Kitchen and Pantry

Hey all.. WOW.. can I just say Im so excited and energized right now... you would think with all the organizing, scrubbing, decorating and what not that Id be exhausted.. but its exactly the opposite.. I feel so excited to cook dinner in my clean organized uncluttered kitchen, and now I can find everything I need in the pantry closet to help me cook dinner and bake cupcakes with my daughter.. so excited..

OK.. LONG POST.. be prepared..

God is so Good...
To remind you.. A large reason Im doing this is that I have spent a better part of the past 7 years, really my whole life actually, always wanting bigger and better, more stuff.. something to decorate this or that.. need more money to do these things.. and then they never get done.. or I end up with bags full of stuff and I do nothing..
This is not what God has blessed me with.. STUFF.. hes blessed me with (to me anyways) a Beautiful home, filled with a husband, 2 kids, 2 cats and a puppy.. I have so many things to be thankful for..
These tangiable items I purchase do not fill any emotional needs.. they do nothing for me..so.. after reading Kellys Wonderful inspiring Blog "The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking" Ive realized I need my home in order.. get rid of the excess..the things that dont have a home, and I dont use anyways.. what am I keeping them for.. the clutter.. why am I hanging on to reciepts from last month when Im not someone who tracks my reciepts.. its just wasteful.. I used to spend my cleaning time moving piles of clutter from place to place. NO MORE.. im getting rid of it.. or filing it or finding a home for it...

OK on to the fun stuff...

Today I did day 5 and day 6 of Kelly's tips since I was super busy being a momma and having fun with my kids yesterday.. (another thing Im making time for.. and Im loving it...)

Day 5 was about your pantry.. I posted a sneak peek on the blog earlier.. well here ya go.. the photo finish..

Here is the before.. really not that bad.. but still not what I was hoping for or wanted when I realized I had this pantry closet when we Bought our home.. not very pretty either

 

Here is the after... the containers for my flour, sugar and Baking Soda are just a pack of mainstay containers I bought at walmart before we even were thinking about buying a house.. they sat unused for a few years.. This christmas when I bought a HUGE bulk purchase of flour and sugar since we needed them for christmas baking i decided instead of Huge bags stuffed on the shelf.. make it easier..

Well now I know it can be easy, AND pretty..

I went on pinterest and in the search engine just typed in "Kitchen Labels" there before me were TONS of free kitchen printables.. for spices, for containers.. anything you can think of .. people had made labels for it.. so I followed a link and saved the photo I wanted and printed away...

I do not however have Label paper which would have been nice.. But I had the next best thing.. A paper cutter and some clear packaging tape.. same effect.. nice pretty containers..

 

My next low cost purchase for this pantry will be more containers.. either like what I have or something from the Christmas tree shops.. something to hold my choco chips, my baking bits, my oats and what not.. ..instead of ziploc bags..until then.. the bags keep my baking needs fresh.. thats what counts..

 

 

Onto the kitchen.. here is my before kitchen.. I swear this is just how it looked.. I went to bed with a clean kitchen.. and by the time I got to working on it today.. this is what it had become..

 

 

 I have a decent amount of counter space... but things just end up everywhere.. this is mostly from Makenna collecting dishes and putting them on the counter for me.. then the back of the picture is the mess from making grilled cheese from lunch...i promise my kitchen is normally pretty picked up..

this is the one part of my kitchen that is constantly a mess.. I dont really use this space for anything except.. YUP.. you guessed it.. CLUTTER...

 

THE AFTER

 

 

first I know one area I struggle with is by my sink.. I had tons of baby bottles.. a bottle rack.. that really isnt used at this point because my son is basically DONE with bottles.. however both kids use sippy or special cups for juice and milk now..So I repurposed a baby basket from when my daughter was born... I took off the fabric and added a towel.. the picture below shows how I have repurposed it to hold the sippy cups and lids.. NO MORE BOTTLE RACK.. my mom will be so happy.. she hated that rack..lol

 

I then rinsed out an old Olive Garden dressing bottle and used some greenery I had from an old crafting project as well as a paper daisy that has some red.. Ill explain later tonight why red is my color for the kitchen.. and why i try to incorporate it where I can

 

Here is the after area.. i keep some nice hand lotion out since Im always washing something.. my hands are dry.. Makennas piggy bank HAD to stay there according to her.. i figured.. adds character..lol

 

by the flower I used to have a plant and TONS.. i mean TONS of papers.. went through them and got rid of what was not needed... then put the rest in a pile on the filing cabinet to go through hopefully tomorrow..

Nice clean counters space..

My microwave is the BANE of my existance.. its just so small .. can barely heat a regular sized plate of something it in.. My mother had given me the basket with some kitchen stuff as a gift a few christmases ago.. it now houses my cooking oils and syrup.. Pardon the plate of chicken thawing on the counter..

 

cleaned up my storage containers and added some Red ribbon...

 

My Coffee area.. i also found a new way to House my straws.. instead of constantly reaching high up in the cabinet every day for a straw.. i used an old canning jar.. added .. Yop you guess it.. Red ribbon..

 

and my arch nemesis.. the side counter.. no more binders, papers or what not.. i like my cookbooks out as I use them frequently... however no more excess.. Im sure if I really took even more time I could find a way to take care of even more stuff.. however.. Im DONE.. its cupcake baking time with my daughter..

 

 

hope your enjoyed.. Im really happy with how clean it turned out.. however dont ask to see my cupbaords or drawers anytime soon.. thats a WHOLE day project waiting for me.. especially my junk drawer..lol..

 

Much Love and Blessings

 

Shanun