Lose the Junk

I have been working hard the last few weeks to complete a Clean House Challenge that I was working on in the Spring. This week I tackled just a couple of spots in my kitchen.

I have people help with dishes and sometimes that is not so wise. I forgot to take before photos but basically I have a silverware drawer then junk mix drawers. I removed everything and started over. I am not sure how I never thought of putting the small cutting boards that get used all the time in a drawer but when I reorganized everything, the thought came to me and its been GOLDEN. I  hope to create a divider thing for the silverware, we bought the wood but we haven't had time yet. My poor organize holder is 22 years old. 

I love this little cart, somehow it always feels with junk though.

I had some odds and ends so I allowed them to stay in this tiny drawer.

Now knifes have their own drawer, this was needed for sure.

This is my favorite part of the To Do list, reorganizing all these Kitchen Utensils. These little picnic baskets were perfect. I hope to put a light in the cabinet though as it gets very dark and is hard to see. More obstacles to conquer in the following months. 

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Martha Home the Mary Way Day 3

I am very behind in posting on the cleaning challenge. We had tackled the cabinets the other day. This is one of the lower sections. It was a disaster. This seems to be the place anyone putting dishes puts things in a hurry, instead of doing it correctly. This is the before photo. 

We removed everything, tossed some things into a box that we could part ways with and reorganized. There are probably a couple things that could be moved from this space, but we won't know until we tackle the couple spots that hold pantry items. 

This is the before of my other upper cabinets. I had posted the reorganization of the spice cabinet the other day. We had worked on the other side and it is also so much better. It seems food items that are left on the counter get put here when I ask someone to clean the kitchen.

It was amazing how much space we truly had when everything went to the right place. In fact I had purchased two pans sets for my husband to help with canning and they both fit along with some other appliances that are used pretty often. It will be nice for him, and maybe just maybe he will put them away instead of leaving them out.

This is my donation box for my kitchen. Stuff that truly doesn't get used. Its really nice to down size.

If you want to catch up on the challenges if you didn't print your page from Sarah Mae'sBlog then here you go.

Day 1: Put a Load of laundry in the wash. Kitchen: Do the dishes, scrub pans, clean out sink. Gather papers from counters and set aside. Wipe counters.

Day 2 Kitchen: clean out and wash down interior and exterior of the fridge, Clean out interior and exterior of microwave.

Day 3: Kitchen Wipe down cabinets, Scrub the Kitchen Floor

Day 4: Kitchen: Clean out your Pantry.  Pull everything out, throw away what is old, wipe pantry down, organize and put food back.

Day 5: Bathrooms: Clear Counters and Remove trash can, clean toilet, sink, mirror. Wash out tub, sweep and scrub floor.

Day 6: Bathroom Closet/ Cupboards: Pull everything out and sort into trash, keep and donate. Take donate box immediately to your car. Put Keep items back.#MarthaHomeMaryWay

google.com/+JennWellsandSunshineOfAutumnQuilts

Martha Home Mary Way Day 2

We have really struggled with the cabinets in our kitchen. Sometimes I think people don't think about how they will use their space when they install them. One day I hope to take them all out and start over. They are super deep but not functional. This is one of the upper cabinets before we reorganized it. Stuff just gets thrown into the top shelving, it frustrates me.

I liked this challenge because we could look at going through stuff and parting ways. Maybe containers without lids, lids without containers, old spices etc. 

I didn't get this posted on day two. We have had a crazy busy week with choir 2 days, UIL, then MOPS, catching up on homework for a daughter who missed 2 full days of AP courses. I can feel the lack of sleep. I am grateful to my husband who assisted with some of the kitchen this week. He went through the top shelf, matched up all bottles and put them together and parted ways with some. 

He also found me a spot for the mixing cups my oldest purchased me for Christmas. This is nice that they now have a true home in the kitchen.

Last he went through the spice cabinet for me. We are working at growing herbs and getting away from store bought spices where necessary. I am trying to learn to cook as much as I can  from scratch and have a better food situation for all of us. I can see a difference in the health of my younger two who struggle with so much medically.
So I will work on posting the kitchen cleaning jobs through this week.
I had just enough time this morning for Day 2, we are headed out to see my oldest inducted into Alpha Chi tomorrow night.

If you want to catch up on the challenges if you didn't print your page from Sarah Mae's Blog then here you go.

Day 1: Put a Load of laundry in the wash. Kitchen: Do the dishes, scrub pans, clean out sink. Gather papers from counters and set aside. Wipe counters.

Day 2 Kitchen: clean out and wash down interior and exterior of the fridge, Clean out interior and exterior of microwave.

Day 3: Kitchen Wipe down cabinets, Scrub the Kitchen Floor

Day 4: Kitchen: Clean out your Pantry.  Pull everything out, throw away what is old, wipe pantry down, organize and put food back.

Day 5: Bathrooms: Clear Counters and Remove trash can, clean toilet, sink, mirror. Wash out tub, sweep and scrub floor.

Day 6: Bathroom Closet/ Cupboards: Pull everything out and sort into trash, keep and donate. Take donate box immediately to your car. Put Keep items back.

#MarthaHomeMaryWay

google.com/+JennWellsandSunshineOfAutumnQuilts

Martha Home Mary Way Day 1

Day One of Martha Home the Mary Way~ 31 Days to a Clean Home
Challenge is to Put a load of laundry in the wash.
Kitchen: Do the dishes, scrub pans, clean out sink.
Gather Papers from counters and set aside
Wipe Counters

I am following the challenge but also doing some deep clean and organizing as I go. We have six people living in a space meant for four come May. That means we have work at fitting a lot in a small space.
Today I  put the laundry in the washer, and ran two loads.
Then I tackled the kitchen- dishes, counters, walls behind sink, the sink.
I also wiped down appliances.

This seemed like a small task, this is before.

This is after. We have a container full of lids and a couple extra containers that I hope to go through once my husband brings home all his work containers and then the dishwasher finishes running. I am thinking I will be able to part way with 90% on that bottom shelf. That will be nice.

I also tackled the fridge and freezer. We parted ways with expired food, cleaned all the shelves and drawers and organized the food contents. 

We also wiped down the outside, put up all the recipes into a binder.

I still need to wipe the top, pull the fridge out and clean the wall and underneath but that is a bigger job for the weekend.
Day two task:
Kitchen: Clean out and wash down interior of fridge. Clean out interior and exterior of microwave.
I will be working on the upper cabinets, microwave and stove top.
I am loving the #MarthaHomeMaryWay Challenge
Join the Challenge with Sarah Mae

google.com/+JennWellsandSunshineOfAutumnQuilts

Martha Home the Mary Way Prep Day

So life is super busy. I am eager to start the 31 Days to a Clean Home Challenge. This week focuses Mon-Thur on the Kitchen. I have my work cut out for me. 

Outside of cleaning just every day things, I need to find a way to organize better. 

Cabinets in my home are limited and they were not done very well either. It has been a struggle the entire time we have lived here. I have decided we also need to down size on some stuff, put some lights in, build our own drawer organizers instead of using premade ones etc. 

This silverware organizer I have had since we lived in a rental for a while, that was 10 years ago.. time to part ways for sure.

Asking kids to help with dishes is great, except that I end up with cabinets like this one

Somehow like most homes we end up with a million bottles. I need a better organizing solution for these too.

One thing I was reading in a book was about throwing out old spices. These two cabinets will likely look bare once we go through them. I think it has been a really long time.

This is probably the best organized cabinet, it is just for canning supplies, however its behind the dishwasher when the door to it is open so I think it prevents people from even using it, thus it stays pretty clean.

Always my nightmare, but I saw a cool solution on pinterest that we are going to try.

This I truly need a solution for.

Fridge and freezer~ they are the one thing I never look forward to, with six people living in our house come Mid May we will need to have a good solution to a better organized space.

Also time to make sure we throw out anything that isn't good. So ...
if you are wanting to participate Monday's Challenge is to
Put a load of laundry in your washing machine.
Do the Dishes, scrub pans, clean out your sink
Gather papers from the counters (and if you have a table in your kitchen space there too)
Set them aside.
Then clean your counters.
Let me know how you do this week.
I would love to hear from you.

google.com/+JennWellsandSunshineOfAutumnQuilts

Kitchen Organization

Our kitchen is fairly small and it doesn't have a pantry. I really love this for all our pots, pans, cookie sheets etc.

What is great is you would never know it contains kitchen items

google.com/+JennWellsandSunshineOfAutumnQuilts

Tackle it Tuesday

For My Kitchen

I made these today. Just six basic white bar towels for $5 at Walmart. I had this scrap material in a pretty butterfly that I love because it has an autumn feel to it. Then also this pretty white bluebonnet fabric. My towels all have holes and are really more rags now a days. I wanted to make these today so that I had something for myself for a change. Hopefully next week I can make some pretty pot holders, then the following week make some placemats. Got to dig into my stash of fabric and see what I have left to match these.