One Down, Eleven To Go

Well, I can finally check off one item from my list of 2012 New Year's Resolutions.  Drum roll please .....................................................................................................................................................................................

I organized my kitchen cabinets.  Boy, what a mess these were.  I couldn't find anything I needed.  Searching for a specific spice was impossible. Here is the before shot:

With nothing more than a little elbow grease, some scrap wood, and some stacking baskets from Target, I have a well organized pantry.  Here is the after shot:

 

I have plans to buy a laminating machine and label the contents of those baskets, the green containers are dedicated to drinks, one for hot cocoa/coffee, and one for teas.  The white baskets are dedicated to odds-n-ends, one is for baking chips, coconut, marshmallows, etc and the other is for snacky foods like raisins, pudding, popcorn, etc.

All my misc flours (like cake, bread, whole wheat) are in glass containers so they are easy to see.  My spices are organized with a 3 tier "shelf".  It's not really a shelf, I looked at multiple stores and several different versions and decided they just weren't worth the $15-$25 a piece.  I went down into our basement and grabbed some of our left over wood from our kitchen floor remodel from several years ago and stacked them on top of each other until I got the height I liked.  Easy and cheap!

Here are some more before and after pictures of my kitchen cabinets.

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BEFORE: Dishes Cabinet

AFTER: Dishes Cabinet

I can't even explain to you how good it felt to donate this cabinet full of "crap" to goodwill.  I got most of the bags to the car before my hubby had time to dig through them and take half the crap back out.  He did manage to grab a few items that he promises will not make their way back into these cabinets (or he'll hear holly hell from his wife).  
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BEFORE: Storage bag drawer

AFTER: Storage bag drawer

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BEFORE: Junk drawer

AFTER: Junk drawer

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AFTER: Baking Utensils drawer

Now I have no reason to be embarrassed when a guest comes over and digs through my drawers, as a matter of fact, there will probably be no digging needed since everything is nicely organized and has its own place.

Well I'm behind pace if I want to get all twelve of my resolutions done before the end of this year.  I haven't decided what project I'll do next but I promise you, I'll blog all about here once it is finished.