Home Organization 101: The Kitchen {Week 1}

Some of you may remember this fabulous blog from last years Weekly Organizing challenge. Well, Toni from A Bowl Full of Lemons is challenging us again. Love it!

Last week I worked on a few areas of the kitchen. I had it pretty much organized, but just spruced some things up a bit. I actually added some stuff to the donation basket. It's  amazing to find what "lurks" in the back of your cabinets. Especially on those top shelves for us 5 foot nothing people....

Here are the pictures from what we were to work on that week:

1. Coffee & Tea (and breakfast) station. Bottom shelf: All my coffee/tea supplies - kcups, splenda, honey, etc. are organized and easy to find. Before they were just randomly in a basket. I found out the sad way that I ran out of tazo k-cups :( I did find a box of the tazo tea bags though! HA! All is not lost. The next 2 shelves are all of our breakfast needs: cereals, peanut butter, syrup, sugar (my hubby is silly - he adds more sugar to cereals that already have sugar...anyone else do that?). Also, the other basket has our vitamins.

2. Vitamin/Medicine Station - Our vitamins are kept with the breakfast stuff. It is just easier to remember to take/hand them out if I'm looking at them. Our meds are mostly above the the microwave. I say mostly because the rest are in our room. Anyway, this is all the allergy meds and children's meds pretty much. It seems that is the only thing we are currently getting into. In that red bag - our first aid kit - is a thermometer  (which I swear by this one - it is awesome and perfect for the wiggle-bugs...) and all the band-aids and boo-boo fixers possible.

3. Lunch/Snack station - I had this one done in time for school :) I love having a drawer like this in the kitchen! (original post here)

4. Spice Cabinet Organization - this is actually part of where I keep some pantry items, but we weren't taking care of that this week, So I just took a pic of this shelf. I keep this right next to the stove/oven. It makes sense for me since I cook almost all the time. I went through them and found A LOT were way expired. Ew. Like 2 years expired. Oh, my. The shame. And, how crazy I would find doubles of some that were BOTH being used. Seriously? Well those have been combined, and I have some extra space in there to put my pepper mill and olive oil. Freed up some space on the counters, too. Nice. 

5. Potholders (and fridge clean up) - As my wall space is pretty much taken up, I found that magnetic hook a while ago at Target - I think on one of my outings with Rachel. (Aw, that seems so long ago. Miss ya, girl!) I can't find it online, but it is in the kitchen textiles section with the potholders and kitchen towels. Right there next to them. Anyway, I freed up the fridge a bit, too. Cleared everything off the front and de-cluttered the side. So, now, I have my potholder, Andrew's school schedule, my cleaning routine (from Clean Mama), and magnets for tornadoes, doctors, etc.

6. Baking Sheet Organization - I thought I would spare the picture of my drawer under the stove. I keep the ones I use most oven in there, while the specialty one (cake molds, cupcake tins, etc) are in the pantry.

7. Baking cabinet and bin(s) - I bake A LOT. Especially between now and January (February depending on who is in the Super Bowl). So this is my baking cabinet! My mixer - named Mixi LOL. There is a storage container behind her with all of her attachments and such. On the other side are 2 bins - 1 has cookie cutters organized by season/occasion in ziplocks, jello molds, and decorations (sprinkles, icing tips, and such). The other has treat boxes and muffin/cupcake liners - also in ziplocks by season/occasion. The top shelf, as you can see, are all of my mixing bowls, measuring cups, jars, and a juicer. I love this cabinet. It is my favorite! 

8. Dish Placement - This is the cabinet between my fridge and stove. Can you tell we are Packer fans? LOL Clearly, I don't have enough G's... Kidding. This is where we keep our dishes/glasses/cups. Bottoms shelf - for the beverages complete with straws. Next up - dishes with a handy helper shelf to double the space. That blue basket is where the kids cups/lids are kept. Less chaos. Top shelf - cookbooks. My two favorites (Paula Deen SIGNED!! Cooking Bible and Betty Crocker's Wedding Edition Cookbook - gift from my friend, Chelsi) can be seen the others are just put away in that basket (found at TJMaxx one day). 

Well, that is the first week of the challenge. 

Next: The Garage! EEK! Eh, it's not that bad. Just no where to put stuff...gotta love builder grade nothing, right? Time to make it ours :)