Kitchen Organization - Just Start Small

Last week Lynn of Traveling Low Carb invited us on Facebook to a kitchen organization party. I obligated myself to join in. Then life happened. I forgot it was my son's birthday weekend and I had promised him a day trip to Santa Barbara on Saturday. 

But it's never too late and I was feeling really guilty about letting Lynn down and even though today is going to be 106 degrees outside, I was feeling energetic and decided to clean and organize my little bakers rack that my son gave me for Mother's Day one year. It's sort of a catch-all.

As you can see the drawers are just stuffed with junk and bills and little bits of paper. I store all my bowls here and because they are so close to the floor they tend to get really dusty. We all know that when we use one of them we have to wash it before we use it, but if a visiting friend or family goes to get one they probably think I'm a slob! 

Close-up of the drawers. I found cookbooks, warranties for appliances I don't even have anymore, photos, garden gloves, picture hanging materials, screwdrivers...all kinds of random items. And see, someone thought this would be a perfect place to store hamburger buns! I tell you...a catchall!

Here's some of the stuff I pulled out. I used to be addicted to buying those little recipe books that are at the checkout area. My little impulse buys. But I don't think I've ever actually made anything from any of these books and now that I'm low carb I know I never will so it was time to clean house and I put about 50 of them in a bag to go to Goodwill.

Here's the bakers rack all cleaned out. I went after all that wrought iron with soapy water. It was super dusty. Sorry it's sort of leaning, I must have been tired already! Oh and FYI, while I was doing all of this I wore my iPhone because it tracks my steps. While doing this I logged in 1,027 steps!

And pictures during...

The kitchen table covered in bowls, books, mom's radio and little odds and ends...

The dish drainer with some of the bowls I've washed and set aside to dry...

And the other side of the sink with more bowls washed and ready to be dried and put away again...

Here's a picture of all the items that I'm taking to Goodwill tomorrow. I am so my mother's daughter. She just walked by and said "You're going to throw all this away!", and then she started going through everything!

Here are the finished drawers, quite a bit different right?

Drawer one. I only kept the cook books for low carb and that little broken key chain of my son sitting on Santa's lap years ago :)

Drawer two. I organized my mom's Cd's as she likes to listen to music while she putters around in the kitchen in the morning. 

And here is the completed bakers rack. Organized and dust free! I put the bowls my mom uses on the very top so she can reach them easier without bending down. I had to leave her radio there, that was non-negotiable! She also had a beautiful set of cornflower blue Corningware, so now I'm displaying it next to my pink KitchenAid mixer that my daughter bought me several years ago for being a Cancer Survivor!

Here are the before and after. Doesn't seem like much difference until you see it side by side. I even cleaned all that clutter that was next to the rack on the right side.

Mission accomplished! I'm going to go and post this on Lynn's Facebook page and now I think I've earned a nap!

Happy cleaning everyone!