Organization Challenge

I'm excited to post my results for the organization challenge at orgjunie. I'm ever so greatful for all her tips and probably wouldn't have had to motivation to do this challenge (the prizes helped to). So with out further adieu heres what I did.

**Updated to add my questions**
I think I pretty much answered the questions throughout the post but I want to make sure everything is covered and Im playing by the rules.
1. What was the hardest part of the challenge and were you able to overcome?
The hardest part was just deciding where was the counter stuff going to be placed. I knew I had to make new homes for all of the stuff. I was able to overcome this very easily once everything was removed.
2. What kind of changes/habits have been put in place to maintain order?
I would definatly say just having a proper place for everything and sorting and purging paper work at the end of week will be a new habit to maintain.
3. What did you do with the stuff you were able to purge out of newly organized space? I didn't have a lot to purge, mainly just an old blender and other misc. items that were never used were pretty much thrown away.
4. What was the biggest lesson learned? That there is a proper place for everything even in a small kitchen. And that cleaning is so much easier when things are put away.
5. Do you think this will make a difference in your life. Aboslutely its cut my cleaning time in half and now I can find things so much easier and cereal is not falling on my head!

My kitchen was a organization disaster. I had appliances and dishes that were either broken or I just plain did not use anymore. All this had to go to make room in my cabints for all the stuff that needed a home. I had tons of just stuff on my counters that also needed a proper storage place. I pretty much chunked what was broken (the blender). I also just re situated items in the cabinets for stuff that was on the counters.

This is the top of the fridge, it doesn't look to bad but there were days when stuff would just fall on top of me when opening the fridge door. I removed everything from the top of the fridge and found a better home for the cereal in a lower cabinet, and snack/lunch stuff in a basket on the counter.

Now I have placed my most used appliances the crockpot and grill on top for somewhat easier access and to free up space on the counters.
Counter space was hardest issue as I thought I had very little of it. I needed to decide what was important to actually keep on the counter and what could be placed in a cabinet neatly without the cabinets being overstuffed.
Here is some pics of all the stuff on my cabinets. I didn't have any kind of set place for everything it was just pretty much thrown somewhere.
>> This counter is pretty much the first thing you see as you walk in the door, its the first and easiest place to stash the school papers and mail. I was able to transform this small little counter into a mini workstation with a basket for holding pens and keys. I also have folders in a mail divider to place the mail. At the end of the week I sort through the mail and either shred or file it to clear out the folder. I was already doing this, but it was hard to get to that area with the grill and everything else in the way. This work area now has easier access and a proper place to temporarily store school papers and the mail.
The other counter is the snack/lunch station. I was able to completely clear this area out so that all that is left is the baking goods in their containers and the snack basket in which I divied up all the snacks like the chips and crackers and placed them in zip loc bags for easy lunch packing. This area has made lunch packing much quicker as the snack items are ready to go. All I have to do is make the sandwiches.


Even though I didn't get to do anything to dramatic like stripping the horrid wallpaper or upgrading to new containers I was able to make a manageable kitchen with out spending any money thats right ZERO! I have also been able to actually clean the kitchen so much easier too. This project only took me a Friday evening and Saturday morning which allowed me to rearrange the pantry cabinets and move all dishes and plastic ware to one cabinet allowing more room for canned goods.
Here are some additional pictures of all the stuff I removed from the cabinets and counters.

Heres the cleared out corner counter.

The cereal is now stored in this bottom cabinet. Good thing is cereal no longer will be falling on my head! I have found a down side. The two year old has discovered this cabinet and now gets up before mommy and eats the cereal. I may have to get a child proof lock on this cabinet as he has gone through almost a box of cereal in one sitting.



I have one last photo which was the medicine cabinet and now the spice cabinet. I moved the spices into the medicine cabinet to make room in the other cabinets for the plastic ware. I categorized the containers for the medicine with the pain reliever/cold medicine in one container and stomach meds/first aid in another container. The other container holds the sunscreen and misc. I have tons more photos of the clean cabinets but wont over whelm anyone.
I can already say that after a couple of weeks with a better organized kitchen cleaning and meal preparation has been so much easier. I also have felt that the kitchen is not caving in on me with stuff. I really can see me keeping up with this as its just to easy not to now that everything has a place.