Kitchen Tour: Organized Drawers Part 2

Hello all! And welcome to Part 2 of my drawer tour.  For a little back ground, check out my Kitchen Drawers Part 1 Here.  For this tour I'll show you my remaining drawers, as well as request some suggestions for empty drawers.  As I said in part 1, empty drawers are just asking for mess in this house.

Okay, so I'll start the tour with these 4.  To the left of them is my lazy susan and to the right is where most of my baking things are kept.  I don't have any before pics of these drawers.  These are all pretty much the same as they were before, with just an addition of drawer liner.  I did rearrange a few things so that I had more similar dishes in the same place.

Random green car... my husband calls these boobie traps.  Be ware, they are all over my house.

These drawers all hold serving dishes.  This is why I chose to place my serving utensils, coasters, and bottle openers in the drawer to the left.  

These dishes and platters are things that I mostly use for special occasions. 

You'll notice there is a lot of white, and clear.  I think when you set things out for entertaining everything looks better if it all matches, and white and clear accomplishes that.  It's also easy to match some of my dishes that are specific to a certain holiday or season. 

There are a few things missing from this drawer... in the dishwasher.

The very bottom drawers houses a lot of my plastic serve ware.  This is a strategic spot.  The boys like to "help" in the kitchen, and this is one of the drawers they frequent.  Since it's all plastic, I don't freak out when they start playing.  They have learned which drawers are acceptable for play, and which are not.

The following drawers are all in my island.  I have two pretty wide drawers on either side of my stove.  

Believe it or not, these two drawers have been organized like this for a few months.  I took a trip to the Container Store while visiting my mom.  Okay, who am I kidding, I took the 1 1/2 hour trip for the The Container Store, and met my mom while I was there.  For anyone who hasn't been to The Container Store, it's like a little bit of organizational heaven... right here on Earth.  Anyway, I got the dividers then and went to town on these two drawers, then for some reason I stopped there.

Most of my dinner and food prep happens to the right of my stove.  I'm left handed, so I guess that makes sense, since I often reach over from where I'm standing and stir pots with my left hand.  

These tools I use daily, or at least weekly.

These are used at least weekly or monthly.

To the left of my stove are these two drawers.  I really don't know what to put in them, but I'm afraid of leaving them empty.  Right now one is holding some extra place mats.  Maybe I can put some table runners, in the other.  Hmmm?  I'll have to work on that.

These last two drawers are on the opposite side of my island.  

This is the drawer that is closest to the oven, so it makes sense to place pot holders here.  Yes, those are my only pot holders.  I've said before, I'm not the type to just buy stuff.  Of course with that said, I'm on the look out for some cute holiday ones.  I'm thinking a turkey, gingerbread man, and either a flower or bunny rabbit.  Seen any around?

This last drawer is filled with things, we are always needing to grab or use before we leave the house.  Combs and brushes, mostly for the boys, so they don't look like Lords of the Flies when we are out in public... at home is another story.  I toss my sunglasses in there if I actually bring them out of the car.  There is even some deodorant that is in the way back of the drawer. 

See the charcoal, and tote on the floor?  We went to a nearby lake this week.  Yeah, and you thought I was spending my last few weeks of summer knee deep in kitchen utensils.  Now, I am definitely a beach gal, but there is something to be said of the calm cool waters of a lake.  My boys get the sand they love, and I get to relax as they play along the edge, with out worrying some huge wave is going to knock them over, and drag them out to sea.  Yeah, I think of things like that.  Here's my Ace doing what he loves.  These mini-construction vehicles are his favorite sand toy.

Alright, well I'm off to go attack my upper cabinets.  Will be back soon with more updates.  Until next time, thanks for reading!

Leiah

Kitchen Tour: Organized Drawers Part 1

Ever write an entire blog post so all you have to do in the AM is add pictures and then post.  Then, something goes terribly awry and you’re left with the first three sentences.  Sigh… yeah, that happened. 

I am not letting that get me down, because I have completely organized all my kitchen drawers (- 1, more on that later).  I mean seriously I am super excited.  Yesterday, While walking through my kitchen with a crying baby on my hip, a whining 2 year old close behind, and a 4 year old asking one of his 45,867,967 questions, I opened one of my drawers, and laughed out loud… it made me that happy. 

Anyway, before I get on with the tour, let me give you a bit of a back story.  We all love a good back-story.  Right?  Okay, actually this will serve as an excuse as to why some of my cabinets and drawers are so disorganized.

You ready for it?  My kitchen is huge.  Yes, I know that is a piss poor excuse, but hear me out.  It’s the largest kitchen I’ve ever had, this includes while growing up when I didn’t actually own a kitchen.  Because of always having a small kitchen we didn’t have much stuff.  I am not one for buying things that can’t fit in a space.   We had no appliances (save a toaster), a minimal number of pots and pans, as well as the basics in terms of cutlery, dishes, and serving things.  So when my hubby and I unpacked and moved into our home, there was A LOT of empty space.

As our family grew (and grew), those empty spaces began filling up.  Suddenly our walk-in pantry that at one point held only a few cans and jars was now chock-full of our most recent SAMs club run.  The cabinets and drawers that had been empty were slowly getting filled with all kind of random things.  Ever have an extra drawer? It becomes a junk drawer; multiply that by 5 or 6.  Even the cabinets just started getting filled with stuff.

In the past I have made some attempts to wrangle our kitchen, even going as far as Googling what people actually keep in their kitchens.  Some of those attempts very successful some so so, but I’ve never done a top to bottom clean out, overhaul.  Until now!

So with out further ado, welcome to my Kitchen Overhaul Tour.  Check out the Art Center Here.  

The Main part of my kitchen is a large U shape with a center island.  In this post I'll start at one end of the U and go around. The island drawers will be in a separate post.   

So here are some before shots.. GASP!! Shame on me... I know it!!!  The two top left are the worst.  I was keeping (some of) the kids' school supplies in there.   No matter how much I packaged all the pocket chart cards in baggies and what not, it was still a mess.  These are only some of my drawers, I figured, you didn't need to see all my mess.

For all of the drawers I removed everything, vacuumed crumbs, and washed them down with warm soapy water.  I used a square, and utility knife to cut my liner.

Remember, it always looks messier before it looks better (at least when I do a project).

Here we are mid way through on Day 3.  Yes, it took me three days to do just my drawers, take a look at that mess up there again.

Okay, on with the good stuff!!! So this may be a photo overload for some of you, but here we go.

 You can't see it, but there is a window above the sink the faces my backyard.  The bright window in this picture faces the side of my house.  The door with the wreath is my pantry.  The first set of drawers I will show you will be the drawers along the far right of the picture above, basically facing the back of the house.

These two drawers are side by side and the closest to the Art Center.  One holds everyday place mats, the other, kids utensils, straws, and plastic utensils.

 These two are side by side and next to the sink.  I keep everyday dish towels and cloths in one, and seasonal in the other.

 I keep my regular flatware in this drawer which is right next to the dishwasher.  All our grilling tools are in the other drawer.

 The following drawers are at the bottom of the U if you will.  There is a window that faces out the side of my house.  This is typically where I do all my baking.

The drawer in the top picture holds serving utensils, coasters, and bottle openers.  It is basically my entertaining drawer.  The other drawer has sandwich cutters, along with cookie cutters I sometimes use on sandwiches.  My cheese graters. are in the back of the drawer because they are rarely used.  My food processor does most of my grating.

These are my two baking drawers.  The drawer in the bottom pic is closest to the oven, and houses all of my most commonly used baking tools.  The other drawers hold my less commonly used baking tools.

Okay peeps.. almost done, hang in there!!

This is the drawer under the oven.  Remember I said I did all my drawers except one? This is it.  Totally forgot about it. Imagine my surprise as I was dancing around the kitchen snapping after photos and I stumbled on this.  Oh well.

These last two drawers contain all of my storage baggies, and food wrapping.  There is no before shot of them in the messy mishmash up at the top because they look the same, except they now have liner.  These drawers are right next to my fridge and are now coming up the other side of my U shaped kitchen (follow all that?).  There are actually three drawers side by side, the bottom pic being the center drawer, but I have no idea what to put in that last drawer.  So it's empty, until I give it a job.

I always keep a sharpie in this drawer for easy labeling.

WOW... that was long.  I think I'll break the reast of the tours into even smaller sections.  If you made it to the end... Thank you so much for hanging out!!  I'll be back through out the month as I complete more and more projects in my kitchen.  I hope you'll join me.  I promise not to make them so long as this.

Until next time, 

Leiah

Kitchen Art Center

It's August!!! You know what that means, Kitchen Overhaul Time!!

As the first stop on my Kitchen overhaul I'd like to share with you our Kitchen Art Center.  I added this sometime last year, although I can’t quite recall when.  This area only needed a quick wipe down since it is pretty easy to keep organized.  Of course I first saw this idea perusing Pinterest, and I jumped on it!! The original post is from Modern Parent Messy Kids... Go check it out.

The shelf l used is from Ikea.  I believe this is the Ekby shelf and brackets with the Bygel rail and plastic containers.

The plastic containers are holding erasable color pencils, pipsqueak markers, crayons, and dry erase crayons.  I love the cups because it’s easy for the boys to clean up.  On the shelf I keep a supply of papers, finger paint, tape (so I can quickly display works of art), extra markers, dry erase wipes, stamps, paintbrushes, glue, and scissors.  I already had the little tin buckets, got them from Target way long ago.

You may have noticed that it's pretty high up.  I DO NOT want my kiddos having access to art supplies whenever they feel like it.  These are by request only.  

This was the easiest project ever.  It makes art really simple.  Like, I'm making dinner and Ace is whining and Bear is getting into something (any and everything).  Me: "Hey guys, you want to dot paint?" Instant quiet... And very close to where I am, so I can keep one eye on them.

It's also convenient when we are doing a real deal art or school project.  The pocket chart is there, and I can grab scissors or glue sticks easily.  While we do have a lot of other art and school supplies (kept in another cabinet), these are our most frequently used supplies.  I love this so much that I added the same center to our playroom!  

What are some ways you like to store and organize art supplies?  Leave a comment and let me know.  If you like what you're reading, how about liking the Rosey Glasses Facebook Page, or Following us on Twitter!

Thanks for reading,

Leiah

Laundry Room Reveal

Originally Posted October 2011

Last week I was pretty quiet on the blogging front, but for a very good reason. I have completed my new and improved laundry room. It was a lot of work (isn't everything with two very small boys?), I mean ugly work. You know, the kind of work when your sweaty, your hair is in a messy pony tail, you've got hubby's old paint cover t-shirts on. Yes... It was ugly work, but soooo worth it. I am in love with my new space. Come on, let me give you a tour.

This was the view from the door... Remember?

Booooooo!

This is what my space looks like now. I breath a little happy sigh whenever I enter now.

I chose to go with Behr's Burnt Almond. I had hopes of maybe Honest Blue because we had some left over from another project, but it was flat and I needed a semi-gloss. I also toyed with the idea of pink stripes because I love all things pink... But my husband (who is not into pink as much as I am) shot that idea down pretty quickly. Pshhh, like he even does laundry... Anyway, we have Burnt Almond in our main living areas so I knew I would love it.

When I first decided to re-do my laundry room, I really thought about how to make it as functional as possible. I knew it needed to be easy to clean, and organized. I also wanted to make sure I could neatly and nicely find a home for everything. Enter baskets! I found these baskets at Walmart. They came in sets of three. I bought two sets... I used some of the extras in other areas of my home.

I replaced the wire shelf with this Lack shelf from Ikea.  While I was at it, I lowered it to make it more functional for me.  I'm actually 5' 7" and I still had to get on my tippy toes to reach the other shelf.

I also made this valance from some curtains we weren't using.  I just cut the bottom off and used hemming tape because I'm not a big sewer.   I added these cute flowers made from an old t-shirt. I followed this tutorial from Delightful Order.  I adjusted mine a bit for the size I wanted.

I knew I wanted to use glass jars to hold my borax, lol... I typically store clothespins with my craft things. But this idea from Delightful Order was so cute, they have a new home in the laundry room.

My little painted jar vases are one of my favorite additions to the laundry room. I made different shades of pink with some leftover paint from my craft room. After the jars were painted I just wrapped some hemp cord around the opening, and used hot glue to hold it in place. I think they add the perfect touch of femininity and are perfect for holding my roses. They were super easy and wallet friendly too.

I added storage over my sink because (in my very humble oponion) sponges laying on the sink looks sloppy.  My bloggy friend MeMe gave me the great idea to save cute jars and paint the lid to hold things. I think I'm going to keep the loose change I find in one, and possibly sewing things in the other. No, I'm not a big sewer, but I can replace a button or fix a sock with a hole.

I found lots of cute missing socks ideas on Pinterest. I made this one using chalk board spray paint, a dollar store frame, and my new favorite craft purchase... Chalk ink markers. I tied the ribbon to little screws I put in the wall and used my clothespins to clip some socks... Is it crazy that only my husbands socks ended up here.  

I used the same method and materials to make some wall cute wall art.  BTW, do you see the red handle from my mop sitting there in the corner.  I need to keep it there, when the dogs drink they make a huge mess and I need it close, also the floor get s mopped once a week.  I just haven't been able to figure out a place to put it.  I thought of hanging it but the hole in the handle is awkward and won't hang right on the hooks I have.  Any ideas out there?

Latoya over at the Scott's crib made some super cute wall art using toilette paper. I borrowed that idea and made some fun wall flowers. Perhaps I'll add a how to later this week. I added a few for some cute accents around the space.

And one more pic just because I love it so!

So that's it, hope you enjoyed my little tour (well, I guess that was an exteamly long tour).  Now for my next project... Hmmmm, I'm thinking some mudroom love.  What do you think?

I'm linking to:

Making the World Cuter Monday