In the land of the organized

I like to organize. I get a secret (okay not so secret my husband figured it out) gleeful thrill when I take chaos and mold it into a neat system. Just this weekend we spent $16 (SIXTEEN HOW RIDICULOUS) on 2 spring loaded drawer organizers. They divide a dresser drawer into 3 compartments. I used them in our sock drawer, and its excellent. REALLY excellent. Then I took small baskets I already owned and organized my under garment drawer. No pictures of that! Between the two drawers there was a small garbage bag of things I no longer needed, and a big one full of things that didn't go there. Its so nice now. The drawer opens easily and I can quickly find what I need.

Yesterday i wanted to simmer my orange peel, cinnamon and cloves on the stove for an easy air freshener. But I couldn't find the whole cinnamon in the disaster pit of a baking cabinet. I pulled EVERYTHING out, cleaned the shelves, and organized it all back in nicely. Since it has been organized before I had most of the items I needed. 5 dollar store items are used for the majority of storage. A pretty heart shaped baking tin that is not used often holds bottles. Empty Ragu jars hold baking chocolate and wheat germ. Just the other day I was teasing my hubby for saving them when we didn't have a purpose for them, and now I'm glad he did! This time I added an inventory to the cabinet door. We know exactly what goes in there and what does not.



Its so pretty now and it did not cost a dime!

All that organization set me off, the bottom cabinets were next. I've been buying organizational tools for those, it really helps and is worth the extra money. I think the lid holder was $4, the baking pan holder was $5, the stack holder was $4, and the shelf was $5. $18 for sanity? Yeah I can do that. My mom is looking for a lid holder that goes onto the cabinet door, the only ones I have seen have to be shipped. I don't like paying for shipping, I will wait. For your viewing pleasure (? lol) my halfway organized kitchen. Keep in mind its not finished yet, the plate cupboard is still messy.

This cabinet uses a metal shelf, and a slot holder. The slot holder has cake pans and is behind the mixing bowls.



This cabinet uses a stacker organizer to hold cookie sheets, a serving tray, muffin pan, and the sides of my cheesecake pan. The bottom is holding the yummy cheesecake in the fridge!



No organizer was used in this cabinet.


Or here! See the mess?


This one uses a lid organizer. The extra lids were placed in a bread pan.


I've gone through and organized many times before but it always gets sabotaged. My husband puts things away where ever is convenient, and forget stacking. I'm hoping the inventory on each door will help. If not I'm printing out these pictures to go inside the door.

The upper cupboards will be far more difficult, small pieces. And I'm not sure what to do with the plates. We're passively watching for a new set of dishes. While my brain mulls this over I will enjoy my pretty cabinets.

Friday fun

A few days ago I broke down and bought cheap laminate furniture. *sigh* We have several pieces of laminate that I would like to replace, not add onto. But we had pressing storage needs and I have been unable to find something wood I liked. We bought a small cabinet and a shoe storage box to go on top. The one with cubbies for the shoes. Both pieces were on sale for $24 at target. I've been unpacking our last few boxes (we recently bought our first house) and organizing my craft stuff in the new cabinet. Its working very well the little cubbies keep small things from falling all over the place and the bottom cabinet holds bigger items nicely. It even fit in a good spot upstairs so I'm really rather pleased with my new white laminate. *sigh* Hubby mentioned the paint sprayer with a wicked gleam in his eyes. I countered with the much neater paint rollers. We'll see!

Why would I purchase more laminate? Because the faster I get our spare downstairs bedroom cleaned out the faster it becomes a nursery! I'm watching for deals on freecycle and craigslist so far we've been given a walker, play thing, and infant seat that goes in a bath tub. I also watch for deals on baby clothes in the thrift store and in retail stores. My highest price for an outfit is $2.50. Baby day is still a long ways off (longer if i don't get the room set up) I'm looking around for baby stuff now because the more time you have to search for deals the greater the chance of finding a good deal. or better yet free! Unfortunately we need to get some work done on our home before they will approve the home study (foster parent regulations are very detailed) hopefully it wont be too long till its taken care of. I sometimes wonder if our focus on paying down debt wouldn't be better shifted to adoption/foster care. We recently paid off a credit card with a lump $2000 payment.$2000 would have paid for the work on the house. But I suppose paying off the debt will make a huge improvement on our finances which will benefit a baby in the end. We have about $800 in credit card debt left, one car payment and a mortgage. Not to bad. Except for our recent mortgage we're pretty debtphobic, we made that mistake once!