09.16.08
Getting a Handle On It
With all the decluttering I completely forgot about the new handles we bought for the kitchen cupboards. I remembered them today because I was noticing how nice they looked and how much better it would look if I actually finished putting the last 10 handles in.
So here’s the easiest way to give yourself a bit of a lift in the kitchen….not cheap, I didn’t say cheap…I said EASY. Here’s what we started with…
Old and Cheap
Those are probably the cheapest ones available, that would be the joy of living in a mass produced residential community. They also weren’t really our style anymore. So we decided to go with….
New and Not So Cheap
A touch more modern and definitely feels sturdier. At $5 per handle and 26 handles needed a small touch in the kitchen definitely adds up but totally worth it.
Now if I could just get the darn kitchen painted by those handy little elves that make shoes I’d be all set!
06.18.08
Someone’s In The Kitchen…
That would be me in the kitchen. After organizing that shelf yesterday I realized that the spices weren’t in the right spot for us. We have an area where we do our prep work and it would make sense to have the oils, spices and vinegars above that area. Easy peasy.
So…I had to move the dishes to the pet cupboard, MC’s stuff to the old spice cupboard, and the pet stuff to MC’s old cupboard. So I’m done, and it looks pretty good but we’ll have to see how it is to live with. I also organized our tea and snack cupboard…mostly just tossing and moving around. The only cupboard I’m not entirely happy with is the pet cupboard.
Now you’re probably wondering what the heck we could possibly have for our pets that would take up an entire cupboard. So in there are dog biscuits, peanut butter, canned cat food of two varieties (regular and vet prescribed), medications for Maca, the dogs monthly flea and heart worm medications, a couple of pillers, and a few lotions and potions for owies and stinky dogs.
All of this has been stuffed into the most useless cupboard I have ever come across in my life. It’s a top blind corner cupboard. In order to get to the stuff in the blind area you have to remove all of the stuff from the open area. Drives me insane.
I’ll have to brainstorm something better for that spot, I’m just at a loss to what.
Next I’m going to have a go at the lower cabinets, which are pretty good because MC is very helpful in emptying them.
06.17.08
Clean and Easy Does It
Today I finally got around to reorganizing the spice cupboard. Well, it’s not a whole cupboard just one shelf of it. Also on that shelf we keep our salt and pepper, vinegars and oils. I had to toss a lot of old spices that have been sitting in that cupboard for years.
Instead of buying the jarred spices we’ve been trying to buy them loose or the little bags full. While this is cheaper it makes storage a nightmare. So we bought some 150ml canning jars as we had seen our favourite tv chef store his spices like this.
Then I used my handy dandy labeler to label the spices. Highly recommend a labeler for home use, they are fabulous.
See how nice they look with a clean and simple label. One of the other benefits of using a wide mouth mason jar is that you can actually put your measuring spoon in there.
And finally the finished project. I wish I’d have thought to take a before picture, but just take my word for it, it was bad.
One down…I’m not counting how many more to go.
05.05.08
We finally bought our new pantry cupboard for the kitchen. I’d take a picture, but just imagine a big white cupboard…there…that’s it. I’ve been filling it up with all sorts of goodies and I’ve run into a bit of a problem. One thing the open shelf gave me was a place to put some pretty things and now that it closed off I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with that stuff. There is space on top and I’ve put a few things up there, but the glass and crystal stuff will just get lost. I’m kind of at a loss here…oh well.
We will be buying a second cupboard, I’m thinking I’ll be putting some of the excess kitchen stuff so we can have a bit of breathing room in the cupboards we use daily. Now all I need to find is a site that will tell me what cupboards should have what in it? Make sense? So if you know of one, let me know.
