I am not a Hoarder!

So two posts in two days, crazy I know. Jim just commented on that, called me an over-achiever. haha Any way, a lot happened today, so I thought I would post it. Skid-a-mir-ink was up all night (uuugghhhhhh) crying about an earache that the doctor says is not an infections (?!?!) and then an hour after Mom dropped her off at daycare, they called me because she had thrown up. (ew) So I left worked, picked up a sick kid and started churning out the Disney movies, because really, that's what sick days are all about. I however would have passed out cold if I had watched with her, so I started cleaning the rents kitchen.

Oh, the kitchen. Where to even start...the back story on all of it is too incredibly lengthy, so the shortest version I can think of is that when I moved home, my parents house was on it's way to being a hoarders house. I HATE clutter and when I can't get to things. So me and the house were not getting along for a long time. Fast forward almost three years (wow three years...I need to get out of here! I'm going to overstay my welcome!) and I have cleaned out the 3 bedrooms upstairs, the ENTIRE basement (I know most of you don't understand what that means, but trust me, it was epic). I also tackled the rents bathroom and walk-in closet, the kitchen, the entry way, the mud room, the other 2 bathrooms, and the garage. So almost the entire house. HOWEVER, I have never been happy with the kitchen.

Now as you probably already know, I love Love LOVE to cook! Cook, bake, eat, whatever, I love to do it! So an organized and accessible kitchen are important to me and when I grow up (haha ie have my own place) the Kitchen WILL be amazing :) So what else would I do today (since I'm waiting for my research paper to be edited so I can make changes as necessary) but clean the kitchen (again). So here it goes. . . over all it took about 3 hours I'd say, on and off with skid-a-mir-ink being sick and a 30min nap for me :)

I started with the island cubbard. It looked like this:

and with all of it pulled out of there it looked like this:

Bah! So I got to work and it ended up like this:

AAHHHHHH (that's an angel singing) How much better is that!?!!? Monkey has her own little section there on the bottom right where she can reach all of her bowls and cups and plates and her juice boxes, the coffee tumbles and water bottles are all in one spot, all the pitchers are together...ahhhhh harmony! AND the BEST part about it?! You can actually see everything that is in there! No digging and pulling out 15 things hoping what you're looking for is behind something else! Oh so zen. So with that done, I couldn't let it be, I had to keep going.

The Bakers Rack was next....amazing device if you use it right. My parents? ummm....it was a massive collection heap for them. (I know the photo is a titch dark, sorry, bear with me, I'm tired):

So basically, everything everywhere. I have been known on occasion to start throwing things from there and yelling and crying about how unorganized and annoying it is. So I fixed it. Everything that is rarely used, is in the basement kitchen and my life is better. The after shot:

Did you just breathe better? Because I sure did. Everything is organized and stacked, logical (as in all the pots and pans are together, the bakeware is together the vases are together etc.) They still had things in boxes on there! So gone are the boxes, and with it all their space hogging. There is even room for more stuff on there, if the need arises! They got a KURIG for Christmas, so on top of this thing was a giant box of coffees and then on the counter by the KURIG was a bung of coffees so that you wouldn't have to lug the box down everyday. Problem solved!!!

Since Mom has a thousand old vases, I simply filled one up and put it on the shelf by the coffee maker! No more bulky box, and no more wasted counter space. LOVE IT!!!

Next came the OTHER cabinent. Sigh....I was on such a roll I forgot the before shot (which was impressively crammed) but here is most of the stuff that came out, and most of which I threw out too.

AND

(keep in mind here I stacked and combined it all and this was ONLY the tupperware, there was so much crap there)  So I got to work on that and decided it would best be used as baking storage. So I got all the baking stuff together and ended up with this:

 Yay!!!

So now I don't have to run from cupboard to cupboard looking for baking ingredients! Here they ALL are! The old baking shelf was small and cramped and nothing fit, you literally ha to take EVERYTHING out find anything. So that shelf old shelf became the snack shelf which opened up a lot of pantry space (no pics of that sorry).

All that being said and done, I am soooooo happy and I got some of that done and off the list. My parents like it, they can see everything and it just is more aesthetically pleasing. I know there is more that can and should be done, and maybe some day, but for today, on this sick day, I am reinforcing the fact that I am not a hoarder! The kitchen cupboards prove it.

LETS DO THIS!