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I need to come back later and let you know what is going on in my wacky world.

Talk to you later,
Wanda

Where Have I Been?

Hello everyone,

***WARNING: This will be a very heavy picture laden post & they were taken with my cell phone!Sorry!***

Are you ready? I'm about over the nasty bug I had (for nearly 2 months) and have had the energy to do a bit of "organizing". Remember "The Plan" that I had mentioned last time I blogged - many, many, many days ago? Well, I started it. The plan is to take each room and disect it into sections and deal with each section. I started with the kitchen because it was the hardest for me to tackle. I decided to rearrange a couple of cabinets and the pantry, so that I could work more effectively in there. Not sure yet if it will stay the way it is but like it so far. For some reason I didn't think to open cabinets & take pictures in the before pics but I did in the after. Here we go - the befores:

This is looking from the doorway from the garage.

This shows the hallway out of the kitchen into the rest of the house.

This is standing in front of the stove.

My cool island.

The counter space next to the sink (dishwasher needs to be emptied - sorry).

My fridge & command center.

The entrance to the garage is just into this small hallway and on the right, the door to the back deck is to the left & straight ahead is my NEW pantry.

It's not that big for a room but wonderfully large for a pantry.

This side has the water bottle rack, a small end table and one of my 2 shelving units.

This side has the other shelving unit and the old desk (this used to be my son's "computer" room).

 

 

Lots of cabinets/shelving to rearrange & organize. So, ready for the afters?

 

We are going to start with these cabinets. In the before photo you will notice that the microwave & breads were here before. I didn't like the microwave so far from the cooking area, so moved my coffee pot, blender, daughter's bullet & daughter & my coffees to this counter.

This is above the coffee pots - cups/mugs, glasses and pitchers (we love our sweet tea here).

The coffee filters are in the drawer to the left, beneath the coffee pot.

The straws and lids to the grandbabies cups are in the right drawer beneath the coffee pot. There is a register (forced heat in this house) under this so we couldn't put any cabinets but I do have room for a paper bag to hold the plastic bags we get when we go to the grocery store (need to make reusable bags one day).







Next to the coffee pot counter is a corner unit. When it was put in I thought it was cute but have since decided it is annoying. It is not as deep as the cabinet to the right and so it is hard to get in and out of. We do use it alot however. I couldn't get alot of light in it to show but we have our travel mugs, extra glasses, extra coffee cups & my vases in the top.

In the middle area is my drink mixes (I love to use crystal light in the purchased water), tea bags, my Brita pitcher, and other items we use with our beverages.

The bottom has a lazy susan (a real time & back saver). We store extra beverage dispensers, including some empty juice bottles to use when we go to dinners (don't need to worry about bringing it home).

The large cabinet next to the funky corner cabinet used to be my pantry. It's quite large and holds alot but with 5 people it wasn't large enough (I buy when things are on sale, not just when I need them). The top shelf is the cereal & chips shelf. Since I don't push these to the back, I've placed a couple of seldom used items in the back. If I haven't gotten them down by Christmas this year, they will be going away. The next shelf down is my baking items (flours, sugars, etc).

The next shelf has snacks, pasta & dry beans. This is where my grandkids love to grab from but they are still short enough they can't reach everything. The shelf below that has their favorite things. Peanut butter, nutella, koolaid drink mixes, hot chocolate mix (notice the marshmallows in the front). This also has the oatmeal & grits, which we love for breakfast. The very bottom shelf is my daughter's shelf. It is her responsability to deal with it and since it is a mess, I won't show it all.

At the bottom is a large drawer. This drawer was going to be my potatoe/onion bin and so has a sliding lid. It doesn't work well for that because there is no air flow around in it and the potatoes would go bad quickly. So I am going to use it for my grill/griddle and wok. They fit perfectly.





Between the pantry cabinet & refrigerator is just enough room for the step stool (which is suspended from a command hook), my broom (which I am moving to the pantry) and my new potatoe bins (bought at Bed, Bath & Beyond). The top will be for white potatoes and the bottom for sweet potatoes. The onions will hang from another command hook next to the stool in a mesh bag (which I now have but no picture).

This is my favorite picture of this room. We will start with the large cabinet on the left.

 

In the top part of the cabinet, I have my serving platters, Truffle bowl from Pampered Chef, disposable serving dishes, disposable baking pans and my wraps/bags for storage, etc.

The top shelf of the larger part of that cabinet has my everyday plates (all sizes, including paper & plastic picnic set - which we don't use for picnics), it also has my grandkids plates & bowls, our cereal bowls and the napkins. The next shelf has my frying pans (including my iron skillets - which I love).

The next shelf has some of my baking pans (including my pottery pieces that hubby made me). The next shelf has the rest of the baking pans and my electric skillet. The bottom shelf (which I don't seem to have a picture of) has the lids to my pots and pans.

Here is the small bit of counter on the right of my stove. It only has the paper towels & phone (I hadn't taken that small pad ouit of the room sorry). It is a great place to put my cooking utensils when I'm in the midst of the madness called cooking.

The small cabinet to the left of my stove has my cookie sheets, pizza pans, baking stone, and cooling racks. This was an important cabinet for me when we were deciding what was needed in this kitchen.

In the drawer above that I have my pot holders. The ones in the front were made by my aunt (she taught me how to crochet and knit but I have forgotten how to knit and only crochet). The ones in the back are some I made and some that were given to me.

The top shelf in the upper cabinet to the left of the stove has my "greases". I have my sprays, shortening, lard and fat seperator. (I use canola oil for my cooking but from time to time need shortening and the lard is for my iron skillets). The bottom shelf has our "sauces & vinegars". You know worchestershire, steak sauces, teriyaki, soy. I also use white & apple cider vinegars. (Yup that is a light bulb in the front. It was the last one out of the box for the oven/range hood - need to get more.)

Above my stove (only temporaraly) I have my recipes and cookbooks. They are a mess and I need to cull out what I don't need or want and organize what is left. Another picture not taken was the drawer under the stove. I have most of my roasters under there, including my lasagna pan.

This is my "occasional use small appliance" garage. It is on the bottom to the right of the stove. It houses my crock pot (the crock was in the drain because I had just used it the night before), my daughter's crockpot, my pressure cooker, and our juicer (ugh someone put it away dirty - need to get it out and clean it). 

The top cabinet to the right of the stove houses my spices (and a few my daughter buys). I have the step shelf (my daughters - need to get my own when she moves out) on the bottom and a lazy susan on the top. The mason jar is my large salt container (I saw it on pinterest and had to do it, see this to see how it is done). I took all the duplicates, put them in a basket and put them in the pantry (you will see it later).

We've reached the corner between the stove and sink.

This is where I moved my microwave. I moved the bread maker to the other end of the counter and nudged the toaster oven down a bit. I put the microwave where the toaster oven was.

and was able to put my flower arrangement in the corner and my bears & bowl back on top of the microwave.

 

This is the drawer under the toaster oven. This is some of the tools I use alot but don't want in my vases. I have my tools in several places and so far I'm not sure I like it. I'm hoping it grows on me.

This is the cabinet below the toaster oven. It has 2 pull out drawers and this is where I keep my pots. I like them really close to the stove. I'm wishing I had put them in more of my base cabinets.

This is the upper corner cabinet. This and the other 2 cabinets (next to the window) are for my glass baking dishes. My husband bought most of them when I was in the hospital just after having my first born (31 years ago). I used to use these alot but when we moved into this house for some reason I put them on the other end of the kitchen and really haven't used them much. I'm hoping this helps me to use them more.

Next cabinet (one of them is missing but I left room so that I can put it in when I find it (I have the lid and that is how I know it is missing).

The last upper cabinet before the window. The yellow "bowls" and metal "bowls" on the top shelf are my collanders.

 

This is the top drawer in a cabinet of drawers that is next to the sink. This used to have my eating utensils in it and the wash rags were in the bottom drawer but it wasn't working for me. This works better. (I have my daughter's laytex gloves in here - she is allergic to dish soap and rubber.)

The next drawer down holds my kitchen towels. I always have one hanging on the end of my island. These moved up a drawer.

This is another drawer of utensils (disposable plastic ware, picnic ware, odd size items).

The bottom drawer has misc. items in it. Canning stuff, command strips, markers.

So we are at the sink and ready to head down to the end of this side.

We use our drainboard alot, so it stays out all the time. I just bought the soap dispensers not long ago and have a small basket for my Dobie scrubbie sponge on the other back corner of the sink and behind the faucet is my vegetable sponge (didn't seem to take a close up of the sink area, sorry again).

Next to the drainboard is my electric can opener, then the breads, then the bread maker.

 

 I couldn't move hubbies coffee pot to the other counter because we have to pull it out to put water in it. The other counter isn't wide enough to do that so I had to leave it here (can anyone say frustrated). Hubby bought two granite lazy susans for me to use. This is the smaller one and holds his coffee, the pot he uses to measure water, sugar and travel cup (which he had when I took this picture).

In the upper cabinets on this side of the sink I have all my serving & storage bowls. I used to have a TON of plastic bowls - rubber maid, tupperware, off brands - and when hubby helped in the kitchen, he would toss them into the cabinet because he couldn't tell where anything went. Needless to say, nearly all of them went away and I've been gathering glass to replace them. My everyday dishes are Corelle dishes and I've added alot to my set (there is a kitchen discount store about 40 min from where I live). I put the serving bowls in this side along with some plastic bowls I kept (rectangular ones). The large bowls on top are really big and I use them alot for potatoe salad, macaroni salad and to mix my Christmas Fruit cake in. You can also see the handle of one of my gravy boats.

This side isn't really full yet because I'm still buying to replace but you will see that most of this is either glass or tiny plastic (I store the lid with the bowl).

This is the top corner cabinet. I keep things like my Tupperware cake taker, deviled egg server, chips/dip set, lettuce spinner and a couple of things my hubby needs when we go in our RV but need to keep in the house between trips on the top shelf. The bottom shelf has my daughter's bullet accessories, disposable storage bowls (for when leftovers go to someone elses home) and a couple of things I use for when we go to pottery shows (really tiny bowls)

Next to the dishwasher is a tiny, thin cabinet. This was left over space the cabinet maker wanted to just "cover over with extra wood" but I knew that I could use it for my cutting boards (I have 8 in there - 3 are the flimsy mat kind). Notice the picture to the left, that is a beautiful magnetic picture on the front of my dishwasher. My daughter got it for me for Christmas a couple of years ago. My kitchen has a lot of apple items in it.

This is the bottom corner cabinet. It houses a few more small appliances (mixer with bowls, my submergian blender, home made bread box).

After you turn that last corner there is one more small cabinet. It houses my baking items (measuring cups, measuring spoons, mixing bowls (notice the ones made by my wonderful potter of a husband).

 

This part has taken 3 days to get ready so I will post this for now and start the next post later (my cool looking pantry, island, and diningroom which I have now finished).

 

Talk to you later.

 

Wanda

 

(PS I didn't proof this so sorry for any typos)