Mothering › Mothering Discussion Forums › Natural Family Living › The Mindful Home › Decluttering, Organizing, & Simplifying › One Room Challenge - THE KITCHEN! - Come Join!
New Posts  All Forums:
 

One Room Challenge - THE KITCHEN! - Come Join! - Page 14

post #261 of 368
2/14/07 at 1:31pm
Well, they're not truly leakproof, which is why we only have water in them, LOL! For us, it was a trade off, though, for ditching the plastic.

And thanks for your answers! :
Sponsored Links
post #262 of 368
2/14/07 at 3:39pm
I think you can paint just fine in the last few weeks, just use the low emission paint and keep the area well ventilated...or better yet, make dh do it!

Sigg bottles...hmmm. That's a good idea. I have three kids and we have 3 little plastic cups, 2 tiny mugs and 4 small glasses. Surprisingly none of them spill, but we are super strict about making them keep their glasses at the table - ie, they aren't allowed to walk around with them and stuff. And they're only allowed to use one cup per day, if they want something else they have to go rinse it themselves and pour another drink. I'm a mean mama!

For outings, I have a large nalgene bottle full of water and we all share it. Ds also has one in his backpack for school.
post #263 of 368
2/15/07 at 3:53pm
Well last night I did it. I got through the cabinet I have procrastinating about. I didn't realize how much pyrex I had in there that I don't use! I had three pie plates-I think I bake one pie a year!

I have this scone plate that I haven't used in at least two years probably three but I can't seem to get rid of it. I could probably even sell it on ebay and make a couple bucks. Whats my problem? I don't even need it. All the scone recipes I have you cut the dough into equal pieces and use a baking sheet anyway. Stupid Williams-Sonoma impulse buy :

Now I am going to try and do the gadget drawer. How do you all organize yours? I have things like measuring spoons and cups, microplane grater, meat tenderizer, pizza cutter, etc in there. I just can't figure out how to get rid of the clutter. I use most everything in there.
post #264 of 368
2/15/07 at 4:02pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by lisalulu View Post
Now I am going to try and do the gadget drawer. How do you all organize yours? I have things like measuring spoons and cups, microplane grater, meat tenderizer, pizza cutter, etc in there. I just can't figure out how to get rid of the clutter. I use most everything in there.
Well, it isn't clutter if you use it. I have two small drawers designated for that stuff - I think it helps to keep them kinda sparse. Each one has a silverware divider thingie (I just had them and they fit) which keeps everything from blending together. In the one drawer that the silverware divider is too small to fit the entire drawer, the measuring cups live outside the divider, all stacked up. Things like measuring spoons have one compartment, and the pizza cutter, those sorts of things are divided up amongst the other compartments. Anything messy - like the bag clips get put in ziplock bags. My oven mitts lay on top in one.

I keep it sparse partially because I keep all the big spoons, spatulas, wisks and other things of that nature in a container on the counter. Mostly anything that doesn't fit well in that container or might harm me trying to get things (like the pizza cutter) goes in the drawer.
post #265 of 368
2/15/07 at 6:08pm
Today, I tackled the gadget drawer (I like that so much better than "junk drawer!") and also finished moving the serving stuff to the hutch. I probably don't need three gravy boats, but they're all too nice to get rid of, LOL!
post #266 of 368
2/16/07 at 1:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by annettemarie View Post
Well, they're not truly leakproof, which is why we only have water in them, LOL! For us, it was a trade off, though, for ditching the plastic.

nak

mightymoo: : here too :-)

annettemarie: Personally, I would go with low-voc paint. Paint off-gasses for months, so it will be safer for the baby after s/he is born too.
post #267 of 368
2/16/07 at 1:31pm

still nak

I decided to donate/sell 6 of my cookbooks that I rarely use. I am currently searching for a home for the remaining books.

I also decided to part with: 14 random mugs/glasses, hand beater, some plastic serveware.

I now have 12 large glasses, 8 smaller glasses and 12 mugs. And they all match

Thus, I have once again avoided the "tower of ovens"
post #268 of 368
2/16/07 at 5:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by anthasam View Post
annettemarie: Personally, I would go with low-voc paint. Paint off-gasses for months, so it will be safer for the baby after s/he is born too.
I'm thinking we might just take it step by step. There's a chair rail and woodwork, and then the area above and below the rail, and I was thinking of going with 3 different shades anyway. It can't be any uglier than it is today, LOL!
post #269 of 368
2/16/07 at 7:38pm
I love reading about everyone's progress....so much that I am ignoring my own work! K...Off to work now. I went to the Container store yesterday, got a new garbage can for the kitchen (wanted to move it out from under the sink) and also I got a Kleen Kanteen sippy cup for Eva and a Sigg water bottle for me. I'm going to do one travel mug for all of us and someday go to two. They are great, but can't buy everything at once! Thanks for all the great tips and inspiration. I will have some things hung in the kitchen, we are having out of town guests for the weekend! (yay another mdc mama and their two kiddos )
post #270 of 368
2/16/07 at 8:49pm
Thread Starter 
It's almost funny how kids seem to have an innate desire to create mess, yet are so attracted to cleanliness. My house has been a pit for days, I've been in a slump. The three rooms downstairs the kids are allowed in are all a mess (living room, play room and kitchen - they aren't allowed in the office, though its a mess too), but my Mom called and said she'd bring dinner over and so I got off my butt to clean - the kitchen is done. I swear just as I was thinking to myself 'All done'. My daughter ran into the kitchen, saw it was clean and said 'WOW - HOW FUN!'. I just had to laugh.
post #271 of 368
2/17/07 at 2:23pm

progress

nak

Ok, the cookbooks now have a home in the pantry. DH is at the thrift store now with 2 pots we don't use (one was a HUGE dutch oven) and 3 large water jugs/coolers made of icky #2 plastic (oh, and all the extra glassas and mugs from the other day's work). So, the cabinet over the oven is 1/2 empty and so is the cabinet over the "tower of ovens".

I think I can find a home for the coffeemaker in the pantry today and hopefully, DH can hold the microwave up against the wall to simulate a shelf I want to make sure it won't look too big up there.

We have some work to do in some other rooms in the house this weekend too, so I'm not sure what other progress we'll make. We are planning our Target trip for later today - hopefully we'll find the mop/broom holder.
post #272 of 368
2/17/07 at 3:49pm
While I am not doing the kitchen challenge I just wanted to let you ladies know about a website that was mentioned on Delights blog www.specialtybottle.com which has NICE aluminum tins, glass bottles, all kinds of stuff. I ordered a bunch of the tins for spices and teas. Then I had labels and used my puter to make the labels for each one, including the teas. So if I use up a tea I can always change the label with the new one. They are inexpensive but nice quality. I got my shipment within a week. I am going to place another order as soon as I figure out what all I need. They will last a lifetime. They also carry aluminum bottles up to 16oz with screwtop lids. Just thought I'd throw that out there. I am pretty sure you could super glue a magnet on the bottom of the tins and stick them on the frig like the more expensive ones. I think the smaller tins are 68 cents or 88 something like that. You could get 20 for 10$ and magnets at a craft store and have a bunch. JMHO.
post #273 of 368
2/17/07 at 10:09pm

mop holder

Quote:
Originally Posted by lisalulu View Post
I wanted something pretty (within reason) because the only place I have to put isn't very well concealed but if it comes down to it I will take whatever will work.
lisalulu:
Well, Target only had a unit that hooks into a pegboard : DH said trying to screw it to the wall through the metal wouldn't really work either

So, I think I'm ordering the one mightymoo suggested.
post #274 of 368
2/18/07 at 2:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by anthasam View Post
lisalulu:
Well, Target only had a unit that hooks into a pegboard : DH said trying to screw it to the wall through the metal wouldn't really work either

So, I think I'm ordering the one mightymoo suggested.
Yeah I haven't found anything else either so thats probably what I will do too! I think the container store sells them if you have one near you.
post #275 of 368
2/18/07 at 5:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lisalulu View Post
Now I am going to try and do the gadget drawer. How do you all organize yours? I have things like measuring spoons and cups, microplane grater, meat tenderizer, pizza cutter, etc in there. I just can't figure out how to get rid of the clutter. I use most everything in there.
I do my gadgets like this: spoons and spatulas that are still nice looking are on the counter in a container, stuff that is used frequently like the uglier spoons and spatulas, microplane grater, ice cream scoop, wine opener is all in a drawer to one side of the cooktop and the less used gadgets are in a drawer to the other side of the cooktop (including cheese slicer, tea balls, wisks, etc). Stuff that is sharp, like pizza cutter, poultry scissors and skewers, is all up high in a cupboard til the DCs are bigger. Not ideal but once DS could reach in the drawer, they had to move up.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mommaof3boz View Post
While I am not doing the kitchen challenge I just wanted to let you ladies know about a website that was mentioned on Delights blog www.specialtybottle.com which has NICE aluminum tins, glass bottles, all kinds of stuff. I ordered a bunch of the tins for spices and teas. Then I had labels and used my puter to make the labels for each one, including the teas. So if I use up a tea I can always change the label with the new one. They are inexpensive but nice quality. I got my shipment within a week. I am going to place another order as soon as I figure out what all I need. They will last a lifetime. They also carry aluminum bottles up to 16oz with screwtop lids. Just thought I'd throw that out there. I am pretty sure you could super glue a magnet on the bottom of the tins and stick them on the frig like the more expensive ones. I think the smaller tins are 68 cents or 88 something like that. You could get 20 for 10$ and magnets at a craft store and have a bunch. JMHO.
I will have to check this out. I am looking for jars or other airtight, non plastic containers that can hold at least 5 lbs of flour, sugar, etc. I use canisters on my counter for these things, but I often have several types of flour that I don't use as often like semolina and cake or bread flour. These I would like to keep in airtight containers in a cupboard. Saw some jars that might work on Frontier, but I guess I'd like something nicer looking if possible.
post #276 of 368
2/18/07 at 8:53pm
Well mightymoo inspired me to paint so I have spent the weekend stripping ugly wallpaper! I am going to try and tape off and prime tonight so I can paint this week. Going to check out colors this evening. We are going to paint the cabinets white to keep us until we decide if we will be moving or remodelling for the long haul. The cabinets won't be done by the end of Feb but the painting and decluttering should be!
post #277 of 368
2/18/07 at 8:56pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by lisalulu View Post
Well mightymoo inspired me to paint so I have spent the weekend stripping ugly wallpaper! I am going to try and tape off and prime tonight so I can paint this week. Going to check out colors this evening. We are going to paint the cabinets white to keep us until we decide if we will be moving or remodelling for the long haul. The cabinets won't be done by the end of Feb but the painting and decluttering should be!
Woo hoo! Good luck. Painting cabinets is a pain - it just takes so many coats to look good. We've done it many times before, thank goodness we didn't this time. I recommend one of those little foam rollers.
post #278 of 368
2/19/07 at 4:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mightymoo View Post
Woo hoo! Good luck. Painting cabinets is a pain - it just takes so many coats to look good. We've done it many times before, thank goodness we didn't this time. I recommend one of those little foam rollers.

I'm a little worried. I'm not always the patient type but I'm anal about how things look so this could be a deadly combo that will land me at the home improvement store buying new cabinets Luckily we have taken down a few so I can test it out on those first and if it looks bad then scrap the idea. I've lived with them for 3.5 years a little while longer wouldn't kill me!
post #279 of 368
2/19/07 at 5:07am
You can do it Lisa! Make sure you prime them first. I'm sure you knew that...but...well, I wish someone had mentioned that to me once long ago..

So, we're in a slump. We just got home from urgent care with dd who has an ear, sinus and EYE infection. And croup. And she's really mad. Of course this all happens on a three day weekend. Ds's birthday was yesterday and I've been super busy with some other school stuff for dd this week.

Let me just say I am so happy I got all that cleaning out of the way the other day!! The kitchen is messy right now, but I know it won't take me more than 15 minutes to clean. Whoo-hoo.

And I have to tell this story about giving stuff away, getting stuff back. So I have been wanting to get a nice oriental rug for my living room forever. I refuse to pay thousands of dollars for a real one so I scour Craigslist all the time and never catch one. I was sitting here the other day, in my nice little decluttered house (well, downstairs) and I thought, hey I'll just check. Well, there were FIVE rugs that had just been posted. All with phonenumbers (the email people never respond to me) Anyway, within an hour I had scored a beautiful, all wool rug for my living room! AND, the guy even threw in two really nice lamps (that I also needed) these lamps must be worth over 150 each!!!

I just had to share that, even though its a little unrelated. It just goes to show that the more we declutter the stuff from our lives, the more we make room for the things we really want - materially, mentally, emotionally, whatever
post #280 of 368
2/19/07 at 11:12am
Quote:
Okay, another thought. I noticed in pictures that some folks have their microwave on top of their fridge.
That's actually a great idea. I can count the amount of times on one hand that we used the microwave for the entire year of 2006. We should probably just get rid of it, but it's so handy for certain things. I use it to de-thaw my frozen soups and sauces. But it takes up so much space on the counter. For how little we use it, the top of the fridge is probably a good place for the beast of a machine.
Mothering › Mothering Discussion Forums › Natural Family Living › The Mindful Home › Decluttering, Organizing, & Simplifying › One Room Challenge - THE KITCHEN! - Come Join!