K is for Kitchen

K is for Kitchen

The letter for today’s A to Z Blog Challenge was easy to come up with. I decided to write about K is for Kitchen since I recently de-cluttered and re-organized our kitchen.  After 16 years of accumulation of “stuff” I knew I had a challenge of my own!  So I rolled up my sleeves and started cleaning off the counters and drawers for the beginning stage.  Everything that I didn’t know what to do with, ended up on the end counter so I could go through it again and slowly just keep making my piles smaller and smaller. I should have followed my hubby’s suggestion and just toss everything!

Now don’t gasp or laugh at all the “important” papers on our refrigerator, most are photos, drawings, and little notes from our grandchildren.  To me, they are all so precious but I knew I needed to find a “safe” place for them.  So I carefully took them down, some of them have been up for 16 years, and boxed them up to put in a album.   So after everything was removed, the fridge looked a bit different!

But, along with re-organizing the kitchen we also purchased a new stainless finished fridge with the bottom freezer.  I love it and the best part is after saving all my gift cards and paypal from my earning sites, we got it free!!

When I clean, I have a problem getting rid of things right off. I have to move things from one pile to another until everything is finally weeded out and tossed.   This is what I was up against after I cleaned out the coupons and “junk” drawers.

I was diligent and little by little, the pile disappeared! What do you think, looks better doesn’t it?

Am I the only one that can’t keep a silverware drawer neat?  The store bought organizers are smaller than the drawer so the extra space winds up being a catch all for things that shouldn’t be in the drawer.  So I tossed that and made a custom drawer organizer. I used 3/4″ foam board, cut it just a tiny bit wider than the draw and slid them into the drawer, making five different sections to keep everything perfectly organized without any wasted space.  How’s this for a transformation?

I think everyone has a junk drawer in their kitchen and this is one of mine!  I toss just about everything, used the store bought utensil organizer, that was buried in the drawer before cleaning out,  for knives and the rolled up silicone baking sheets. The spatulas fit perfect along side and the egg slicer and gramma’s old jar opener fit in the front.

Once I set my mind to something, I can do it.  Re-organizing isn’t my favorite pastime but once I start, I go until I’m finished.  My “new” old kitchen was looking good once the project was completed.

I hope you are enjoying my alphabet blog for the A to Z April Blog Challenge  The challenge is to write a blog starting with the first letter of the alphabet on day one and continue through the month every day except Sunday.  For the previous letter, I wrote about  J is for Jersey Mikes and it may make you hungry when you read it.  Please share your blog link in comments if you are taking part in this challenge, I’d love to read yours!

Another great blog challenge is the Ultimate Blog Challenge .  The challenge is to write a blog a day for the month of April and so far I’ve completed it every day.