Welcome to Day 1 of a 5 Day series, “Organizing & Cleaning Your Kitchen”. I’m joining up with 21 other bloggers to share all of our organizing & cleaning tips! Each of us has a different topic to share about, so please, don’t forget to check out the other topics.
5 Days of Organizing & Cleaning Your Kitchen
Brought to you by Fridge Coaster. I will share more about them tomorrow, but in the mean time, you should check out the awesome coasters that they have to help protect your fridge against spills, making clean up faster and easier! They call it fashion for your fridge!
Day 1, Organizing the Clutter Under Your Sink
I have a confession to make. I may have told you this before.
I’m a messy.
My husband is messy.
We truly enjoy a clean and organized space, but sometimes, our brains really struggle with making it happen. After being on vacation in a nice, empty condo that only has the necessities, we threaten to condo-ize our home….but we rarely stick to our guns on that one. Once I’m back home for a while, I just get overwhelmed with where to begin. I’m often able to look over a mess and then all of a sudden, it stands out like a sore thumb and I wonder how it got like that. I am NOT an observant person. If you have lost weight, I won’t notice until it’s A LOT! If you get a hair cut, I may never notice. I won’t notice what you wore, if you wore jewelry or anything like that. What I notice has to be something drastic. If your hair was dyed pink and you were wearing neon striped toe socks, I’d probably notice.
Anyway, I said all of that, to warn you. I didn’t plan this little organizing series because I have it all together! I planned it because it is a huge weakness in my life. I collect clutter. Most of the time, not on purpose. I knew that I wanted my kitchen nice and organized and functional, so I decided that would be my topic. I’d HAVE to do it, because I committed to these 21 other bloggers that I would. I’ hoping that along the way, maybe you’ll catch some inspiration to tackle an organizing project that you’ve been meaning to do!
The other day, I was trying to decide which part of my kitchen to start with. There’s so many areas that need help! We never even finished painting it, putting up trim & back splash, etc after we moved here. We’ve never put up pictures in there either. It’s a work in progress and you’ll have to bear with me and realize that my kitchen isn’t out of House Beautiful! Some day, I think I’d like to paint the cabinets, but for now, they will remain the way they are until I can find a little more time! Anyway, while trying to decide which area to start with, I found a puddle at my feet in front of the sink. The sink was leaking! I guess that’s a great place to start!
This is what it looked like before:
Yeah, not pretty. How can anyone find ANYTHING in that mess? I couldn’t….so I rarely opened it. When I did open it, stuff fell out.
Here’s what I did:
Take the plastic bags out. I threw them all away because they were wet from our sink leak. Had they been dry, I would’ve found an alternate place to keep them so they’re not all scattered under the sink and thrown away whatever didn’t fit into that spot. If I do that, my plan is to keep them in something contained. Maybe a Tupperware container or a drawer. Where do you keep your plastic bags?
Remove anything you don’t use regularly! I had cleaners I don’t use, various light bulbs I didn’t know that I had, a filtered water pitcher, etc. Some of the bottled items that I knew I wanted to keep but don’t use often enough to keep them in the kitchen, I’m sending out to our out building (we use it kind of like a garage). The rest of the stuff, I’m giving away. My mom had given me 3 bottles of floor cleaner several years ago and I never used them! I guess I always forgot I had them! She was over yesterday, and I asked her if she wanted them back and she did. LOL. I was just storing them for her!
Place like items together: I just happened to have a large storage container that the baby would always knock out of the storage container cabinet. I was annoyed with it, because it was too big to store food in it. SO….I put it to good use and put all of our various sized light bulbs in it. Problem solved. I now know where to find my bulbs and I also know when I run out. I made a basket for flash lights. I know, I don’t really need that many flash lights in my kitchen, but there’s such few items down there now, I decided it’s a good place to keep them so I know where to find them.
Label as much as you can. I could have gotten all fancy and printed some pretty labels. Maybe I will one of these days, but until then, white duct tape and Sharpie markers work wonders!
Contain loose items. I had a few other things that were running loose down there that I didn’t want to start scattering everywhere. Air fresheners for my Glade Plug ins, my battery powered Fly Zapper (yeah…it’s more for entertainment for my kids than anything…when the flies are bad), bird seed (cuz I don’t want it to spill!) and steel wool.
Here’s a picture of what we are not putting back! Yay! Less mess = less time spent looking for things!
Here’s how it looks, all finished! I can’t wait to do this to the rest of my house!
Do you have a big project that needs you to organize it? Jump in, get it done & tell me all about it! I’d love some more organizing inspiration!
Don’t forget to visit some other bloggers who are also talking about getting organized this week! Click on the photo below:
(This giveaway has ended)
The cash giveaway is below! Don’t forget to enter it! There are several giveaways to enter into as well! Enter the cash giveaway at the end of this post! There will also be a cleaning pack from Bon Ami, Fridge Coaster pack from Fridge Coaster (which I will share all about when I share my refrigerator posts), many different e-books and even a Lowe’s gift card! To enter the giveaways, visit the bottom of the main landing page for the series. Also, you won’t want to miss the Mommy Time Facebook Party tomorrow night on my Facebook page. More prizes will be won and we’ll share our best secrets on organizing and cleaning! You won’t want to miss it.
Suzann says
Paper towel tubes work well for bags. The secret is, when your container is full, pitch the rest. You don't need more than you can store neatly. You get new ones all the time. (I'm a super messy, so I don't pretend to have it together) I currently store mine in a plastic bag. I take one bag, put the others in it and when it's full, the others get pitched. The one bag hangs on one of the hooks that came with my broom/mop organizer thingy. Good luck!
Sidetracked Sarah says
That's a good idea Suzann! I get to where I think I have too many bags sometimes and I pitch them all…then realize that I'm completely out. Oops.
AlyssaZ says
Thanks so much for sharing this series with us. I am inspired by what you have already accomplished!
Eva says
Mine has a loop on one end. We stuff them in at the top, pull them out from the bottom. It is hanging from the end of the metal rack shelf in my pantry. So when I put groceries away, it is handy to put them in right away. The girls know if I say, "Please get me a Walmart bag." to go right to the bag in the pantry and pull one out from the bottom. I use them to line our small trash cans too. I received my fabric bag organizer as a gift but if you sew you could make one in a coordinating fabric with the are you will store it. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Elizabeth says
Ikea has a container for plastic bags that is pretty neat.
phoebe says
An old longsleeve shirt works well, just cut the sleeve off at the shoulder. Finish the top edge and make a loop to hang. The cuff at the bottom of the shirt is already done for you. I don't even use elastic on mine.
Jennifer says
You are so BRAVE and transparent. Thank you!
I just organized my family room and kitchen pantry. Under my sink desperately needs to be organized (both kitchen AND bathroom!). Thanks for the motivation and inspiration!
Shirlene says
I store mine in a soda carton and then toss the whole thing if there is no other uses for a time. I have a few lose one's under the bathroom cabinets for the trash cans or other dirty deeds.
Michelle says
You can use an empty tissue box for the bags. Just roll them up tight and stuff inside. they pull out kinda like tissues! That could go back under your sink if that is a place where people know they reside. Cool blog!
Christal says
Looks great. I also keep my bags in a homemade bag holder, I have it hanging up in the kitchen on a hook. It's eye level so I don't have to bend over and my little girl can't scatter the bags.
quickeasycheaphealth says
Wow, good job! It looks great! I keep my plastic bags in one of those handmade bag keepers (my mom made it, I think) that hangs in my laundry room. It's basically a tube with elastic openings on either end: one end to stuff the bags in, the other end to pull it out.
Sidetracked Sarah says
I've thought about making one of those. I'm just not sure where I'd put it. I'll have to think about that. Thanks for the suggestion! 🙂
Jen says
Keep hanging from the rod in the coat closet or a hook I in the laundry