Kitchen Organization

Mal and Murphy chose to sleep in today, but I started my day bright and early. I slept through the night (without a single trip to the bathroom), so I felt energized and motivated as soon as I woke up. It’s been a long time since I felt like that first thing in the morning! Yay!

First on my agenda: breakfast!

Breakfast

I toasted a gluten-free English muffin from AllCanEat and then added some sunflower butter and banana slices on top. I caught up with my celebrity gossip in US Weekly while I ate. (Today was the first morning in awhile that I actually missed my usual glass of iced coffee, but I guess that’s a good sign, right?)

I spent the rest of the morning catching up with emails and writing my Health post for next week.

Mal woke up a little while later. He ate breakfast and took Murphy for a walk. When he returned, we got started on our big kitchen organization project. It’s been a loonnnng time coming, let me tell you!

We started with the most annoying/cluttered situations first. The dog stuff/vases/Soda Stream cabinet made no sense and stressed me out every time I opened it. In fact, this cabinet was the catalyst for our entire kitchen organization project.

BEFORE: Dog stuff/vases/Soda Stream

AFTER:

The second most annoying/cluttered area was the cabinet where we keep the water bottles and travel mugs. Every time I’d go to get one, I’d end up knocking them all over and making a huge mess. Mal and I went through and picked out a few bottles and mugs to donate, and then stored our least favorite ones in the back of the cabinet and put our favorites up front for easy access.

BEFORE: Water bottles and travel mugs

AFTER:

We also organized our coffee drawer, which is right above where we keep the water bottles and travel mugs, but I forgot to snap a “before” photo. Trust me, it looks a lot better!

The dish situation in our kitchen was also a tad out of control, so we made some adjustments to the shelves to maximize the space and then we weeded out a few grungy dishes from our collection to donate.

AFTER: Mugs and glasses

AFTER: Bowls and plates

Then, it was onto the toughest project of the day: our food cabinets. Yikes!!!

Mal and I started by taking everything out of the cabinets and assessing what we had on hand. We then decided whether to keep or donate certain food items before we placed everything back on the shelves, nice and neat. 

BEFORE:

AFTER: Canned and jarred goods, rice, soup, pasta, nut butter, and snacks

BEFORE:

AFTER: Tea, drink mixes (I still don’t know how we ended up with so much space), vitamins and supplements

BEFORE:

AFTER: Grains, protein powder, lentils, oats, oils, cereal

We even busted out the label maker for our big organization project!

Mal spelled ”˜bulgur’ wrong, but we decided not to change it because it cracked us up. (We’re five years old like that.)

BEFORE:

AFTER: Baking goodies

Snack

Once the food cabinets were organized, I stopped to snack on a Chocolate & Coconut Raw Revolution Bar, which was delish. It’s my favorite flavor so far!

We desperately need to go grocery shopping, so cleaning and organizing the refrigerator took no time at all. Going through the ridiculous amount of condiments that we owned was the hardest part.

AFTER:

The last project of the day was the pantry/shelves in our back hall. It’s basically a big catch-all for stuff we don’t know what the heck to do with, including small appliances, serving dishes, reusable bags, Tupperware, etc.

Even after we organized it, it’s still a catch-all for things that we don’t know what to do with, but it’s a lot prettier to look at now.

Lunch

By the time we finished, I was starving for lunch. I whipped up a ham sandwich with Laughing Cow Cheese spread on one side and caramelized onion mustard on the other.

Oh my gosh, delicious sandwich!

(So far the cheese isn’t upsetting my stomach!)

Exciting afternoon ahead: gym and Whole Foods. I know, craaazy day!