Kitchen Junk Draw

As most of you would know I've been struggling with sciatica pain and have been restricted to the in laws couch for the past two weeks. I'm not some one to stop, sit on the couch and do nothing so as you can imagine the past two weeks have driven me insane to say the least. No the less it has made me learn a lesson and I now realise that as bub's #2 fast approaches I do need to take it easy. So to ease back in and feed my craving for organising (call it nesting if you like) I decided it was time to do a small job like the kitchen junk draw.

Before: Kitchen 'junk' draw

I'm sure many of us have that 'junk' draw located in the bottom draw of the kitchen however I wanted it gone. It's always been a draw that I keep telling myself I will get to another day so today was that day.

I pulled everything out and put it all into a basket so I could comfortably sit on the couch and go through it. With the help of a few tupperware containers I sorted through all the stuff. I was then able to place all the random batteries, pegs and appliance paperwork etc.. into the correct homes.

Everything out into basket

I had decided that I would need a solution to stop this 'junk' draw from occurring and so I've decided to now keep my aprons, oven mitts and tea towels in the draw instead. It only makes sense to keep them here instead of in the linen cupboard as they are then quickly on hand when needed. So I neatly folded all my tea towels (wow I have a lot) and then placed them in the draw at the front. To the back left we have my two aprons with my new Donna Hay tea towels I'm yet to open. To the right I have our oven mitts. Awww... how nice :0) he he he

After: Kitchen 'tea towel' draw

Have you got a small quick organisation task like a kitchen 'junk' draw that you have been saying one day to? Perhaps today is the day to get it done!

^YKylie

To Many Cleaning Supplies

Whilst cleaning out my horrendous Laundry (that is taking me days to complete) I emptied out the linen closet only to find that I had over 15 cleaning cloths!

Why do I have so many? Well I think I lost most of them in the back of the linen closet and so I just kept on buying more.. tut tut.. naughty me.

The funny thing was that the very next day I found myself going to buy more cleaning cloths. The wonderful Clare from The Home She Made blogged about these wonderful e-cloths and I thought WOW that's just what I need! I'll throw out all me cloths and start again... silly silly me.

On second thought I realised that another purchase of cleaning cloths is just what I didn't need to be doing right now! And so I kicked my bum in to gear an got organising the cleaning supplies I already had. Firstly I started with all those cloths reducing them into 4 colours that I would use for 4 areas/zones of the house.

I then had the urge to organises all the cleaning supplies to go along side these cloths.. really this was to stop me from jumping back onto the net to buy those wonderful looking e cloths.

Under our sink is where I use to shove in all our cleaning products. Truth be told I was not to sure what supplies I had under there either.

So out it all came.. making my famous cleaning/organising mess once again...

Please tell me that you make a mess in order to organise your space or is it just me that is silly enough to make such a mess?? lol

I sorted it all by what area of the house it would be used in and bundled it all together.

Green - Kitchen, Blues - Bathroom, Yellow - Laundry and Pink for Lounge/bed rooms. I then placed each colour into its own basket, where they are all now in a new home in the Laundry cupboard at eye height so I could quickly grab one out when required.

I now have room under the sink to store what I actually use on a daily bias in the kitchen.

On the top shelf I have my light blue sink tin storing our dish washing brush, bottle brush and cloths. Next to this the small basket stores the dish washing tablets along with descale for the kettle and coffee machine.

On the bottom shelf I have put one cream tin that holds dishwasher detergent, spry and wipe, eucalyptus oil and paper towel.

Once again all this was done during toddler nap time as it was another quick and simple organisation task that I can now tick off my list. YAY!

I still however really want those e-cloths and I'm really trying to fight the urge to purchase them. Perhaps once I've used up all my cleaning supplies that I have now I will get them. I really want to go green in cleaning however don't want to be wasteful with what i have and so find myself at a crossroad.

What would you do? Throw out the chemicals and go green now or use up what you have then go green??

^YKylie





En suit Organised

I was having one of those days were I was doing a lot but not achieving much... you know the days where you run around the house all day but it looks like you have done nothing! I hate those sort of days and so when I put our boy down for his afternoon sleep I decided to organise our en suit. It would be a good task for me to quickly achieve and then I would visually be able to see something that I had achieved for the day. Now I don't know about you but if I can see I've achieved something I feel a lot better and don't get in a tizzy. Its has a somewhat calming effect for me.. I know silly but that's how it is and so our en suit was the task as hand...

Our en suit cupboard consisting of our mess shoved in

Firstly I pulled everything out. For some reason when I start these re organisation projects I'm always so surprised at how much stuff I pull out of spaces. Perhaps it is the fact that everything is out all at once and therefor makes me realise that we really do have to much stuff!

I created a bigger mess!

Armed with a few storage baskets and boxes I set to the task of grouping everything into categories then placing them into the cupboard.

On the top shelf we have...
1. My toiletries - in striped fabric basket from The Reject Shop
2. Tools such a nail clippers, tweezers, nail files etc.. - in mini wooden draws I already had
3. Hubby's toiletries - in striped fabric basket from The Reject Shop

On the bottom shelf we have...
4. Samples - into a lovely flowered pattered box I had been given a present in
5. Soap & Body wash - in white plastic basket from Kmart
6. Toothpaste - in small white plastic basket from Kmart
7. Supplies: Extra bottles or cans of Shampoo/Conditioner, Hairspray and Deodorant.

Now I did contemplate throwing away all the sample bottles that I have collected however I just can not part with them just yet.. they are so cute and I would love to place them out on fresh towels for any future guests we may be lucky enough to have stay with us. So for now they stay!

In regards to all that toothpaste.. Well what can I say it was on special and to buy in bulk always saves money hence were not going to run out of toothpaste for some time!

I also make it a rule to have one spare of the necessities such as shampoo, conditioner, hairspray and deodorant in the cupboard so as we are never out. As soon we use something we replace it with the stock supplies and it gets written on the shopping list to buy again. This works well for us and has eliminated hubby's urgent requests for deodorant at the very last min.. eg: I need it now as I've just finished my can.

I will be adding labels to the front of each container but for now at least it is organised.  And so there we have it... I was done! A quick, simple organisation task that I achieved during kiddo nap time. I can tick it off my to do list and it made me so much happier that I could see I had achieved something for the day. I'm even happier to report that it still looks as neat and tidy a week on.... YAY!!

En suit organised.. tick! Now back to the on going Laundry I go...

^YKylie