No Cost Organizing the Kitchen Cupboard

We don't have a lot of cabinets in our kitchen and most of them are overflowing with stuff.
I've been making a conscious effort to streamline what we have. And can I just say, it's hard!
This cabinet was really not being used to its full potential and it wasn't pretty
when the door was opened. (Another one of my things is - I want it to be pretty.)

 

Let me show you what I started with.

 

 Recently I moved our prescriptions and vitamins to the kitchen.

For a long time I knew they shouldn't be stored in the bathroom, but

that's exactly where they were - for many years!

 

Selling Magazines On Facebook?

Awhile ago I joined a Facebook group named The Scrap Yard.

It's a wonderful group of papercrafters that buy, sell or trade unwanted stamping, crafting or scrapbooking supplies.

 

I have bought many things from this group and decided to try to sell some of my things on this page. 

In my attempt to reorganize my craft space, I had a LOT of scrapbook magazines

that I never looked at but couldn't throw in the trash. I decided to see

if anyone on The Scrap Yard FB page would be interested in buying them.

The response was an overwhelming YES!

 

This is maybe half of the scrapbooking magazines that I put up for sale.

 

 

 

Many of the magazines were bought off ebay several years ago.

And then there's the magazines that I had subscribed too.

And more magazines..

 

I counted how many I had put up for sale.

106 magazines!

I sold 103 of them!

Wow, I was suprised that I had that many magazines,

and really happy because I made a little over $200!

Crazy huh?

 

This was a huge project, listing, taking pictures, mailing out the magazines,

but so worth it!

 

So if you're hoarding magazines like me,

think about selling them,

you'd be surprised how freeing it is!

 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Day 9 Challenge - 3 Projects and More Martha Stewart Love!

 

I am so behind in sharing my progress with the 20 Day Challenge that was last month.

In case you haven't checked out the challenge, you can take part at any time of the year.

Just think, take 20 days and be committed and the end result will be a clean home!

 

Day 9

 

Clean - your ceiling fans.

 

Sounds simple, right? Well we have vaulted ceilings and usually the hubby gets

the ladder out and stands on the top step and cleans our ceiling fans.

Because I am not coordinated, I don't even try to climb a ladder.

So I found the next best thing.

 

 

I love pretty much all of the Swiffer products, and no I am not being paid

for this post.

 

The handle extends to 3 feet and made it easy to reach our ceiling fans.

And they get dirty so fast, after I got done dusting them, I continued

to dust the top of the kitchen cupboards, hanging pictures and mirrors

and I just love this product. Definitely a great cleaning product!

 

Declutter - Junk Drawer

 

I declutter our serving utensil drawer.

 

 

In our kitchen there are only two drawers that can possibly be used for silverware

and serving utensils and they aren't very wide. And as you can see, things can get lost

fairly easy. I think I have about 10 serving spoons and 5 spatulas and they get tangled up quickly.

 

After: Simply by shifting the holder to the other side of the drawer,

the left side seemed to be the right spot to hold my spoons.

I think I put 3 away in another spot that I keep utensils that are only used one time a year.

Hubby noticed this drawer right away, and did his little shift a roo and then I moved it back to

my way the next day...hehehehe.

 

Organise - Calendar/Diary

 

Yesterday I shared my desk and how I have added a couple of binders

to help keep me organized.  I now love Staples so much, hubby not so much!

 

 

Here's my newest organization from the Martha Stewart Home Office line.

As part of the challenge, I bought her planner. Now you certainly don't need to

spend any money and use a calendar - but I really, really loved this binder and

have looked at it so many times that I finally bought it.

 

 

Even though my craft space/office is mainly pink - this aqua color might be my second favorite color.

 

 

Staples does sell the binder in the larger size but I really like the smaller binder (5 1/2 X 8 1/2).

While the line is kind of expensive, I tried to use a 40% off coupon each time I visited the store.

 

 

There are so many Martha Stewart items, love the post it note tabs, zippered pouches, labels, and the list can go on and on.
 

 

I added a section for keeping my blog organized which I got the idea off

of Pinterest

You can get the free printable here.

 

Would you believe I have my blog topics picked for the next two weeks?

I'm showing you the 3rd week page which is not done yet.

 



Another section holds a calendar with more post it note tabs.

The Martha Stewart line is pretty hard to find, virtually impossible to find online

and her calendars were all gone so I picked up another brand that fit the binder perfectly.

 



 

 

Okay, the labels and tabs are all so cute and I couldn't just pick one or two.

Like I said, I made several, several trips to our Staples store..and would you

believe the same girl checked me out each time!

 



No binder would be complete without paper to jot down those thoughts before they go to la-la land.

And I'm also thinking I'll use it to right down errands I need to do because...the memory is a going away whether I like it or not.

 

 

In the back of the binder are the page protectors that are amazing, there's a flap at the top so that things won't slip out. Some ideas to these protectors would be to hold coupons, pictures, important papers, credit cards, store cards. gift cards or store receipts. I've also seen online that papercrafters are using these page protectors for storing clear stamps - the flap will prevent them from slipping out.
 



 

 If you haven't been to Staples recently, you'll want to stop by and check out the Martha Stewart Home Office line. Make sure to take a coupon with us as most of the time, this line isn't on sale.

 

Thanks for stopping by today.

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Day 8 - Craft Room Desk - Organizing Challenge

The challenge for day eight  was to clean either a kids toy room, craft room, spare room or the family room. As many of you know, part of the fun in crafting is buying craft supplies and it doesn't take long before things begin to overflow.

I picked the office desk as a place that I wanted to organize and clean for this challenge.

I keep the laptop in the craft room the majority of the time. While the workspace was okay, I wanted to put together some binders for easy referencing. Computers are great for information but sometimes I like to refer to paper and not go through the bother of logging on the computer.
But as you can see, there wasn't much room for anything more.

I made a few trips to Staples to make my organizing workspace work better.

This organizer is from the Martha Stewart Home Office line.
I've got room for paper,stapler, calculator, notebooks, binders, lotion, chapstick,
tape measure and more.
There's so much being held in this space now.

I even organized the drawer with 2 plastic organizers from Target.
Everything has a place and makes it easy to find items when needed.

We can't have a workspace without having something special nearby.
My youngest daughter bought this cute kimmidoll for me for Mothers Day.

I'm not sure where this binder came from, if it was one of my kids or if I got it at a yard sale but it holds all the print outs from 20 Days To Organise and Clean Your Home Challenge as well as some other organizing tips I found off Pinterest.

 

This is one printout I need to spend some time reviewing. 

 

I'll show you in another post how I organized our file cabinet using this printout.

I used these printouts each time I reorganized a space and it made the job easier to decide where it should go - one of the four, none of that well I might need it..it was one of the four options.

If you'd like to get any of the 20 Days Challenge printout, click here

Tomorrow I'll show you my Day 9 and 10 projects!
Linking to these parties
Thanks for stopping by!

My Favorite Container Store Item

Since the closest Container Store is 3 hours away, we don't get there very often.

The first time I went into The Container Store, it was overwhelming and I didn't buy anything.

Since that visit, I've bought a few items from them and I do have one item

that is hands down my favorite purchase ever!

 

 

 

As part of the 20 Days Challenge on day 9, 

we were to organize the plastic container cupboard. 

Since we all tend to have so many plastic containers, it's very easy to get unorganized quickly.
And that's where my all time favorite Container Store item comes into the picture.

This is a picture of what my cabinet looks like with all of my plastic stuff.

This is a picture untouched and it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.

 

 

this wire basket that holds our plastic containers is my all time favorite Container Store item.

I love this basket because I can see what I have, a size I might need to buy the next time I'm at the store or if I have too  many lids. This basket forces me to only get containers that will fit which helps keep the cabinet organized.

 



Here's my cupboard after I pulled out the wire basket.
I did a little organizing of containers we use for freezing tomatoes,
this year our tomatoes didn't produce like other years due to the high temps and no rain.
Plus I have a few Tupperware containers that I couldn't part with that are perfect
for storing items in the pantry.

 



 

The wire basket goes in front for easy pull out and to the right side is the bigger plastic containers

for food storage. They work great for storing cut up fruit such as watermelon,

storing cookies or salads.

 



On the bottom shelf I use a plastic basket for storing the electric knife, the salad shooter and hand held mixer. Much easier to grab when needed and keeps them all together.

 



 

I didn't show the back of this shelf but it holds a few more Tupperware containers

that I couldn't part with and use often. In front are a couple of plastic bowls and rectangular containers which are perfect for storing leftover soup or food items.

 



And here's my cabinet all organized and everything is easy to see and find when needed.

 

Now I can't say the same thing for my utensil drawer, that's a total disaster and
I'll be busy purging and organizing today.

 

 

While this challenge is now over, I am

playing catch up so stay tune for more organizing things to come!

(Exciting I know! lol)

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Linking to these parties

Day 5 - 7 Organizing Challenge

I got a little behind in sharing my process with the
 20 Days to Organise and Clean Your Home by Organised Housewife.

Let me show you what I did for Days 5-10 of the challenge.

Day 5 - The Bathroom
Lucky for me I had organized my bathroom in March and it looks pretty much the same.
So a little dusting and straightening up and this one was done!

Day 6 - Clean Refrigerator and Meal Planning
I showed off my clean and organized refrigerator here as well as my
clipboard where I do weekly meal planning.
Check off another one done!

Day 7 - Tidy Craft Room
 I thought I'd share a great idea that I got from The Organised Housewife and how she
organized thickers(aka alphabet stickers).

I have most of my stash embellishments in these magazine holders that I got from Ikea.
I tried to separate them by categories such as seasons, holidays, and thickers.
But as you can see I have a lot of stuff and it wasn't very easy to find what I was looking for.

I went through every magazine holder and drawer and pulled out all of the thickers that
I could find and then separated them by color.



I bought a binder and sheet protectors from WalMart and got busy.

I used some tab labels that I had on hand and put each color in a separate page protector.

The only thing I might have done differently is, I cut off the brand label at the top of many of the thickers because they were so long. I know many scrappers like to use the same thickers over and over again - I should be okay but next time I'll just let them stick out of the top of the binder.



One page consists of thickers that had a variety of colors.

I'm really happy with this organizing project and it was very easy to do and didn't take too long.



And now when I'm lookin for a certain color of thickers, I just need to grab my binder and

pull it out.

I was able to empty one of the magazine holders on the shelf and it's not as cluttered as before.





If you notice the two binders on the top shelf, I bought those on clearance at Shopko and

will be more organzing with my stash.

Stay tune for Day 8 - 10.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

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