My New Organized Kitchen

Remember the 30 day organizational challenge hosted by Laura. Well, the 30 days are up and here are the results. Laura asked some questions as we reflect on what we did.

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it? One of the biggest challenges is my limited space and abundance of things both equipment and food. I thought about getting rid of some things but considering that some things are difficult to find here I opted to keep them.

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order? Put things away and wash dishes throughout the day. One thing I realized is I buy some food item and we use half of it in a recipe and then it sits on the shelf until the next time so now if we have something one week and use half of it then the next week or two we will use up the rest of that item.

3. What did you do with the "stuff" you were able to purge out of your newly organized space? Some of it went in a box on the balcony where I have stored some kitchen things that I don't have space for in the kitchen. I found some food that we won't use most of which was free give aways and so I just got rid of that.

4. What was the biggest lesson you learned from this experience? Do a little bit each day. I did pause a bit in the middle of this project and didn't do a little bit each day so I had to scramble and finish the project in the 30 days. When I started 30 days seemed like a long time but it did go quickly.

5. Now that you have completed the PROCESS, do you think having and keeping your space organized will make a difference in your life? Yes, I love my new kitchen. It makes it easier to cook. I can find things, I know what I have, I have things labeled.

Here is the old and new kitchen.

Before - this is a general view of the kitchen.
Here is the after picture: A bit more organized and a little more space. Here is the cabinet that you used to have to be careful when you opened.
Now it is at least a bit more organized.
Before - this is the cabinet that would be above the Chinese stove. It has the vent which gets in the way and is just a high cabinet. I need my stepstool to reach things.
Here it is a bit more organized.
Another before cabinet.
After - I still have lots of almonds but they they are good and good for you.
Under the sink before
After - More organized
Here is the before of this drawer. Everything was just somewhat thrown in.
Now look. More organized. A place for measuring spoons, baby spoons and knives.
Before - This is a bookshelf that works as a pantry and cabinet space.Here is the organized. I finally made time and labeled all my containers. Yes, I love Tupperware.
Finally, the refrigerator which technically is not in the kitchen but in the dining room. My stove/oven is where the refrigerator would be.

I decided that the alphabet didn't need to stay on the refrigerator. I did sort through things on top.

Hmm, maybe in 30 days I should post pictures of the kitchen again.

30 days to an organized kitchen

Organizing Junkie is hosting a 30 day organizational Challenge. I decided to tackle the kitchen. My reason for picking that area is because that is my biggest challenges in this apartment. I love to cook but things are not organized they are stacked and often I am rearranging piles to get to things I need. The room is small but has quite a bit of stuff both food and things I use.

As I go through this room, I really do want to look for things that I can get rid of or maybe move to another place in the apartment. I think we might eat quite a bit of the food that we have around that we have not yet eaten.

My goal is to have an organized useful kitchen at the end of 30 days. I might have to get rid of some things to reduce the clutter and also buy a few containers to help keep things organized but I also want to see what I have around here that I can use.

Here is the current state of the kitchen.

This is actually a drawer. It looks like a junk drawer but that is just because it is not organized.
Technically the refrigerator is not in the kitchen but in the dining room but I decided to include that in the organizational challenge not necessarily the inside but the top and the outside.

This is under the sink. I have cleaning supplies, soft drinks, onions potatoes, and trash bags aka grocery bags.
This is the cabinet with the baking pans and my stash of almonds.

This is above where the stove would be so it is high up and you can see the vent. It needs some organizational help. I couldn't even turn the spice shelf last night as I think something was caught in the back.

It is almost impossible to get a picture of the whole kitchen. You can see the stove/oven, the place where a 2 burner stove would go and then the sink.

This is a bookshelf that fits along the wall that holds food and containers and my cookbooks. You can see how things are piled on there.

One more cabinet. You can to be careful when you open this one that things don't fall out.

A few of the challenges that I face in the room are the available space and the amount of things that need to go in that space. I do have to keep stocked up on things as you can't always find it at the grocery store.

There now the whole world can see my kitchen but I am planning that in 30 days you will see a new organized and clutter free kitchen.