The Start of the Crazy Organizing Spree

When we sold our house back in March, we were pursuing purchasing a different house than the one we're in now. But, that house was a short sale and ended up going into foreclosure before we heard back from the bank if our offer was accepted. Boo. So, two weeks before closing on the sale of our house, we had no idea where we were moving! Thankfully, just a few days later our current house came on the market and we were able to snag it up just hours after it went online. Unfortunately, our closing dates didn't line up, so after we sold our home, we moved half of our belongings into storage and moved into an apartment with only the bare necessities. We lived out of boxes for 6 weeks. Literally...we only unpacked a little bit of kitchen stuff.

I've always known I'm a bit...um...compulsive. I mean, as a teenager, I used to dust my bedroom every day. Crazy kid. But staring at huge piles of clutter and not being able to organize anything for weeks really brought out the OCD monster in me. By the time we closed on our new house, I had already mentally unpacked and organized our new home a gazillion times. We ended up emptying every single box and got all moved in within the first couple weeks. We didn't sleep much. ;)

Unpacking at light speed helped me regain my sanity after moving twice in two months time. But recently, the OCD monster has been knocking on my door again. I've unpacked and put everything in their final destinations, but nothing is really organized or finished yet. Things are just placed in cabinets and closests however they would quickly fit. But, now things are looking shabby and starting to pile up. Time for some major organizing!

I started things off in the kitchen, focusing on the drawers. In our previous house, I had 9 drawers. NINE. Spoiled much?! I had a silverware drawer, cooking utensil drawer, office supply drawer, baking drawer, saran/baggie drawer, pot holder drawer, dish towel drawer, napkin/bib drawer, and "not commonly used drawer" (haha). That's a lot of drawers.

Here's a pic of our old kitchen. I still remember peering in the front window while our real-estate agent was unlocking the door to show us the house and seeing this kitchen for the first time. Smitten. Tons of counter space and storage!

In or new house, we have 3 drawers. My challenge has been fitting everything from my old kitchen drawers into a third of the space. I purged what I could and packed my counter-top utensil crock with as much bulky cooking untensils as I could. Drawer #1 became the silverware and knife drawer, Drawer #2 housed all the serving utensils, baking cups/spoons, and all the random kitchenware a cooking lover has, and Drawer #3 housed all the Saran wrap, foil, parchment paper, baggies, and oven mitts. It was tight, but everything except the kitchen textiles fit. I shopped our house and found an oval basket that would fit under the kitchen sink and put all the kitchen towels, napkins, and bibs in it. It was overflowing, but was an ok temporary fix.

Here's a picture of our new kitchen. I love the granite, backsplash, lighting, and the extra tall cabinets!

After a few weeks of brainstorming, I decided it was ridiculous that the baggies/wraps/oven mitts were taking up an entire drawer, so I gave them the boot and gained an entire kitchen drawer! I shopped my house again and found this wire shelf from Target that used to live in my old pantry and placed it under the kitchen sink to put all the baggies on. I found two small baskets at Target that fit underneath the shelf to hold bibs and napkins. I also found a deeper, rectangular basket at Target to hold all my dish towels and rags. Here it is now! Ahh, much better.

I am still on the lookout for a door wrap organizer, but just haven't found the right one yet. I really don't want to put screws in our nice wood cabinets, so I'm on the lookout for an organizer that I could hang using command hooks. I'm thinking about this one from Amazon, but afraid it's a little too small...

My oven mitts were the easiest fix. I just plopped a command hook on the back of a cabinet door and hung them up! This was my first experience with command hooks and I'm...hooked! Sorry, just couldn't resist a corny joke. ;)

Still lots to do in the kitchen, but that's all that's been done so far. Wanting to find a good rug, accessorize the counters better, buy organizers for drawers, buy a cookie sheet organizer, and figure out some kind of storage solution for the pantry cabinet. 

In other news, Hubby and I have zero plans this weekend (cue hallelujah chorus!) and are hoping to finish the last coat of paint and do the poly finish on the table. I'm ready to get the table done and out of my garage! My car misses it's garage abode. :)

Happy Friday!