Monday, February 8, 2010

# challenge # cleaning

28 Day Challenge - Small Space Before & After (Part I)

I think that I mentioned before that I wanted to do both small spaces and a whole room for this challenge. Well, I had two small spaces in mind and today I tackled the first one. I have 4 cupboards in my kitchen that are dedicated to food storage. Sadly, when I moved in, I unpacked the kitchen in a hurry and ever since then, I've had a tough time finding things when I wanted them. Well, no more! Ok, no more for these two cupboards anyway..hehe..


Kitchen Cupboard - Before
Meet my cupboard before I touched it. Things were just tossed in there anywhere I could get them to fit.

Kitchen Cupboard - After
And this is my lovely cupboards after I pulled everything (yes, everything) out of them and figured out just what was in there and umm..just wasn't any good anymore. I think the most wow thing that I found up there was a box of Hamburger Helper. Now, I know that there's nothing particularly special about Hamburger Helper. It's in millions of cupboards across this country..but how many of you can say you have a box of it that expired in 2003. Yes, 2003. That's not an 8 folks, it's a 3. This means that I actually bought this box before we bought the house in 2003. We moved it with us to that house. Then, I moved it to Buffalo and back with me. I cannot imagine what I was thinking, other than I never thought to check the date on it. *shudders*

Now, I bet you thought I'd totally forgotten to give you a challenge for today. Nope! I remembered..mwahahaha (that's my evil laugh..pretend to be intimidated, ok?). For today, I want you to go open up your kitchen cupboard where you store things like glasses and coffee mugs. Do you have enough that you could invite your entire neighborhood and not run out? Take some time today to slim down the herd and make room for more things that you love!

Edited to answer Laura's Challenge Questions:

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it?

- Honestly, the hardest part was making myself stand on the step stool to pull down what had been shoved onto that top shelf. I have a real fear of heights so getting up there was a challenge. I did it though!

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order?

- Well, first I got rid of that box of Hamburger Helper that expired 7 years ago. I also got rid of items that we'll never eat or that had been way expired. Eating it is not worth the risk of food poisoning! Then, I put things in groups of like so that I can now reach right in and find it. I can also glance in and see what I need to get at the store. Time saver and money saver all in one cupboard!

3. What did you do with the “stuff” you were able to purge out of your newly organized space?

- I freecycled the food that could be freecycled and tossed out what couldn't.

4. What creative storage solutions were you able to introduce in order to create additional space as well as establish some limits and boundaries?

- Hmm...creative storage. Nope, it didn't happen in this space either. I just used the shelves that were already there and the food that we already had, as well. I did, however, do mental divisions of food types in the cupboards. This is my daily food cupboard. I still need to tackle my baking/dessert cupboard.

5. Why do you think you should win this challenge?

- Well, I don't think I probably should with this space. Looking at the before and after photos, I can't see much of a difference. I know that there is one because I've been cooking out of this cupboard since I did the challenge and it's been a huge difference to be able to just reach in and grab what I need. Organized spaces = Organized Peace of Mind and cleaning/organizing this cabinet has made a huge difference for me. What a prize that is!
Photobucket

4 comments:

Deanne said...

Good challenge! I did something different though. I cleaned out my refrigerator and freezer in my kitchen. Still need to do the deep freeze but eh, it didn't happen today, but it might happen tomorrow! I threw away four grocery bags of old food and expired things and just yuckiness. We haven't eaten at home much lately, and well...yeah, not a good thing.

TracyC said...

No! Don't make me clean out a kitchen cabinet where I found baby bottles and my youngest kid is 4. Evil laughter indeed.

Amber said...

Really? Afraid of heights?? Well KUDOS to YOU for conquering that fear and getting up there! GOOD JOB, too!

Amy said...

Isn't it funny that just facing the labels the same direction makes everything look so much nicer? It looks great and I'm sure it feels great to be able to find everything and know what's in your cupboards.

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