Organizing in the New Year (ONY) kitchens

Welcome to our final post in our series
Organizing in the New Year
(ONY).
We hope the series has gotten your year
off to a good start by challenging you to rethink
the way you use your space,
ridding yourself of unnecessary items, 
and allowing you to appreciate the satisfaction of a job well done.

Organizing in the New Year
 focuses on one area each week,
keeping these intentions in mind:

~Purge if necessary,
because you can't create your dream
if it's cluttered with things you don't use.
Keep in mind, one object in, one object out.
If it doesn't do something for you, 
pass it on to someone else who can use it.  
It's all good.

~Use what you have to create a more streamlined home 
that still has your special touch.
Repurposing functional items adds to their value.
If they make your life easier or help you feel more comfortable, 
they are worth keeping.

~Try moving everyday items to different rooms
and use your creativity to use them in a new way.
The worst that can happen is that 
you find it doesn't quite work in the new application.  
Just start over!

If you are working toward more order in your life,
I hope these posts will help you jump start your vision.

The best advice I can give you is to
just start somewhere. 

*******
The kitchen is the heart of the home
and where we focus our time today.





It's vital to have a well-stocked kitchen
if you're going to cook from scratch.
We do our food shopping once a week
so that we save gas, money and time.
This door rack is a good use of otherwise wasted space.
It hangs on the pantry door and adds tons of storage.
If you only do one thing, find a place
where you can add one of these.
You'll thank me later!




We use mason jars to keep everything from soup
to nuts fresh and easily identifiable.
It's another simple, inexpensive way to organize.
Aside from being so versatile, I enjoy the uniform look.

 

Larger jars can be found at most discount stores
and are fantastic for containing a whole bag of flour or sugar.
Not only do they look attractive, 
the wide mouth allows for easy access
and bugs don't stand a chance of finding their way in.



A baking station can easily be created out of one kitchen cabinet.
Sheet pans, molds, mixing bowls, measuring cups and anything else used
for baking is housed together to make quick work of your task.
It just makes sense to keep like things together.

Drawers are pared down to only those items used regularly.

We also keep our favorite family recipes amassed in one binder.




It's kept in a basket on the countertop
along with a few cookbooks used regularly, 
a cell phone and any outgoing mail or coupons to use up.
Anytime baskets or bins can be used, they should be,
as they not only corral like items,
but make cleaning easier by only having to remove one item,
instead of each individual one.

 Our monthly meals are planned ahead of time as well.
I created a system that worked for our family.
You can find our Menu-by-the-Month plan here.




We hope you have enjoyed this series.
It's still the beginning of the new year,
but anytime is a good time to get more order in one's life.
There will be additional upcoming posts on organizing,
because there is always room for improvement.
Start small, but just start.
A sense of accomplishment is the result.

I encourage you to begin today, 

in some small way,

to start taking control of  your stuff,

before your stuff starts taking control of you.

Are you up for the challenge?

Here are the other posts in this series:

ONY bathrooms

ONY office

ONY closets