Revamping the War Room - How A Kitchen Gets Organized

My cleaning habits are a lot more Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and a lot less Suzie Homemaker. When I decide a space is completely unkempt, I tear it all apart and reset it based on how I am using the space, not how I thought I wanted to use the space the last time I freaked out and tore it all apart. Thankfully, all that personal mayhem happens without the aid of highly trained military-style assassins.

There is some method to my madness... 

5 Point Organizational Strategy:

 

1. Everything in plain sight. I don't do well with closed cabinets, drawers, closets. If I put things behind an opaque barrier I forget I own them unless it's something I use every day. Occasionally, opening a drawer or closet is like some weird version of Christmas morning. This results in my use of open shelves, clear plastic drawers, curtains that are easily tied back.

2. Everything should have a place and should be used regularly. I play a game with my son when we clean up his room. I pick up an object and say "What is this?" "Where does it go?" "Do you still play with it?". I do the same thing when I clean up my own areas. If I haven't used it, worn it or thought about it in 6 months, it goes to Goodwill, or, to someone else who will use it.

3. Abhorrence of tchotchkes. The only things I own that don't adhere to the form follows function rule if they hold some emotional or beautiful significance. 

4. No single use tools. As much as I hate Alton Brown's fat shaming, I do go in on his theories that no kitchen item should serve some single, specific purpose. The only single purpose item I have in my home is my bread machine. I make no apologies. 

5. Things with lids are stored with the lids attached. Years of baskets of lids, boxes of lids, falling lids, misplaced lids... no more. If a container has a lid, it's stored with that lid on it. If a container loses it's lid and is still useful, keep it. If a lid doesn't have a container, it's a useless bit of plastic. Toss it. This gets applied to other things with parts- my rice cooker, my stand-mixer, 

Okay, so maybe the process looks like military-style assassins came in and tore my kitchen apart, but I swear it's my own insanity that created this mess. 

The Process: 

1. Start from the top and wipe your way down. The mess above is a result of pulling all the shelving off the opposite wall from the one in the photo and wiping down the ceilings with a broom, the walls and the floor boards. Then spot mop that part of the floor, move the shelving back into place and wipe it down. Then, I figured out what I wanted to go on the shelving and put it all back in order. 

2. Take everything off every flat surface and wipe it all down. Counter tops, cabinet fronts, containers, pot holders, spoon holders, all of it. Just with a little warm water with a small amount of dish soap. 

3. Put it all back where it makes the most sense. Don't get caught in the trap of making things 'organized', make them 'functional'. For instance, I have liquid measure cups and small fingers bowls in a couple of places so if I need them while cooking I don't have to think about it, they are in all the places I will need them. 

It's Tinsel Time At My House

I have a real, aching love for tacky Christmas lights. Not being a supporter of most things Christmas, I can pass on all the professionally produced lights, but the allure of a house covered in C9 lights in weird or random patterns is too much for me to bah-humbug about. My family suffers my "OH! Look over there" followed by a sharp turn of the wheel and our slow crawl past the house. There is a giant bin in my garage with lights and such, begging me for the last 2 years to do something interesting, but I have failed 2 years in a row.

This year I decided that I would put up some kind of tree to put the kiddo's presents around. He is the only person I still buy presents specifically for this holiday and since it's all about finding my joy in his experience, I wanted to give him festive without covering the house in Santa Claus. The end result:

The tree does actually twinkle thanks to the strand of twinkle lights I wrapped around the pole that holds up the tinsel tree. I got the tree at my local bullseye-themed big box retail store for less than $20. Tree, plus $3 in twinkle lights and $0.97 worth of tinsel garland and TADA Shiny Celebration Tree!!

Part of what I love most about the house we moved into last year is this giant mantle. The snowmen you see are a small bit of my college obsession. Prior to my low clutter days, I loved to have boxes and boxes of holiday decor. I have no interest in lugging that around every time I move, so I have paired it down to some fun pieces that really hold my interest.

That's about $5 in tinsel garland, $7 worth of pre-cut glittered snowflakes and a $2 bag of bows.

What is left of what used to be a slightly obsessive snowman collection. 

Planting All The Sits

My cat, Obi "The Wan" Kenobi (aka the Giant Grey One), hates plants, but she LOVES to plant sits.

Via Reddit, this is not my cat, but it's close.

So far, she has removed via her not insubstantial weight: my bibb lettuce, romaine, all the wild flowers I planted on the porch in containers,  a rosemary plant and attempted to replant sits in place of some of the day lilies that grow on the side of my driveway. She's a more effective sit gardener than I seem to be at making anything edible grow.

Luckily, she hates the citronella plant near the porch (which I can understand, it really smells terrible) and doesn't seem to like the tomato plants, so those are doing nicely.

Here are some photos of the front yard in full bloom. These were taken two weeks ago or so, just before the four straight days of rain we got here in the ATL. Now, the gardenias are blooming and smell lovely. I'll take more photos this weekend.

The First Load

The front porch of our new little house. 

The new house is a reality. Yesterday, I did the house inspection with the real estate agent and then sat on my new front porch and watched our Aussie, Kai, put on a show for the drivers sitting in traffic and sniff every plant and little nook in the fence.

Happy Dog!

I can't wait to put planters on the porch. It's the east facing side of the house, so the current likely spot to plant tomatoes. The drawback in this homestead plan being that we sit on a major road with lots of traffic pollution. Flowers for sure and lots of them. My tacky Christmas light addiction just found a main line. I'm going to need more C7 led lights. My excitement can almost not be contained, as might be evident in my hamster-like subject changes. Big plans all around.

We brought the first bits of stuff to the new house today when we came to measure some of the rooms for carpets. We borrowed plastic totes from a friend and to make best use of them we will bring down several loads in them when we come do things like detail clean. This trip, it was our bar ware, my Bacchus wall hanging, Robert's Lego ships and the framed mandala that my friend, Keith Prossick, made that is my most precious non-essential possession.

The photo with the odd stone animals in it sits just outside the privacy fence at the drive way. The nearly legless bull dog came with the house. The agent said, "you can just get rid of that thing." with a wrinkle in her nose, but I think it is perfect as a mate for my creepy cement cat. That cat was part of a set- it had maybe 3 little cement kittens that reminded me of fetal cats from biology class. When I was a kid, these cats lived in my great-grandmother's house, sat in the living room and I LOVED them. They were my pets, I would carry the concrete fetal kittens around. They had names, but I have long since buried that memory.

My mother gave me the momma cat several years ago and it's sat near the entrance to my home since then. It never fails to make me smile. I'm happy to have been able to give it a friend to keep it company. It;s interesting the things that make a new space feel like your space.