The Kitchen Reveal!

Wow, here I am for the kitchen reveal. Honestly it doesn't look too much different from the outside, it was the cabinets and organizing that I did all the work in.

But before I go through it all, I decided to make some changes to this one project a month thing. First things first, I'm going to blog throughout the month instead of waiting like I did this month. This will prevent a really long post like this one will be. Sorry.
I also decided that I'm not going to do one room at a time like I said I would. My little crafty/project mind has been going crazy and I can't just do one room at a time. Also, I found it hard finishing everything that I wanted to in the room, while protecting my wallet. Instead, I'm going to give myself a $150 budget for the month, and whatever projects I can get done during the month with that budget, I will do (minus buying a dining room set soon). As you will see with the kitchen, I'm still not really done. I still have a few things that I want to do in there, but I ran out of money. So, we will relive the kitchen later I'm sure.
I just want to warn you, I am getting up close and personal here. If you aren't interested in knowing my day to day life and why this organizing works for me (and get great ideas for yourself), then you should probably just scroll through, look at the pictures, and then check back for other life posts instead). I am here to help others get ideas for themselves to get organized too. When you are organized, you have so much more time to spend doing things you love instead of looking around for things you lost because that item didn't have a "home."
So without further adieu, here is what I DID accomplish during October in the kitchen.
First, I organized the pantry. I wish I had a before picture, but you can close your eyes and picture your regular pantry with cans, boxes, and lots of random stuff thrown onto the shelves. I couldn't stand it, so I organized. A few main reasons I had to do this were
I couldn't find anything and I was buying things that I already had
It looks prettier this way which helps me to stay organized
Mr. Hunt will know where things are (won't have to ask) and he can now help put things away.

First, I took everything out and put things into piles with like items. Then I decided how many baskets I needed to get. I put the like items into their baskets and then made labels for the baskets so we know what is in each basket. I put a label on the top shelf to indicate "extras." Since I am still coupling, I find that sometimes I have some extra boxes of things that we don't need to use right away because we are using another box, so I put those items on the "extras" shelf, and I can bring them down into the boxes when we need them. Also on the top shelf are all of our paper towels (we tend to have a lot from the coupling also).
On the second shelf down are the baking/coking ingredients. I put the sugar, brown sugar, flour, and powdered sugar into air tight containers and put labels on them. I love this because now I don't have to deal with bags of sugar and flour that spill everywhere when I try to open them. The two baskets on that shelf are for "baking" (boxed desserts, oils, and chocolate chips) and "pasta" (dressings, pasta, sauces).
On the next shelf is where we keep the snacks and the breads, rice, and candy/cookies.
On the bottom shelf is where we keep extra soda and Mr. Hunts protein shake mixes.
On the floor I have a big container where I keep my reusable grocery bags. I put the whole bin in the car when I go shopping, I take the bags in with me, and then I can put the full bags in the bin (makes it easier to carry them all in), and then start all over. It has worked like a charm so far.
On the left side of the pantry is there we have the "dog shelf" and the "cleaning supplies."The dog shelf where we keep treats, canned food, medications, and other items for the fur babies. On the shelves under that are the two cleaning shelves. I used another basket for all the cleaners and then just neatly stacked all of the boxed cleaning supplies together. I may end up getting another basket if it starts to annoy me that they aren't in one. On the bottom shelf I have the big jar of dog treats. I fill the smaller white container with the treats and put them on the dog shelf for easier access. The trash can looking thing on the floor is the dog food. We have to buy a HUGE bag of food, so instead of looking at an ugly bag, having food spill out everywhere and having to put my whole arm in the bag, we use this, and it works like a charm.
Lastly are my little bags that I sewed. When I originally showed them to you, I had them hanging on the shelves, but I finally got these command hooks, and they now live on the wall with the grocery bag holder and the light switch!
Now onto the laundry room (oops, I don't think I told you this was included in the kitchen, but it is.

Again, no before picture, but I promise it wasn't looking too good. The reason that I want to organize is to make my life easier. This is one GREAT example of how this is going to make my life easier. When we bought our house, I was super excited to have a laundry room and not a laundry closet. The only problem (that I didn't realize until living here), is how much of a pain it is to transfer the clothes back and forth from upstairs to downstairs. I LOVE doing laundry. I LOVE clean clothes, but I HATE hanging clothes and putting clothes away. Therefore, I found myself doing laundry, and folding, but then the clothes never made it to the closet. So, I had to think of what would make my life easier, and it hit me. Bring the hangers to the laundry room and hang the clothes right there while you are taking them out of the dryer. It has worked miracles! I now do the laundry, hang the clothes that need to be hung right then right there, and then fold the others. Then just bring the hung clothes up and put away the smaller, easier pile of folded clothes quickly and easily. TA DA! Can you tell I'm super excited? Well I am.
Anyway, here is what is going on in the laundry room. On the top shelf I have the laundry basket (all baskets are labeled just like the pantry). This is another life saver for me. Mr. Hunt tends to shed his clothes everyday when he gets home downstairs. The clothes never used to make it upstairs to the laundry basket. I used to get so ANGRY with the dirty clothes everywhere. Now I don't! I just take them and throw them into the basket in the laundry room! YES! The other two baskets are "detergent" (all my bottles of detergent from couponing) and "rags" (self explanatory). Also up there is our new steamer. We haven't used it yet, but that is because it was still in the box and we didn't know where to put it.
I have all of our hats hanging up which allows us to remember that we have hats and to see what our options are (and for all of them to have a home). And the extra hangers are hung also. Upstairs in the closet I have another basket where I throw the hangers when I'm done with them and then carry them down to the laundry room when I'm doing laundry.
On the right side of the room is where the dogs food and water bowl is. This is the only place that we have to keep them which makes it so I cannot shut the laundry room door (which is another reason the room needed to be organized). I installed another shelf on that wall where I keep the bottle of detergent that I am currently using and a bowl of clothes pins so that I can hang things to dry. This is also where I hang the clothes while taking them out of the dryer.
On that wall I hung two little dog tail hooks where we keep the dog leashes and a key rail for our keys. I still have to hang Mr. Hunt's keys on there most days, but at least I have somewhere to put them when I see them laying around, and he will know where I put them. Here is a picture of the room in use. This is also before I put the paper towels in the pantry and the steamer was still in its box.

I'm going to stop there and do a whole different post for the cabinets and drawers....so really we haven't even got to the kitchen yet...oops!

Love,
The Organizer!