Less Is More........

Mkay. It is no secret that Neil and I's life is KA-razy. From the second we met practically. But, now that we are settled in the house some, we are tackling little things bit by bit. When we moved in, it was a just-get-the-stuff-in-the-house and we will deal with it later, type of thing. Which is anti-Linsay personality. My mother in law, bless her heart, did tons of unpacking for us (while watching our son, mind you) and we even said then, that at some point we may have to re-do some stuff. We just unpacked everything, and I figured I would go back and re -do. I just never did, I left it. But lately, we have noticed we have far more than we need, stuffed into a small kitchen, with little cabinet space. I am a minimalist by nature. I only want what we need. I don't like clutter or having a bunch of stuff we don't use out. I didn't realize how much we carried over from our single life and the other house. Yeesh! For 2 people that have already donated garage full of stuff, we still have a ton! So, my friend Sarah is doing some spring cleaning around her nest, so I thought I would join in the fun!



After



Before



First stop, spice cabinet. Man alive, it was B-A-D. And we had SO many duplicate spices, it was ridiculous. No wonder, stuff fell out of the cabinet all. the. time. But there are a couple spices we will not need to replace till we retire. Sage (3 containers), salt (5 containers of various coarseness), lemon pepper (salt free, grinder and a restaurant sized container), baking powder,cinnamon, seasoning salt. If anyone needs to borrow some, I'm your gal.

After...... only the stuff we use a lot on the bottom shelf!

And, I didn't stop there, I just kept going. I mostly got rid of excess. No need for 18 plates in both glass and plastic. Or 36 glasses of various kinds or the 6 french onion soup crocks I have and I made soup in them twice. I had 6 platters. SIX! At least 8 mixing bowls..... yeesh! It just is too much in this tiny kitchen. SO I trimmed it down and put some in the garage in a dedicated spot/container, so when I need it, I know where to go. I just thought, it will make dishes easier when we aren't shoving stuff out of the way and making piles to make room for things we don't use often. Now, pretty much all my cabinets are done. And the flow is much better, makes much more sense. I threw out a lot, re-organized more and stored some away. Kinda boring, but here are pics anyways!



BEFORE: Above the Microwave... dun dun dun



Bottles everywhere!



After- stuff we use. Shortest to tallest.

After, much much less!



BEFORE:  This is just embarrassing.

AFTER:  Whew. Needs to stay like this!

Before: Side deep cabinet, otherwise know as the "junk cabinet"

Dumping spot for anything and everything

After: doen't look much better, but it really is!

Holds our seasonal and not often used things

Buh Bye Corning Ware and Mixing Bowls. 

These are some of the cabinets.  I know, I know not riveting stuff, but it will make my life SO much easier!  Now gotta tackle the coat closet and upstairs.  Eventually the garage and we will be just about done.  Only took a year!