Hello my friends! We had another school delay today (for cold temps) so I’m behind on this Monday! I’m dragging anyway because I worked my butt off on the kitchen island yesterday. I go into beast mode at times and yesterday was one of them. My main driving force in getting so much done was so that I could start to get things a little more organized in the kitchen.
I’ve had the tools I’ve been using on the window seat build and the kitchen island expansion tucked away inside the window seat:
And it’s been AWESOME to have a spot to hide everything and not have to drag it out every time I worked on something. But I wanted to really be able to use that space and organize it – so I was determined to get the big stuff done on the island yesterday and I did. I hope to share it with you this week (still lots of filling, caulking and painting to do) but until then be sure to follow me on Instagram for updates. :)
So oddly enough, my motivation yesterday was to get those tools out of the seat so I could start organizing the kitchen better. My plan has always been to do a major purge of the kitchen before I got into the bigger parts of the reno – I just want all the extra stuff out and I want to know what needs to go where. It helps me determine what will work and what won’t when I’m thinking about changes.
This cabinet is the one that’s a pain in my butt – do you have a drawer/cabinet/closet that is your dump zone? We have one of each – the junk drawer in the kitchen (that I can barely close right now), the coat closet and this cabinet. They are where random things go to live:
I just shared this cabinet with you a year ago when I cleaned it out last. It looks bad in that photo above but the before before was way worse. ;) You like how I make myself feel better by saying that? Yeah.
Last year I used some scrap wood to build a little shelf for the larger platters:
Ninety percent of our entertaining and serving dishes are in these built ins in the old dining room:
But because they are only 12 inches deep I have to keep the larger platters in this kitchen cabinet. I tell you what – that little shelf I made has helped SO much! It’s so nice to easily slide them in and out…when there’s not 50 things in front of it anyway, like lately.
I’ve been waiting for this day for so long – when I first dreamed of a window seat I knew I’d gain some great storage from it. I was able to move about half of what was in this cabinet to that space and then move some items that were piled up in other cabinets into this one:
I am planning on building another shelf just like the one on the left for the items I placed in there. I’ve learned that cabinets pretty much are a deep abyss…drawers are so much easier for storage! I find that simple shelf helps to keep things in place so I think I’ll do a two-tiered one on the right.
Most of those items on the right were piled up on the little shelf in this cabinet in the island:
I loathe that little shelf. Do you have one of these? If you have more than one item there you can’t get to it unless you get down on the floor and adjust everything. So I took it out:
It put up a good fight but I removed it with a jigsaw and a lot of pulling, pounding and cursing. :)
Now I can fit taller items in that cabinet which is great. I plan to build pull out drawers in this cabinet but it’s already so much nicer to not fight with that shelf. I’m doing the same in the other one in the island too.
But my favorite part is this space:
Awwww yeah! Every time I would walk more things over to this spot I would say “This is AMAZING.” I LOVE IT!
Who knew something this pretty could be so functional too?:
I placed things I don’t use quite as often in there – the only thing I’ll reach for more is the crock pot. It’s easy to access though so it’s not a big deal. Way easier than a digging expedition in the cabinet. ;)
Oh my, it is always such a great feeling to find that perfect spot for stuff, right? Especially in the kitchen. So much STUFF in the kitchen. Do you have any organization tricks you use in yours? I love finding different ways to organize.
I’m off to fill some nail holes! :) I really hope to share the finished island with you this week.
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