Kitchen Contentment!

                     

  I am so glad you have came back!  I want to take you to the kitchen and share some of my "work smarter not harder"  makeover.  I am sorry that I do not have before pictures. ( Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would be sharing this journey publicly!!)  But I am sure it is not hard to imagine, you know....ever so slowly opening the cabinet door so the plastic containers do not fall out?  Well, that was how it was here anyway.  I remember one time in particular hosting a church dinner and thinking I was on top of it because I had put out a couple of pie servers before hand.  Imagine my surprise as well as embarrassment as I squeezed into my small kitchen filled with guest going thru what seemed like a sea of drawers looking for more pie and cake servers when much more desserts showed up needing them  than I was thinking.
  I started with going thru and getting rid of things that I did not use that much.  Some I donated and some I trashed.  There were a few things like Moms turquoise mixing bowls that I knew Amanda was eying so I passed them on to her.  Once again I thought of the things worth the splurge to help my kitchen work better for me.  And tried being resourceful in solutions.
  Sure I would love a huge dream kitchen that had all of the bells and whistles that you see on tv but alas I live in the real world where doing things yourself and on a budget is the norm. I am blessed with a sweet husband who is very handy and if he can (with in reason) will try to build what I come up with.  But since regaining order,  I can truly share that I am contented in my small kitchen and it works just fine for me now!

 This is the cooking side of my kitchen.  Our cabinets are married some from the house being built and some added in remodels over the years.  We used paint and trim to fool the eye.  There is a tutorial that Country Sampler published on how to do this when our home was featured in the Christmas 2011 issue.

 The black cabinets on the counter Mike built to resemble Antique spice drawers.....

Hide the microwave and coffee pot.

The pantry boxes stacked on top keep things like tea bags and splenda easily at hand.

This is an antique bobbin box that makes a great place to store our knives.

The pots and pans rack were a bit of a splurge at Lowes but so worth it.  I have them in almost all of my lower cabinets and they work great!  It is a lot less expensive than buying new cabinets made like this!:)

 Love the under the sink caddy, on the other side is a matching trash can rack.

I got my grandmothers corningware off of the top shelf and put it where I can get to it easily.  Somethings cannot be improved on....oven proof, dishwasher safe, straight from the fridge to the microwave!

I found this expandable silverware drawer very reasonable at Marshalls

Just an example of how every drawer in the kitchen functions now.

One of my favorite organizers is this spice one from Walmart made by Rubbermaid .(It was only around $14.00.)
Being vertically challenged the pull down function is awesome!

Another use for mason jars as well as a carpenters box tray.  Don't judge us too harshly, we are the spoiling kind of grandparents here!  You could easily put healthy treats in place of the candy!  You may not get the big smiles and hugs we get how ever!!lol

A five dollar piece of sheet metal glued onto the back of a cabinet door keeps things tidier on the outside.

A  great chocolate box Mike found me one day at the flea market keeps some of my wooden bowls from looking too cluttered
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This is the back side and shows how I keep all of the salt and pepper shakers in an old cheap cheese box.  I cant stand how the pepper grinder leaves pepper every time you set it down, this way it stays contained to the box.

     I will share the other side of the kitchen next time if you are interested.  I hope you have enjoyed seeing my contented little kitchen and found something useful to take with you. Thanks again for visiting  our home...be it ever so humble, there truly is no place like it.