A House of Order

I am so disorganized.  I like to think I'm organized, but I'm not.  Which is kinda weird because I LOVE making spreadsheets for things to keep track stuff, so you'd think that would transfer over into our home...nope.  I've been wanting to get organized for a while now.  We are moving into a house when our lease is up in February, and I'd like to make the move as less stressful as possible by purging what we don't need and organizing what we do.  But with 2 small children who depend on me and with EVERY room in the apartment needing to be done, the task seems impossible.  THEN I remembered my friend, Jo, cleans and organizes houses for a living.  So I called her up and she's coming over next month to help me with the task.  Our schedules won't allow us to do it sooner, which is okay.  I can get a head start so I'm not too embarrassed when she comes over.  And who wouldn't want to get organized with all the amazing ideas on Pinterest?  Speaking of Pinterest, thanks to this wonderful site, I am taking the 52 Weeks to an Organized Home Challenge!  It breaks up organizing your entire house into little steps each week so it's not so overwhelming.  The first week's challenge is the kitchen counters and sink.  I actually already did this project before I knew about the challenge, but I took it one step further.  Check out my before and after pictures.

I threw away old food that was in the white bowl, put the blender, silver canisters and bottle warmer in cabinets, and the spices on the back of the pantry door in an over the door shoe organizer (to be seen in a later post).

I put the microwave bottle sterilizer in a top cabinet because we just never use it.  I kept the spice rack out to hide the cord for the toaster oven.  I put the white bowl with treats in it and the butter dish on top of the toaster oven to save on counter space.

This area didn't need much work.  I put the cords behind the cork board so they are out of sight unless we need to use them.  That's where we charge our cell phones and the tablet.  The knife block is also behind there, but you obviously had no idea.  Just an FYI-we keep the towel on the microwave handle because Gabby always took it off and ran away with it when we kept it on the oven handle.  Now it's out of reach for her grabby hands!

This area didn't need much done either.  I put all the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, put away all the bottles and put the monitors in the white basket that's on the bar.

 For the bar I just put away the clutter (newspapers and what was in the white basket) and put the monitor in the white basket.  We keep the basket on the bar and put things in it that don't belong in the kitchen and living room and when it's full, we take the basket around the house and put everything away. 

So this challenge wasn't too time consuming because I pretty much did it last week on my own.  I'm happy with it.  It looks a little weird having the counters more clear, but I know it looks MUCH better than even before I did it the first time.  I should have taken pictures of that.  The next challenge tackles kitchen drawers and cabinets.  I'll probably start that this week.  Are you going to take the 52 Weeks to an Organized Home Challenge too?