Gather Arts Organizing

Before & After – Kitchen Cupboards

This week’s before & after photos take a look at kitchen cupboards. You know, those places where half empty boxes and bags of food lurk. Where food nobody likes goes to fester. Where clutter from the counter tops gets stuffed when people are coming over. Where bowls and lids whose mates have long ago been lost live on.

Before – on the left you see that everything was just sort of left wherever it got shoved. There wasn’t too much in the cupboard, just a little mish-mash happening.

After – on the right you see that we still used the white bins because I’m a big believer in “going with what you’ve got” organizing. We put like with like and placed all the important baking items on the top shelf since they aren’t used every day. Items that are used daily are on the bottom left where all of the children in the family can reach. Also, the supply of snacks was placed in the pretty basket on the right in the cupboard. This photo also reminded me of why it’s so important to take pictures. When I got home and took at look I called my friend and suggested that she switch the kid’s aprons from behind the divider to one of the side white bins. The point is for the girls to be able to get to them and know where to return them. Moving them to the side makes that easier.

Before – again on the left you can see that everything was very quickly put away without thought as to how or when it might be next used.

After – and on the right you can see that there were some items removed to the trash. We also grouped the like items so that we can see what’s available for use. Entertaining is so much more fun when everything is readily available for use at a moment’s notice.

Hallway Closet