One of the spaces I am most discontented with in my home is the kitchen. I never seem to be able to get my kitchen to look the way I want it. During the years we rented, I have complained about kitchens being too small, or not having enough counter space, or cupboard space, or no extra pantry, or kitchen dislike for the kitchen floors, or appliances too old or to small, etc. etc. etc.
Then when we bought our first home over a year ago, I thought I could get finally get an upper hand on my kitchen. Needless to say, I am still tweaking and reorganizing all the time. The layout is terrible, the cupboards kind of old style, and I am not a fan of the color of the tiles (they retain and show up dirt easily)! We bought our home “as is” and did some on the surface renovations such as painting, repairing door knobs, fans, lights, and the like. We removed the ugly wall paper in the kitchen and re-positioned some additional kitchen cupboards that were there. But that was about it. I later replaced the old stove and just yesterday, the dishwasher. To do a complete kitchen remodel will take planning, financing, and skilled workers. That will have to wait! Oh the dream to have a beautifully designed kitchen!
Anyway, I do my best to make my kitchen work for me. I frequently organize and reorganize the cupboards and filter out old stuff. To do a major reorganizing, I take everything out from the cupboards, lay them on the counter tops, clean the cupboards, then put everything back in new or same places! For minor cleaning or reorganizing, I may only do one or two cupboards at a time.
Then about a few days after Spring break , my hubby scrubbed the kitchen floors. It had been on his mind for a while to do it. The white tiles retain a lot of dirt and bare daily mopping does not remove all the dirt.
Look how clean and sparkly that looks!
And then, here it is a few minutes after. Oh the joy of kids – Love them!
Despite my (un-godly) discontentment with my kitchen, I still have a duty to keep it neat and tidy so I can prepare scrumptious meals to feed all the little an big tummies that need to be fed.
That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed (Titus 2:4-5).
How about you? Do you have kitchen issues or are you totally content? How do you organize your cupboards and pantry?
I just cleaned out and decluttered my pantry yesterday. I don’t know how it gets so unorganized! I just wish everything would stay clean. But it’s a job that never ends. 🙂
It is surely a huge process!
Oh my, sorry you do not like your kitchen. I find a kitchen is a very important place, since we spend so much time in there. But now with it being so sparkling clean, I hope you like it a bit more ;). I totally love our old kitchen. My husband wants to build us new cabinets, since this are really old, but I thing they are just fine. Homy and with character ;).
Well the layout is kind of awkward for me. I think it was built this way a long time ago – but I guess I bought it so I have to deal with it!
Girl, I am CONSTANTLY cleaning my kitchen. I have big plans to remodel it…when I win the lottery 🙂 LOL Until then, I keep re-arranging and looking in all the nooks and crannies for new storage spaces 🙂
I know it! Those projects take a lot of money:)
First let me just say Cudo’s to your husband for getting in there and scrubbing the floor the old fashioned way! It just so happens that my husband does not mind mopping the kitchen and I don’t mind him doing it either 🙂 The pantry closet has a way of getting unorganized over time. I like to ‘Krogerize’ my cabinet with like items together, in a nice neat row like soldiers, all labels facing front. I also subscribe to the train of thought that ‘less is more’ in the kitchen so I do not leave things sitting out on the counters. The only electric appliance’s sitting out are the coffee maker and the Kitchen Aid. I am happy with my layout though. I had a client years ago who wanted to remodel her kitchen, changing the layout to a more user friendly one. She acquired large pieces of cardboard, cut them to scale size and placed them around the kitchen to get an idea of how it would look and feel if she made the change. That is a neat idea.
I love your client’s idea – I would have never though of that! I like the less is more idea, too, but sometimes I just have to put some items on the counter!
It’s wonderful to have you on our side, haha!