Kitchen Organization Week 2 Kitchen Drawers

Well, it's the 2nd week of January and I've finally gone through most of my kitchen drawers, which was the task for the first week of January. And I'm about ready to move on. It takes about a week to go through all the drawers and successfully reorganize them, if you commit to doing a drawer a day, and it will only take about 30 minutes a day of organization. I have a big kitchen, so it has taken me more than a week.
  The "Before" picture of one of my messier drawers.[/caption] I don't love organizing, so I promised myself I'd do 30 minutes a day and  as I got into the job I'd actually push it up to about 45 minutes until I felt I had completed a task. It was actually kind of a rush to see the improvements I could make in only 30 minutes! [caption id="attachment_6765" align="alignnone" width="500"]
I layed out all of the wraps and baggies and chose the ones I will keep.[/caption] There is a method to organizing that I have learned from listening to a few youtube experts. ORGANIZING KITCHEN DRAWERS 

• Take everything out of the drawer and lay it out on a table to examine what you will keep and what you will toss and what you will donate.
• REDUCE  the AMOUNT of stuff you store in each and every drawer and cupboard.
• Clean out the drawer with a good cleaner like 409 or Fantastic.
• Use smaller containers to sort small, like items together.
• Place the now organized products together with like items in drawers.

Then wipe out all the drawers as you empty them. Sort what was inside, choose what will go back and put it back in the drawer neatly, sorting like things into smaller bins. Now the drawer looks like this! Much better. And it took about 20 minutes to do.[/caption] I had a drawer full of towels that were always a mess. I decided to do something about that too. I am a towel hoarder, I know what you are thinking. So some of these had to go!
I had WAY too many tea towels. I had to reduce the number. So I packed up a box of them to give away to charity. I kept only 6 that I really love. Then I put them into a bin and placed them in one of my laundry room cupboards. I hung one up on the stove front. I couldn't believe how many of THESE things I had hanging around either! Can you say HOARDERS? lol. I packed a few of these to bring up to the cabin next time we go. And I threw one away that was out of juice. I had a gajillion microwave popcorns in my drawers. I had to purge a bunch of old ones. I found the perfect sized bin to put the rest into and placed it on a shelf in the pantry. This freed up a new drawer! Yay![/caption] I think the key is to find little containers to sort your packaged foods and then you alway know right where to go to get them or restock them.....a place for everything, and everything in its place. (My grandma used to say that....she used to run an entire 400 acre farm in Iowa!


One of my drawers had chocolate chips and hot chocolate and an array of birthday candles and cupcake sprinkles. I put the chocolate chips in a bin, the sprinkles all on a lazy susan, and the hot chocolates in a mini bin of their own. This will go in the pantry on a shelf.[/caption] The next drawer I cleaned out was the cookie and cake decorating things. Now I've decided that I have altogether TOO MANY cookie cutters. All of the organizational gurus say the first thing people need to do is PURGE, because we have TOO MUCH stuff.

 
I think I had 10 heart cookie cutters. I had to part with a few of these. I don't want to be known as a hoarder!![/caption] So I reduced my Valentines cookie cutters from 9 to 6. I know, that's still kind of in the "hoarders" category, but I can't help myself....they were just so cute! And when we have family cookie parties, I will always have enough for everybody to make and bake together.


I love making Valentines Sugar Cookies with my family AND my classroom kiddos.


I just love this Valentine sugar cookie we made last year in my classroom. It is always fun to get out the sprinkles and sugars and little candies and make a masterpiece! Woo Hoo![/caption] So here is my sprinkles drawer after I cleaned it up a little bit. But I hated using this everyday drawer for something I only use rarely, on holidays mostly. That is a wasted drawer. So  I cleared it out, combined a few of the sprinkles jars, and tossed out a few that were almost empty. Then I placed them all on a lazy susan. It looks SO much better. And it will be fun to twirl to see which colors I want to use next time we bake cookies.

My new Lazy Susan fit the drawer full of Sprinkles. I combined a few and tossed a few out. Now I feel I can see them at a glance.


Now I like this a lot better. I can see them easier, and I freed up another drawer in my kitchen. Yay! I love these Lazy Susans.[/caption] I debated whether to put the sprinkles for Valentines into the same baggie, but I decided to put the sprinkles onto their own lazy susan. I might want to use pink or red sprinkles other times of the year anyway.
I bagged the holiday cookie cutters together with cupcake picks and sugar stencils.
The Halloween cookie cutters and 4th of July and Easter were all bagged and organized. Then I put them all together in the cake decorating drawer. I feel so organized finally![/caption] I put all of the cookie cutters into their own baggie according to season; Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Valentines Day, St. Patrick's Day, 4th of July. Now I can just pull out the right baggie and find the cookie cutters I need easily.  It took me about 2 weeks to do all the kitchen drawers. I still have a hobby drawer left to do. Next week I will do the Kitchen shelves. Those should take at least a week. Although they truthfully aren't as messy as the drawers were. Why is that?

Join me in getting organized this year! I'm pretty excited about it!