Project Status Update: Tupperware Cabinet

I have officially purged that dang cabinet and can now only call it a Tupperware cabinet by the skin of its teeth. I believe there is only ONE...yes, ONE!... Tupperware container left in there now. Oh, but it feels good!

Update on "Project: Purge the Plastic Avalanche" (I do like the new code name, say it out loud - it's kind of funny to say...ok, so maybe to just me) :)

• I have removed all the contact paper my nails can officially handle without bloodshed.
• I have sorted and sorted until all the containers without lids and the lids without containers were removed and escorted from the building (into the recycle bin they went, yay.)

sorting, sorting, sorting...

• I have delegated all of our previous tenants, the should-be-but-never-really-is-tossable Gladware to a new home - namely both of my mothers' houses - Mom C and Mom E. I am fully aware that these containers may visit from time to time filled with delicious goodies from both houses (am I smart, or what? lol) But then they will be sent packing again. This was a promise. :)

the ones sent packing.

• I kept my best containers, and only as much as would fit. This was hard, but the rest went to those lovely baking and cooking Moms again.

the keepers.

• I kept the carousel free of obstacles, even though I had to fight my inner Dictator of Organization trying to fill up every.free.space.possible. Man, is she is tough to quell!
• Lids are relegated to a bin, behind the carousel.

So, in summary.........................

Remember Me?

Well, now I'm THIS.

and THIS!

Ha!

Better, I can breathe easier looking at this space and no more slammed fingers in the door trying to catch the fall. Ahhhhhh. Bliss.

"What's Next" you ask? I know, you are dying to know.

Ok, I'll spill it.

• You know that container behind the carousel, holding the lids? Yep, that white one with the holes... Well, those holes are going to serve as a nice place to wedge a dowel or two so I can separate the lids into small, medium, large. No more searching for lids!
• And the fact that the container is behind the carousel? Ahhh.... well, if we cannot budget for a slide out drawer to pull the whole bottom shelf contents out - never fear, dear readers, I have an idea. I hope I can pull it off - or get the Monk to shell out the mula for the real thing. Nevertheless (is that a word, really?), it's been deemed a necessity to have the lids be more accessible. :) So, it WILL happen.
• And contact paper...yes! As soon as I get to Target (which I have been there several times since Project Start)...and I actually remember to pick it up. :(
• One more thing - maybe a coated metal riser for the top shelf, to further separate the containers that just do not want to play nice and stack.

I feel good that its another Mission well on it's way! Has this inspired you to tackle a cabinet or two in your own house? If it has, then please let me know!!! Inspiration goes full circle, my friends...if I know I motivated you, then it motivates me, which motivates you...and on and on! So, by all means - BRAG away!!

Project Start: Tupperware Cabinet

Need I say more?

A deep cabinet, and you can't tell, but there is actually a shelf in there! (lol)

Hoping to organize this in a way that we can't ever get back to this again. Ugh. We seem to clean it up, stack them all together, get it uncluttered again...and then a few weeks later, we are back to this. I think everyone here will agree that a Tupperware cabinet (funny how I call mine that, when most of it is actually toss-able Gladware...but I digress) is one cabinet that is just prone to avalanches, grabbing something and then closing the door real-quick-like so it contains the mess...leaving the slide for the next hapless victim...which is usually... still me.

I had the great fortune to come upon a Lock-n-Lock clearance sale at our local supermarket a few months ago, but those suckers are hard to organize, since I hate separating the lids from the containers. So they don't stack. Maybe that's a good thing? We also have one of those only-seen-on-TV carousels of stackable containers...which I actually really like, but it makes it tough to put stuff around it. Challenge!

The Mission:

• Remove all containers that have somehow lost their lid into the black hole of Tupperware lids.
• Remove as much of that toss-able Gladware as I can handle and recycle-bin-it.
• Find a way to organize lids into a clutter-proof system.
• Find a way to organize containers into an easily retrieved and clutter-proof system.
• Recover the floor and shelf of cabinet with new contact paper. :)

I am slightly modifying the instructions I hold myself to, since we are starting to get a little bit of spending money back in the bank to thriftily (is that a word?) spend on projects! Yay!

So, from now on...I add in, (from the smarty pants Bob the Builder show) Reduce, Re-use, Recycle!...and mine, do it with....very little money, very little time. :) I like that a bit better than none!

Project Status Update: Pots and Pans Cabinet

Status: Complete! (For now) :)

While it was quite satisfying to remove that old contact paper out of my cabinet, they certainly don't make glue like that anymore! Unless the label on the the bottle says "Gorilla Glue". Ugh - what a nightmare. It started to come off easily, but then it decided to not play nice and leave all sorts of little scraps behind, nary an edge to pick at. So, I was left with a sort of polka-dotted seventies look, which was worse than the start. :) After some picking and some sore nails the next day, I was left with a nice, bare cabinet floor, tempting me to leave it that way; it looked so simple and clean...and I was thinking of the future too - mine or someone else's - having to rip out the new paper again someday when it went out of fashion and became itself, craptastic.

But, I decided that design always wins out over another day of inevitable nail ripping soreness far into the future - so worth it, right?... Mostly because I actually found a pretty, green contact paper with a modern print...at my faaaaavorite store, Target. They only had one kind, and it most likely resides in many homes now because of its awesomeness, but hey - I fell in love with it and threw it into my cart without even looking at the price tag -whoa, I know - but how expensive could contact paper be, for heaven's sake? :)

I liked it so much, I used it for two other projects and if I had a way to get back to Target right now, I would be going back for more to recover anything I can find. :) So maybe it's a good thing I am stuck here.

I also kind of chuckled (with glee) when I saw it in one of my favorite design blogs, tart house, recovering the back of a white bookcase - I thought I recognized the pattern! And it made me happy because I really want parts of my house to look like parts of hers - and I so want her talent for pulling rooms together. :) Plus she has a TON of cool ideas and inspiration for makeovers or just using what you have on hand to spruce up a room. Like that big, clear vase for rolls of paper.... So, if she picks it, I feel validated. No, I'm not a stalker at all!

image via: tart house

Anyway, here's the before again: Ugliness:

And the after: Cool paper installed:

I added in some cheapo organizers: one for the lids (which has helped a TON), and one to raise up the back baking tins to fit something under. It's not perfect yet...but much better and cleaner than where we started. And it doesn't turn me into a raving lunatic when I go in to find the one pan I need and it's buried under a thousand ugly others... I say, success!

Someday, if we take a bigger step before building new cabinets, I would like to see a slider drawer on the bottom of each side like these, to reach the back more easily:

image via kitchensource.com

Then go even one step further to utilize that space with something like this (top left of image, the pot rack organizer) to organize the pans into their own separate space on that slider, since this is one part I am still not in love with - inevitably I need the very bottom (biggest) pan and I have to pull out all the smaller ones to get it - every. single. day.

image via Good Housekeeping

So, this would save my sanity a whole bunch. At one time, I considered a pot rack (if we had the space for it - which we don't), but I have never really liked the cluttered look of most designs out there anyway. I say, hide the clutter, bring out the organized. Like a pretty and clean-lined display of similar bowls or spices...for me, I want to keep the chaotic pans behind the doors. And maybe that's just me. :)

Project Start: Pots and Pans Cabinet

We are currently residing in a house that sports an 1857ish kitchen...well, to be honest, the house is that old, so the kitchen is probably a *little* newer. It's boxed in between the basement stairs and the second floor stairs...so, unfortunately, there's not much we can do in this ancient kitchen without some serious renovation and mucho, mondo dinero.

Knowing this, there are some good things about it - I love the picture window that spans the backbone of the C-shape the kitchen creates - and the beautiful views I can look at while washing dishes. And....hmmm. Well, I think that may be about it. That and the Keurig that currently resides by said window, so it can share the view with me.

We have dealt with the kitchen and its awful layout (ignored it) for the last 10+ years (almost 11!). And the top star of that awful layout list is the cabinets - they are a disaster...weird spaces and pockets to shove things - ugly inside, not square and honestly, really hard to use. Aside from replacing the cabinets with custom ones, I would love to see some sliders in there to utilize the back spaces - the hard to reach spaces - a little better. I am hoping that little addition can come this year, since they are more expensive than we can afford right now...but for now, I am content with organizing the cabinets we have, just cleaning them up, making them organized for better use and freshening up the interior.

Here is my first tackle:
The pots and pans. We just got a new set for Christmas, so the old, mismatched "set" that really needs to go (read: Teflon flaking off into our food - bad, I know!) There are a few pieces I would like to save, so I need to make it so that it doesn't sound like Blue Man Group lives in our cabinets every time I need to retrieve a pan. Take enough out, but leave enough in.

The before: Ugliness at its best. Why they invented cabinet doors. Just LOOK at the contact paper. Really? Was that ever a good choice?! Looking forward to ripping that craptastic stuff out.

Mission:

• Keep only the pots we use, recycle the rest.
  
• Organize them into easily accessed, neat piles.
  
• Take off craptastic contact paper, replace with new.
  
• Find a way to organize lids.

No money. Very little time. Get Creative.

Here's to a more organized, simple and prettier kitchen...one cabinet at a time. Yay!