Junk Drawer No More!

It may be a dreary and nasty day outside here in Michigan but inside my kitchen it is a colorful burst of happiness.

Why is that you ask?

Because I was FINALLY able to line and organize my kitchen drawers!!!

Since we moved into our new home back in February, we just kind of threw things where they fit. As long as it was in the correct location in the house (no make-up brushes in the kitchen, or spoons in the hall closet) we just made it work.

And I use the term "work" very loosely because we were always digging for things, shoving stuff deep in the drawer, and dealing with it. But it has bothered me to no end the entire time.

It may have taken a while but I was finally able to find the time and a reason (what's a better excuse than writing a blog post?) to fix the problem!

And in honor of Spring Cleaning Month, I'm going to share this little burst of happiness with you!

I'm actually rather embarrassed to show these photos to you. But this is the drawer horror we have been living with for the last few months...

Our silverware drawer:

My cook book cabinet:

(Now that one wasn't as bad as the other, but it still drove me nuts to look into it and see a mess of recipes and paper).

The official "junk" drawer. Where we keep all the miscellaneous items that we need to have on hand:

Look at those messy wires! Ugh! At least I can take comfort in the fact that I tried to keep them in a central place with the basket.

Then there is our stacking drawers which housed our pot holders, dish cloths, food storage wrappings, and baby bibs (they are homemade ones from my grandmother and are the BEST bibs I've ever used! They cover the ENTIRE front of the child and keep the food off of nice clothes. So, yes, I keep them around for my 2 year old):

Look at those bibs hanging out everywhere!!! And I only have 3 pot holders, do they really need their own drawer?!

 So I took myself down to the Dollar Tree (which is one of my favorite stores) and got 2 rolls of the prettiest contact paper they had (even though it didn't quite match anything in my kitchen. But who cares. I'm getting organized now, I'll match things up later).

I waited until the kiddos were in bed and unloaded all my drawers onto the kitchen table...

...poured myself an ice cold glass of Pepsi and spent the evening lining the drawers, re-organizing them, and purging myself of any unused or unneeded items (I only have 10 place settings, did I need 20 forks?).

And when I got done (3 Netflix episodes of Law and Order later) I had some organized drawers that I can be proud to show off!

And now I think I'll do just that...

The silverware drawer:

Look at all that awesome-ness!!! I can actually reach in and grab out what I need with out having to dig. I even labeled the places for Spoons, Forks, Knives, and Sharp Knives just so there is no mix up when I'm not the one putting dishes away.

I took the last slot in my silverware holder and used it for all our loose straws (for our Tervis cups, my kids' "fun" straws, and my new Keurig brew over ice cup).

My cook book cupboard:

This is also where I store my coupons and my shopping list organizer. It doesn't look too different from the first photo other than the pretty liner and the fact that I cleared all the loose papers (who knew papers could look so trashy?!).

My "junk" drawer:

I bound all the wires with some bread ties I've kept and put a non-sliding strip under the basket and flash-light so they don't keep rolling all over the place when I open the drawer.

I also put the bug spray in this drawer because it's located right next to my back door, it's almost summer time, and I'm sick of walking all the way back to the bathroom when I gotta spray the boys down so they can play in our yard.

For my stacking drawers, I lined the bottom and moved items up a drawer from where they were. Removing the pot holders (all 3 of them) and hanging them on the side of the fridge using a command hook.

Which means they are much easier to get to when I need them. Win!

I'm so excited about how this all turned out. It's a project I've been wanting to do for a while and I don't know why I waited so long to finally do it; guess I needed the motivation that sharing the results with you all gave me!

So how about some Before and After photos?! (I've never done them before but they look so nice when other people use them).

This is one of the major spring cleaning projects I wanted to undertake that is not on my normal cleaning list. Along with lining and organizing my cabinets (but that's a whole other post).

I'm so happy I FINALLY did!

Yay for nice drawers! I'm not sure if I will ever leave my kitchen now!

What are some of the projects you plan (or would like to plan) on doing? Anyone else needing a visit from the kitchen organizing fairy?