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| oldnewgreenredo |
We are in our late 60's and we did the entire thing ourselves....with help from friends and family. We assembled and planned an IKEA kitchen. It was a dream kitchen designed for big family meals, canning, baking, and a love for crazy amounts of vintage stuff.
When we moved into the kitchen after four months of construction---ALMOST---everything I could possible want to use fit in all the planned storage. We decided to keep everything that fit, and purge those items not used after a year.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
Well, it's purge time. I'm not an organized person by nature, so along with a cleaning program, I began on the drawers last week. The section above had been designated everyday dishes and casual entertaining a year ago.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
Drawer 1 is the everyday silverware and casual serving ware. We entertain family a lot. Usually under 12 people. I cleaned this out reorganized a tiny bit. I've used dividers in this drawer and don't regret this at all. The drawer basically stayed organized for the whole year. (I did pull a lot of pushpins, screws, nails, toothpicks and some paper bits out of here, though)
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| oldnewgreenredo |
Drawer 2 Before----I use paper plates and plastic plates as buffers. The bowls and small plates all stack very well, so there's no shifting to speak of.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
After cleaning and re-stacking the drawer, I have space in front, perfect for some bags of napkins, I use for quick use if someone pops in for a cup of coffee or desert. My casual dishes are mixed blue and white, and a few red, vintage as well as new. I have a stack of green anchor hocking bowls, I wish I could find more of.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
These paper napkins were found here and there in the kitchen, so I organized them and used them for the front space of my Drawer 2.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
This works, and I will continue to use the paper plate dividers, until I come up with a better (redo) solution. Purchased dividers would be expensive and wouldn't be the correct sizes anyway.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
Drawer 3 was filled with casual serving pieces, bowls, and my Chopper/mixer case (I use that a lot,
right above on the counter). This had lots of odds and ends stuck in there---that didn't belong.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
No. 3 empty--this is a huge drawer, I have one IKEA divider holding everything.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
While the drawers are being cleaned, I mineral oiled all the teak handles on my mid-century Scandinavian serving pieces and some of my wood bowls. These get a work-out all year long serving the extended family. They are unbreakable so no one has to worry about breaking anything. Formal dining is lovely for holidays, but for a Sunday cookout not so much.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
Drawer 3 completed: I alternated glass against plastic/metal/or wood. Rearranged with the odd pieces pulled out and there is lots of room and it's all easily accessed by the drawers.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
Surprisingly, I have used everything in this drawer way more than once this year. Some things weekly.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
This vintage platter---I'm moving to the living room buffet housing the formal dinnerware. I had pulled it out for the holidays before we put up the Christmas tree, as it was hard to get into the buffet with all the holiday decor surrounding it.
I started next on the island which has two cabinets of 3-30" wide drawers.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
This is my cleaned top drawer in what I called the baking cabinet. Very little left this drawer and very little had to be moved. Zoning drawers is the best way to stay neat. YES, I use everything here often. We do 'family' (sometimes 4 family) baking or cookies, pies, pizzas, and canned applesauce.
The box on the left is my silicone pastry pad. I have mixed and matched dividers in here. The cup of batteries are for my scale and auto-mixer for pot stirring, which I don't leave in the appliances.
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| oldnewgreen redo |
Drawer 5 is the middle drawer and has mixing bowls, glass and plastic measuring bowls, my blender stick, battery pot-stirrer, rolling pin, caulk gun cake decorator, two antique sifters, and all the tips for cake decorating, corn syrup and two containers of shortening. I have thought of dividers for this, but after using one for awhile I pulled it out to utilize all the space.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
This is the purged stuff from the 5 drawers---well, the napkins were reorganized, the plastic serving pieces/bowls actually belong on the back porch cabinet. The rest will be dealt with or filed.
Not too bad for an unorganized person for a whole year.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
NOW---BEFORE--Drawer 6 with baking supplies, well, it's a disaster. Basically, I bought too much stuff to do at Christmas and then it didn't get it done...sigh. So--I have to tackle this which has to be organized---in a better fashion--for the next post, or....
maybe AFTER I bake Valentine's goodies!
Thanks always for visiting.
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Sharing at these fine blog parties
Talk of the Town
Share Your Style
Share your Cup
Monthly Party March 2018 Organization
Sharing at these fine blog parties
Talk of the Town
Share Your Style
Share your Cup
Monthly Party March 2018 Organization
Thank you
Sandi
Love seeing your kitchen and drawer organization - what a great amount of easy to reach storage.
ReplyDeleteJoy
Thanks so much Joy, it really has worked wonders. I only had to wait 50 years for a dream kitchen.
DeleteThree cheers for you, Sandi! It looks just terrific. (And I'm a tad envious you have more than two drawers!) Hard work but it paid off!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jeanie....We opted for all drawers except for the corner cabinet...which is a lazy susan. We figure in our 70's we don't need to on our hands and knees anymore to find anything.
DeleteSandi, that is great for one year. I am afraid I would have much more to purge! Thank you for showing your great storage.
ReplyDeletexo Dianne
There will be more elsewhere to leave. Most things were summer dining pieces which are out on the porch. Apparently, we are too lazy to take things out there once the screen doors are closed, lol.
DeleteSuch a smart idea to go through each year and decide what isn't needed. I am having to do that with our whole house this year as we will be moving. You inspire me to get at it...one area at a time.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Linda. I hate housework, one drawer at a time---is about my speed and makes it almost...lol...painless.
DeleteSandi, it always feels so good to get organized and get rid of a few things. I have been doing the same. I tackled my craft room last week. It was in pitiful shape! Thanks for sharing with SYC.
ReplyDeletehugs
Jann
Craft room---little shop of horrors---here! LOL.
DeleteI love seeing all those drawers you have. So much easier to get into than bottom cabinets. Thanks for sharing with us at Share Your Cup.
ReplyDeleteThanks Carol. One of the advantages of doing your own design. After one year, I must say---we can find everything---which is a major deal. And, we are utilizing tools, dishes, food, more efficiently.
DeleteCongrats on renovating the kitchen yourselves! You are definitely one super organized person!!!...and I have that very same Fostoria platter...love it!
ReplyDeletewow !!! it's beautiful and so lovely,i really like your good idea so much.Thank for sharing.
ReplyDeleteหนังà¸à¸à¸™à¹„ลน์
You are a far braver person than I would be to remodel the Kitchen ourselves...Looks great!! About once a year, I go thourgh all the Kitchen cabinets and get rid of things that I do not use especially now that it is just the 2 of us. I do keep certain things that I need when the kids come over....Look like you did a great job of purging and organizing..
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for viiting!!
LOL, well, the IKEA boxes should say, not for Children over 60-- because they are heavier than Heck! Thanks for visiting, Sandi
DeleteGood Job...decluttering is a hard job .. but you have succeeded YEAH!!! I have to do this with my kitchen reno and yes as an artist also ..I like to keep everything( ha Ha) Your baking cabinet look great and that cutlery insert looks fabulous ...You’ve given me hope ...Thanks
ReplyDeleteThanks, Zaa. I really didn't do too much. But, I will purge again later in the year...the worst was the baking supplies..that's still a mess, but the rest is done. Thanks for visiting. Most of my inserts were Ikea, or Dollar Stores.
Delete