Pantry Organization - Before and Almost Done . . .

Ok, so finally starting to get some more energy back (might be thanks to those McDonald's half-cut teas) so I decided to start tackling some organization jobs around my house. "Where to begin," I asked myself as I walked around my home rubbing my chin with a snarky look on my face. The answer was quite obvious!

The kitchen pantry after my family has had the run of the house.

The pictures should make it obvious why I chose the pantry however, you don't have the additional pleasure of the smell I was breathing. Ironically, the smell was not from the pantry but from an orange that had missed the trash can and was sprouting underneath the kitchen sink! Not so fresh! Now, I shouldn't complain. I do have some sort of pantry and I am happy to have a roof over my head (and the last pantry I had was under the stairwell and you could only squat in there and that is exactly what a opossum did - long, and really funny story, but for another post). The people who built our house, let's just say to be nice, did not think things through. My kitchen island is shaped like a triangle (ridiculous waste of space), the girls bathroom is only big enough for 1 person at a time (seriously not an over-exaggeration), and the pantry, while it looks fun and practical, is really just a HUGE pain-in-the-@$$! To get to anything in the back, you have to pull out the movable shelves in front. If you do it in a hurry, items have been known to throw themselves at you!

It's amazing how quickly stuff accumulates!
I did clean our the side doors and the movable shelves
in front before I remembered to take any photos.
Sorry about that!

Once I cleared everything out, I read labels.
Those pickles were "Best By 3/2010"!!!

So what's a girl to do when her pantry is a disaster? Hit the stores for the perfect organizational items. Now we have The Container Store opening up in March but I just couldn't wait that long. I hit up my local Bed, Bath and Beyond and the minute I walked in the store, they had exactly what I was looking for, right there on the end cap. It was literally like a light was shining from up-above right on it. Now I did a lot of Pinterest browsing and blog reading before heading to the store. I knew I was going to spend a lot of money but here's my reasoning. One blog lady had redone her pantry and it looked beautiful. She spent $48 on her containers; they were all purchased at the Dollar Store. She did comment that some of them had already broken but since they were cheap, she could easily replace them. Well, I have never been called cheap and was always told 3 things by my parents - Order what you want, eat what you order - Always buy the best you can afford - You get what you pay for. Yes, my parents did share other little pearls of wisdom with me but those came to mind first and two out of three actually apply here. I don't believe in wasting $48 for things that won't keep my food fresh (money running down the sink) or I have to replace every couple of weeks. Therefore, I armed myself with 12 coupons, yes, I said 12 and no, I have never appeared on Extreme Couponing. Did you know that you can use as many coupons, current or expired, all at the same time at B, B & B? I learned that the last time I was there and splurging on a Dyson cordless vacuum (again, a perfect example of you get what you pay for because that thing rocks and sucks . . . but only in a good way!).

I won't tell you my total but you could probably figure it out if you are good with math!!

My pretties! I did do some organizing in the fridge also but not
100% sure about that yet. The labels are still on while I decide if the spacing is ok.

I am almost ready to reveal my fridge and pantry makeover but still have to decide on labels. I do love the chalkboard labels but they are everywhere so not sure about them. Hopefully I will conquer this earth-shattering, mind-blowing dilemma and post you a finished project soon. Plus, I REALLY want to mark something off my To Do list. More photos to come but that is for another post!

Ugliest Bathroom . . . Ever!

Ok, so 9 years ago when hubby and I were looking for new homes, I walked around this 1987 ::cough:: masterpiece ::cough:: and thought no freaking way! With the exception of the waterfront view, there was not one thing I liked about this house. On the other hand, we had outgrown our charming 1925 Old NE home and the plans the architect drew up (while beautiful) would have easily doubled our mortgage. This house had been on the market for over a year (it was obvious why), but after a lot of promises from my hubby, a little time sitting out in the backyard, and a truly good deal, this baby became our new home.

I immediately got to work on making some major improvements. Unfortunately, I lost a lot of my before photos when my old computer crashed. I do, however, have photos of my old master bath. Now this thing was hideous and I will let the photos speak for themselves. I did make a few "embellishments" if you will, to try to win two ugly bathroom contests I had entered where the Ugliest Bathroom would win a free remodel.  I did not even place and let me tell you, this bathroom was way worse than the winning ones. Maybe the contest folks thought there was no help for this room!

WARNING: The photos you are about to see may temporarily blind you, make you run screaming for your mommy or force you into a fetal position for the rest of the day (or at least until it is 5:00 and you can drink away the pain!). 

Note the large grey speaker on the upper part of the wall
and the beautiful fan/light. Sweet, right? 

Now I painted the cheesy flowers to try to poorly
"match" the lovely flowers on some of the pink tiles!

Yes, that is carpet and the brown blob is actually where we
had to remove lovely tiles because there was a leak in the tub.

Hand over my heart, the cabinets were extra low and
came just above my knee. My youngest, then 2, could easily
turn the water on and off without a stool!

We have now spent a small fortune but have finally remodeled this bathroom (it only took 5 years of living with this monstrosity!). It now looks beautiful but I will save those photos for another post!

Holy Hoarders Batman!

Not my house, thank goodness!

OMG! Ok, so I had never seen an episode of Hoarders on A&E but I stumbled across one last night and boy, was I grossed out.  I could not believe the way those people were living. It was disgusting looking into their fridges, their bathrooms, their beds, you get the idea. I literally had my skin crawling and the saddest thing was, this addicition of hoarding was tearing the families apart. One of the episodes I watched (yes, I watched two of them), the woman's husband was going to leave her. She fought so hard to keep all her stuff and took everything back into her apartment (thank God you don't live next to her), that her husband did leave and her son just managed avoiding going off to Child Protective Services! She was fighting over empty cardboard boxes, broken lamps, you name it. She really needs help but is just not ready to accept it.

Another Hoarders home.

Now, after I turned off the TV, I laid in bed for awhile and just started thinking. I know I am still recovering from surgery and on limited physical duty, but I just can't take my house the way it is. Granted, my mess is not as bad as the rooms above or the ones I saw on TV but I might just be one rat skeleton and a glass full of mold away from Hoarders!!

My storage area needing major love! 

No parking our car in this garage!

Now, I have always said I am a more-is-more person. That is just how I roll but after watching that show, I have vowed to GET RID OF STUFF! I have more than I need so in addition to my Mission Organization, I am also going to rid our house of stuff. I have probably 10 pieces of furniture to move out and countless decorating items I no longer use. I am going to eBay some, give away others and donate the rest. All junk must go! I refuse to become an episode of Hoarders so first thing this morning, I got up and cleaned out the fridge and freezer (baby steps!).

So, I will continue on my journey to organize and will make that job easier by purging at the same time, but that will be for another post!

P.S. I did just receive six boxes of stuff from Pottery Barn (yesterday BEFORE Hoarders) but most of that is utilitarian and will help me in my organizing quest. You'll see!

Seriously???

Ok, so while I am still recovering from surgery (Dr. told me yesterday I was doing too much too soon and had to rest the next couple of days - ugh!) I was able to haul myself to each room in my house. I sat there with my iPad and started a list of everything I want to do in that room this year. Now this doesn't include all the big things we still need to do like - replace all windows and outside doors, retile pool and repave decking, replace boat lift, you get the idea. However, there are some little things, some big things, things I can do, things I need my GTG (Go To Guy) to do, and some things I need someone else to do.

I just counted my list and I have 186 items! Yikes! So they run the gambit, I have everything on my list from reorganizing my pantry (did you know the Container Store is opening up in Tampa the weekend of March 16 near International Mall, organization heaven!!), touching up paint on the baseboards, adding some plants, restaining deck, buy a new mattress (you slide right off the bed if you get too close to the edge!), and obviously, the list goes on, and on, and on.

Well, I am not able to start on my list today, yes, it's driving me nuts, but hoping to start tackling it this weekend. I will share my progress with you as I actually progress - won't that be fun?!?! So what's a girl who has to rest suppose to do, play on Pinterest and come up with dozens of more ideas, on-line shop (did some serious damage at potterybarn.com the other day!!), and brainstorm more ways to get this house together while staring at pine needles still sitting on my floor!! Egads!

So starting this weekend, things WILL BE happening, but that's for another post!