Cleaning Supply Caddy

I shared one half of under our kitchen sink here. I still LOVE the lazy susan for under our corner sink (in my experience corner sinks are more difficult to organize, what can I say . . . I am a girl who loves right angles). The lazy susan is great for things that stay in the kitchen . . . things like club soda, kitchen sponges, dishwasher detergent, dish soap etc . . . But things that I need to clean other areas of the house, things like . . . Window cleaner, all purpose cleaner, cloths, scrubber, counter wipes, paper towel, microfiber cloths etc . . . are better left in a caddy that way I still have easy access to them in the kitchen but I can grab the whole caddy and take it to the upstairs bathrooms, or basement bathroom!

I think any caddy is great it doesn't have to be an expensive one, but this one from Rev a Shelf is amazing! It pulls out on rails, and then clips out so you can take it around the house with you.

When you are done you can pop it back on the rails and it tucks away neatly under the counter!

 Every Cleaning Caddy should have: 

• All purpose cleaner, whether it's a homemade cleaner or a store bought cleaner. Or a homemade cleaner in a store bought container. 
• Window Cleaner
• Carpet Stain Cleaner
• Bar Mops (I like using small bar mops for quick clean ups, you just pop it into the wash when you are done and it saves on paper towels).
• Paper towels . . . I know I just said bar mops to save on paper towels. But I keep paper towels handy for the really gross messes. I am sorry but I'm not cleaning dog sick with a towel . . . that's paper towel territory! 
• Sponges 
• A toothbrush or other stiff bristled small brush for fine detail cleaning around faucets and in crevices.
• An abrasive cleaner like Bon Ami for toilets and other exceptionally grimy places.

I really love our new cleaning caddy! It's better than making two or three trips up and down the stairs with arm loads cleaning supplies. I bought ours from Lowes but you can find them on Amazon for a slightly better price!

Happy Cleaning!

Needlepoint Love

Overnight I have turned into a granny. I love needlepoint and embroidery. I find it insanely relaxing. I started simple with some tea towels.
I think it might be the organizer in me but I love the idea of one tea towel a day, clearly marked with the day on it! Monday through Sunday!

 It was really easy, you'll need ink transfer paper (you can find it here or at Michaels), some tea towels (ours are from Zellers), a needle and some thread.
I chose a font one the computer and wrote out the days of the week . . . printed it out on the computer, and using the ink transfer paper, traced out the words on to the towels.

If you wanted you could use a fabric pen from any craft store, and just write the words on to your towels.

Then, pick your thread color and embroider away. There are lots of How To Embroider instructions around the Internet so I'll save you mine (this tutorial was really great).

It was all going so well until we got to Wednesday. Darn Wednesday! I was in a bit of a fog or possibly drunk (haha just kidding, of course), and I spelled Wednesday wrong. Not only did I spell it wrong once, which might be kind of excusable, but I printed it out wrong, read it again, traced it onto a tea towel, read it on the tea towel, then spent 30 minutes embroidering it into said tea towel, then looked at the finished product and thought "That's great, Wednesday's done". It wasn't until a week later when I went to pull Wednesday's towel and thought, "Hmmmmm . . . that doesn't look right". Hahaha

I phoned my mom to tell her how they should have sent me to better schools because I am 29 and can't spell Wednesday. ;) She said that she thought the fact that Wednesday was spelt wrong was charming. I totally agree, I kind of like that Wednesday is spelt Wensday, it's stupidly quirky! haha

It really was easy to do . . . especially if you can spell properly. I really hope you'll consider trying a little embroidery of your own.

Kitchen Sink Organization

 We are making headway on our Barefoot Contessa Week!!! I will have a full wrap up first thing Monday Morning!

I wanted to share what we've got going on under the kitchen sink.
 I have a future plan for some of our more frequently used cleaning supplies and that will be installed on the other side of the kitchen sink cabinet. But I still had to find a way to store the supplies that only get used in the kitchen . . . like sponges, dishwasher detergent, etc. . .

I wanted to be able to access everything easily so I thought about a lazy susan. I found this XL turntable on Clearance at Homesense for $7! It's HUGE at 18" it just barely fit in the cabinet (you can find the same one on Amazon for $17 HERE).

I found little clear plastic containers from the dollar store for our sponges, and a plastic container with a spout also from The Dollar Tree for our homemade powdered dishwasher detergent.

And I am in love with these tiny bottles of club soda from Target!! :)

It is really nice to be able to access all of our supplies and there's the added bonus that I get to feel like a DJ with my new turn table!!! ;) haha

"You spin me right round, baby, right round
like a record baby, right round round round."

Baking Cupboard and Flour Tea cups!

With the realization that our baking cart wouldn't work for us I decided to re-organize our baking cupboard. I used the Ikea Korken jars, I love that they are glass. I know that most food storage plastic is safe (especially if it's not going to be heated) but I like the extra security of glass.

The jars are really well priced, at $2.99 for the bigger jars you see and $1.99 for the smaller ones. Which put our grand total at $45 for the cupboard.

We store our nuts in the small jars, I know that nuts keep longer in the freezer but we only buy small amounts at a time and use them fairly quickly.
The small jars also hold, our dried fruit, our chocolate chips, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa, etc . . .
The larger jars hold, our different sugars, bread crumbs and things like that. 

That's all well and good but what about the big bags of flour and sugar???
We use to store the flour and sugar in plastic containers from Ikea . . . seen here.  They looked great all lined up, but it was really difficult to get a measuring spoon in (in fact the 1 cup spoon wouldn't even fit in). As well as you couldn't fit in an entire bag of flour into one container, so we were having to store the container and a half bag of flour . . . not very efficient.
I found 3 large glass containers at Homesense. They are elegant but also super functional because the flour container can hold two 5 lb bags of flour easily, and the sugar container can hold almost as much!

I wanted to find super cute measuring spoons to store in the jars but I had a really hard time finding cute ones (after all they'll be on display inside the glass container). I found three bone china tea cups at our local antique store. I got them for $1 each because there was only 3 and they didn't have saucers.

I took one cup and filled it with sugar then I dumped out the sugar into a measuring cup, it measured exactly 1 cup. So I know each tea cup is One Cup. I still use measuring cups or spoons when I bake but sometimes in cooking you just need a sprinkling of flour, and having a little cup inside is super handy! As well, if a recipe calls for a cup of sugar I can just dump in a cup without getting the measuring spoons out.

I was really enthralled with the idea of a baking cart, but I can't lie I am really happy with our baking cupboard and new containers!

Baking Cart

I Love to bake . . . actually we both love to bake (ever seen a 6 foot 8 inch weight lifter bake a cake?? FYI it's super sexy ;). haha

I saw these Raskog rolling carts from Ikea and I couldn't resist. I originally picked it up for our bathroom, but it wouldn't fit into the spot I was thinking of. I drove myself, and I'm sure Lee, crazy trying to think of another place we could use it. I came up with, what I thought, was a great idea but only if I had a pantry and I don't.
But I thought I would photograph it and explain it for all of you lucky people who have pantries, before I returned the cart.

I thought about making a Baking Cart. You could keep it in your pantry with all of your baking supplies, and roll it out when you're ready to bake.
I love it!!! Everything you need at your fingertips. I've always had a baking cupboard (in fact I have a new post coming up on our NEW and Improved baking cupboard) but a baking cupboard is definitely second to a baking cart! All the ingredients are easily within reach, there is no running back to the pantry for something you forgot. And the cart is so darn cute!

I popped the spatulas and wooden spoons on the top, as well as our large jars of flour and sugar. I would also keep our measuring cups and measuring spoons up there!

On the second shelf I stored our glass jars of things like powdered sugar, brown sugar, graham cracker crumbs, and ground almonds.

Lastly, on the third shelf I stored our dried fruits and nuts, as well as chocolate chips!
I don't know if I'll ever have a home with a large pantry but if I do . . . you'll see this baking cart in it!

I hope all you lucky ladies with pantries can find this post useful! For the rest of us I'll have a post up this week of my new organized baking cupboard!

Pop a Top!

We always do a lot of entertaining during December, which means lots of bottles being un-corked and lots of food being eaten.
Lee's not much of a beer drinker . . . he's more of a gin and tonic man. But when I saw this bottle opener I couldn't resist it, with it's vintage vibe.

I also convinced myself it would come in handy during our Christmas Parties! :) And so far I'm pleased to announce, many o' tops have been popped thanks to this little guy. . . but not too many . . . errr . . . a reasonable amount . . . yes a reasonable, healthy, non-alcoholic amount. ;) hehe

If you are looking for one of your own, we found ours at Target for $4. Here's the link.

Wish list: I'm in love with a fruit basket

I found this on Etsy a couple weeks ago and I cannot get it out of my mind!
The pottery is handmade and glazed so each piece is different than the next!

I am seriously in love with it. This has to be, hands down, the best looking hanging fruit basket I've ever seen!

*I was in NO WAY paid or perk'd for this post. I just loved it and wanted to share it with our fabulous readers!!

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  Pop back on Monday to check out our latest DIY triumph.

My Favorite Project Ever . . . Kitchen Window Shelves

This might seriously be my favorite project of all time, although the bedroom fireplace and barn door rank right up there, these simple kitchen window shelves were so easy to install and are so cute I think they win!

Our windows had a very natural spot to pop a shelf up, and we have a pane detail at the top of our windows which made a very obvious break! But with the shelves being the same color as the trim you could pop them up anywhere and they just blend in! 
 Like I said it was a really easy project, just two pieces of wood 1/2" thick, 8 small L brackets and some paint in your trim color!

1. First we had to find wood the same depth as our windows (4 1/2" deep) Home Depot had it in stock.
2. Lee cut it to length. 
3. I painted it our trim color, Martha Stewart's Heavy Cream. 
4. We attached two small L brackets to each side (also found at Home Depot for $1.09 for 4. 
5. Lee screwed them to the inside of the windowsills. 

 For the cafe curtains we used the same tension rod as last time and hung them just in front of the L brackets to hide them a little bit!

 Thanks to your prompting I decided to add a little touch of color to kitchen windows and picked this fabric up from Jo Ann's. It's a Waverly Fabric and it's called Robin's Egg. It has a great linen texture to it, and I love the blue, cream and tiny red stripe.

I think that all accent colors should be repeated at least twice so I chose a little red pot to repeat the red element, I'm seriously in LOVE with that little red pot!

I plan on adding another plant or maybe a cute tea cup. But for now I love it just the way it is, just adding the two shelves made a big difference in the sink corner . . . somehow it feels cozier! We both love it!

Total Cost: Kitchen Window Shelves
Wood: $9.42
L Brackets:  $2.18
Trim Paint: Free (we already had it)
_______________________________
$ 11.60

Total Cost Cafe Curtains:
Umbra Tension Rods: $20 each
Umbra Curtain Clips: $7.99 each (2 packs)
Waverly Fabric: $17.99 a yard (1 1/2 yards needed)
_______________________________
$ 70.00
This cost will totally change depending on What fabric you use!

I Hope you'll consider trying out these little shelves, the we're definitely Beginner on the DIY scale! Less then an hour of actual work and they made a HUGE difference!

Reaching new heights in the Kitchen!

I got a big boost in the kitchen, thanks to our new kitchen step stool!

We found it at Ikea for $32.99 it's called the Bekvam Stepladder and it's super cute! It comes in unfinished wood and we sprayed it "Sun Yellow" by Rust-oleum.

But I think that my favorite part is the wall hook that came with it . . . yes, included in the package.

 The ladder folds up and hangs on the wall perfectly out of the way!

 Lee better get ready for some new recipes now that I can reach my cookbooks ;). 

New Kitchen Bar Stools

We ordered some new House Candy from Target.
For a while now the kitchen bar stools have been a thorn in my side. You might have seen me mention all the bar stool drama on Facebook or Twitter. But in January I decided that because the bar stools aren't technically in the kitchen, and were in fact in the dining room, they needed to be more formal.
We moved one of the three into the office as my new corner desk chair, and the other two we were able to sell on craigslist, earning back $100 to add towards new bar stools.  Just to make it clear, we were really happy with the quality of the Ikea Ingolf stools we had before, I just felt they weren't formal enough.
So, Here's the Short Version of what happened:
Back in January, I decided we needed new bar stools, so the first thing I did was sell our two remaining bar stools. NOT SMART! It would take until the middle of April to source, buy and ship new bar stools.

But oh, so worth the wait, here's how it looks now:

Our New stools are so comfy, thanks to the large seat for your tooshie. And I think that they are a bit more stylish then their white wood predecessors.
Like I mentioned before we were able to sell two of our old bar stools for $100 ($50 each woo hoo), so with $100 from the sale, I set out to spend no more then $200 total for bar stools (that's only $100 out of pocket). I had a really clear idea of what I wanted! Because our stools are technically in our dining room I think that they should be a little more formal. So Upholstered, parsons style stools were on my short list.
I ignored my number 1 rule, if your working with a strict budget you have to stay open to options that come up. I wasn't open, I was as closed as a teenagers text book on Friday night. I wanted upholstered chairs and I wasn't willing to settle for anything less. I did eventually find what I was looking for, in my budget, but it cost me time  . . . 3+ months to be specific.

Speaking of budget, how did I do? Well I came in WAY under budget! Each Stool was on sale for $82, then it was save 20%, and free shipping. My total came to $143.17! Subtract the $100 we sold the old bar stools for and we spent a grand total of $43.17 out of pocket!!!

With our new neutral scheme deciding on a color for the stools was easy enough, a nice neutral taupe. I think they tie into the dining room, with out being too matchy matchy.

And I like the way they work with the dark wood cabinetry we have going on in the kitchen.

My only concern is that the backs of the stools don't stick up above the counter top as much as I would like. Not because the chairs are the wrong height, they're a perfect 44 inches, but our builders seemed to have picked the height of the bar out of thin air. It's a minor detail we could always fix in the future, but since both Lee and myself are on the tall side, the slightly higher then normal bar, is actually a pretty darn good height for us.
We're both really happy with the bar stool switch up. I love the way they look and Lee loves their large size and comfy seat.

Mostly we're both just thrilled to have bar stools again, I didn't realize how much we used them until we didn't have them there anymore.
What do you think??? Worth the Wait???

btw . . . we'll be posting the winner of our "No Brainer Wardrobe" E-Book giveaway this afternoon. Make sure to pop back and see if you won.

Tupperware Organization

Tupperware has always been one of the most difficult things to organize. But I think I've figured out an easier way to do it . . . you have to start from Scratch!
I think the reason that tupperware cabinets and drawers are so messy is because we all have a hodge podge of different tupperware, that don't stack up together or nest nicely within each other.  Right before we made the move to the new house (over a year ago) I decided that we should really have just one or two types of tupperware and stick to them. I started piecing together our new tupperware collection, slowly because it's not a super cheap thing to do. A year later I now have all the pieces we need!

I decided on Glasslock tupperware. A lot of Lee's lunches are leftovers that need to be reheated, and with all the concern over heating plastic I thought I'd play it safe and invest in some Glass tupperware.

Honestly, it's totally worth the extra money. The lids always fit perfectly, no matter how many times you wash them and you can store soup in them too! (and NO glasslock hasn't paid me for saying that . . . I really do love them, all on my own).

SO without further ado . . . Our Tupperware cabinet:

Here's what we've got going on:

1. Glasslock Tupperware containers.
2. Glasslock Tupperware Bowls, I swear these things might be the most useful tool I have in the kitchen. Once a week I make a large salad (Greek, Pasta, Tomato/basil) then I pop the lid on and keep it in the fridge so we always have something to snack on. They're also great for taking a dish to a potluck! We found ours at Costco, $19.99 bought you a set of 3.
3. Glass juice jugs, better then plastic, they won't get dyed from fruit juice, and you don't have to worry about leaching plastic (although BPA free plastic is considered safe). We found our glass juice jugs at Target.
4. Water bottles. BPA Free!! And his and hers TO GO coffee mugs.
5. Rubbermaid Produce Tupperware. I like to chop up vegetables and have them ready to eat, it makes it more likely that I'll snack on something healthy (more likely, not guaranteed ;). I find that the produce tupperware keeps it from going soggy, and I do think it keeps vegetables fresher longer.

We also use the back half of the cabinet for misc. party supplies, like:
A. Plastic knives and forks, and paper napkins
and
B. Some Mason Jars . . . You can never have enough Mason Jars!

So there's how I organized my tupperware cabinet. I know it's not the most cost effective way to do it, but it works. All in, I think I spent about $60 in Glass lock Tupperware and maybe another $15 on produce tupperware. Not to bad considering I spaced it out over a year. It doesn't matter what tupperware you use, as long as they all stack up and fit nicely together, it could be super expensive tupperware brand, or super cheap dollar store brands (as long as the plastic is BPA free).

Cafe Curtains in the Kitchen

Our kitchen windows were the "pane" of my existence for a while . . . get it . . . pane instead of bane.
Nothing like a super corny joke to start off my morning!

I had a really hard time deciding what to do with the kitchen windows. We have a pretty pane detail at the top that I didn't want to cover with blinds. I also wanted to add a 'soft' element. There's only hard edges and stainless steel in the kitchen .
I considered roman blinds but they would block the detail at the top & because our kitchen is east facing blocking out light isn't a concern.
So, taking all of that into consideration we decided that little cafe curtains might work. I wasn't fully convinced but if I had to try an option first I should try the cheapest and cafe curtains are CHEAP!

The rod is a tension mount (no screws or other hardware needed). I used little alligator clips to hold up the curtains (it took two packages from Home Outfitters @ $6.99 ea.). I love using alligator clips, all you have to do is sew a hem around a piece of fabric . . . you could even buy pre-made napkins and just clip them up! 
Including the tension rods the total cost was $34.

Since this was just a test run, I used some old fabric I had lying around from our Library Curtain Project last year (I still love the little brown polka dots).

 I'm kind of LOVING the cafe curtain look!

 What do you think?? I'm still deciding on leaving the brown polka dot fabric or changing it up with a more modern fabric???  Or maybe something more BOLD???

Kitchen Organization: Pantry Cabinet

It feels so good to be moving through my Kitchen Organization To Do list:

• Organize Take Out menus
• Organize Loose Recipes, in a box, and on a cork board.
• Organize Upper Pantry
• Organize Lower Pantry
• Organize Knife drawer
• Organize Spice cabinet
• Organize Tupperware Cabinet
• Organize Cookbooks
• Organize Everyday Dishes
• Organize Fridge
• Organize Pots and Pans
• Organize Under the Sink
• Chalkboard Paper and Chalkboard on kitchen wall  
• Organize Pet Drawer
• Turn two drawers into dining room storage
• Organize Liquor Cabinet
  

This weekend I checked off Organize Lower Pantry Cabinet.
Lee installed some pullout wire baskets for me. I found them at Lowes for less than $15 each. The reason I had to have them was because they go all the way to the back of the cabinet, and have full extension so they can pull all the way out of the cabinet!

Before Lee put them in we were only using half of cabinet depth, now we can use all of it, definitely worth $30.

We also installed a little plastic, tiered Rubbermaid shelf. I don't think it's possible to have too many canned goods on hand so we needed another way to store them. The shelf does just that!

Only a few more projects and the kitchen will be officially organized!