Spice Rack Organization Extravaganza

My darling husband gave me the perfect gift for Christmas this year. Seeing as how I'm now in my 27's and have refocused my attention onto old-people-things like de-cluttering the house and labeling things, a gift card to the Container Store was about as righteously awesome as my husband could get!

I had never been to this magical place before.

I, lover of tupperware, creative shelving, and color-coded tabbing, had. never. been. to. the. Container. Store.

Let me tell you, if it had a Greek restaurant attached to it and a rolling supply of Diet Coke, this would be my idea of Heaven.

Needless to say, one of my (many) purchases included spice containers... Which I then promptly labelled upon my arrival home. Because we can't drill anything into our apartment kitchen cabinets, I organized them with this magical fancy shmancy, TOTALLY affordable spice rack I scored from Amazon for just 8.99: Organizer Rack 20 Cabinet Door Spice Clips (White) (1"H x 1.5"W x 10"D).

The result?

Spice Jars- $1.49/ ea at The Container Store

Labels- Avery Kitchen Labels 3.79/20 labels at Target

What are you organizing lately?

Pinned It. Tried It: Milk Glass Rope Light Display

When I saw this pin a few months ago, I KNEW I had to give it a go. I had let the tops of our kitchen counters become a catch-all for leftover wedding decor. This was one of the easiest ways to classy up our little apartment kitchen. 

I watched this quick tutorial on creating your own "milk glass." Easy peasy! Grabbed our rope light and whaddya know?

   

Cabinet Organization

Timothy and I moved into our humble, sweet apartment on January 1st, 2013. It was (and remains) perfect for our modest newlywed life. But, it took a while to come to terms with the fact that our kitchen was pantry-less. Not pantyless, mind you. PantRy-less.

In a weird way, I've kind of fallen in love with not having a pantry. We are less tempted to buy things we don't need. Pantries invite over-spending and unnecessary storage in an apartment as small as ours. 

That being said, we still lost control of our food cabinet. Hot mess.

So, I sure did take that bull by the horns and fix that little cabinet right up.

Here are a few tips for keeping your little kitchen cabinets nice and clean:

1. Get yourself some shelf liners. Not only do they look nice, they're simply more sanitary and can be easily removed, replaced and prevent stains on shelves that you don't own (ah, renter woes).

2. Save jars and other sturdy containers for easy storage. We have lots of loose items likes K-cups, Crystal Light mixes, tea bags that can go everywhere when not contained. I scored that rockin' tea jar from Goodwill for a buck. From an aesthetic point, rice looks better in a seal tight container than a floppy bag.

3. Go to Dollar Tree right now. The turquoise container in the bottom left is from Dollar tree and is great for keeping snack bags for lunches in one place.

4. Labels are cute and practical. Our printer is out of ink so I wrote mine out. Feel free to find yourself some lovely printables on Pinterest. Labels are a cheap way to say, "I'm awesome and label stuff. I'm more organized than you."

5. Put like with like. Always.

6. Place lesser used items on top shelves. Remember that time we spent $800 dollars on all natural steel cut oats and then we made them ONE time and it took seventeen hours to cook? Yes. That qualifies as lesser used.

7. Don't wanna toss it? Re-gift that mess! We had lots of gifted snacks and treats that we just weren't ever going to eat. Thus, I sent hubby to work with them to give out to co-workers. We gain more storage space and look like totally nice people. :)

 

Fridge-tastic

On a quiet Sunday afternoon with Eric Hutchinson singing sweetly through the speakers, it is definitely a good time to do the most awesome thing in the world:

Clean out the fridge.

What? That doesn't sound awesome to you?

Me neither. But, it had to be done.

Are you here for fridge cleaning tips? Ok, I'd be glad to share my expertise.

1. If it has chunks and is meant to be creamy, you should probably throw it out.
2. If it was once solid and is now liquid (or any other variation on liquid- i.e. mushy, gushy), you should probably throw it out.
3. If its expiration date is June of last year, you should probably throw it out.
4. If it's an empty container, you should probably throw it out.
5. If it smells like doo-doo caca poopy pants, you should probably throw it out.
6. If it has turned into a science project, you should probably throw it out.

Do that and VOILA:

I know. Your mind is blown. Suck it, Martha.