Kitchen Progress and Plans

Hello everyone!  I'm starting this week off with another progress update on our new apartment.  We've been through the office, living room, dining room and bedroom, and now it's time for a tour of the kitchen!  We're getting close to finishing up phase one for each room, and I really can't wait to get started on actual projects!

If you're new here, I recently moved into a new apartment, and there is tons to be done.  To make things easier, I decided to take it one room at a time, and figure out exactly what needs to be done in each space.  So I'm sharing each room as it currently stands, and figuring out what needs to be added to the to-do list.  Once I'm done going through each room, I'll have a complete list of items that need to be tackled to truly make this apartment into home.

So just for fun, here's how the kitchen was looking the last time you guys saw it:

It wasn't in the worst shape, but there was definitely some tidying up that needed to be done for it to be considered livable.  And now that we're pretty much all moved in and unpacked, things are looking a lot better.  But there are still a few things I'd like to get done in here.  This is how out kitchen is looking nowadays:

The counters got a good clearing off, and now we try to only keep things we actually need easy access to on a regular basis out on the counters.  I'd love to do a little more work on the counters, and pretty things up a little bit.  I'm thinking some cute jars and bowls to hold things like fruit and such that don't get stored in the fridge.  Since we're also planning on making a coffe/bar cart station sometime in the future in the dining room, that will clear up some serious counter space that I can have some fun with.

I also want to do something with our little 'laundry room'.  While I love the convenience of having an in-unit washer and dryer, I am super not crazy about the fact that it's in my kitchen.  I'm hoping I can figure out a few ways to work with this situation, and turn that little corner of the kitchen into a cute, functional laundry corner.

One other thing high on the to-do list for this room is organizing the contents of the cabinets.  Since moving in, we pretty much threw things where they fit, and haven't taken the time to go back and really set up an organized system for the cabinets.

I'm the person where I need a dedicated 'spot' for everything, otherwise I just lose my mind.  So I'm hoping to dive into the cabinets, and set up various zones, so we always know where something is, and where it belongs when it's put away.  This will also reduce the risk of just shoving something in a cabinet wherever it can get squeezed in, which leads to clutter and things getting shoved to the back and forgotten.

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On the other side of the kitchen, we have what is supposed to be our make-shift pantry.  This again is a place where things kind of just got dumped where they fit and then forgotten about.  I have big plans for this guy, and can't wait to dive it and get him all organized and put together.  I'm thinking tons of containers, like the awesome OXO Pop ones we already have.

I would eventually like to have most, if not all, of our food stored on our little pantry shelves, so that cabinets can be freed for dishware and such.  It will also most likely hold all of our small appliances that don't get regular use.  Since this set of shelves is wide open and seen on a daily basis, I definitely want to do all that I can to make this area pretty, with easy to maintain systems, so it doesn't get out of control with clutter (like it currently is...).

And I think that's it!  This room definitely has fewer things on the to-do list, so hopefully I'll be able to finish up this room without too much effort.  To recap, here is what I have to get done in the kitchen:

• organize cabinet contents
• organize pantry shelves
• make functional laundry corner
• organize and decorate counters
• add art or decor

It really doesn't seem like so much to do!  That's why I love these posts.  It breaks things down, room by room, and forces me to list out everything that has been floating in my head as a to-do.  Once things are written down on a list, it feels much more manageable, and less like I have a never ending list of a million things to get done.

What is your favorite kitchen organization tip?  Do you have any systems in your kitchen that you are just loving?  You guys have been so helpful with suggestions for my other rooms, I'd love any ideas you might have for my kitchen!