Thursday, October 16, 2014

The Clutter Free Challenge Day 10: Kitchen Counters


Yaaaaaaaaay!  I made it to day 10 of the 31 Days to a Clutter Free Life Challenge!  Today is all about clearing off the kitchen counters.  Our kitchen counters seem to slowly collect clutter throughout the week.  It all starts out fairly innocent... a couple papers here, an empty air-freshener there... and then it becomes the home of things that should live elsewhere.

The goals for today's challenge are to remove things that don't belong, and to only keep items that get used more than three times a week out on the counter.

Here are the before photos:

The peninsula to the left of the stove.  A pile of recipes, my friend's cake carrier, an empty air freshener, our "coffee tray," a candle, a pile of my husbands things, a toy DIngo flung up there, crowded kitchen equipment, and spice-jar explosion hidden behind the electric teapot.

To the right of the stove.  A spoon rest, utensil holders, a compost bin, a little pot I keep sponges in, the dish soap dispenser, a rogue sponge, a dirty glass, a bowl of apple cider vinegar (aka fruit fly death-trap), butter, and a little pile of garlic cloves.

Dingo Before.  ALMOST ready to play.

I cleared everything that didn't belong in the kitchen from the counter and put it away or found it a home.  Then I attacked the cluttered appliance corner and decided that we really only need to keep the toaster-oven and electric teapot out.  I made a new place for the cutting-boards and weeded out the spices so they all fit in their drawer.

I added a "collection" basket for the things that will inevitably end up on the counter.  This way, it still looks clutter-free and I can designate a time each week to go through it.

Here are the after photos:

I love how open and clean it looks.  I think I will be much happier cooking here now.  

* Please note the entryway fail in the background... remember day 2 when I put up those 3M hooks because the Marshall's ones weren't going to work?  Well, guess who needs a lighter purse?  One out of three hooks remain.  Maybe in November I'll do a 30 days to fixing all my October fails challenge.

Oh how the mighty have fallen... that little hook was no match for my mammoth of a purse.

Moving along... this space had no excuse... I was just being lazy.  I basically just put everything away.

Ding After.  Ready to play now.

I'm really excited to test out the "collection" basket and see if it can keep the counters clutter free.

What's the one thing that seems to keep creeping back onto your kitchen counters?  Have you had any challenge "fails" yet?

Cheers,

Caitlin

No comments:

Post a Comment