On the 3rd Day of Kitchen

On the 3rd day of kitchen I sorted out my tea cupboard.  Yes I have an entire cupboard devoted to storing tea.  We like tea.

Before

After

So I was sick and then my husband got some time off work and we have been working on our downstairs bathroom.  That's right our family of 4 now has a second toilet and drum roll... a tub!  I have been waiting for a tub for 9 years!  Our upstairs bathroom is small so we decided to just have a large shower in it and we'd put a tub into the eventual downstairs bathroom.  So now I have one!  Pass me the Epsom salts, I'm taking a bath and I may never come out!

On the 2nd Day of Kitchen

It has finally happened.  I woke up feeling like crap this morning, I have caught the cold my kids have/had.  I guess you can only be around sickness for so long before it gets you.  I was just thinking the other day how wonderful it has been not having a cold so far this fall/winter, it serves me right.  After lunch I gathered my strength, grabbed a Sharpie and a chair to sit on and sorted through the cluttered spice cupboard.

Before

After

Before Shelf 1

Before Shelf 2

After Shelf 1&2

Before Shelf 3

Before Shelf 4

After Shelf 3&4

After

After

It's official I have a lot of spices!  Consolidating doubles and in some cases switching to bigger or smaller jars was required.  I'm tired, it sucks being sick when the simple act of sorting makes you want to take a nap.  But in the end day 2 is done and the spice cupboard has some space in it again.

On the 1st Day of Kitchen

The Baking Cupboard

This cupboard was quite the disaster and it took me longer than I thought it would to sort and tidy it.  I made the switch to being completely gluten free this past year and in doing so I spent quite a bit of time and money playing around with different flours trying to find substitutes for some of my favourite foods.  Today I ended up getting rid of some flours and starches that I had bought but ended up not using in my cooking and I took my glutenous flours that I had for special Christmas baking downstairs to the storage room where they will sit until the next time I need them.  I also exchange my egg cartons each week when I get fresh pastured eggs from a local farm so there were quite a few of those in there.

Before

After

Before

After - You can see I broke my lazy Susan with too much weight.
The upper one is cracked as well.  I'm going to get metal ones next time.

After - All my sweeteners together in a bin.  I debated
storing these downstairs because I don't really use them
anymore but decided there was enough room for them.

After - Flours, I will thin these a bit more as well.
I have found brown rice, arrowroot and almond flour are my favorites to bake with.

Before

After

Tomorrow Day 2 I tackle my spice cupboard.

The 12 Days of Kitchen

Christmas and New Years is done and my kitchen is a complete disaster.  Somehow the cupboards have become so full I have a hard time closing the door on my glass jar cupboard and a few are just so messy I take too long to find what I need (spice & baking cupboard).  Also my fridge is in need a really good cleaning.

The prospect of tackling it all in one day is far too overwhelming so I have decided that this January will be the first annual 12 Days of Kitchen.  Each day I will tackle an aspect of my kitchen and after 12 days the whole thing will clean as a whistle at least for a little while.

Day 1 - Baking Cupboard
Day 2 - Spice Cupboard
Day 3 - Tea Cupboard
Day 4 - Pantry
Day 5 - Cupboard Fronts & Back Splash
Day 6 - Stove, Oven & Oven Drawer
Day 7 - Fridge
Day 8 - Pots & Pans
Day 9 - Lid & Storage Container Drawers
Day 10 - Silverware Drawer
Day 11 - Cookbook & Medicine Cupboards
Day 12 - Glass & Mug Cupboards

I will let you know how it goes!