Personal Organizer: A Photo-spective

About 45 minutes into the first session with Sunny it occurred to us that we should really have taken before photos. It’s too bad you didn’t see what the kitchen really looked like before we started because then you’d realize what a brave woman Sunny is. Let’s just say that there wasn’t an uncovered surface in the kitchen when we started and I tried to get Sunny to wear a gas mask as she approached the kitchen counters and sink.

In this picture below, you can kind of see the corner of the cube cabinet that is of much contraversy. It comes up many times in conversation as to wear it’s going. It’s supposedly not staying in the kitchen at the moment.

Four generation of Maternal Mallory’s are represented on top of those cabinets — Great Gramma’s good dishes, gramma’s silver, mom’s counter containers from the New Orleans house, and my knick knacks.

You know the old saying that it has to get worse before it gets better, right?

Here are some ‘tween pictures.

O.K. So keep in mind that this is a work in progress as Sunny says. We are pretty much done with the major work in the kitchen and front hall now but we’ll be tweaking as we go to get the system perfected so that it works perfect for me so that nothing is awkward.

Those are new red dish towels and pot holders to replace all the ones she threw out. Apparently burnt ones aren’t attractive. Huh. She did let me keept the one that my mom made when I was a kid that looks like an animal with ears and eyes.

Notice that most of the appliances are gone from the counters. Only the ones I use daily or almost daily remain. It’s all about “white space,” baby!

That little table on the right needs a new home elsewhere in the apartment. Right now it’s hanging out right there until either she talks me out of it or it finds a better place. I think it’s a perfect place for my purse, but apparently it’s all about “white space,” baby!

The microwave no longer lives on the cube cabinet and now lives on the counter. Also check out my cat coasters in the drying rack which apparently can’t live in the kitchen anymore. I’m told they have to live in the living room so they can be on display.

Sunny can’t claim the coffee mug organization. I did that when I moved to Maine to display my collection. However, Sunny is very proud of the drinking glass and Magic Bullet configuration in these cabinets. (If you happen to see little glass 40z Coca-Cola juice glasses like those in the cabinet, I need 4 more…)

Just showing off my casserole and serving dish cabinet arrangement. Sunny’s put my Japanese dishes and non-displayed chopstick collection up there on the top shelf where they can’t be injured. My mother’s old canisters are up on top there for display and there’s two discontinued Tuperware containers that I collected.

Sunny really wants me to get another Lazy Susan for above the stove for the oils and smoothie stuff. Check out my pared down Mixing Bowls and measuring cups too.

I never would have thought of putting the giant Pampered Chef Simple Additions Serving Bowl and Condiments bowls up on top, but it works; plus, there’s that Lazy Susan configuration that Sunny thought of for the spices and teas. It really works wonderfully. I can find everything so much easier! Though I’m annoyed that my coffee filters are stuck up in there but where else am I going to put them?

Despite what anyone (my mom) tells you, I had seriously cut down on my plasticware addiction last year when I bought those sit & spin containers. Still Sunny made me get rid of even more. I couldn’t believe it. She got in there and seriously got it organized so it’s all easy to grab and go and put away and keep up with though.

And here’s where the weekend appliances went.

Almost $1000-worth of cookware looks like this:

This is the utility closet that’s in the kitchen. Well, this is the upper part. It’s what Sunny calls “Prime Real Estate”. She also calls it wasted — in closests, it’s not about the “white space.” There’s a lot of space above the washer and dryer that she says we can use that elfa shelving she’s so hot on to turn it into a pantry plus hold all that stuff that’s on that weak-ass shelf. Of course, in the meantime, I’ve ordered two Whitney Design Over Washer Storage Shelves to attach to the washer and dryer. Obviously they won’t make a pantry, but they will hold the Tide and the Dryell.

The other thought is to use the elfa storage system to create some sort of laundry-drying system solution. I like to air-dry more than 50% of my clothes and it’s a pain in the ass as the only place to do so is my shower, which means that in the morning they have to be moved to the towel racks and back again.

Sunny does not like my Baker’s Rack or the fact that my Soneware is on display there. She wants it to go in a closet somewhere and be hidden. I think a Baker’s Rack is the perfect place for my baking-ware. She also thinks it’s too big a piece of furniture, which might be true for this apartment, but I always wanted one and I put it together and I like it.

More “Prime Real Estate” being under utilized. Sunny was trying to figure out if the Baker’s Rack or the Pantry could fit in there.

And here’s the hallway we took back last night from the piles of various everything from paper to magazine to mail to laundry to crafty things to car stuff to coats to oy. If you look close you can just make out on the very edge of the left of the picture the edge of the pantry at the bottom of the stairs.

tags: personal organizer

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