Organizing in the kitchen

I got on a big organizing kick after Christmas this year and have made a lot of progress around the house.  One area I tackled was the kitchen and one of the biggest changes we made was moving the giant eyesore, also know as my desk, out of the kitchen and up into our bedroom.

It used to be on this wall, below the picture.  It just became a magnet for random papers and toys.  Stuff would pile up and it always looked like a big mess, right in the middle of our main living area.  Also, Nolan was constantly getting into it, and rummaging for something like tape or envelopes, and generally contributing to the chaos. I am so happy with the new arrangement!

The other main area I tackled was the cabinet/counter space next to the refrigerator.  In addition to my desk, this ends up being the catch-all drop space for stuff coming in and going out and often ended up piled with school papers, mail, receipts,etc.  Of course I don't have any before pictures, but just picture a giant mess and you get the idea.

Here is the newly organized space.

And the insides.

This is the upper left cabinet.  I was very excited how this turned out.  We lowered the bottom shelf and Marco added an outlet inside the cabinet, so the lowest shelf is now our charging station!  Love it!  The battery charger, cell phones and chargers, and cameras and chargers are all stored here and the counter stays clear!  The next shelf up has recipes and cookbooks, and current school year files.  The third shelf has a box with miscellaneous stuff (mp3 players, pedometer, etc.), flashlight, cell phone boxes, and an expanding folder for receipt storage. 

The lower left cabinet has the paper recycling can (this was formerly out in the kitchen under my desk), a bag that holds spare plastic bags, phone books (behind the recycling can), and a box for storing batteries to be recycled.

The left drawer is typical junk drawer stuff - pencils, paper, batteries, tape, screwdriver (for opening doors when Nolan locks them), etc.  The batteries are separated by regular, and uncharged/charged rechargables.

The right drawer has all of Karly's hair stuff (yeah, probably way too much) as this is where we usually end up doing her hair in the mornings.  Wipes for sticky hands and take-out menus are also in here (since they fit!).