Organising Weekly Challenge #5

Toni @ A Bowl Full of Lemons is continuing her weekly challenges for 2011 with a challenge to . . .

ORGANISE MY KITCHEN

Toni spoke about the 21-day Organising Challenges that looked at the kitchen, here are mine:

DAY 7 (and Day 1) THE PANTRY (and the junk drawer)

DAY 9 (and Day 3) BAKING SUPPLIES (and Tupperware cupboard)
I've since re-tidied the Tupperware cupboard so it is still fabby!

DAY 11 THE FREEZER (Mine isn't actually in my kitchen but whatever)

DAY 12 SPICES AND BAKING INGREDIENTS AND STAPLES CUPBOARD

DAY 13 MEDICINE CABINET (Mine's now in my kitchen)

DAY 16 (actually supposed to be Day 14) THE FRIDGE

I missed Day 5s clearing under my kitchen sink (a job I NEEDED to do) since I didn't join the 21-day challenge until Day 6 but this week I'll tackle that as well as telling my hubs the good news of all that I have planned for the kitchen over the next few weeks.

This week I set plans to:
1. Scrub out and recycle my broken compost caddy and replace with lidded round bowl (find a spot for this under the sink)
2. Cook up a storm and make lots of mess in the kitchen (beef casserole and lasagne are amongst my bulk cooking for the freezer plans)
3. Clean up said mess and give whole kitchen a good old scrub - finally getting to the grim job of cleaning the fronts of my top cupboards as well as scrubbing down my tiles and floor (jobs I'd been majorly putting off)
4. Finally tackle Day 5s under the kitchen sink task
5. Finally decide which trays I'm keeping/donating from the above Tupperware post and find them a home
6. Finally remove from the corner (with help) the un-plumbed-in dishwasher that is taking up a ton of room
7. Find a home for my handy-dandy cupboard pull-out organiser that I found at B&M last week (so hard to find organisers like this in N.I. but fortunately they are catching on)
8. Completely clear and scrub my windowsills and replant my herbs (in the hope that they may survive a little longer)
9. Re-jig, re-boot, re-organise

My plans for the near-future for the kitchen are to:
1. Measure up for my plate display shelf (and purchase it)
2. Purchase hooks for behind the door/back of the door for my apron collection
3. Purchase hooks for my teatowels for "I don't currently know where" in the kitchen
4. Purchase additional plant pots for my herbs (all of these purchases will be IKEA)
5. Choose a new colour scheme for the kitchen, using my fab Clarice Cliff plate collection as inspiration - need to pick a colour for the walls, another for the ceiling and another for the door/skirting/door trim/hatch trim - this will be tricky as the colours have to work with the wee room (that you see through the hatch) and the hallway (which connects and that you can see through the glass-panelled door).
6. Clear the kitchen of its additional furniture and stuff to allow for Dad and Hubby to do their tasks

For the next section of this list each job begins with have Dad and Hubby . . .
(They are my go-to guys but Dad comes first since he's more likely to actually tackle these) . . .

7. Complete the challenge of fixing my broken pull-out cabinet
8. Fix the holes in my wall (currently hidden by my sideboard) that were caused by the swift removal by a friend's sons of my fold-out table (couldn't blame the kids since my Hubs! and his friend let them climb on it)9. Paint kitchen and woodwork
10. Install the above mentioned hooks
11. Install the plate display shelf
12. Repaint (and fortify) my food cupboard/sideboard

My final job will be to put everything back and enjoy my new kitchen!

With all the bulk cooking and freezing I've been doing, a few days of painting won't be too disruptive, all we'll need is a microwave to reheat the home-cooked goodness and a kettle for hubby's cups of tea and coffee of course :)

This will be a busy week of preparation work to allow for all of the above so wish me well . . . especially in the persuading of the hubby that he does want to repaint!

Still unsure what to do with regard to window treatments as the (raw silk) blinds I got from my sister a few months ago work with my kitchen as it stands but won't work with a repaint - this will need some puzzling out.

Thanks again for these fabulous challenges Toni!