Organized Palooza

Hey-Oh!
You have reached the Gaudett/MacDonalds residence. We are currently away from our extra organized home enjoying a few days of family time at the cottage.
But have no fear, there is material to be read and ideas to be found after the past 10 Days of Organization Palooza! 
So come on in. Kick off your shoes. And take a tour of our revamped and totally functional home. And when you are done, make sure you leave a message after the beep!
Day 1: Refrigerator  Day 2: Main Living Area Day 3: Laundry Room Day 4: Spice Cabinet Day 5: Garage {Part 1} Day 6: Garage {Part 2} Day 7: Recipe Box Day 8: Spare Room Closet Day 9: Supplies Closet Day 10: Master Closet
BEEP! I linked up at A Bowl Full of Lemons Organize it! Party

Organization Palooza Day 4: Spice Cabinet

We are on the right track toward success friends! Day 4 already.
My home is not at its best. Not yet anyhow. But after another six days we should be laughing. Don't you think?
I was out visiting a friend yesterday who inquired about the state of my home. See she kindly follows along with my project scheming and crazy plans on this blog - though she is just as bad as me as far as projects go. *Yes, I am talking about you Annette! And she was saying something to the affect that my house must be perfectly tidy by now. Which made me laugh. Out loud. Because, as you likely already know, once you start organizing one or two spaces it snowballs into the rest of your house. 
Let me give you an example: Last week I worked at making the main living area more functional {read all about it here}. That entailed a thorough cleaning followed by sorting through bins, baskets, and drawers. At the end of each little project most items went tidily back in but some were redirected to more appropriate places throughout the home - Papers to be filed sent up to the spare room. Craft supplies to the spare room. Electronics up to our desk area. Toys off to the basement. You know the drill. Then I tackled the laundry room {here} and the same dance number repeated - Clothes hauled away in baskets to the bedrooms. Clean but outgrown Finley items sent to storage. Blankets sent to the garage for campfires. Which means all those spaces, if not already organized, need to be addressed.
So you see what I mean. Snowball. Which explains my laugh in response to Annette's question. There is still, and always, lots to do.  But before I tackle a large room - like the garage, spare or master bedrooms - I thought I would tackle something that has been causing me, and my houseguest, severe stress. Take a look
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Spice cabinet here I come!

The cabinet to the right of our stove is the central hub for all things spicy or the like. And though the placement is functional, the organization of its contents were most certainly not!

I love to bake. Common-law and Sarah are little magicians in the cooking department. But this spice cabinet was not doing anyone any favours with its miss mash mess.

So I took it upon myself to address the situation. Take the bull by the horns.  

Mason jars were the beginning to my solution. Then I added a splash of chalkboard paint.

Both to the jars and the cabinet itself. {Common-law had a minor heart attack when I sent him a photo along the way. Eeek}

I tapped a line around the base of the mason jars and applied two coats of the chalkboard paint. That way we will be able to see the written label of what is in the jars without removing them to see the tops because the cabinet is at eye level {for most}. 

But since I was at it, and had the paint out anyway, I went ahead and did the caps as well. Knowing me quite well, as only great friends do, Sarah made that suggestions anticipating that I will get it in my head  at some point to rearrange the entire kitchen and the jars could be assigned to a drawer thus eliminating the useful base labelling solution. 

Originally I planned to use white out to write on the jars but the pen I bought was a bust. Which led me to plan B: White Crayon. Genius. Not only does it look like chalk, but it wont accidentally get erased and leave us guessing or worse, sampling, spices. *But it is washable with warm water and dish soap if you want to replace a jar with something different. 

Plan B = Smashed Plan A!

With a little tinkering, a few shelf adjustments, and implementing an alphabetical arrangement of the mason jars this cabinet is now highly functional! An organizers cooking dream. 

It is pretty too!

And as far as the door goes, it didn't get left out of the functional task either. Real chalk was used to record some handy conversions to have around when in a pinch. Get it? Pinch!

I think after it is all said and done even Common-law will give this little project a big thumbs up! As he does my baking. Right Robert?

As if this project didn't already have me written all over it, a quote is the icing on a delicious cake. But don't worry Robert I didn't forget you completely - you and your spice creations have your very own labelled jar.

Day 4 down. Can't wait for tomorrow!

Chat soon.

______________________________ I linked up @ Start at Home

Summer House Tour

Raise your hand if your home is well lived in!

I see those hands! Wow...that looks like most of you. And Im right there next to you in the crowd. Yeah thats me. The one in the filthy slippers. I forgot to switch them on my way out the door. C'est la vie!

This house of mine is not quite two years old and yet if the walls could speak I would be frightened of the tales. The combination of turbo dog, kids running and crawling a muck, and a bossy do-it-yourselfer results in a go-ahead, come-back type of situation. As soon as one project is done three more are added to the list. Then a jar of coffee gets dropped and cracks a tile. Tack that one on as well.

It quite literally will never end. Which is why I have decided to take this time and embrace the few spaces in my home that are on their way to decorating success. Do, however, keep in mind they all have a ways to go yet.

Main Entryway

Living Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Pantry

Laundry Room

Main Floor Bath

Finley's Room

I hope you enjoyed the tour! And if you ever want to do it again, and again, it will be easily located at the Our Home tab. *Do check back for updates! I for one love walking through my house online. It is much cleaner than the real thing. A lot less dog hair!

And if you are a regular around these parts you may have noticed a few changes we have made. Check back this week when I share those successful DIY projects.

Looking forward to a chat real soon.


Im sharing this at
The Shabby Creek Cottage Link Party

One Stop Coffee

One Stop Coffee Station. Bam!

Need I say more??

Well...I guess maybe just a tad.

So as I was working on giving our pantry a makeover this past week {which you can check out here}, I decided I needed a better solution for my coffee maker and its team.

Up until now we had been shuffling everything back and forth between the counter and the pantry just to make a hot beverage. This doesn't sound overly tedious when in reality our kitchen island is one step away from the pantry. But the fact is that we here at the MacDonald/Gaudett residence are beverage people. We could brew coffee all day long and think nothing of it. And when my family comes to town, we most certainly do.

So just leave the coffee items out - simple as that eh? Ahhh...No!

Yours truly is not a fan of clutter. Surprise! Almost as soon as the coffee is poured into awaiting mugs it is all packed up and put away. Great! Again, no such luck. Common-Law and I are cut from completely different cloths so to speak {If that is even the correct saying}. Consider me burlap and he can be...silk? Maybe... the other way around? Can't be sure. Either way, he does not overly enjoy the fact that I am on his heals putting things away {Somewhat constantly}. Alas, the issue.

Which brings me to my solution - this week. *I tend to change things around from time to time. {Understatement alert}

When we designed our kitchen island I insisted on having an open space for displaying pretties - and wine naturally. I knew this space would come in handy when it comes to my need to constantly rearrange. So over the past few years it has played host to many a seasonal display or organization solution of the month. I am particularly thrilled with its latest turnout.

An idea of the overall kitchen layout.

By now I assume you have deduced that it is now home to all of our coffee brewing items. Well look at you and your smarty pants! Gold star!

The coffee/tea station has set up shop at the islands end - insert joke here, sadly my mind has drawn a complete blank for humour. It is a perfect space for our hot beverage selections, sugar, filters {They will never be lost again}, favourite mugs, and the maker itself. *Coffee maker that is.

Keeping with a similar theme and feel from the pantry, I transferred the sugar, teas, coffees, and hot chocolates to various jars and canisters and labelled them.

A drawer from a vintage sowing machine {which I plan on redoing one of these days} breaks up the cluster of said jars and canisters in a way that, I think at least, makes the station appealing to the eye.

The bottom shelf holds a basket filled with a variety of mugs - our favourites have their own spot on the top shelf.

Such a simple solution to what seems like such a silly problem - now.

Happy organizing!