Kitchen Reorganization

One of the things about having a small (918 sq ft) home is making the best use of space. My kitchen had been bugging me for a bit. I didn't like the flow of it. One thing that I found real annoying was lack of counter space.You can see in the photo below all of it. Cutting boards were propped up under the paper towels,and the boards kept slipping flat on the counter. To the right,the canisters,knife block,microwave,and our Life Book. A tad cluttered. You can also see our lovely missing ceiling tiles from where we had ice dams a couple years ago. This year we are actually going to redo the kitchen. I've been saying that,but it's actually going to get done,probably this fall. We are going to install new flooring,ceilings,get rid of the wainscoting,and possibly get new appliances.

I do have this butcher block that we bought at a yard sale 5 years ago for $60 so we could have some extra space.I put a tablecloth on the table to hide the catch all it had become underneath.

Here you can see the lovely pile that was hiding. My Precious was stored under there,and as much as I love it,it was a pain to have to bend down and pick it up all the time. It's heavy and awkward. My crock pot was falling over,and my electric skillet was looking sad and dusty.

So...I had to find a home for everything. Happily,my canning cabinet had enough space on the bottom so I could store my water canner and pressure canner. I brought those down from the attic.My electric skillet found a new home in the empty drawer under the stove. I moved my microwave to the butcher block,put the coffee maker where the paper towels were,and put the cutting boards behind the canisters. The paper towels now rest next to the coffeemaker,but I am going to get a new holder and place for it. My Precious has a place of honor on the counter next to the canisters now. The attachments have their new home in a cabinet drawer. I also revamped my soap and candle supplies. Soap supplies are now in the cabinet all the way to the left in the below photo,on the top shelf. The candle supplies are all the way to the right,in the bottom cabinet (you can't see the cabinet in this photo). I also cleaned out the butcher block drawer. It took four hours of cleaning and moving things around,but I am very pleased with the result. The kitchen looks much bigger,and now we have more space to work with.