Spring Cleaning

It's gettin' done, my friends!

Slowly, but surely we're getting this house in order. I don't think I told you (and it is so exciting that you really have missed out!) that the weekend before last, I emptied all the lower cabinets in my kitchen, removed the plastic shelf liners, washed the liners, wiped out the cabinets, got rid of a few things, and then put everything back in an organized fashion. I love that I can clean my shelf liners. I'm not too proud to admit that it was nasty in places! Here is a link to the kind I have Warp Brothers #PM125-C 12x25' Clear Shelf Liner -- way, way, better than the old sticky-back kind!

I even talked my husband into letting me purge the cappuccino machine that was taking up cabinet space. He put up a fight because he could remember the exact last time he had used it -- over SIX YEARS AGO! Thankfully he noticed the water reservoir smelled slightly like mold and that convinced him to part with the beloved fancy-coffee-beverage-making-machine that we have not used since before we had kids!

So, what was the spring cleaning excitement from this most recent weekend?

The garage stockpile pantry.

Oh how I love a good stockpile! I posted about my stockpile shopping a while back that you can read here. There is nothing better than running out of paper towels or laundry detergent or Coke Zero (which has edged out the old Diet Coke from our household, by the way) and not having to run to the store, but simply to my garage for more! Okay, maybe there are a few things better than that, but you have to admit, that is pretty good!

Back to the garage pantry, it was suffering. It needed some more shelves. I'd been thinking we'd build some, but then I saw Target had a shelf on sale for $19.99!

My husband had a meeting at our church Sunday evening, so I made it a mission for the kids and me. Go to Target, buy shelf, come home and put shelf together, and arrange our stuff on the shelf all before my husband returned an hour and a half later!

The goal seemed lofty, even my 6 year old tried to convince me to come up with a new mission!

First there was distraction at Target by the kid bike helmets on sale, of which we needed 2, so after some trying on and mind changing, finally a purple one with bugs was secured for my daughter and a blue one with monkeys for the toddler. Then there was a slight hold-up of having to wait for someone to bring the coveted on-sale shelf from the back because the ones up front were all sold. And another delay when we built (okay, snapped together) the 4 tier shelf only to realize it would not fit in our space, so there was much tugging to pull the top shelf off. As it turns out those things snap together real easy, but unsnapping them is not so easy! If my engineer-turned-businessman husband had been home he'd have known from the beginning that the shelf would not fit. Me, I learn by trial and error!

But even so, the mission was accomplished with even time to spare for baths before Daddy got home!

The before:


And the after:
This Tuesday, I'm thankful for progress, although it may seem small to some. Organizing that pantry is probably the only thing I did all weekend that didn't have to be done again today!


See the Org Junkie's Monthly Round-up for more organizing before & afters. Find more Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers, Tackle It Tuesday at 5 Minutes for Mom, and Talk About Tuesday at The Lazy Organizer.