I won’t be starting the kitchen painting this weekend as we’ve had a death in the family and another dear family member in the hospital.

However, in times of crisis, I do tend to clean like a wild woman. And this week has been no exception.

I had a beautiful wrought iron shelf in my kitchen that is comprised of one top shelf and a row of hooks. Prior to my organization spree, I had the BBQ utensils hanging on these hooks. And whatever  else was around that could be hung. The result: a chaotic mess.

I started with this shelf and took everything off the hooks. I kept everything on the shelf, because it all works there. On the top shelf, I keep my toaster, my can opener and my knife block. Why? It’s stuff we use regularly, but not daily. It’s off my counter space (which is limited) yet very accessible and not taking up precious cabinet space.

And it was better than using velcro.

On these now-cleared hooks, I decided to hang my pots and pans. I wanted my pots and pans hanging, but I mentioned before that isn’t possible. Or so I thought. Once I saw the wall shelf units for hanging pots and pans, I realized my shelf could be used just for that. It was probably made for that.

Yes, I am blonde, why do you ask?

So, pots and pans went on the shelf which freed room in my cabinets. I organized my pots and pans cabinets to hold other small appliances that aren’t used daily (food processor, stand mixer, etc.), my baking stuff (I have a lot because I bake a lot), the lids to the pots and pans and my cutting boards. There might have been more, I’m not sure. Oh and the BBQ utensils that were hanging went in there too.

The end result? A set of two medium cabinets that hold more stuff NEATLY. All nice and organized. It’s very easy to put most everything away and take out. Which is vital to staying organized.

Since I felt inspired I decided to unclutter my stove top and move some things around in preparation for my command center.

I started with my kitchen utensils. I was ashamed at the amount of kitchen utensils I owned. (Note the past tense??) I had 12 slotted spoons. Why on earth would one family need a dozen slotted spoons? We don’t and so the cheaper, flimsier and nasty ones (shudder) went bye-bye. Same with tongs (4 sets!), spatulas… why I was holding onto 4 bent and stained spatulas I have no idea.

I kept what we needed for our largest family dinner (Thanksgiving, say). Pitched the rest. Then I decided what I would need for our regular dinners. These went into a caddy. The rest went into an extra caddy in the cabinet with the BBQ utensils.

Next up was the cleaner cabinet (under the sink) and the plastic container cabinet. But I wasn’t up to that today, so I’ll do it tomorrow.

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