At the beginning of the year, I always seem to take inventory. Like many others, I tend to clean out messy closets and organize those spaces that are in complete disarray.
I decided to tackle a few of my trouble areas including the tool area and my dry ingredients in my pantry (pasta, quinoa, rice, etc.) It only made sense to head out to my FAVORITE store for organizing…
If you haven’t yet met The Container Store, I encourage you to visit their site or pass through their doors at your earliest convenience. When you do, be prepared… you are going to be amazed. Their tagline “Contain Yourself” is something that I have to do every single time I am there. There are just SO MANY options for organizing your life inside of this store. From garage organization, to closet solutions, to kitchen organization… this place is OUTSTANDING. I am also a HUGE fan of their wrapping paper selection.
All that being said, I was confident I would find some amazing new products to use for ORGANIZING KG 2013. First stop, kitchen organizing.
Container Store has SO MANY products to choose from, but I decided to go with the OXO brand. I had bags of pasta, containers of quinoa, and rice that all needed containers, and I found an option for each of them!
Here’s what the “before” looked like. Not hideous, but could be so much more organized.
I bought OXO containers for just about everything you see here. They have a pop-top which seals the container and the contents for freshness. Here’s a close-up of what they look like.
It took about 10-15 minutes to transform my pantry. I was SUPER happy with the results.
I also decided to take a stab at organizing my teas. I buy tea, and those boxes take up a lot of space in a busy pantry. I found this cute tea box at The Container Store, but adding teas to the box wasn’t enough…
I had to add some Post-It Labels too so I would know what flavors were in each compartment. The Post-Its were recommended by my friend Jen because they peel-off when you’re done. GENIUS!
Also in the kitchen I picked up another plastic container for buckwheat flour… these snazzy Decor brand containers were part of Organizing KG 2012 and keep all my baking supplies in order!
The more challenging of the projects was my tool box. While I don’t have too many tools, I have collected a lot of crap over the years that clutters up my laundry room.
After consulting with one of the fabulous employees at the Container store, I decided to go with a smart storage box to organize this mess. My challenge was to take these three containers and combine them into one (possibly two.)
The great thing about this container is that it has space at the bottom for all of your miscellaneous items, and then a pull out handled carrier for some of the most commonly used items.
How much better is this than the alternative??
I didn’t stop here… as I got myself organized for the week as well. Chopping veggies for snacks and bagging up veggies for easy access and snacking throughout the week. I’ve found that being organized about my snacks makes a HUGE difference on the scale.
There’s also something peaceful and relaxing about getting organized. The chaos associated with clutter vanishes, and you just feel content.
Do you organize during the new year? What projects do you have your eyes on this January?
nothankstocake
nothankstocake
nothankstocake
nothankstocake
Okay! Now we’re talkin my lingo! I am the queen of organizing and live in a super small space square footage wise and this requires extra OCD organization and things that serve dual purposes, such as an ottoman with storage capacity. I am always looking to streamline and declutter so your blog today is inspiring as I plan for a kitchen Reno to my home in 2013 and you got me thinking about the need for organization that has a purpose. Thanks Kelly for sharing and I so support your organizing efforts as they do free up space and time!
I’m on a soup kick right now because it’s so cold!
Er whoops wrong post!
Kel,
truly…if you consider the dry goods section of your pantry to represent “total disarray” HOLY COW you would DIE if you saw my pantry!!! Not to mention my walk-in closet. And you’d probably start crying if you could see the crawl space in my bedroom or my laundry closet. FOR REAL…you MUST have more than 24 hours in your day. Please tell me your secret…
I spend a lot of time in my kitchen, so I like it to be VERY neat! But… I think I’d say the tool stuff was in disarray. The dry goods were not so bad. You need Container Store! Go to Green Hills, STAT!
I HAVE to do this too. My pantry is ah. messsss! I love the tea idea. Those boxes are killing me.
Is it horrible that I’ve never been in The Container Store? I want to go just to see the ridiculous organization that it is but just haven’t yet. I’m so unorganized and need it though so perhaps a trip is in store. I went to Target this wknd and bought a bunch of bins so I feel somewhat accomplished.
This is why we’ve never met until we blogged… you cover one part of town, I cover the other. So many new places to try per your recommendation and vice versa! Container store is target on crack.
I love the Container Store, but once again, I don’t have one here on the island. I will say though that if you have ever walked into a container store when you are feeling overwhelmed and not quite in the mood to be organized, it might just send you to the loony bin…seriously. But if you are in the mood and your brain can handle it AND if you have a plan before you enter the store, it is amazing. It looks so simple when you do it
Totally agree on the veggies, btw. Love this post!
You can order online!
That is just beyond impressive. Umm now I’m totally embarrassed to ever have you over, cause my house is the complete opposite of organized. I wouldn’t even know where to start
You crack me up. Not every cupboard looks that good… seriously.
I love to organized! Sadly I don’t have this store closed by. We did went thru some conversion last summer as we went thru the process of eliminating everything from our pantry. We decided to eat 100% certified organic in the beg of 2012 but our pantry was still crowded with many food with bad chemicals and GMO’s. So once I cleaned our pantry I decided to quite using plastic and now I storage everything in similar containers with exception I’m using glass as I’m afraid of the gases plastic releases into food.