Living an Organized Life III

We start backwards with the clean cabinet.

Here it is emptied out and ready to be organized!

Yikes! There is stuff in here moved from our other house, that's not a good sign.

What lurks behind this cabinet?

Today I'm joining Susan over at Between Naps on the Porch for Met Monday.

This is part 3 of living an organized life. As the days get longer (sunset at 8:10 last night) and the nights are cooler I think we all start to want to get back into our kitchens. I find it really hard to do a lot of baking in the summer time because we have a really small kitchen and it heats up quickly. I thought organizing the spice cabinet this week would be a good head start for the baking season. I've posted below the information from Martha Stewart's website regarding spices for your consideration along with the link to her checklist of spices. Thank goodness a lot of these spices now come with expiration dates, because often I can't remember when I purchased them!

Spice Rack
"Variety, we all know, is the spice of life, but it's also true that spices add incredible variety to your culinary endeavors. When it comes to seasoning with spices and dried herbs, follow your nose. You'll quickly develop a sense of how these flavorings complement each dish. Spices won't spoil, but they will lose potency over time, and in general, they're best if used within six months of purchase. They should be stored in a cool, dry place, and if you're unsure of a spice's freshness, take a sniff -- if there's no smell, toss it and restock."

http://www.marthastewart.com/photogallery/how-to-stock-home-essentials#slide_2

Living and Organized Life Part II

Please join Susan over at http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/
for more Met Monday posts!

I'm back for Part II of my ongoing journey to live life in an organized fashion. For today's post I organized our dining room. Now I know for most of you there is probably one room in your house that you multi-purpose. For me it was the dining room. Seldom do we dine in the dining room, so for awhile I've been using it as the home base for my store. It is shipping & receiving, stock room and studio all in one. With the help of Master B, all boxes of inventory were moved into an empty closet in our guest room. I moved all my tools for creativity into the office. Today you see a blank slate for Thursday's tablescape. What an improvement!

Living an Organized Life Part I

Please join Susan over at http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

for more Met Monday posts!

Peter Walsh, the organizational guru on Oprah, says the following on her website "Clutter is an obstacle. It impedes your ability to find things, use things, appreciate things and to leverage the space and materials you have to build a fruitful, rewarding life. " While I know that it is true, finding time to organize your life can be complicated. I do stuff, just like you do too I'm sure. I do work stuff, wife stuff, Mom stuff, hobby stuff, community stuff. While doing all this stuff, it becomes easy to let your household slide, after all we're not all hosting Colin Cowie parties everyday at our homes.

Since it is back to school this week I thought it was a good time to get started organizing. I have decided to take an area each week around my home and organize it. You will get to see the before and afters each Monday here. If all goes well I will have a fruitful and rewarding life in a month or two (okay I already have a fruitful and rewarding life, but I guess I will be more fruity, I mean fruitful and I think Mr. B will be happier).

Sorry the pics are so fuzzy and dark, the clouds kept coming in and out while I was shooting today. Yes, it is Monday and no I don't know why the first picture wants to be sideways, it is the same as the 2nd picture in my file folder. If you know why, please let me know too!

Part I is the shelves in our living room. We painted this room soon after we moved in this house about five years ago. My dream was to get all coral and cream furniture, new carpet, etc. Well, reality is five years later our furniture from the den is in there now and we don't have new carpet (which I guess is a good thing b/c Miss Madison is coming). I don't know about you, but we hardly ever use the living room. These shelves have been neglected for awhile and needed some organization.

I moved all the unrelated items off and organized the left side as all cream ceramics and the right side with some of my star of David collection. Yea, part I done.