His and Hers

I love the layout of my kitchen--a nice big pantry, no corner cabinets, and good counter space.  From the time we moved in, I set up the area to the left of the stove as my baking area, and to the right of the stove is the cooking area.  With my husband and my various food issues, it has now evolved into his area to the left and mine to the right.  Functionally it still works as the baking and cooking areas, but the baking along with a few cooking tasks are not allowed to stray to cooking area.  

His side:

My side:

We had to take down the shelf in the lower cabinet, so the wire ones are filling in.  I use the glass baking dishes for roasting my sweet potatoes and winter squashes, so they get constant use and needed to be easy for me to access.

The three small skillets on the shelf get used everyday, so I wanted them easy to reach as well.  

To differentiate on the utensils, the white ones go on his side.

 And the colorful ones go on my side.  A quilter has to have the color, you know.

Lots of vegetable shopping means I need good knives.  I found this knife rack at Target and have loved it.

 His, hers, and they all lived happily ever after.

Taking Stock

Next up on the "organized home tour":  the Pantry


There are a lot of beautiful pantries out there in Organized Land.  Matching containers, nifty labels, and stylish spaces abound.  My pantry is all about function.  I want it orderly and clean-- items easy to find and easy to reach.  When I make out my grocery list, I want to see quickly what needs to be restocked.  Clear containers are a must.  Baskets must be sturdy and easy to clean.  Pretty?  Meh.  Hard-working and well-stocked?  Oh, yeah.  


Here's the tour:

Organizational Style

Back when I was fulfilling the parental requirement of one year of college before I could get married, I had to take a situational ethics class.  One of our class exercises was to say whether we would want a neat house or a clean house.  Much to the annoyance of my teacher, I insisted on both.  Now, having a few years of adult life under my belt, I would say a neat house, because a neat house is easier to keep clean--and I still come away with both accomplished.
:-)
  
Having children, and especially home schooling, made me realize the necessity of organizing to keep myself sane.  And now there are so many resources for organizing--from blogs to IKEA--that my little organizing heart is can easily find solutions for any need.
  
As I have been reading links to different organizing blogs, I have seen that there is organizing, and what I will call prettyfying.  Now, it is my belief that bringing together function and beauty is the ideal combination, but blog reading has shown me that sometimes making a space pretty can actually make it less functional.  And for me, organizing is all about the function.  In fact, if a space is functioning well, sometimes the prettyfying can fall down on my to-do list for a good while.


Since there have been a slate of "see my organized room" posts around, I thought I would do a few of my own.  


First up:  the Laundry Room


I have a little laundry room.  

When working with a small room, it is important to make all the space count.  There is probably only a half inch of space between the laundry room door and the dryer door when it is open.  

I found a small clothes rack at Target, and because it is metal, it has held up so much better than the wooden ones.

 Ahhh, elfa...my favorite.  Cleaning supplies are "grab quick" ready in the top basket, with supplies that are too tall for my cabinets in the bottom basket.  

 All the other laundry/household necessities are in the cabinets.  Baskets help keep smaller items contained

And, of course, a quilt.  I only have two for this space right now (summer and fall), with plans to have at least one for each season.  Since the fall quilt is my favorite of the two, it stays up most of the year.


It is functional, it is neat, and it has a little bit of pretty in there.  Works for me. :-)