THE Counter

Today's hot spot is the counter. We have a long counter that separates the dining room from the living room and it's a junk magnet. Newspapers, mail, stuff. It's a mess. Problem is that today is a busy, busy day homeschool wise and I'll be away for a good portion of it. I think I bit off more than I can chew. I'm going to have to re-assess my goal for today. I think I'll shoot for getting all the newspapers out to the recycling bin as well as putting away any non-paper items. Then I'll put the counter back on the to-do list for next week.

The pantry went great yesterday. It's amazing how much more room you have when things are organized! One problem I have with my pantries is that they're deep so you forget about what's in back. (You wouldn't believe the stuff I found!) On one particularly deep and high shelf, I put a portable shelf so the items in the back are raised up higher than the items in front. It looks tidy and it's functional. In the smaller shelves, I put in little step-like shelves I bought at the kitchen store. Now I can see all the canned goods in that cabinet.

Krysten Snow (don't you absolutely love her name!) left a great tip in the comments:

I buy large canning jars, and fill them with nuts, seeds, beans, and dried fruits. They are a great size and you can see in them. Larger plastic containers are great for flour, lg. quantities of beans, popcorn, etc.

And I wouldn't even have to buy canning jars as I have dozens laying around in my laundry room (another hot spot). I did manage to put my brown sugar and powdered sugar into Tupperware bins. Though my motivation wasn't so much organization as I discovered that a certain child who lives here was putting his fingers into the bags for a little sugar treat several times a day! I hid the bins.