I’m a firm believer in helping out your future self by taking simple steps now to make potentially stressful events down the road easier. It can be hard to take the time to do that amidst the hustle and bustle of daily life. But if you do, your future self will thank you.
Tagged with: hiring a po, kitchen, kitchen organization, media
We renovated our kitchen in 2016. A year later I posted some reflections. Lately, I’ve been talking with friends and clients about kitchen design, so I’ve had a chance to think about how much I love this kitchen. The new kitchen has absolutely been life enhancing and we still love it. We’ve done a little bit of rearranging but the organizational infrastructure I set up seven years ago remains solid. My only regret is that we took 24 years to renovate our old red kitchen!
Tagged with: kitchen, kitchen renovation 2016, worth repeating
We renovated our kitchen five years ago, in 2016. A year later I posted some reflections. The new kitchen has been life enhancing and we still absolutely love it. We’ve done a little bit of rearranging but the organizational infrastructure I set up five years ago remains solid. My only regret is that we took 24 years to renovate our old red kitchen!
Tagged with: kitchen, kitchen renovation 2016, worth repeating
Four years ago, I had the pleasure of going to New York City to help a dear friend organize her new apartment. I wrote this post then about how some key products really helped organize her items in her small kitchen.
Tagged with: kitchen, organizing products, worth repeating
Tagged with: disorder, kitchen, order, worth repeating
Our new refrigerator, an LG with a bottom freezer drawer, was delivered yesterday. Today I had the pleasure of organizing it! I’ve never had a freezer drawer before (nor organized one for a client), so it was a fun challenge.
Tagged with: challenges, freezer organization, kitchen, kitchen organization, organizing products
A year ago today, our kitchen renovation was complete and I finished unpacking and organizing our stuff into the new kitchen. A month or two later, I wrote a blog series about the renovation. I just re-read the series and relived the joy of that project. Honestly, it was a bit of a pain while we were going through it, but the results were absolutely worth the hassle and the money.
Tagged with: kitchen, kitchen renovation 2016
This week, I had the opportunity to help a dear friend organize the storage spaces of her new apartment in New York City. Having just moved in, she didn’t need any decluttering, so I was able to get busy while she was at work. After I analyzed her needs, I went to the Container Store website and scoped out some products, making a Wish List.
Tagged with: kitchen, organizing products
I typically avoid buying appliances or gadgets that serve only one purpose. The wonderful blog Unclutterer calls those Unitaskers and features them on Unitasker Wednesdays.
But last month I made an exception to that rule and purchased the Breville BTM800XL One-Touch Tea Maker. It’s an electric tea kettle and brewer. Two of my friends and colleagues, Amanda Rickers and Sheila DeHart each had one and raved about it. I found it irresistible.
Tagged with: kitchen, self care, tea, unclutterer
This is the third and last post in a series about the kitchen renovation we did this spring. (Click here for the other two posts.) Today I want to highlight a few of the storage features of my new kitchen that make me smile. Nothing earth-shatteringly innovative here, just really nice conveniences.
Tagged with: kitchen, kitchen organization, kitchen renovation 2016
Last week, I shared photos of our lovely new kitchen. We’re not quite finished…there’s the tiniest bit of finish work that needs to be finished as soon as we get the supplies from the cabinet company. But for all intents and purposes, it’s done. Here are some of the lessons I gleaned from the renovation experience. Perhaps they’ll help you if you redo your kitchen.
Tagged with: kitchen, kitchen organization, kitchen renovation 2016
After only 24 years of living with an 80s-era kitchen in our 1908 home, my husband and I had our kitchen remodeled this spring. It wasn’t strictly necessary. (In fact, this Huffington Post piece on not needing a new kitchen really resonated with me.) But it seemed time. And, of course, once it was done we wondered why we waited. We absolutely love it.
Tagged with: kitchen, kitchen organization, kitchen renovation 2016
My husband and I are in the midst of a kitchen renovation. If you’ve ever done that, you know how disruptive it can be. We’re lucky in that we actually have a spare kitchen to use. (We live in a two-family house, but no longer rent out the downstairs apartment.) Still, despite my best efforts to organize the downstairs kitchen for our temporary use, everything feels topsy turvy.
Five-and-a-half years ago, professional organizer Aby Garvey rocked my world by helping me reorganize (and rethink) my pantry. This weekend my plan is to declutter and fine tune my pantry, which has gotten out of control (as pantries have a tendency to do). I’m taking inspiration from this post I wrote after that initial session. If you have a pantry (or other space) to organize this weekend, maybe you’ll find it inspiring, too!
Last month I blogged about working with professional organizer Karel Worley in my basement. With my husband’s help, we tackled a dirty decluttering job in only four hours. It was one that I’d been dreading for months. It was amazing how much we got done and how painless it was.
Tagged with: aby garvey, kitchen, professional organizer, worth repeating
I was delighted when I was asked to organize the pantry of St. Louis Magazine’s dining editor, George Mahe, for an article for the Winter issue of the glossy newsstand magazine, St. Louis At Home.
I’m a huge believer in storing food-storage containers with the lids on them. I resisted it at first, but now I love it and I encourage all my clients to consider it. A year ago, I wrote (another) post about it, that I think bears repeating.
Tagged with: aby garvey, kitchen, rubbermaid, worth repeating
I love labels and I talk about their value all the time. Recently, I wrote on Organize Your Family History that when I see a failed organizing system in a client’s home, I almost always notice the absence of labels.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to help a client declutter her somewhat vast and varied supply of food-storage containers. Different shapes, different sizes, different brands. We emptied all the containers and lids out of the cupboards and drawers and put them on the dining-room table. I set about sorting them so I could match up tops and bottoms so she could see what she had. There ended up being some tops without bottoms (and vice versa) and the client ended up letting go of a lot of containers, which was great.
Tagged with: aby garvey, kitchen, rubbermaid
When I’m helping a client declutter a kitchen, the question of how long food lasts comes up a lot. In my own family, the question of how long leftovers keep comes up a lot as well. (My husband and I seem to have differing opinions.)
Tagged with: food storage, kitchen, pantry, real simple
File this under “Only in New York.” Via Twitter, I saw a link provided by Sharon Lowenheim, the Organizing Goddess, to a New York Post article about people who use their refrigerators and ovens to store clothing. Storage space is at such a premium in tiny NYC apartments and these people never cook, so this makes sense to them.
Tagged with: kitchen, sharon lowenheim, small spaces, twitter
On Tuesday of last week, I posted about organizing my food-storage containers and offered a free set of Rubbermaid Easy Find Lid food storage containers to one lucky commenter.
Tagged with: giveaway, kitchen, rubbermaid
In yesterday’s blog post I chronicled the great fun of working with professional organizer Aby Garvey on my pantry. I hinted that organizing the food-storage containers was a bit of a challenge. I’ll tell you the saga now. Don’t worry: it has a happy ending.
Tagged with: aby garvey, giveaway, kitchen, rubbermaid
Last month I blogged about working with professional organizer Karel Worley in my basement. With my husband’s help, we tackled a dirty decluttering job in only four hours. It was one that I’d been dreading for months. It was amazing how much we got done and how painless it was.
Tagged with: aby garvey, kitchen, professional organizer
When I visit the home of a client for the first time, I’m often struck by the trust that’s been placed in me. For some of my clients, I’m the first visitor they’ve welcomed into their homes in some time.
Tagged with: clutter, control, decluttering, kitchen, trust