Clearing Away Some Kitchen Clutter: Linking up With "Making You Home Sing Monday"

Today I'm linking up with my good friend Nan at "Mom's the Word" . Her post today on yoga pants is hilarious and soooo true! If you're dressing (or not dressing) like you're ready for bed, then you're less likely to be ready for your day. That's my experience anyway! I just love Nan...she is such a mentor and example to me and always so encouraging, with a great word of wisdom ready any time I need one! Love ya girl!

So, today I'm making my home sing by clearing some "hot spots" that have been getting on my nerves.

"Hot spots" (coined by the Fly Lady) are those areas in every home where clutter accumulates and multiplies. A few of my home's "hot spots" (among others) are the piano right by the front door where mail is dropped and small toys are displayed. The kitchen table, the kitchen counter and the top of the fridge. A menagerie of things pile up in these areas. Anything I want out of reach of my daughter goes on top of the fridge and can live there for YEARS! The kitchen table attracts just about everything from toys, to shoes, to clothes and jackets to mail, fliers, ANYTHING. The Fly Lady encourages folks to take just a few minutes a day to clear "hot spots" so that they don't get out of control.

But today I'm going to be tackling the hot spots in my kitchen, no matter how long it takes and finding homes for those misfit items that just can't seem to find their place. Awww.... :(

Here are the before pics.....

The kitchen table...mail, toys, books, my purse, clothes draped on the chairs, shoes in the floor (all mine). Just clutter....

One of the side chairs with birthday party stuff from 2 weekends ago just stuffed in a bag...still just sitting there with no home to go to (but I'll fix that with a bin especially for craft and party supplies). 

The top of the refrigerator. I'm tired of opening up the freezer and anything from hammers to sidewalk chalk falling on top of my head! Oh! There's the bleach cleaner I was looking for! Seriously, I had no idea it was up there until just now when I was looking at the picture! ha! 

You see how much attention this area gets. Things get thrown up there and forgotten about for ages!

This is an area of the counter that gets a lot of clutter. Right now there are toys, batteries, a half a bag of cereal, straws, and tucked away there is a kid's necklace. Just stuff with no home.

And here's the AFTER!!!!

Cleared away the toys and "stuff" and just put the bag of straws in a glass. Not the most original storage solution, but functional...use whatcha got, right? ha!

The table and chairs all cleared and wiped down. 

Just threw away old papers and put away toys, cleaners and miscellaneous stuff like nail polish, batteries, a flashlight, clothes pins, etc. Oh! And I found the screwdriver my husband had been looking for up there too! You just never know around here!

I put items like a tape dispenser, a take-out menu and chip clips in the basket and stored pens, markers and scissors in a glass. I put our daily dinner menu plate (a cool craft I did at MOPS) up there so that I could glance at it to see what needed to be defrosted for dinner that evening and grab it from the freezer. 

But the stuff I still don't want G messing with, such as bubbles, chalk and markers are still up there...but it all  looks a lot neater I think. :)

So, that's how I made my home sing today. What did you do to make your home sing and make your life a little easier today?