Out of Space....or am I?

I have been frustrated with my 15+ year old cabinets in my kitchen; I just don't have enough space, and looking at new ones, I see all the cool storage options out there.  I dream about a new kitchen for a few reasons: I don't like my old white cabinets; I dislike strongly my green laminate (yummy, right?) countertops; and I just need more storage.

Or do I? 

I have a few cabinets that I was just stuffing things into and trying to shut the door, and nothing drives me battier than this. 

Yesterday I unloaded a bunch of these, which hold mostly food products.  Here is a look at what I started with: and this isn't the worst of it, just the two of three I started with.

I played "Bear went over the mountain" in my head and began to "see what I could see" as far as:

• was there stuff I could dispose of?
• was there stuff I didn't need?
• was there stuff I couldn't identify?
• was there stuff I had duplicates of?

If you're wondering the answers: they are

• yes
• yes
• uh-huh
• and yes.yes.yes.

Seriously, I had no idea how bad it was!  I routinely clean out and move things around, but I'm not sure how these got out of control. 

Here's a little of what I found:

 TOO MUCH STUFF!

My first round through all of this stuff was to toss: this didn't require a lot of thinking.  In the "to-go_ pile went: trash, empty boxes, nuts that had fallen out of the bags (ew...I know, but they were in the way back...), and random cupcake papers.  That was the easy step, and no thought is involved. 

Then I organized the remained pile by categories, and saw what duplicates I had. Seriously? I mean, I like cornbread as much as the next person, but this just goes to show what poor planning involves.  If you can't see it and don't know you have it, you will end up with four boxes/bags/containers of cornmeal.  And molasses? Karo Syrup? I tend to buy a new bottle each Christmas for cookie time, but never threw away the old.  One thing I learned: molasses has a really long shelf life!  I was able to contain a few things: this container now has food dyes and small items:

The harder part of the org-effort was my cookbooks.....to make it short, I was able to eliminate these to the Goodwill pile: more on that later.

By this time, my countertop was looking a lot better!  The pile was much smaller, and just the things that I used and were usable.

So, here is the after: Funny thing; see all the empty space? 














This doesn't change white cabinets and green counters, but it does make a point:

 I don't need more space. I need less stuff. 


 This is my attitude, and it proves out once again.
Live better, with less. I can't wait to tackle the rest of the cabinets!