winter cleaning

The kitchen has been an eyesore for a while now and it was time for some "winter cleaning". We've griped and grumbled about not finding things for long enough. I was going to stay up and wait for the siding repairman to come at 8:00am (since we usually go to bed at five am, this was more practical for us). My husband was sweet enough to do the dishes when I came home, so from there I scrubbed the cabinet doors, the sink, stove, dishwasher and microwave. For the pantry, I was tired of our random jars looking like this:

so the old spices were put in these great little jars from world market and the names written on with a white paint marker ( you don't even have to worry about whether you mess up because the paint marker scrapes off):

Next I took the doors off of two of the cabinets and stuck them in the garage for now. I put the screws in a labeled bag in the screw/bolt organizer in the garage. We will put the doors back on when we are through renting, but for now, it helps to open up the space a little. I would have done all three sets of doors on the right side of the kitchen, but for some reason one of the screws is Permanently adhered to the wall. Neither me or my big strong hubby could unscrew it. Then i rearanged the cupboard innards. I took out the mixmatched cups and some of the lesser used items and stored them in our new china cabinet (thanks mom!).

I took our tea and put them in old bell jars and containers that I had from college and then hung the espresso cups from command hooks for more space.
Normal people wouldn't have this next predicament, but since I live with a chef, our kitchen is full of strange instruments and gadgets and things I don't know how to use. Normally they just lay crammed into a cupboard dubbed the "junk cupboard" and the cook gets cranky when he can't find what he needs. The solution was to divide his tools into different categories: strange appliances, pastry tools, pasta tools, and cake decorating tools. I used an old wine box that we'd bought some wine in overseas and voila, instant dividers for his frosting things.

 It holds his gel colors, gum tex, icing tips, rotary cutter and a few more items. His pastry bags and brushes were put into a little basket.

and there she is, the finished kitchen, finally clean and ready to be attacked by the baked master, we'll see how she fairs....and yes that is a whale on my fridge made out of magnetic poetry. Are you into a clean fridge or refrigerator magnets?