I’m fresh out of blogging ideas. I’m working on a big blogging project that I’ll be announcing soon and it’s taking up some of my blogging time and creativity. So this is what you get: a peek into my anal-retentive life. No really, it is a motivator for me to keep making forward progress on my house. So ignore if you will, it is therapy!

So today’s installment is the Organized Kitchen. Don’t get too excited. It’s just a Play Kitchen! Haha. My actual kitchen is far from organized, thanks to a not-so-naturally-organized husband who was super helpful in unpacking it but not so helpful in thinking in a linear way. He sees stuff and figures out where it will best fit. Which means my colanders are across the other side of our kitchen, far from the pots and pans (and stove-top and sink).

ANYWAY!

I recently put in a very large Haba order. The condition on which I was allowed to do such a thing was that I purge the kids’ Play Kitchen and organize it. So yesterday was the day.

Before: 

Have you every seen anything more child-friendly? Ha. It’s no wonder that it has not been touched since we landed here 2+ months ago. Oh wait, I take that back. Often it is used as the landing place for any random toy that is laying around without a home when it is time to clean up. Clutter tends to attract clutter.

First there was the purge. With Noah’s help, I threw out a bunch of broken stuff, dog-chewed wood and items with missing pieces. I could have purged further but things like forks just take up no space at all so why bother?

Then we reworked the space. I found this great mesh bag to keep all the wooden and plastic produce in and then we only needed a small bin for the random other things like fried eggs, leaf-lettuce, shish-kebobs, etc. Those, along with the “Kitchen Aid” found a new home under the sink along with some aprons.

Next we put all the canned foods and drinks into a basket and stored them, along with all the boxed sets (like Addison’s new Sushi Set which I LOVE, Noah’s birthday cake and a pizza), in the Oven. Conventional, we are not!

We had a few really cute tiny wooden crates that we used for the “desserts”, like s’mores and cookies, and for some wooden eggs.

We used to have two huge bins on top of the play kitchen which held a jumbled mess of stuff. I completely eliminated one whole bin and used the other to hold pots, pans, plates, cups and utensils.

We have this monstrous “tray” that holds a “dinner” that has never really had a home. It fits on the stove top now and we made room for the little cleaning brushes and milk bottles along with a tiny butter tray behind the faucet. I love the little area behind the faucet but the tray has got to go. It is huge and takes up way too much room. Or….we could get a bigger play kitchen!!! However this is our second one in five years. I will say that my kids use it to death and because I tend to buy cheap, they aren’t really meant for years of abuse. I’ve got my eye on this kitchen which would officially be bigger than my own!! But I hate plastic. So maybe they will get this kitchen for Christmas.

My favorite parts of the play kitchen are the Sushi set and this tiny tea set. It is perfect for little hands and it is breakable which makes little kids feel big. I know some people shy away from giving kids anything that might break but I’ve found that the more exposure I give my kids to breakable things, the earlier they learn respect and gentle handling. We’ve had this tea set for many years and I don’t believe we’ve ever had a single break.

So here’s the finished result:

Isn’t that much better? The best part is that Noah and Addison had a great time helping me clean it all up. Because Noah joined in, he really “gets” my organizational style which means he is doing a great job at keeping it organized. In the 24 hours since this project was completed, the littles have played in the kitchen almost non-stop. It is amazing what an hour or two of time can do to rejuvenate a cluttered and dysfunctional toy. Today we noticed that Addison has learned the fine art of “play eating” which is a total crack-up! Of all the toys we own, the Play Kitchen has always been my favorite.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 9th, 2007 at 11:37 am and is filed under House Keeping, Photos & Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.