Home Organization: Organizing The Black Hole

Has your home gotten a bit out of control, like mine?  Between all of the home projects we've been tackling lately our house has become somewhat of a hoarder's paradise.  Not quite the rat infested garbage heap that TLC likes to sensationalize, but pretty.dang.close.  It's just that there's so much to do and I just don't wanna do it!  (Picture me crossing my arms, furrowing my eyebrows and stomping my foot.)  You guys feel me?

Even though my choice would be to ignore the chaos for a little bit longer - I just can't.  So, rather than waiting until the first sign of spring for the proverbial spring cleaning - I'm getting started now.  We went hogwild this weekend and finally tackled a few areas that have been quite frustrating.  It all started when I walked into the kitchen and found the under-the-sink cabinet's contents on the kitchen floor.  Apparently, Josh thought it was a good time to try and fix our busted dishwasher.  That man certainly knows the way to my heart - for those of you that don't know, hand-washing dishes is my kryptonite.  So a little mess in an attempt to make me happy was alright with me.

With the cabinet already halfway emptied, I thought it was a good time to finally tackle this organization issue.  I failed to snap a "Before" photo, but this does a good job showing the ridiculous amount of things that were shoved in there - vases, bubbles, cleaning supplies, jars of screws.  I'm surprised a clown car didn't find it's way out of there.

After I had everything sorted into groups I started the task of putting things back into the cabinet.  The only items that made it back in were the essentials - cleaning supplies, kitchen towels, garbage bags.  The random stuff above found new, more appropriate homes.

We already were using a rack to utilize multi-level storage, but it wasn't quite working out.  Bottles constantly fell off the rack and kitchen towels were just shoved underneath.  I rummaged through my basket stash and found two that would help corral some items.  A large black basket was used to store the cleaning supplies - no more random bottles falling out each time we opened the cabinet.  The second - a long and narrow wicker basket - was used to store reusable shopping bags and the kitchen towels.  This left the area underneath the shelf the perfect space for our plastic wrap and tin foil.

We also already had a cabinet door organizer but after I painted the cabinets it got thrown into the black hole and forgotten about.  I happily put it back to use by storing frequently used items, like my dish gloves and household cleaners.

These few changes have made all the difference to the space below the sink and no longer is it a black hole where random things are shoved into, but instead is a nice, organized space that even Martha Steward would approve of.

This little organizational success has eased a lot of frustrations and fueled a fire to hit every unorganized space in the house. Next up...the bathroom cabinet!

If you are like us and are ready to whip your home into shape - Apartment Therapy is here to help.  Sign up for the Apartment Therapy January Cure and they'll send you emails from January 2 through February 1, giving you all the info you need to know to follow along, stay motivated and complete your assignments.  It's well past January 2, you say?  Well, it's not too late to sign up!

Are you guys on the new year cleaning bandwagon or are you going to put it off just a little bit longer?  (No judgement, I swear!)  Or better yet - are you one of those people whose house is always in tip top shape?  Well done.  Now get your butt on down to mine and help a lady out!