Does this count as date night?

I was looking through my favorites folder this afternoon, looking to visit somewhere I hadn't lately or often and headed for Organizing Junkie.

I soon found myself looking through pictures and posts of how different bloggers had decluttered and (re)organized their kitchens.

This reminded me of my own cluttered spice cabinet I have been wanting to get to for days, and I was inspired to get up off the couch and tackle it.

Hmmm.... that's probably how this whole mommy-blog thing is supposed to work. Motivation and commiseration and all. You think?

Calling this cabinet a "spice cabinet" is kind of a misnomer. It actually houses (from the top down):
salt, baking soda, etc
drink mixes (cocoa, tea, gatorade, etc)
medicines
at least a dozen jars of baby food that it still in date, but I'm sure Alan has outgrown
coffees & all that paraphernalia
peppercorns, pepper grinder, garlic cloves, bay leaves
and a much larger assortment of sprinkles, nonpareils, colored sugars, etc than I even knew I had

I'm not putting up a 'before' picture because I do have some sense about me. There are some things that are just too personal to share. The mess that was my cabinet is one of them.

(I'm also not putting up an 'after' picture. If you've seen one cabinet of nicely lined-up kitchen necessities you've seen them all, right?)

The whole project took just a few minutes.

Which makes me glad I got to it now instead of say, May, when it would have taken the better part of an hour, I'm sure.

The biggest problem was the medicines that had taken over the cabinet. I like keeping vitamins and pain relievers in the kitchen. Everything else should go in the bathroom, in my opinion.

In our case, a wide assortment of anti-coughin' snottin' drugs had congregated in said kitchen cabinet, which is really gross if you think about it. Do you really want to be dosing that stuff out of your kitchen?

But I have to admit, when Dale does have a cold, I usually keep the one or 2 cold meds we are currently giving him in the kitchen for simplicity's sake.

I am a study in contradictions.

So, evicting the mucous meds and putting everything else back in it's assigned area by like product took just a few minutes and made a big difference!

Which brings me to my next project....

...the bathroom closet. Now that one... that one is bad.

One shelf if loaded is medicines, first aid, and extra health & beauty aids. It's like a store.

A store that a tornado came through.

I've also been wanting to tackle this one for several days.

Only problem is, it must be done when Alan is asleep.

It just wouldn't do to have the baby digging through the cough syrup, licking the razor blades, and sampling the travel sized toothpastes. You know what I'm sayin'?

And the problem with the whole working-while-Alan-is-asleep arrangement is this:

The closet is just inside the bathroom, which is directly across from Alan's bedroom door. And he is a very light sleeper. And this project will require much sorting and shuffling.

What to do?

After my satisfying results in the kitchen, I really want to get to the bathroom project.

So I grabbed a big box...

...emptied everything from the shelf into the box...

...and put it Out of Reach of Children.

And tonight, when both boys are in bed, Greg and I can spread everything out in the living room and make sense of it all again!

I can't wait to tell him the big news.

I'm sure he will be thrilled.