Un-Boxing Day

Happy Boxing Day--the biggest shopping day for Canadians and from what I heard on a radio story this morning, the Americans are catching on. Gift cards to be spent, bad gifts to be returned and all that. They really need to catch on to the name, though. Not that it's a good name (several theories, but none of them catchy for why "Boxing Day"), but at least it's a name with some history.

But I wasn't shopping today, I was having my own un-boxing day--moving into the kitchen. I am weary and it is not done, but I have made good progress.

I got all the handles installed on Saturday. Troy finished putting the Formica on the counters yesterday so I can use them and as far as I'm concerned, we are in the kitchen to stay.

Isaac and I also cleared out the perpetually junky corner and moved the table in:

Looking at the picture, I notice again that the walls are looking pretty bad and are bringing down the fanciness of my table, but they will have to wait. Again, the final plans include a booth here, but in the meantime the table will suffice and this will get it out of the way in the dining room. I have to say as I sit at the table typing this, it sure is nice to be in the room with steady heat!! Troy will be happy that the odds of our eating dinner at a table like civilized people instead of sitting on the floor in front of the wood stove have increased dramatically!

Otherwise I worked on moving stuff from where it has been stored in the appliance room, the dining room closet, and Isaac's room. Some of it has been stashed in cupboards, some of it has been thrown out (why did I keep that?), and some of it donated because it doesn't fit or I haven't used it or missed it in years.

I spent the whole time vacillating between joyful glee at having space for everything and anxious worry that I would run out of space. Then I found two cupboards I hadn't filled at all!

So I stopped worrying about space and then most of my mental energy was been spent on trying to organize. It's been exhausting. I have most of the easy stuff moved in and will work on the harder to categorize or organize stuff as I go. I see more chipboard boxes in my future!...

Let me also say, I have never cleaned so much in my life. Everything was dusty or worse from being stored on open shelves and had to be cleaned before it could find a home. Not that I minded since I could do it all in my new fabulous sink (!), but it's nice knowing that once they're in cupboards that problem shouldn't be a problem any more.

At the risk of picture overload and boredom on your part, here are some pictures of my newly filled and organized cupboards:

Finally get to put out the orange enamelware I've found over the last couple years!

Drinks (coffee/tea/cocoa) and lunch supplies

Baking supplies

So far, all the small appliances fit in the base corner cabinet. I even found a square elephant tray in an odd box that fits perfectly under the toaster to catch all the crumbs. It's really cute and I'm glad I found a use for it.

Cups/glasses

Dishes in a drawer seems to be working well. It's a little full right now because of the Christmas dishes that are out. I lined the drawer with toolbox liner so that it would be a little padded and the dishes wouldn't slide around.

The divided tray cabinet is filling up.

And finally, my spice rack with all my spices alphabetized once again. (A-L on the left, M-Z on the right.) Yes, I am sleeping better already.

Besides the luxury of having a big fabulous kitchen (I figure this is triple the counter space I've ever had before!), it is also great to have a fresh start. From now on, I'll have to make myself do spring cleaning to get anything like the same experience! (Who's making odds on that one?)