Kitchen Surprises

I am almost finished tidying up our house! It's taken much longer than the author suggests, but I'm working on a schedule that only allows tidy time during Cora's nap. On Friday, I tackled my kitchen. I was completely shocked, because I had almost 7 bags of trash by the time I was done. It occurred to me that I had never gone through our kitchen since being married. I hadn't even gone through the items before we moved from Florida to Michigan. I guess I was just so overwhelmed with a newborn, I didn't take the time to go through everything. This has been the most rewarding area, because this is the room I spend the most time in. My drawers aren't cramped with millions of kitchen utensils I don't use. My "Lazy Susans" aren't banging around when I turn them from being over stuffed. It is such an addicting and freeing feeling to not have stuff everywhere. I can't get over how much more happy I feel being at home knowing that the things I love are in order and not piling up everywhere. Tidying Up has taken away that every day feeling of..."I must organizing something...I must clean something...something feels off." I like that the process has been slow for me. Some days while I have gone through my things, I've felt tired and overwhelmed. I think if i would have tried to do too much too quick, I may have given up or broke down. I've spent about an hour a day and am basically finished tidying after two weeks total. The only 2 spots I have left is our coat closet and pantry. I completely forgot to go through our coat closet when I began discarding clothing. OOPS! I have to buy a few storage containers for our pantry before I can start tidying it up. 

I took some pictures to show my progress so far. I wish I would have taken some before pictures: 

I really don't feel like the pictures do it justice, but you can at least see a few areas that used to be BURSTING with things and are now calm and peaceful. I'm really thankful for the time to be able to do this. It's been very rewarding and exciting.