Winter Heights: Spring Cleaning Challenge! Week 1

I don't know about you, but sometimes I need a good push. Especially when it comes to deep cleaning and organizing. With spring arriving, I thought I'd challenge myself to complete a cleaning/organizing project each week through the month of April. That's a total a seven projects...eek! And even though spring doesn't technically end till the end of June, I think committing through April will suffice. Don't wanna get too crazy!

So whether the project is big or small, I'm ready to tackle a few areas of my home that I've been overlooking and have caused me mental anguish far too long. Okay, maybe I'm being dramatic, but seriously, it's time for me to do something.

So without further ado...

Week 1:

THE ABYSS

Yep, I decided to tackle this horribly unorganized crazy cabinet in our kitchen that Rob and I call "the abyss". You would never know what was lurking behind these cabinets...

Nothing really, just a bit of a mess...

Yep, this is not my proudest moment. Rob even asked me a few times if I was sure I wanted to share this, lol. We're so ashamed. You see, I absolutely H A T E when there's clutter on the kitchen counter. It might be because when Rob and I first got married and moved into a little baby apartment above a garage, we had one closet in the entire house. ONE. And it was our bedroom closet. There was no linen closet, or broom/mop closet, nothing else but a bedroom closet. So through that experience of having no storage, I learned that clutter can drive me bananas.

That might sound like a joke after viewing our abyss, but we all know how crazy junk ~~drawers~~ cabinets can form. Quick clean up. Out of sight, out of mind. The best part about our abyss is we just throw random stuff, mail and pieces of paper (things we can't just throw away) up there and it's gone and forgotten. But it adds up fast. With Rob being a writer, he writes down ideas on little pieces of paper all the time, so I can't just go all rogue and start tossing things out. It takes thought.

Believe it or not, this is my third attempt cleaning this guy out. But somehow, things always sneak back up there. No idea how. And with our sweet Finn...

...adding to our world, we could probably make better use of the cabinet space. (does blogbomb even make sense? lol)

So my first mission was to obviously clear this big boy out. Rob joined in on the fun while Finn was taking a nap. We had one bag that we tossed all the papers in to be sorted later. Then all the other random stuff we placed on the counter, sorted and put away where it belonged. So here's the cabinet all cleaned out. There's so much space!

We even profitted off of this little project. It didn't cost us any money but we certainly came out in the green! Yep, a whopping $5.30 and two treasure pieces...

...along with FIVE knives (boys...) and so many apple devices/accessesories (not all pictured) we've determined we need to have an electronics drawer.

We're now able to declutter other areas of the kitchen and put our oatmeal, cereal, chips and other items in here. The only non-food related item we're allowed to place in this cabinet is our speaker station for our iPhones.

Feels good. We also are aiming our sights to organize our toaster/microwave situation as well. Looking for a butcher block type shelving unit to place these on preferrably with a lower bottom cabinet for more hidden storage.

So there you go, cleaning challenge - week 1 tackled and conquered. No idea what I'll do next week, but let me tell you, there is plenty of areas to choose from. Anyone else doing some spring cleaning of their own? Anyone have as embarrassing of a junk ~~drawer~~ cabinet as we did?

Oh! And guess what arrived in the mail today??