Overhauling cooking = overhauling kitchen

Now that I am trying all sorts of new recipes (and putting others to bed) I find that I need better access to my spices, herbs and small appliances.  I also find that I have to clear out the old to welcome in the new.  One of my dance troupe cohorts is a wonderful organizer and after our rehearsal yesterday she listened to my kitchen needs and started me on projects.  My main feeling was that my kitchen is closing in on me - it has gotten to where there is so much out and out of place that I can't even clean it anymore.  This spills over to my dining room - which I want so much more for than is there.  I was showing her all my cabinets and she spotted an old decrepit crock pot and asked why did I have that after showing her the nice new one that I have ... I held my head in shame as I explained that there was even a third one behind the one she was seeing.  (The minute she left I took the two old crock pots down and put them for Goodwill and made the trip immediately before I would change my mind.)

So my accomplishments yesterday were to get rid of not only the crock pots but tons of other old stuff in the back of the deep cabinets that I have not used in the 20+ years that I have lived here.  Then I went through my broom closet and got rid of the hundreds of plastic bags that were stuffed into every nook and cranny (OMG I felt like someone from one of the hoarder shows) and brought those to bag recycling at the supermarket.  Then once the bags were gone I was able to move the broom and Swifter mops that were in the corner of the diningroom and put them in the broom closet - Imagine that!

Then I took all the canned goods from the cabinet over my work area, and moved those to a farther (but easily accessible) cabinet, made a trip to get spice racks (the ones that are like steps) and filled that entire cabinet with all my herbs and spices instead of the cans.  Then I have dozens of beautiful storage containers that are now empty (having gotten rid of all my assortment of grains) and moved those to the upper dead space of the cabinets, further clearing off my counter tops.

Today I am going to have my son and husband bring up the china closet that matches my dining room set (I have had it in my house for two years down the basement because I didn't see how it fit into the dining room - thank you Andrea for your wonderful visions!) - once I move my dishes to the china cabinet I will now have free space to put all my smaller appliances that were cluttering the counter tops or were stored in places that were very hard to reach.  (As I glance over to where the china cabinet is going, I'm not sure I will like it... but I won't know until it is there.)

But the best part of all this is, once I told her my hopes and dreams for my kitchen (lol - well not THAT dramatic...) turns out that her partner is a carpenter and I have already heard back from her that he will come over this week and measure for the counter that I have always wanted instead of a kitchen table!  Dreams into action... whatta concept! LOL

So anyway, it has been a productive weekend, all with an eye to a dietary lifestyle change.  I really feel that the physical change in my kitchen is so necessary to meet the change in my cooking style.

Looking forward to changes!
Miriam