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It's the weekend...
you see Roger has tomorrow off which means I am starting weekend time a day
early!
Right now I am enjoying a few precious
afternoon moments with the sun streaming through the windows, babies napping,
laundry is done, house is cleaned and dinner is slow cooking.
There is something about this time of year or
could it be this stage of pregnancy that fills me with new vision and desires
for my home. I am blessed to be living in my
House
of Dreams,
yet there seems to always
be spaces, corners and cupboards that can use a clean or overhaul. One such
area that I am constantly trying to figure out is my kitchen, as our family
grows and the needs change I am altering things to make life smother and more efficient.
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Recently I have moved
our 'command cupboard', you may remember it from This Post. I loved this space,
which was located in the kitchen and just above the phone, yet I needed more kitchen
cupboard space, for kitchen things.
We have this narrow
hallway leading from the kitchen up to our 'gabled schoolroom' (open doorway on the left in the above photo). The hallway has
a wall of build-in cabinets and a small utility sink. I have always been a bit
at loss of how to utilize and decorate this narrow space, until I saw this
bookshelf with doors at Ikea. I knew instantly what to do with the shelf and
the hallway!
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I moved our family
command center to the hallway, I like how it looks and it's functionality along
with how it bridges the space between kitchen and school room. It provided more
room to organize our mail, calendars, phones, keys, cameras, general daily
paper and schedules. On the wall space left of the shelf I framed our family
rules, then a cheap plastic frame from Ikea inside I placed brown paper and
wrote the days of the week. On the outside of the frame I write the day's most
important requirements with a chalk pen, I can easily wipe it off and reuse the
fallowing week. Putting the shelf and using it as our command center in the
hallway opened up a large cupboard and two small drawers in the kitchen which
was very much needed.
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There are three
sections in the cabinets that were all ready in the hallway. In the first
section right beside the utility sink I have our cleaning supplies. I mostly
clean with Norwex cloths and hot water. I have a place to hang our daily 'cleaning
cloth' on hooks inside the cabinet, this way we can reuse it (other than
bathroom or germy jobs) throughout the day, also my kids can get at the cloths
(that is why the hooks are hung low). Because we do not clean with chemicals
most wiping, dusting, walls and windows can be done by my kids, I also help,
but I love to delegate!
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The next section over
is our household utility shelf, it holds everything from light bulbs to toilet
paper, cloth bags and our going to town bins are at the bottom.
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Next section I have my vases, extra
decorations, and our baby swing that can be hung in the kitchen, for those wild
moments when only a swing will sooth a toddler!
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There are three
smaller cupboards above the cabinets, I use this space for baskets to hold any
returns.
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I am enjoying having
a utility command/center space in our home. I like having everything in one
place as opposed to scattered in different spots throughout the home.
I love
that it looks lovely!
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