Friday, July 6, 2012

Under the Sink

I know I promised another small kitchen project in this post but when I wrote it I had a total brain fart and forgot I wouldn't be posting on July 4th. I hope everyone had a festive holiday spending time with loved ones. I will post all about our adventures for the 4th in the coming days.

Now, back to the kitchen. I will have to give a disclaimer, this blog is about to get real. Like real dirty. I was embarrassed at myself for not noticing how nasty under the sink was until I decided to attach it. When the hubs and I bought this house and moved in, under the kitchen sink was an area where I just threw cleaning supplies and happily said "I will clean that out later"...well little did I know that "later" would be almost 2 years after our move in date. So, lets just get to it.

This is what I started with, a complete and utter mess!




Sorry about the pictures, the sun was beaming in the kitchen window and was putting a weird glare in the camera. There is a lot of pipe going on in there so I kept everything I needed just randomly placed. This is mostly cleaning supplies, trash bags, light bulbs, sponges, clothes and candles. A little of everything.

On our last trip to the container store (as mentioned here) I stopped by the clearance rack as always. I found two Medium Weave Baskets which are normally $12.99 on sale for $4.97, the one I am using for this project was on sale because of a warped corner. You could only tell the corner was messed up if I laid it on its side, other than that it was fine. Do I care if the corner is bent? Nope!

 





























One thing that was on my list to purchase were these large stacking bins, they were also on sale. I purchased two large bins, normally $6.99 on sale for $4.99.




































































So the first step of taking control of the mess was clearing out the cabinet. That is when I found that the bottles were the least of my worries, the previous owners had these nasty cabinet liners in all of the cabinets. I removed them from all of my cabinets when we first moved in, but as mentioned above it has taken me two years to do this cabinet, whoops!

























Yep, this is real life people. That. Is. Nasty!! So I ripped this out as fast as I could and wiped down the cabinet. All the bins fit back in perfectly!




























The purple container I already had and after I took this picture I realized my stacking bins still had the price tag on them, they are now removed :)

Now, for an after picture which has kept me sane again.




























The large bin holds all the cleaning products, dish detergent and trash bags. The purple container holds the sink stoppers and garbage disposal refreshers. The top stacking bin holds extra hand soap, light bulbs and jet dry. The bottom stacking bin holds all of my sponges and microfiber clothes. To save you from scrolling up lets to a side by side:



With a house full of puppy paws I would love to change to greener cleaning products once I finish what little supplies I have left. I am thinking of either making our cleaning supplies or researching green products. But, for right this is what I am working with and it only took $15.00 to help me get it organized. I love the changes to the kitchen so far! 

Do you use homemade cleaning products or green cleaning products? If so, do you have a good homemade recipe you would like to share. I would love to see it! 


6 comments:

  1. It looks awesome!!!
    I use viniger and water a lot. When something is real tough I break out the cleaner I already have.

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    1. We use viniger and water on our glass now, we started a few weeks back. I haven't used it on any other surfaces though. I plan on doing a little research to see what else I can find. I do like something with a nice smell, nothing to strong, but something that smells clean.

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  2. Great job on your organization! It is hard to make under the sink spots look pretty!

    I wanted to let you know that I am nominating you for the Versatile Blogger Award! Congratulations!

    Please click this link to find out more:, http://meaningfulnest.blogspot.com/

    Nicky :)

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    1. Thank you so much for the nomination Nicky!! I've been out of touch this week, so it really made my day! I will post all about it this weekend :)

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  3. At our house, we used a few of those self-stick linoleum tiles to "line" the cabinet under the sink (since it's usually so gross under there anyways. It makes them really easy to wipe down, since it's technically a flooring material. Really inexpensive, too, since you probably only need 6 tiles or so, and you can cut them down with a utility knife to fit!

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    1. That's a great idea, thanks for sharing! I have been looking for a liner or something to put down that will be easy to wipe down.

      Thanks for visiting!

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