A Little Organization Goes A Long Way...

When my house was built, someone thought it would be brilliant to put 9 feet of counter top space just inside the main entrance to the house. This counter top space is not directly in the kitchen or at standard counter top height.  It really has no purpose. 
Except one:
Junk collecting. 
Clutter catching.
Or simply trash, whatever you would like to call it. 
Whatever it is, it piles up in mounds on this 9 foot piece of counter top.
(this design is a terrible idea in my opinion, please do not put 9 feet of counter as your 'drop zone' in any house you may design)

I will give you a few pictorial examples of the chaos and clutter:

Everyone dumps everything here. Even though the trash can is 2 feet away, where do you think my wonderful kids put there trash from the car? Here.

Where do people 'hang' their coats, even thought there are hooks just inside that door you see on the right? Here.

Where does all the mail, magazines and papers from church go?

Yep, you guessed it; here.

The clutter was quite literally, choking me. I always get a little nutty once deep winter hits, and this area of my house was not helping. So, this week, I decided to take back the kitchen! 

First of all, I just needed to wipe the slate clean, so I transferred everything off of this counter, and piled it up on my kitchen island. This may not make sense to some of you, but it's all part of my process.

That's a lot of junk people! 

But when you turn around look what you can see now!

Wait a second, he doesn't belong here! (Two of my children were compelled to lay on the clean counter, what is it about wide open spaces?)

Aaahhhh, sweet relief!  I really wish I could leave it like this, but this counter does have to serve 2 purposes:

1. Our toaster station is located here

2. Our incoming mail, and important papers waiting to be filed upstairs go here.

I had a helper that was a great help in sorting through all the junk. She kept me motivated to keep going and not quit in the middle. Which I would do. Especially when you get to the point where you have put away all the easy stuff and are left with the stuff that you just can't get rid of but don't know where to put it... You know what I mean. Did I tell you that the 9 feet of counter top actually rests on top of 6 drawers and 4 cabinets?  That are all full of junk? 

Who has 6 junk drawers????

I do.

Even my dog is disgusted.

I know, I have a problem. 

Anyway, we muddled through - except the cupboards, and got the job done.

Are you ready to see the final results?

Yay!  So much better.  When we were done, I could actually breathe a little easier.

Oh, and look! I emptied out one whole drawer!  Although, do you know what happens to empty drawers?

They fill up.  I don't even know where it comes from!!

I got rid of about 148 pens and I still have all these.  

But now I can find my favorites.

And here is my neat and tidy toasting station.  

Did you know Hunky Hubby has toast almost every morning.  If he doesn't eat immediately upon waking his stomach will actually attack his own body and he will start eating himself, he is that hungry.

Truly.

And here is my adorable plate that I bought at TJ Maxx shortly after Wyat was born because it was so adorable.  It says 'All my happy" and it has three cute bear faces on it.  

Adorbs! 

I am so pleased with how the counter looks now.  I still am not happy to have 9 feet of counter sitting there waiting for junk.  But now it is much more manageable.  

In a perfect world, I have a plan to split all that space up nicely and make it look more attractive and organized.  But unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world. 

So for now, I have a great example of how a little organization goes a long way to keeping the house looking and feeling clean.

Now I just have to keep it that way.

Oh, and not turn around and look at what's lurking in the rest of the kitchen!