Now that our project is nearing an end, I’m finding that my eye is much more critical. And what I mean by that is whenever I use something, or more importantly DON’T use something, I question whether it is necessary to hang on to. It’s a good thing, I think.

I also notice when I’m wishing I had another of something – right now that’s only one thing in my kitchen: a spatula. There are many times I need the spatula and it’s sitting in the dishwasher. But, it takes 15 seconds to hand wash it, so do I really need another? So far I haven’t purchased a second one, if that tells you anything. I’m afraid that if I buy another spatula, I’ll buy another fill-in-the-blank and we’ll just wind up with an avalanche of stuff again.

We still aren’t finished with the whole house, which I’ll show you in the coming posts. But, today I’m welcoming you into the kitchen and, by extension, the breakfast room. This is it right now:

And this is looking from the breakfast room into the kitchen:

There are only two appliances on the counter – the coffee maker and the Vitamix. These get used nearly every day, so I want them to remain there.

Here is the cooking area:

The right upper cabinet has our spices, extracts, etc. The left upper cabinet has first aid kit and bowl with bandaids (top shelf), dog related supplies and the vaseline The Girl uses to make homemade lip gloss (second shelf), and people related medications like motrin, neosporin, etc. (bottom shelf).

And the cooktop and under cabinets/drawers:

On the left are two casserole dishes and three lids. We still have some things in the sunroom and I’m waiting to see if I find the casserole dishes that fit the lids (I have one). If I don’t locate them (most likely because they were donated somewhere), I’ll find somewhere to send the lids (other than the landfill).  On the right is the juicer we have. We haven’t used it in a while, so I’m not sure whether we’ll ultimately keep it, but for now that’s where it lives.

And now, for the drawers:

We’ve got three pots and one colander, which we use regularly. The lids are in the bottom right drawer and also get used frequently.

Three pans are on the left and our pots are on the right. I know we have 3 cast iron skillets in the sunroom and those will find a home somewhere. I don’t use them, because they are extremely heavy, but Stephen likes them.

The top right drawer holds our potholders and trivets. We used to have a lot more, but we donated/recycled the ones we didn’t use. Now we have one oven mitt and three potholders. That’s plenty for us. I don’t care for those rubber things, but Stephen likes them. They don’t take up much space, so if he wants them, we’ll keep them. Two trivets is plenty for us.

The left drawer has the utensils we use for cooking. I’m not totally sold on the need for two of those brushes, but I haven’t dealt with that issue yet. Two pairs of tongs, one pizza cutter and one spaghetti/pasta doodad is good for me. The pasta strainer I sometimes use and could go either way on. The spatula, we’ve talked about that.

I’ll show you the rest of our kitchen and breakfast room in another post. But for now, let’s see how far we’ve come from the beginning of our Simple Year to now. Hold on to your britches friends:

This is mid-kitchen reno. This picture was easily accessible. I’ll have to dig to see if I can find the true before picture.

Oh. My. God. THE CLUTTER. It makes me gag just looking at it. Like literally. I want to be sick.

This year has been one heck of a challenge, but oh my goodness, it’s been worth it. Totally worth it.