When cleaning becomes rearranging and... still on team open shelves.


It's inevitable for the home decor set that when you start to clean something, rearranging mild or severe becomes a part of the equation.
All I wanted to do was clean my open shelving in our kitchen. I fully wipe down the shelves a few times a year and just generally "degrease" everything. 
It's a small kitchen and this is just a regular part of staying on top of the maintenance.



It was time to do that and down everything came, so of course everything went back up in a different place. My methodology at home or in store redos is all of it comes down to start with a clean slate and then
I start over. This is not the least time consuming way to do it at all, *she says with sarcasm* but, it is definitely the way it works in my head. On to the counters and on the dining room table everything gets piled and then cleaned and back up.
This means I overhauled the items under the island and moved things in cupboards.

I'll blame part of this organizing on getting a new back to school drawer ready to roll. Our first school lunch drawer. Yikes.


I have said it before here but our little kitchen works for its supper. There is no room for tables or chairs in here, and it is attached to our dining room that we use daily. We made the switch to open shelving almost 2 years ago now {Read the original reveal here with sources and information}  and I LOVE them. This isn't for convincing purposes, we really love them. We had closed cupboards in here for 10 years. The open shelving has been amazing for us.



Team open shelving right here.

Are they more work than closed door shelving? I honestly don't know. Closed doors promote hoarding or clutter because out of sight out of mind and I also found I was more prone to hold onto something that I might need but never used. I guess it just depends on your personality type. We also need to finish one last tweak on those shelves that we just haven't gotten to. Silly and needs to be done but we need to get both sides attached to one another so they are completely level. You can see the two sides are slightly out in the above photo. We are notorious in this house for slamming a project in right before an event or holiday so when we redid the kitchen it was right before Christmas and the 10 minute job of fixing the shelves got "shelved".

You will see how that notoriety works out shortly as we have a huge "event" happening here in a few weeks and are going to slam a small reno in before it happens. I'm planning to share more about the reno but the event has to stay a bit under wraps for the moment. 
Rude to not share, I know.




Of course this means the items need to be pleasing to the eye and everything has a place. This kitchen doesn't hold anything that isn't beautiful or useful just like the famous quote says.

The shelves hold our daily use mugs, glasses, serving bowls, serving trays and of course our toaster. In this small kitchen a lot of our appliances need to sit on the counter. There isn't space to stash them or have them in drawers and one of the spots I managed to eliminate one of them was finding a toaster that fit perfectly on the shelf. Perfectly stylish? Maybe not.  Perfectly useful, you bet it is.



The appliances on the counter are all the ones used daily, except the mixer but I praise the person that wants to lift that sucker in and out of their cupboards. It isn't me so on the counter it stays.



I moved our daily plates to the island and off the shelf and added a little more warmth underneath with some wood bowls to hold our potatoes and onions. I eliminated a couple vessels by using one large bowl.

This ikea island has been the most amazing addition to the kitchen and with a little hacking by adding the fancy marble top, it is my favourite piece in here.

 Next to of course to the pieces I keep snaking home from the shop.
Shop ownership problems.




A testament to the fact that I love the products I source and sell but it does make me want to bring a lot of it home to test and try.





With a quick peek from the kitchen into the dining room. You can kind of gauge from the island countertop to the dining room our general space here.




Well now that the shelves are clean. 
The school drawer is prepped and we have had a nice conversation about open shelving I shall leave you for today.


Have a great day everyone,
Article by Meaghan Gizuk
Tags: Meg's home

Leave a comment