31 Day Challenge: Dining Area

Step 9 seemed reasonably easy. We'd added a small cart to the corner of the dining area for extra storage, as well as a couple of cube style shelves that Dan pulled when he cleaned out the garage, which I used to hold canning equipment over the summer. However, seasons are changing and it's time to move some of the "summer" stuff to deeper storage and organize the "winter" stuff so that it's easily accessible. Pictures!

Before: from living room

Before: From bookshelf, toward living room

I just realized that I only took two "before" shots, but that ought to be good enough. You can see 90% of the issues in the first one, and the second covers the rest. 

Under the counter, next to the stools, nearly at the wall, is a reasonably sized cabinet and drawer that were completely blocked by the cube organizer which housed my canning gear. In the adjacent corner, a cart on wheels. So I swapped them, such that I could get at that cabinet by sliding the cart back. I also dragged the canning stuff back to the basement for winter. I do plan to can more, but it's not something I'll use on a daily (or even weekly) basis again until spring. I can shlep it upstairs as needed.

In the second shot, there is an old kitchen chair that my old roommate (Hi, Stacey) might remember from when we bought a kitchenette set at K-Mart in my first (and last) off-campus apartment. The rest of the set is long gone, but somehow this one chair never quite left and became a clutter magnet. So it's going to the garage for the moment.

After: From living room

After: From bookshelf, toward living room

I realized that it would make sense for at least some of Sam's art supplies to be available in easy reach of the kitchen table, since that's where he normally colors. I had a small rolling file cabinet under my desk in the office, so I brought that up and it fits just perfectly under that little shelf in the corner. It now houses lots of coloring books, construction paper, and crayons.

More kitchen-y decluttering, up next. Onward! #LWSLClutterFree