kitchen organization

So last week was approximately the worst week ever. Starting on Saturday (the same day we enjoyed some raw vegan food and gawking at Ben Folds at Pure Food and Wine and the dramatic stylings of the gorgeous and talented Paul Rudd in Grace), I came down with the worst sinus infection in history. Perhaps not human history, but my history, at the very least. Three days out of work (at a very bad time to be out of work, natch), and severe boredom set in. I couldn't do a darn thing. Except watch movies starring Hugh Grant. That I did with aplomb.

But this week I'm back. Not quite "better than ever," but back to my normal activities. On Saturday I came up with a whole apartment to do list that would give anyone chills. Calling the apartment disorganized is a bit of an understatement. It's a giant, world-consuming mess. I did not expect to get through the entire list in one weekend. I'm not Superman, nor am I my mother, who could totally get through it all because she may be Superman. I just wanted to get through one room. And for the most part, I did! It was the kitchen. And here's where my thought process went.

So our kitchen is sort of disorganized. We don't have a ton of cabinets, but we do have two microwave carts and one buffet-hutch-type-thing. Unfortunately, those are not quick doing the trick, and we just kind of jam things in places and hope for the best. No one ever knows where anything is. It's amazing.

In comes the shelving sale at the Container Store. I bought a few things for the bathroom last week, and they sent me a catalog with my order. And the catalog had these.

Ironically, months, even years ago, when the kitchen was on the top of my redecorating/reorganizing list, these shelves were the solution to all my problems. Ikea has something similar, much cheaper, which appeared alluring once upon a time. Husband was not really feeling it, so we focused on things we could agree on, like the living room.  Now that's just about done (if Ikea decides to continue producing the great bookshelf I would like to buy a duplicate of, we'll be finito shortly), my focus returns to the kitchen. With hints of bedroom, but that's another place, another time.

Here's the thing about Ikea. I'm swinging to the hate side of my love/hate pendulum for the Swedish masters. Our last trip there was the usual nightmare, rife with stress, arguments, and not having measured the length of a wall and buying a desk that might turn out to be longer than the wall we intended to put it on. It wasn't, by the way. The Ikea gods were obviously looking down on us.

And the Container Store shelving, while more pricy, promised to hold up to 500 pounds. Per shelf. I have no intentions of putting 500-pound items on my shelves, but Ikea makes no such promises. And I think my Kitchenaid standing mixer is about 400 pounds. And it has all these fun components! Accessories for shelves?  Now we're talking. Drawers, hooks, wine racks? I'm in heaven.

So, a bunch of money on the credit card later, our fancy shelves will be delivered on Sunday, and we will have a lot of Amtrak miles. I'm excited for the open, airy look, and hoping the open shelves (rather than cabinets) will force us to be more organized. We really put a lot of thought into what we would put on the shelves, how we would use them, and what accessories we wanted, so I hope we've made a good investment. And we can always buy more shelves and accessories, which is kind of fantastic, should our needs change.  They look relatively simple to put together--no enormous piles of screws!--and if we ever move and don't have room for them/have more actual cabinets, they'll break down easily to be stored.

Yeah, I'm sold.  I need to invest in a few more baskets or bins to put loose items in, and perhaps make my dream of shelves of mason jars full of beans a reality. Because my bean collection should be on display.

Of note: Husband did not make homemade seitan yet. I was too sick for seitan, and then this weekend I was so excited not to be deathly ill that I insisted on making other things. But I put nutritional yeast on my cereal this morning and it was amazing.

home office

Oh my God, you guys!

I have been such a bad blogger. I have plenty of things to write about (throw pillows, eco-friendly holiday decorations, new year's resolutions, turning the big 3-0...) but I have been very remiss in putting together any coherent posts.

That's all going to change. Today.

Because we are back in business! The holidays knocked us for a loop, but I'm now inspired to go forth on what seems to be a neverending project: the living room.

I thought we might be almost finished. But, you see, in a  New York one-bedroom apartment, a large living room serves many functions. Thankfully ours doesn't also have to function as a dining room, since we are blessed with an eat-in kitchen. However, its two main functions--living room in general and office--didn't get equal footing in our fall overhaul. I gave up one computer desk in exchange for a small kitchen table, and it's definitely not cutting the mustard.

It looks like an afterthought. And with our terrible tendency to collect clutter, the work space gets smaller and smaller every second. Husband was working from home the other day, with one tiny laptop amid a sea of paperwork waiting to be filed, extra holiday cards, returned holiday cards, and computer paraphernalia. It looked like he was being punished.

And he shouldn't be punished. You know what would make both of us feel like we weren't being punished while working at home? A Parsons desk:

West Elm

Oh yeah baby. That's 8 square feet of work space, better known as 8 square feet for us to clog up with clutter.

Or will we? Right know we're struggling with the files of 2 adults stuffed into 2 Rubbermaid file drawers. And the accessories of countless electronic devices (German cell phone, anyone?) stuffed into 4 smaller Rubbermaid drawers. The two sets of drawers don't match. It's not good. It's not well thought out.

Enter our new friend Erik:

Ikea

Erik has a friend:

Ikea

Are you counting what I'm counting? 4 file drawers! And a total of 3 smaller drawers, including the 2 on the desk.

Again, I warn you that this is not a blog on saving money or scrimping when it comes to home decor. The West Elm Parson's desk is not cheap, but short of the customizable solid wood (or whatever other material you want) version from Room & Board, it feels like a smart investment to us. A Parson's desk is a classic in modern design and will truly fit its surroundings, even if one day we have a separate office space. I love that it doesn't have much to it, but still manages to have drawers. With some smart desk organizers, I think our office space will look more like a statement rather than an after thought. And perhaps encourage me to upload all the pictures I take with this blog in in mind and actually write the posts.