We have lived in our house for over three years, and I was never really impressed with our kitchen.  I mean, when we saw the house, we thought the kitchen looked amazing.  But once we started to move in, we quickly realized that the cabinets are too small, we have two, seriously 2, drawers for the entire kitchen, and the dishwasher cannot be connected to anything, so it moves around a lot.  The garbage disposal backs up into the other side of the sink (gross), and there is not nearly enough counter space.  We have said for the three years that we have lived in this house, that we will remodel the kitchen.  Well, next summer (squeal!) we are going to be creating the kitchen of our dreams!!!

But I am still stuck with this kitchen until the remodel.  Yes, I can just say I’ll wait until after the remodel, but that means that I still have to look at this space every day until then.  I just can’t live like that.  I need to make this space less pathetic, because it’s very obvious that we have given up hope on the kitchen.  I’m not talking about spending a fortune to make it look pretty.  I’m talking about how to fall back in love with your kitchen again!

Reorganize The Space

Sometimes a simple rearranging of where things are can completely change a space.  Is the location of your plates not working for you?  Is the silverware totally disorganized?  Do you have a corner cabinet that has become a dumping ground?

If there is something that isn’t working in your kitchen, take some time to figure out what it is that you don’t like about the space.  We have a corner cabinet that is next to the dishwasher, but the cabinet is open to the side of the dishwasher, which is why we cannot attach it to anything!  This cabinet is a nightmare to try to organize.  There is no light, it’s deep and awkward.  We have lost things behind the dishwasher, and forgotten about things that were stored way in the back.  I was ready to give up hope on this cabinet, when I decided to try using bins to organize our kitchen gadget equipment.  Now I can grab a bin for the gadget I am using, and we have yet to lose a single piece!

Another problem with our kitchen was that our dinner plates didn’t fit into any cabinet.  The plates aren’t that large, but the cabinets were just that small.  An easy solution to this problem was to remove the doors on two cabinets.  The doors we decided to remove were glass doors, so the cabinets looked nice on the inside.  Then I found plate stands and we are using those to hold the plates up.  I put the rest of our dishes above the dinner dishes, and now I love how this looks because it brings some nice color to the space.

Take some time to figure out what is bothering you about your kitchen.  Then, think of some solutions that might help make things easier on you while you are using the space in your kitchen.  Get creative, because you never know what amazing ideas you might come up with that could make you fall in love with your kitchen all over again!

Clear Countertops

One thing I have started to do is remove most of the things on my countertops.  Having a clear space, makes my kitchen feel bigger than it actually is.  I decided to move all of our kitchen gadgets into our designated pantry.  Then I moved our pantry into the kitchen.  This has made a huge difference because I have cleared off a lot of counter space, and can get to pantry items quickly.

The only things I have left on the counters are the toaster, coffee machine, cooking spoons, knives, and salt/pepper.  I feel like my kitchen is so much larger, and have gotten comments from visitors saying the space looks cleaner.

This also helps with cleaning up at the end of the night.  Once dinner is over, I try to get all the dishes in the dishwasher and wipe down the counters.  Since I rearranged the kitchen and got rid of some of the clutter on counters, my clean-up time has decreased!

My suggestion is to only keep items on your counter you use daily.  Everything else should be stored somewhere else.  Maybe you have a cabinet that can hold all of your cooking equipment.  Maybe you have space in your pantry, or an extra cabinet.  Find space to put some of the clutter from your counters, so you can love your kitchen again!

Add Some Personality

If you want to fall in love with your kitchen again, then take some time to add your personality into the space.  Do you have a boring cooking utensil holder?  Find something fun and festive to add to your space to give it your own touch.  Do you have a fun tray you love, but can’t figure out where to put it?  Take some time to find a place for it in your kitchen.  Is there a cookbook you just love?  Find (or make) a cookbook holder and display that cookbook that you can see daily.

If you can’t figure out what you might like, look to Pinterest or Instagram for inspiration.  Once you have an idea, STOP LOOKING!  Put the phone/computer/tablet down and walk away.  As soon as you get an idea, then just run with it.  When you start looking and looking, you will become obsessing over perfect, and that’s not what we are going for.  We are going for showcasing YOU, and your personality.  There are lovely images all over the internet, but you are just looking for inspiration.

Adding these personal touches that you love, will make you fall in love with your kitchen all over again.  You probably are in your kitchen multiple times a day, so why not showcase some of your favorite or interesting finds!

Shop Your House

I do this all the time.  If I want to change a space, I start with walking around my house to see what I have and take inventory.  The nice thing about shopping around your house is that you aren’t spending any money to redecorate, you just have to rearrange stuff to fit into a new space.

What I typically do when I know a space isn’t working, I will start by figuring out what exactly is the problem with the space.  Do I have too much room and not utilizing it effectively?  Do I not have enough room?  Do I have a system for putting things away once I am finished?  Once, I figure out the problem, I try to figure out a solution.  Do I need more bins that stack to store stuff in a funky cabinet?  Could this piece of equipment go in a different part of the space?

Now that I have my solution, I make a plan and reorganize a space.  While I am reorganizing, I keep a mental note of what I have hanging out around the house.  (This is why I shop the house before I start any reorganizing projects!)  Then, when I come up with an idea for how I want to organize or decorate the space, I run it through my mental checklist of what I already have.

I’ll grab that item and see if it fits in the space.  If it does not fit in the space, then I put it back.  If it does, then I will continue to organize and decorate.  When I have completed the space I was originally working on, I will go back to the space I grabbed the item from.  I normally just move a couple of picture frames, or flip around a shelf to cover for the item I have now used in a new place.

And with shopping around your house, you can constantly change how a room or rooms feel without spending any money!  I mean, who doesn’t love that, right?

If It Doesn’t Work, Change It

And my last useful piece of advice for falling in love with your kitchen again is if it isn’t working for you, then change it.  So you thought it would be a good idea to put all your spices in the pantry, which is around the corner from your oven.  But you quickly realize that this is a silly place for your spices, since you use them every day.  Change where the spices are.

There is nothing set in stone that says you have to keep things in the exact place you put them if they are not working for you.  The point of keeping things organized is to make your life easier, not more stressful!  Find a place that will work for you, and rearrange until you are happy with where everything is.  Then focus on making it pretty.

So what if you must have your spices out because they don’t fit in a cabinet.  Just get pretty glass jars to store the spices in with decorative labels, and you have changed an eyesore into something more interesting to look at.  Your pots and pans don’t fit in a cabinet?  Well, get a cute wall-mounted pan hanger and decorate the space around your pots and pans.

To fall in love with your kitchen again, make sure you take time to reorganize the space to meet your needs.  Keep the countertops as clear as you can, by keeping only items that you use every day.  Add your personality by showcasing things that you find interesting and meaningful.  Shop your house to decorate the space, so you don’t have to spend a ton of money on making things pretty.  And if it doesn’t work, change it!  Now it’s your turn to get into your kitchen and reorganize, decorate, and fall in love with your kitchen all over again.  Focus on making the space meaningful to you…and share your progress because I love to see how you are getting things organized!