New Year & Winter Kitchen

Hello friends! I hope your new year is off to a great start. I put away all the holiday decor and, while I was at it, organized all of the storage areas in our basement. I purged a bunch of stuff and am feeling much more ready to begin the new year. We also packed away my mom's Christmas stuff AND at the cabin. Phew, I am SO glad the holidays are over!

I always enjoy the quieter winter months to putter around the kitchen and cook more. My 2 older boys have been around much more with their break from college and nothing makes me happier than having them all around me in the kitchen. 

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I love getting out my non-seasonal stuff and filling my spaces with things I enjoy being surrounded by. I definitely use less color at this time of year. I always take my decor cues from nature and this is a more simple time of year and my home reflects that.

Other than changing the decor with the seasons, I don't foresee many changes in our kitchen in 2020. It functions very well and I am happy with the updates we made over the last couple of years. I would love to change the countertops but we wouldn't see a return on that investment anytime soon so I doubt think we'll do that. The granite does function very well, I am just a bit tired of it.

I was so happy to to hang the pot rack back up! I missed having it during the holidays and found myself reaching up for kitchen tools and pots only to find they weren't there. My most-used items on the pot rack are the colanders, cheese grater and measuring cups/spoons. These hang on the back of the pot rack with the more decorative copper items on the front.

I hung a few more functional items on the Ikea rail at the end of our island. 

I cleaned out all the baskets and jars on our kitchen island. I don't know what we'd do without these open shelves. Since we don't have a pantry, this is a great alternative. Still dreaming of a pantry someday!

I'll share more of our dining and living spaces next. Have you been organizing with the start of the new year too?