Clean Up: Kitchen Style

The baby is asleep. I am not tired enough to nap.I went to the kitchen to disinfect bottles and found a leaking glass of bacon fat sitting in the sink. After a big sigh, I decided it was due time for a major kitchen clean up! Here are the BEFORE photos:

View of the kitchen (and bathroom door) from the dining room. Notice the cluttered stove area.

I've got to confess, I thought to take pictures after I had began cleaning. This is why the area to the left of the stove looks clean-ish.

The glass canisters with chalkboard labels haven't been cleaned since I got them. Which was before I started dating my hubby. Oops. They've been emptied, cleaned and are currently drying.

This area is to the right of the initial photo. On the right is our "pantry", the back wall (covered by the curtain) is for overstock items (i.e toilet paper from Costco) and our garbage sorting area, to the left is the laundry room entrance and the fridge.

Our toilet shelf turned into a pantry shelf. Will need to clean these jars and organize this area.

Our garbage sorting area is on the bottom and the shelf holds our Costco purchases, the breadmaker, and junk.

This closet sits to the left of the area in the above photo. It holds all of our appliances. Our clothes drying rack is currently blocking the laundry room door. P.S. We still don't have a washer or dryer in our laundry room. Sigh.

Last but not least, the area above the fridge needs some serious help.

Stay tuned for updates as this ovehaul progresses. This is my life...

Costco

Since my maternity leave begins in T-minus 27 hours, I have been desperately seeking ways to save money. First I adjusted my student loan so that I pay $65 less per month. This means my length of repayment increases by two years but I can always adjust it again once I'm back to work! I also plan to call my financial institution on Monday to decrease my car loan payments - same results, but worth it. We also got a Costco membership a few days ago. We got the Gold Card Membership for $55 + tax and we got a $10 gift card for signing up too. Turkey Butt still isn't convinced that our potential savings will outweigh the initial membership cost but I am prepared to prove him wrong.

Here are some items that we purchased:

1.5L tub of Miracle Whip - $2.89 (for comparison, I found a 500ml tub of Hellman's for $5.99 at Sobeys)
1KG jar of Cheez Whiz - $5.95 (usually more than $6 for the smallest jar at Sobeys)
16 bars of Irish Spring soap - $6.59 (usually $4-something for a pkg of 2 bars)

Throw in the fact that we got $10 off our purchase with the gift card and I think we're doing pretty good so far! I look forward to going again, perhaps without cranky Turkey Butt, and stocking up on more essentials! This is my life!