Organizing the Kitchen Counter... Desk... Thingy.

Fair warning: This post is bordering on "mundane" because it's really just about cleaning. But it's one of those things that irks you for weeks that stretch into months and then suddenly you can't handle it anymore. And that's how I felt about this space:

Not so long ago, it was all the rage to include these little desk alcoves in the kitchen area. In theory, they're a nice idea, but in execution, this particular family didn't take long to make it a total eyesore.

When we moved my husband's parents out of their old house and into this current one, they were in Houston, where his mother was being treated for leukemia. We moved everything, and had no idea how to account for certain things--overdue bills, bank statements, unopened envelopes labelled "personal and confidential." For a while, this desk stayed organized, but it didn't last long, and it was the only part of the common areas that I refused to clean up on principle. (I didn't want to be responsible for accidentally throwing away an important document.) But last week, I reached my breaking point.

I went to Target and bought a file box (above), a paper tray, a small desk organizer, and a $1 plastic box. Then I opened all of the envelopes and organized them into piles: current bills, medical bills, insurance, tax information, etc. There was also an assortment of manuals for various appliances. And by far, the biggest stack was the "to be shredded" stack.

I actually burned out the shredder belonging to my husband's dad, so Hubs went to our storage unit and got ours out, teasing, "Try not to kill this one too."

Hubs had also gotten into the bad habit of leaving the opened seed packs all over the little desk, so the small desktop organizer was put to good use. The pens, markers, and highlighters came out of the overstuffed drawer, making room for more practical things like scissors, paper clips, and stamps.

The paper tray is where "current" bills that need to be paid this month will be kept, and once they're paid, they'll go straight to the shredder.

Now that the shelves are mostly clear of mail (the only remaining pile is a stack of old mail belonging to Hubs' brother which has since been shredded) I'm not sure I ever want them to be used as mail slots again. I'll have to figure out some other way to make them look useful without looking tacky or cluttered, but for now, this space looks so much better and the kitchen as a whole looks tidier as a result.

Ever have one of those projects that seems boring and takes all day, but in the end, it's more fulfilling than you thought it'd be? (Shredding those papers was especially cathartic!)