Hello! Today, we're returning to our organizing roots as I share a little mini-makeover of this wee cabinet. This is a small kitchen cart, which you may remember I found on the street and somehow hauled home while carrying West in the carrier and with Lou as a cheerleader. (It had wheels to begin with, but steadily, over the several blocks home, each one fell off. It was such a comedy of errors).

Perhaps because of the blood, sweat and tears we expended dragging it home, I'm rather attached to this ugly little duckling. It's also just super useful: I love having the microwave there, it holds our coffee gear and mixer quite tidily, and it provides some extra food storage down below. About that food storage:

We use this to hold our caffeinated products, bread and snacks, for the whole family. Which was fine. And, in the beginning, it was fairly organized. But, to quote Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park, life finds a way. To mess up your organizational systems. Partly, this is a problem of having too much crammed in here (though it does look a little empty right now, it was a lot of stuff to try to shoehorn in a tidy way). Partly, this cabinet is Westley's favorite spot in the whole house that doesn't involve power outlets or stove knobs, so he takes things out and puts them back in and opens and shuts the door all day. Which is fine - truly - but I thought maybe we could reduce the number of things to be "reorganized" by Sir W.

I found these awesome organization tins on sale at West Elm. I am obsessed with them and looking to go get more. They're metal - read: babyproof - have airtight lids, and stackable. Oh, and super-cute. Sign me up! I sorted our our tea and coffee and hot chocolate gear into these, and then recruited help for affixing the all-important final step: Labels.

She, in turn, had her own little helper.

Once these items were stored away, it was time to figure out what else to fit in here. I decided to winnow it down, reserving it only for special snacks and kids' grab-n-go items. I like keeping special snacks out of eye-level (for the grownups -- to be clear, those are our special treats, which we need to keep out of sight, out of mind), and a plastic office container keeps it all contained, safe from pests, and safe from West. A couple baskets hold West's and Lou's emergency snacks. We have lots of snacks in higher cabinets, but these are the things I reach for when running out the door.

You might also notice I laid down a sheet of marble-printed contact paper, which I think makes a surprisingly large difference. That's heartening, because I still have plans to makeover the rest of this little cabinet, with some new stain and new hardware. I also am on the hunt for a narrow breadbox to hold the bread I expelled from the cabinet.

That's it for this little organization project! I hope you enjoyed. And don't forget to check back in tomorrow for Week Five of the One Room Challenge! Hope your day is great.