Beautiful Starter House: The BEST thing you can do for your house.

I want to tell you about a family I know. This family had a lot of money, I mean A LOT! They had a huge house in one of the nicest parts of town. Their house had a big backyard with an in ground pool, they had hardwood floors, high ceilings, skylights, winding staircase, and more and more. Sounds like the perfect dream house right? WRONG!!! So what's the problem? Was it bad plumbing? No. Termites? No. Bad neighbors? No. The problem was that the house was a pig sty! That's right, toys, clothing, food, garbage, all over the house. The house smelled like a trash bin, and the beautiful hardwood was impossible to see among the mess. The pool had green stuff growing in it and smelled like pee. Nobody wanted to visit the house in fear of catching a disease. So.....

The best thing you can do to make your house 100 time more beautiful is keeping your place clean and organized. Ok so I know what you're all thinking "cleaning is so boring, I'd rather be picking out paint colors." It's true, picking out decorating elements would be WAY more fun and interesting, but it's not going to matter if your walls are the perfect shade of "mother of pearl" if your living room looks like a laundry mat exploded in it. Just think, you could have your make-up done by a celebrity make-up artist, but you'll never get prince charming if you have food stuck in your teeth and smell like a locker room.

I decided to start organizing my kitchen. Not only did I want it to be orderly, but I was tired of opening cupboards and seeing stuff all piled in a messy heap. It just looked like an ugly mess. I started with the vitamin cupboard. We have a lot of stuff because there's adult stuff, kid stuff, and infant stuff. We also shop at Costco and have super sized bottles of everything.

BEFORE

I started by throwing out anything past the expiry date. Next I moved half full bottles into smaller bottles, remembering to label them and write the expiry date. I also consolidated doubles of things into one bottle if it would fit.

AFTER

Next I worked on the spice cupboard. I had been following in my mother's foot steps, buying spices in bags because they were less expensive. Unfortunately, they don't stay very fresh, or organized. I was sick of never being able to find what I needed.