The William Morris Project :: under the kitchen sink.

Warning! Some of you may want to stop being my friend after reading this. And if you are a member of my family, you may contemplate disowning me. (Sorry, Dad & Grandmother!!!)

One of the most well-written, thought-provoking blogs I religiously read is Pancakes and French Fries. She currently has a series running on Thursday's called "The William Morris Project." I first heard the quote Morris is famous for on Simple Mom, and I often recite it to myself when I need motivation to work in/on my house.

"Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be beautiful, or believe to be useful."

Inspiring, no?

Though I didn't set out to participate personally in Jules' project, I have quite enjoyed reading her very real portrayal of her house and how it's a work in progress. I love how she posted today that the recipe book she had was not exactly her desired style, but it was the one she had. So she used it. Useful. Useful is good enough. She walks her readers through the decisions she makes, and why she makes them. It appeals to my analytical nature to know someone's step-by-step thoughts. It often helps me order mine.

Anyway, I was grabbing something out from under the kitchen sink yesterday when the uninvited idea of revamping that space a bit for William Morris Thursday dawned on me.

So I did.

Before.

It was worse than it looks, even. There was lots of stuff hiding under those grocery sacks. Like an old fly swatter. Fly swatters are disgusting. I'd almost rather have the flies than the swatter.

Everything pulled out. Blurry, I know. But you need the visual.

Seriously? How nasty.

While looking through the photos, I almost didn't post this. But honesty, is the best policy, right?

I have no idea what this was, but I can tell you it was real, real sticky.

I don't have a clue.

Cleaners that moved out from under the sink and into my cleaning caddy. Oh, and little boy feet.

This project was not planned very far in advance, and I didn't really want to spend money. I needed this to be quick and easy. I do one of two things when shopping for organization supplies: 1.) Spend too much or 2.) Leave empty-handed because I'm too indecisive. Normally, it's No. 2. And that tends to thwart all of my cleaning/organizing efforts so I knew I had to avoid Target.

Even so, a container to corral the grocery sacks was a must. Lucky for me, I bought this wire bucket on clearance at Target last week sometime. I had eyed them at full-price, but couldn't resist when they went on sale. It was just sitting around, waiting for an assignment.

I pulled out the canvas liner and set it aside. I'm brainstorming how to use it.

See? Grocery sacks! Perfect!

Everything else got a good scrub, including the floor of the cabinets. The paint is chippy and rust-stained and generally nasty-looking, albeit clean now. I contemplated splurging on some shelf liner to cover its ugliness, but it's so uneven and peel-y that it would just look bad. Maybe at some point I will get the motivation to scrape the wood nice and smooth. In the meantime, quick and easy was the goal. Keep your eye on the prize, yes?

The only things that went back into the blue bins were dish washing items and...

...cleaners I regularly use in the kitchen, like Clorox Clean Up (tough messes, disinfecting after working with raw meat), stainless steel cleaner (for my pretty fridge), Fantastik (for cleaning ketchup-smeared walls and such) and a bottle of vinegar water (used to clean the baby's high chair tray, kitchen table, etc.)

I also moved my S.O.S. pads to one Ikea ceramic pot and the roll of garbage bags to another. I left a replacement bottle of hand soap as well.

I got rid of the weird random cord, some old Ball jars covered in candle soot, and the nasty fly swatter. I relocated a vase.

After

There is A TON of space behind this stuff, and I'm OK with it being empty. It's not magazine-worthy, but it's better. And it's definitely more useful to me now.

Useful = good. Yay for William Morris. And Jules.