New Receptacles, New Kitchen Layout!

 

Tidy! Organized! Clean! Uncluttered! Recycled! Attractive!

Hot dog, it's been a good week. The husband has been coming home early (unlike today when he may or may not come home at all) and we've been stopping by various thrift stores around town. We have several really good ones within 5 miles of our house.
I am a sucker for the "housewares" section of a thrift store, and have lately actually needed to look for things there.
I'm gearing up for our future market booth by finding as many used receptacles to house my bathsalts and other cosmetic items. I've also been needing more jars to ferment and store things in here at home, so it's been a fun adventure of cheap, recycled, salvaged glassware.

My mom always told me i could never work with a cluttered space. It is SO true. Nothing thrills, and calms, me more than a clean counter and organized workspace.  I've had a spinny spice rack for years, and disliked it for years. My new find doesn't hold any MORE spices, but allows me to reuse various jars, and to see all the spices in one take. I'd love to find a matching rack to go on the other side of my oven someday. I also reorganized my draws so that all my spices are in the same region of the kitchen, the area i'm usually standing while mixing (versus across the kitchen like it was before, folly) so that everything flows seamlessly and pleasantly.

My cupboards have also been filled with less packaged foods and more whole grains and other bulk items. This is great, i'm making more and more things from scratch. But a drawer full of baggies is a pain. My new mason jars allow me to get those bulk grains and pastas out of the baggies and into visually pleasing clear jars. I can see them, they look good, and they'll stay fresh while freeing up space in the cupboards (that will soon be filling with home canned goods). 
You (and my mom) may say that adding so many jars to my kitchen is really just filling up counter space. But really - these jars are now blocking my view of the back of the tv, make the kitchen look pretty from the living room, and are just occupying otherwise empty space in a mostly unused secondary counter. I can't wait to see the bubbling activity of new, larger batches of Kim Chee.

 

I'm loving it!

It was also really nice to have some of my lady friends stop by and notice my new set up. I like having my house look nice, go figure!

The only qualm i have: old used jars often come with nasty falling apart rubber seals. I'm sure those are replaceable. It's so much fun to find a cute matching set of jars, especially when you've pieced the set together from different stores and towns.

Do you have a source for new rubber gaskets? What is your favorite storage receptacle? Do you prefer to show off your pretty bulk foods, or hide them in the dark of your cupboard.