Attacking the problem areas: kitchen cleaning cupboard

Besides the bathroom we've considered our house pretty much "done" for awhile.  There aren't any big projects to do (other than the bathroom) or anything that we are willing to put the money in to do.  But then I started looking closer at smaller places - cupboards, closets, and drawers...and I quickly found a lot of projects.  Little things we had been living with for the last 8 years but that I could, with a little paint, organizing, and time, make much prettier.  Now that I've seen those places I can't unsee what I could do.  This is the first one I've tackled: the cupboard by our back door.  It's where we keep most of our cleaning supplies, cookbooks, recycle bin, and all of those things.  Here is where we started:

UGGGGG.  An ugly mess.  I had been through it multiple times and added things to the garage sale pile but it was still had too much stuff in it and was just dirty looking.  The sides of it were an ugly yellow that seems to show up in a lot of our cupboards/closets.  I'm a big fan of fresh white paint and that was the biggest step.

Over the 2 months since I took the "before" I had done more purging and covered all the shelves with contact paper.  Finally during nap time 2 weeks ago I got to the painting.  In the middle of two other projects spread all over our dining table (including the curtain one I posted about last week) I emptied out this cupboard and gave it a good whip down with my vinegar cleaning spray.

Then it was time to paint.  We have various half full buckets of white paint from other projects and I picked the fullest one.  It was marked as ceiling paint for 2 little girls.  Since I know the two prior owners before us didn't have kids...that was some old paint.  But I stirred it and it was fine (and free, that was very important).

I was able to get the first coat done during nap time and the second while Matt was putting Luke to bed that night.  Since it's a cupboard I just shut the door in between so Luke wouldn't get into wet paint.  Because that definitely would have happened if possible.

By the next morning I was able to put it all back together.  This is one of those projects I've had on my list for awhile but once I finally started it was done quickly.

I also spray painted the key hooks navy blue which I already had and is my go-to spray paint color. 

My only real expense for this project was buying a $1 bucket from the dollar store for rags and a $5 trash can from Target for our recycle.  We had been using old container for each and after the fresh paint those needed an update.  I labeled them with scrapbook stickers I had on hand. 

If you look back at the beginning picture you'll notice we downsized our cleaning supplies a lot.  I pretty much use either my homemade window/glass/mirror cleaner or vinegar cleaner (both here) for everything.  Hiding in the back is a carpet cleaning spray which, if you've seen our carpets, know we don't use often.

And the finished product. 

The top two shelves still look cluttered to me so those might get a little more work.  Still, a pretty nice improvement over where we started!!  Total spent was about $10 for the bins, spray paint, and contact paper.  It really motivated me to tackle some more of our nice yellow closets around here!