Storage solutions

Ahh, peace and quiet. It's something we haven't had much of in the past 3 months or so, since we decided we were going to buy a house. But (most of) the boxes are unpacked, the visitors are gone (for now!) and it's just Geoff and I. Well, tonight it's just me, but usually it's just Geoff and I!
Of course, all these little things, along with a kitty with raging conjunctivitis who is forced to wear the cone of shame, I've just not gotten around to blogging because, at the end of the day, I just want to relax!
Kind of like this:

Without the cone, of course. Poor thing, I'm not sure which is more irritating to her, the (presumably) itchy eye, or the collar that prevents her from doing pretty much everything and causes Hermione to hiss at her! Poor thing.

Anyway, I recently had two big boxes of stuff in my kitchen. Stuff we needed, but stuff we didn't have the room to store! See, we had an awesome island in the middle of the other kitchen, so our appliances and pots and pans just expanded to fill the space. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my new kitchen, but it has a little less storage, so it's taking a little getting used to. Those two boxes were stressing me out and I didn't know what to do with them!
Well, a little repurposing (read: stealing) of a cart from Geoff's office helped store our plastic storage containers!

I'm bound and determined to keep these in order this time around. Aren't we all?

That took care of our plastic storage, but not the few larger, awkward (and needed) appliances! I'm talking a blender, food processor and all it's attachments, for example. This time it was Craigslist to the rescue!

This microwave cart is perfect for this corner of our kitchen. It's in great shape and was only $40. I may later replace the hardware with something a little more to my taste, but for now I'm not worried. Although, you may notice that there is no microwave on said microwave cart. We're working on it!
In case you were wondering, living without a microwave is...interesting. It makes reheating take a little longer, but if you have some patience, mashed potatoes reheated on the stove...

or chicken heated in the stove really isn't that bad!

One of the things I love about most about my kitchen is the sink! We went from having a double sink to having just one, and I have to say, it's helped me keep the kitchen much cleaner. When the sink fills up, it's time to load the dishwasher, and most of the stuff fits into the dishwasher in one load!

This was before dinner, so it's not as clean at the moment. But the dishwasher is running, and it was clean for a bit, which made me happy!