Practical Can Be Beautiful
Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a honey-do list a mile long. In fact, all I want for my birthday is to work on my honey-do list. Why? Because deep down I love for all things to look beautiful. I feel this way no matter if I am looking at pastures or a place in our home. Even if they have to be practical I like to look at them, use them, AND see beauty. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder so what is beautiful to me won't necessarily be your cup of tea but that is A-OKAY and what makes us unique. The key is the ability to look at your own surroundings and see your items as beautiful. If they don't make you see the beauty in their simple existence maybe you will feel inspired to take a small step forward in making them beautiful, but only if it is something that is important to you. I don’t think my husband sees its importance like I do, thankfully though he still supports my thoughts on it by helping me create them.
I absolutely love tidiness and organization. Even the mundane can be beautiful when they are organized, but another perk is efficiency. Given free time I will organize any non-public space in my house from ombre styling my closet to organizing my kitchen cupboards. It just makes me happy when I enter these spaces and they are neat=my beautiful.
There are a couple of public places though that are very functional and yet decorative. They are the two work horses of the house....the laundry room and the kitchen. The common function of both spaces are a pantry of sorts, a food pantry in the kitchen and a cleaning pantry in the laundry room. I will dive into the details of how I made each of them beautiful and efficient for our family. Another important aspect in making them beautiful deals with efficiency; organization saves time on indoor chores so I can spend more time outside working on renovating the ranch.
A good friend of mine gave me chalk board labels for my birthday one year; they were so inspiring and led me down this path of organization. I love how the simple black labels with white hand written names tied both of these spaces all together like a pretty little package wrapped in brown kraft paper topped with a satin bow.
Packaging from products consumes valuable real-estate in a home, especially when they are partially full. Once items come into the house I unpackage them into their labeled containers. The type and function of the item determines its container in the house but my preference is glass. It is classic, easy to clean, and a non-reactive surface. The benefit of unpackaging items allows for you to see when an item needs restocked but also keeps from opening another of the same when it is pushed towards the back of the cupboard or closet.
The food pantry.....
I have purchased glass jars with an airtight seal for storing all types of items but specifically dried beans, spices, and herbs and store them on open shelves. When larger labels are available you can also put the directions of the particular item on the label along with the item name or the ingredients of a combined spice like Italian Seasonings. The pantry stays beautiful by keeping all the packaging with one style. Eliminating distracting colors and textures from product packaging allows you to see the beauty of the food itself.
By the end of summer, my pantry was full of green beans, tomatoes, and soup in my quart canning jars. I keep them organized by type, which also allows me to see how much we used and will need to can again. As I use them, I tuck them back into a corner cupboard of the kitchen allowing more room in the pantry awaiting next year’s bounty.
The cleaning pantry....
My cleaning pantry is located in my laundry room. I like to make my own laundry soap and other cleaning supplies so I have dubbed it my "cleaning pantry". Rarely used items can create visual clutter so things like light bulbs, batteries, sewing gear, and other miscellaneous items are thoughtfully hidden so the space functions easily on a day to day basis. I use a collection of all types of glass jars, mostly sourced from yard sales because airtight seals are not necessary in this application of dry goods. With the variety of storage containers all being glass, it helps them look coordinated and not overwhelming despite being different, in fact I don’t like overly matched looks. I like to include the recipes on the label, for example, on my laundry soap container. This little step makes mixing the next batch a piece of cake by having the recipe readily available. I also keep all of my ingredients for the soap in their own unique jars on the shelves above. Many of the ingredients are used in other homemade cleaning or self care recipes so having a "pantry of sorts" of these products is essential.
Homemade Laundry Soap Recipe
1 1/2 cups of washing soda
1 1/2 cups of baking soda
1/2 cup of epsom salt
1/4 cup of pink salt
Essential oils of choice
1-2 tablespoons per load
A few tips:
Add more soap if needed for dirty ranch clothes.
Pre-treat spots with clear dish soap, not colored just in case.
Add vinegar as your fabric softener if desired.
Types of essential oils will allow for different cleaning properties. I like tea tree for towels and lavender for sheets.
I can not guarantee this is safe for all fabrics but it works great on every day ranch clothes.
The brown spray jars contain liquids for spot treating. I have found that dish soap when sprayed directly to the stain prior to washing will help the clothes come clean. It has worked on manure to oily food, but would be cautious to use on delicate fabrics and definitely use a clear version. Writing on the label what each bottle's purpose is, would help newbies to learn how to do laundry. Baskets on the shelves contain light bulbs, batteries and soap making ingredients. The antique sewing drawers from my grandma are the perfect height to store my 2 ounce bottles of essential oils. The textural mix of antique wood with the clean lines of the glass jars creates contrast, which for me is beautiful.
There are many more places in my house where I seek to create beauty (a.k.a. organization and efficiency) but these are the top two hardest working, first places I tackled after we moved areas. Perhaps, just maybe, if we can train our eyes to see beauty in the simple every day inanimate objects we will develop that skill to see the beauty in individuals as well….just a thought.
