Welcome to LeanneEly.com!

Leanne’s Two Week Kitchen Makeover is complete, but it’s not too late to do yours! Just get your Coupon and get
busy–all you have to do is change up ONE thing in your kitchen using Rubbermaid! Send us one picture of your before, one picture of your after. It’s that simple! When you have your pics, email them to me,

kitchenmakeover@savingdinner.com

Click here to view the blog!

Okay, so it’s a wrap…the Two Week Kitchen Makeover was a rip roaring success and I’ve learned a lot by going through this. I hope you did too!

Here are some comments and questions that came in while I was doing this that I thought I’d share:

Love the refrigerator make-over! Inspiring! But what is in the brown basket? Tomatoes? Please detail! Thanks, Lisa

Hi Lisa,

Those are my tomatoes! I grew them! I’m a full-on farmer girlfriend, LOL! I’ve got a close picture of my lovelies, right here:

Aren’t they gorgeous? I’m so proud and they’re absolutely delicious!

hi leanne,

I’m really enjoying your kitchen makeover. it happens to be that i bought a box of 40 rubbermaid containers right before you started this, and i love putting them to good use. i’m really enjoying following your makeover, however i would find it helpful to get a little more explanation what you did to get from the “before” to the “after”. you show pictures, but you don’t really explain what you did: did you toss half? otherwise, did you just consolidate the same things together? did adding the door organizer in the pantry make all the difference? i’m stumped because i have a really small kitchen, have a hard time keeping it organized. so i’d be happy for some clearer instructions on how you went from “before” to “after”. thanks!
Chana

Chana,

I declutter first of all (and that’s what everyone should do before you begin). What didn’t work and just took up space went in the recycling bin if it was well-worn and the rest I gave away. I kept what worked and that I used. And yes, I did consolidate like with like—that’s what keeps you organized, I believe. The door organizer works great for me because it keeps my beans, nuts and snacks all right where I can see them. Before they were hidden in baskets in my pantry and honestly, I’d forget what was in there so I’d buy more. I found myself overflowing with nuts! Now I know what I have.

When you have a small kitchen, the best thing to do is keep what you have to scale with what you have storage-wise. Otherwise you’ll make yourself crazy trying to stuff too much in too little a space.

Hope that helps!

Hi Leanne,

I’ve been following along with your makeover, and would love to duplicate it, but I’m having a hard time finding some of the products. Is there a way you can post the names of the products, as well as links to where they can be purchased?

Thank you, I love your blog and your Menu-Mailer!!

- Cathie

Hi Cathie,

Glad you enjoyed my blog and that you’re loving the Menu-Mailers, yay!

To answer your questions, one of the best resources is the Rubbermaid’s website so you can see everything they have, www.rubbermaid.com. Retailers all over the USA and Canada carry many of Rubbermaid’s products, but they all vary greatly. My best advice is to try your biggest stores, like Target and Walmart and see what they have. Remember to look all over the store. I found Rubbermaid all over the place; from the organization area where the bins and such are to the kitchen storage area for all the food storage and also my local grocery store carries the Produce Saver. Everything in my blog was labeled as the product itself was labeled.

And remember, the most important part of this makeover is to make it personal—my exact makeover might not be what you need, but now you’re inspired to get your food storage containers out of a cupboard and use a drawer or use bins in your fridge and freezer. Anyway, I hope that helps!

Dear Leanne,

Just curious as to how you’re managing the plastic bags after removing them from the pantry (or the previous location in the pantry):

“Okay so check out the bag holder apparatus—a cloth bag that hangs on the shelf. Ridiculous. Not only that, but it hogs up important real estate in my pantry and gets in the way. Seeing this in living color made me laugh! This has GOT to go! ”

Enjoying the Kitchen Makeover!

Thanks.

Lallie

Hi Lallie,

Glad you’ve enjoyed the Makeover! To answer your question, I tossed them most of them into the recycle bin! I’m done with them. The ones I did keep, I put in my laundry room in the cupboard in another Rubbermaid plastic bin—for when I do need a plastic bag or two. So that I won’t bring anymore home, my new MO is when I go to the grocery store, to place my reuseable bags in the front passenger seat of my car. That way, I’ll see them when I grab my purse to go into the store! For those of you who have children, have a child remind you about the bags. And for those of you who have children who are too young, put a sticky note on the steering wheel! That should get you remembering them! The bottom line for me is I realized I don’t need them.

Here are some random Rubbermaid Makeover pics that didn’t make the blog. Enjoy browsing!