Under the kitchen sink.

Sometimes you find just the right thing, for just the right place, even though you weren't really looking for it in the first place. I found such a thing when doing our grocery shopping at Aldi recently and I shouldn't have been suprised, as this often occurs at Aldi. What with their interesting weekly specials on anything from tools, to ski wear (in Brisbane why?), to office supplies and home decor, I often find myself picking up the most fabulous little soap holder, or 1000 thread count sheets that I have been hunting for at a reasonable price in other stores for months. Unfortunately you never know what they're going to have until the catalogue is released a week before, so I have occasionally wanted to kick my own head in for having just bought something Aldi is about to stock at a better price, in better quality.

This particular purchase is not going to be one of the more exciting finds I've had, but it is very useful and was the perfect solution for under our kitchen sink.

Pretty much everything under here made the cut when I decluttered this area a few months ago, but we all know I like things to be 'aesthetically pleasing' (close friends and family can attest to me using this phrase far too frequently). This is NOT pleasing me aesthetically at all. I don't care that no one else but Hubs, B4 and I see under here, I make things pretty and/or organised for my own pleasure! Considering that this is where our bin is (which I love by the way, I will never again own a kitchen bin that is out on display), I see this area at least 20 times a day, so I was happy to be improving it!

On the inside of the door, I had been storing these oven mitts, but since finding some fantastic silicone ones....

....at Aldi in fact, I wasn't really using the cloth ones, so out they went. I really can't rave enough about silicone mits; they are deceptively effective in protecting your hands from heat, they stack into each other and hang or sit neatly, and they wash SO easily in hot soapy water with the rest of the dishes after dinner. Goodbye cloth oven mitts with your easily stained fabric and limited heat protection! I am also slowly replacing/purchasing all of my bake wear with silicone. It's a revolution!

Anyway here it is, my new Aldi purchase, nothing special eh? But special enough for me!

Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone, so off came the dodgy sticker.

I had better things in mind....

Now while some may think it would be pretty obvious what's in the basket by looking at the bottles, you have to remember that BOYS will be using the things in here. This way, fingers crossed, Hubs will remember to put the fly spray back in here after he goes on a mass murdering spree of our local insects, and I can do a quick inventory for shopping lists in the future. In a perfect world.......

Ta da! Perfect fit for the door, perfect hanger for our floor and dish cloths, and perfect size for all of the bottles I keep handy to the sink. Happy girl. Well...........until two minutes later when this happened....

Hmmph! Apparently the suction caps were not up to the strain, so it looks like we'll have to screw it in. And if I'm completely honest, it is still sitting under the sink now, waiting for hubs to put it back. Rome wasn't built in a day and all that.

Anyway, I'll pretend not to notice and show you how tidy the bin area is now :o)

Oh, and over on the other door you'll find these two containers that I thrifted from the Ikea As-Is section over a year ago. They hold our shopping bags which we recycle to use in our bins.

The handle bags are a perfect fit for the kitchen bins, and the produce bags are perfect for the little bins we have in the bathroom and bedroom. It's a thrifty and slightly more eco-friendly option because we aren't purchasing bin liners!

So keep your eye out at your local Aldi for great affordable products, even if you do have to put up with 'lazy' checkout operators. I mean seriously, they get to sit in a chair, and you have to pack your own bags! I wouldn't have such a problem with this if they didn't give you a dirty look when you can't manage to get your groceries off their bench in time for the next customer coming through. Grumble over.

xo Cassie

* Amendment - Hubs screwed it in last night, hoorah!