Spring Cleaning: The Dining Room Sideboard

Welcome to Spring Cleaning, the sideboard edition!
Spring cleaning is something most of us embark on every year. It's our time to catch up on those tasks that probably should have been done months ago, if not longer. Today I am proud, and honestly somewhat embarrassed, to show you my now-tidy buffet piece that sits in our dining area.

Since our condo is rather small, the few pieces of statement furniture that we do have need to be fresh and kept up. That, unfortunately, was not the case for this poor little guy. Sadly... this is where we started...

It was dusty and gross. Things were just thrown in the drawers and cupboards all willy-nilly. Instead of a junk drawer, we had a junk buffet.

There was a pile of documents that were "to be shred" and just ended up shoved away. Our family games sat in one side, while our "other drinking things" sat in the other. There was no order - only chaos.

The first thing to do was to start clean. Take everything off, and give the sideboard a good furniture polishing. The printer needed to go, and the shelves needed to be cleaned. The only thing that wasn't taken down was our DIY Eagan Mirror, because it's rather heavy and Alex was "helping" me. The last thing I needed was for it to fall on her.

(Side note: If you've noticed the baby gate - that's where we keep the cat food so that both the dog and the baby stop eating it.)

Once everything was cleaned, it was time to start brainstorming how I was going to keep everything organized and in place. In came my handy Mainstay baskets that I have far too many of laying around the house.

I didn't quite like the stark-white baskets on the hutch - they just looked to harsh. So I took a chance and gave the outsides of the baskets a quick coat of my favorite gold spray paint, and was tremendously happier with how they looked after.

In the baskets I have my "bar extras".... one basket holds all of my extra mason jars (which it fits 12 perfectly), another basket holds all of my extra canning and reusable mason lids, and the last basket holds all of the extra random glassware and shot glasses.

The middle drawer was cleaned out and now houses my wine opener, our whiskey ice tray, and kitchen hand towels.

The two bottom areas now house our beer growlers (shameless plug - how awesome is this growler I had made for our first fathers day last year?!) and the other holds all of our amusement park reusable cups.... don't judge us. We like the zoo/safari park/seaworld/anywhere-else-we-can-spend-our-sunday-family-days.

Finally! Onto the top, where we changed up some of the decor! I still have my secret Harry Potter novels housed here of course. I couldn't quite get myself to move them elsewhere. They were moved out of the basket I found at Home Goods, and replaced with my set of owl mugs.

The center tray was moved from my living room where you may remember it once being housed next to the television. It now is the focal piece, holding beautiful blue mason jars that I love filling with votive candles and stacking on these lovely silver candle holders.

I feel so much better now that this piece is organized and actually functional. It's a huge step into our Spring Cleaning days, but it brings a sigh of relief rather than a cringe in terror everytime I walk by. What was your favorite piece? I'm loving having that little teal pot that once was delivered with an edible arrangement. I've been holding onto it for years, but I knew one day it'd come in handy ;)