a produce headache.

Ty has been on a huge health kick lifestyle change since January. I think it's cool and he's gotten really healthy and lost a lot of weight doing it. However, I had a major issue with ONE aspect of the healthiness.

The mass amounts of produce.

I can overlook the fact that it's pretty expensive. You can't put a price on health, so I understand. That doesn't bother me.
What bothered me is that it took up so much counter space. And we don't have a ton of counter space to begin with. I like to keep the counters as uncluttered as possible.

Well let me tell ya, our counters have continuously looked like this since January.

Really?!

Not acceptable at all.

Now, I was nice and kept my raging thoughts to myself for 7 months. SEVEN MONTHS! Every time I cleaned the kitchen and it just never looked clean...just kept my mouth shut.

Then, one day late last week I was doing my daily counter wipe-down. I got over to this produce corner, and when I ran my cloth over the counter, a huge black cloud of gnats flew up into my face. I immediately began yelling (to no one, because I was home alone) about how gross it was, and how I couldn't take it anymore. Then I noticed this...

I think it's safe to say that this is where the gnats came from. We've been ordering bananas by the case...the CASE...for several months now because we go through so many of them. In case you're wondering, a case is 40 pounds of bananas. Well since it's been so hot lately, the bananas are ripening so much more quickly, and these just split open.

I called Ty and told him that something had to be done about this problem. I couldn't have all that crap sitting all over the counter anymore. I got on my trusty Pinterest sight and looked at ideas for storing produce. They were nice, but mostly expensive. Then I happened to look over at the baker's rack we have in the corner of the dining room.

We've never used it for anything practical...we just keep decorations and stuff on it. So I decided to go and get some nice baskets from TJMaxx and put the produce in them on the shelves. Look at how fabulous the corner of the counter looks now!!

Huge difference, right? I told Ty that he could keep that little bowl of cherry tomatoes on the counter, and he can stick one bunch of bananas on top of that wire rack, but that's it. The rest of it stays off the counters and either in the baskets or the fridge.

Ahhhh. The counters are clean. The baskets are full. The gnats are gone. And I think my blood pressure went down 20 points. Thank you, baskets (and Ty, for going along with this new system.)

xoxo, wife.