organizing your {CABINETS}

Today we’re going to dive into the world of cabinets and how to keep them organized!  Aren’t you excited?  I know I am!  The thought of organizing or things being organized gets me all jazzed up!  Or, maybe that’s the Caramel Latte I had this morning?  Either way, let’s talk organizing.  And cabinets.  And organizing cabinets.

Let me start by saying that when we moved from our previous house to this one I went from having a big spacious pantry to having just the cabinets in the kitchen.  I had no idea how I was going to store all the food AND dishes AND cookware AND other stuff in just the (relatively) few cabinets here in this house.  Eventually, we remedied that by putting a ‘pantry’ shelf in the garage.  So, we store all our canned food, bulk food, and ‘extra’ stuff out there.  The only food I really keep in the kitchen cabinets is cereal, baking items (sugar, flour, etc), and snack type things (granola bars, crackers, etc).  Now that we have that cleared up, let’s take a tour of my cabinets.

Remember the rules of organizing  from Saturday?

1. Group like things together
2. Group things together that are used for a certain purpose
3. Corral smaller items in baskets or bins
4. Nest smaller bowls, etc inside larger ones to maximize space

Keep those in mind again.

Let’s start with my “Drink Station”.  I keep all coffee/hot cocoa/tea/koolaid supplies in this cabinet (or on the counter beside the coffe pot and espresso machine):

And you can also see that I corralled loose packets of hot cocoa and coffes/drink mixes in plastic containers (Rule #3)

Below that cabinet, between my coffee pot and espresso machine is the coffee grinder, jar of coffee and sweetener packets.  The two small glass containers hold powdered creamer and mocha mix.  Remember rule #2?

Let’s move over to the cabinets where I keep my baking items.  Instead of leaving most items in their orginal bags or boxes, etc. I’ve placed them in either stackable plastic containers, or in jars.  This makes it much easier to see what’s in there and grab it quickly.  And it really takes up much less room this way. 

I can’t seem to find the other photo, but in the cabinet beside this one, I have baking/cooking items in glass jars in various sizes – chocolate chips, coconut, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder, dried fruits, etc.

On the counter below, I have my most frequently used items in glass jars as well.  Flour, sugar, powdered sugar, brown sugar, walnuts and pecans.

In another cabinet, I keep all my mixing bowl, measuring cups, prep dishes, etc.

And of course, we have the cabinet for dishes:

In the lower cabinets are heavier items, such as cookware:

Baking sheets and cooling racks are stored in the drawer beneath the oven.

In one corner of the countertop, I have all my bottles of alcohol, and the items needed for mixing drinks – shaker, napkins, jar of salt for rimming glasses.

One thing I absolutely love about this kitchen is that some of the lower cabinets have pull out drawers inside them.  In one door, there’s a drawer where I keep my foils, plastic wrap, baggies, etc and nonstick cooking spray.

The drawer beneath that is for potholders and oven mitts:

The other cabinet that has these pullout drawers holds paper products on the bottom:

And the top drawer is where the breakfast foods are – cereals, poptarts, oatmeal.  This way, it’s within the kids’ reach and they can make their own breakfast.

I think that pretty much covers it! 

***Again, if you have any questions about how to organize something in YOUR kitchen, please leave a comment here and I’ll answer questions on Friday!**

 

Next up…how to store all those cookbooks and recipes!