Tuesday, August 6, 2013

A Few Quick Kitchen Cabinet Organization Hints

I have been lax in posting over the past week: some personal issues have kept me otherwise occupied. But I aim to catch up! I thought I would share some hints for taming kitchen cabinets.

First, I am a huge water drinker. I cannot get enough water or seltzer with a bit of cranberry juice. But I am also a chronic spiller, so ALL of my cups have covers and straws, which can be a storage problem. Here's how I handle it:


My personal "sippy cups" are on the bottom shelf, with the covers stored on them. The air holes in their tops are sufficient to keep them from getting smelly if they are put away damp after their hand washing. I keep a baby wipe container bottom to the left, which holds all the straws for these assorted cups. They are easily accessible and right with the cups when I need them.

On the shelf above is another baby wipes container. (They are my most preferred reusable container.) This one houses snap-on covers for cans and covers for plastic cups (that I bring home from restaurants kids' meals). Those are so handy to have around, particularly in the summer time. I send them home with kid visitors all the time.

Finally, water bottles are on the top shelf. Notice that several are open. DO NOT close the tops unless there is no trace of moisture in them, or they will mold and smell horrible. I try to keep them open all the time. Nothing worse than drinking from a bottle and noticing mold in it half way through your chug.

Now let's deal with glasses and coffee/tea cups and mugs. I store the most often used cups (my thermal travel mugs) within easiest reach on the bottom shelf. I keep their covers on them, upside down, to make them fit. Also, there's no searching for a cover when my eyes are still half closed in the morning. I keep the mugs that are less-often used on the top shelf. Note the extra rack. This doubles my mug storage space. It seems like a lot of mugs, but I keep them because they are heavily used when we have company. Otherwise I would follow my rule that if I have not used it in a year, I give it away.

Finally, the middle shelf has glassware. They are all matching style cups, but because they are wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, I store them with every other one upside down. That way, I can fit many more glasses into the space.



One more challenge for me was storing cutting boards. I struggled with this one for awhile until I found this wonderful storage rack. It hooks onto the shelf above it and makes use of the dead space above my plates. I highly recommend it, as I get very excited when I can store things in what was previously just dead space.


You may wonder why I have a sugar dispenser in this cabinet. It's because my Keurig is directly below I like to have it:

  • in easy reach
  • out of view 
This storage location accomplishes both of those.





That's all for today. More to come soon. Thanks for reading, and please comment if my posts help you or if there are particular topics you would like me to write about. I LOVE comments, constructive or otherwise.


No comments:

Post a Comment