4 Tips to organize small kitchen cabinets

A few weeks ago I shared how I organized our small collection of dinnerware.

Inside you can see  one of the items that has helped us stay organized with such a small amount of space:

1. Additional cupboard shelves

As you can see, I have purchased small shelves to give us more usable space. What´s great about them is that they are easily “moved around” and they assist in avoiding piling things on top of each other (which usually translates into a disaster zone sooner or later).

In our remaining cupboards I have used these same shelves. I used one for our pantry and baking supply cupboard and another one for our spice and breakfast cabinet.

2. Lunchmeat containers

These I actually discovered by accident. I got one on sale for lunchmeat and disvocered right away that they were far too large for our tiny refrigerator (meaning I couldn´t use them for their intended purpose).

At first I planned on returning them, but then I had a different idea. 

Instead of using them for the lunch meat and cheese, I simply added them to my baking supply cupboard and added oats, corn flour, soup noodles, farina and sweet rice to the different compartments. 

As it turns out, this idea was great. Not only does it look much more organized inside the cupboard, but this is actually very space saving. Each compartment can be accessed very easily and its contents are easily visible.

Once I discovered how well this worked, I went back the next week and got one more box for my breakfast things. I love to eat  homemade nut butters with fruit and therefore usually have an assortment of nut flours, nuts and seeds on hand.

3. Cheap organizers:

When moving into this apartment I purchased 2 small trays/organizers for 99 cents each.

The first one holds our spices (due to lack of space we only keep the bare necessities on hand) and another one for baking powder, yeast and vanilla sugar (in Germany those come in small packages). Again, we keep a minimum at hand.

However due to these trays sliding out easily I can assess in a second if anything is needed and what I should avoid buying at that time.

4. Large Containers for Pantry Staples

Some pantry staples come in larger quantities, such as flours, sugar, pasta and rice. For those I have purchased a couple of larger containers. Again, everything becomes easily visible and also easily accessible.

I have actually used the containers in the back for both – flours and homemade cake and pancake mixes – depending on what I have been baking.

Our cupboards might not be the prettiest cupboards in the world, but they do serve us well and we were able to keep them pretty organized.

For us, the often-cited keys to organized cupboards are working very well. By keeping everything easily accessible, by giving everything its own place and by reducing the amount of items in pantry and cupboards, keeping them organized turned out to be rather easy.

Organized kitchen cabinets

This weekend has been quite productive so far. I got this year´s supplies for the veggie garden, I cleaned, built a space ship with our son, and relaxed a lot.

I also took some time this morning to re-organize our cupboards. Actually, our 1 cupboard (since that´s how many we have available for our cups, water glasses, cereal bowls and plates).

Here is what I worked with:

Luckily, that´s also all we have with regards to dishes.

Step 1)

Remove everything from the cupboard.

Step 2)

Re-assess and purge. I didn´t purge anything because I don´t have much anyway.

Step 3)

Put everything back into the cupboards in a way that makes sense.

Step 4) 

After some time, re-assess if this is really working.

By the way, it is possible to create a nice dinner table with such few dishes

The storage room is pretty much done!

 Remember this pretty storage room with lots of un-used potential?



Up until this Saturday it sported all but two tiny shelves and an assortment of hooks on the wall.
Most of our stuff was placed on the floor wherever we had a spot. One of the shelves housed a ton of boxes (from the coffee maker, the waffle cooker, and our dishes). And the other one contained our cleaning supplies and some other stuff.

Our paper recycling consisted of an old moving box. Talking of which, I already moved all the other  boxes down into the basement storage room.

In order to make this place useful I went through several steps:

1. Function: I thought about how this room was going to be used and decided on the following functions:

• Recyling Area
• Cleaning Supply Storage
• Suitcase Storage (I don´t want to put those into the dungeon-like basement)
• Tool Storage
• Housing for our Vacuum Cleaner plus attachments and filters
• Pantry and miscellaneous Household Items
• and the list might get longer ….

2. Brainstorm Storage: I researched different types of shelving, storage containers and possible layouts for how everything was going to be put together. I also thought about the size of container I would need for each category of items.

3. Budget: I set a budget for this project and researched prices in order to decide on a final system.

4. Purchase and Assembly: Once I had brought everything home, the fun part started.
Assembling everything.



Since we are only renting and did not want to install anything permanent I purchased one of those black shelving units that can be put toghether very easily. I also got an assortment of purple and lime green containers.


























I removed everything from our storage room, and went to town filling each canister with its intended items.


5. Love the results: Things are looking much better already.



Now the bottom container holds a few tools and cords, the next one up is used as paper recycling bin (that can be brought down to the garbage easily thanks to its handles). The medium sized purple containers hold glass recycables and plastic bottles respectively. Finally, I placed cleaning supplies and cleaning cloths in the larger green bin and our vacuum cleaner supplies in the smaller one.
On the other side, I used the top shelf for luggage bags and the one below for my grocery bags.



As you can see, there is still some space to add another shelf if needed (such as for additional kitchen supplies).

6. Reevaluate after some time: For now I have to wait and see how this will turn out, but re-evaluating a project after some time always helps.

Before (left side) & After (right side): 

Take Care!

Carina 

Post linked up here:
- Thrifty Decor Chick (Before and After Party January)

52 Weeks of Organizing - Here is the Plan

Here is as promised a list of Tasks I am planning on completing throughout the year. I won´t complete them in this specific order, as their completion depends on their cost and the time needed to complete them. Some of these things I feel are much more urgent than others, and I will consider that as well when selecting the next area to be worked on.
Also, there are not exactly 52 tasks as I might add things throughout the year as necessary.

Feel free to follow me along as we turn this place into our home.
Organize Storage Room
1 Bring Moving Boxes into the Basement
2 Install addtl. Shelving
3 Organize Cleaning Supplies
4 Create Recycling Center


Organize Hallway
5 Hooks for Jackets
6 Hooks for Keys
7 Baskets for Scarves, Gloves, …
8 Shoe Storage

Organize Office
9 Filing System for Important Docs
10 Filing System for Bills
11 Office Supplies; Cable
12 Instructions and Guarantees
13 Organize Photos

Organize Living Room
14 Add Couch Table
15 Storage for Media and Books
16 Extra Blankets
17 Curtains/Blinds

Organize Kid´s Room
18 Organize Art and Craft Table
19 Organize Wardrobe
20 Organize Toys
21 Reading Corner

Organize Master Bedroom
22 Organize Jewelry
23 Organize Medicine/1st Aid
24 Organize Linens
25 Organize Wardrobe and Dresser
26 Laundry Hamper

Organize Dining Room
27 Add Storage
28 Place for Table Linens
29 Place for Craft Supplies
30 Place for extra Dishes

Kitchen
31 Pots and Pans
32 Cook Books/Recipes
33 Cooking Supplies
34 Baking and Breakfast Supplies
35 Windowsills

Bathroom
36 Storage for Towels
37 Storage for Extras
38 Electric Razors
39 Laundry System

Balcony
40 Seating

Garage and Car
41 Organize

Basement
42 Organize

Paint Walls
43 Living Room/Dining Room
44 Hallway
45 Kid´s Bedroom
46 Master Bedroom

Mischellaneous
47 Grocery Shopping
48 Photo Year Book
49 Seasonal Decor
50 Tax Filing System
51 Cleaning System

My tiny home office and craft space

 As I have mentioned before, we are still in a temporary living arrangment sporting all of 1 room to house our master, my son´s room, living room and office. That´s a lot of functions for a small space.

Besides that we have a small kitchen and bathroom. Today´s post will show a little more of how I organized my home office and crafting area. 

Here it is. The desk is my childhood desk, which I got from my parent´s basement. It still needs some work but I´ll get to that in time.

I  have that green Ikea storage box, which houses all our dearest pictures (the ones that made the cut to be brought to Germany on our international move). The blue magazine organizer holds all of the stuff that needs to be worked on or filed.

For now, we don´t have too much paperwork, so this is sufficient. Once we add to our collection of files I will return to using the same system I got used in the US.

On the other side, I put one of the decorative frames which I created last fall and jute-wrapped letter.

Behind the notebook, I placed a small blue basket from the Euro-Store. We use this to hold wallets, and odds and ends that tend to accumulate on a desk. I also place pencils and something to write on in this little basket.

The slim wardrobe to the left of our desk used to be part my parent´s entry way furniture. As they no longer needed it, they gave it to me to house part of our clothes. Until me move to a bigger place, this serves it´s purpose with a little bit of organization.

The top shelves are all reserved for our clothes, but the bottom two shelves are used as “filing cabinet”.

As you can see, I placed envelopes, my cookbook-binder, my scrap-book-paper, a box with an assortment of cables, DVDs, and two expandable organizing folders in these two shelves.

It´s amazing that this is pretty much all the paperwork we had to bring with us from the USA. And it sure is great not to need a lot of space for all of this.

The cabinet can be looked with a key, which I store on top of it. That way, my son won´t try to make a mess in there.

As for the desk´s drawers: Those house my son´s scarves, hats and gloves …

… my son´s socks ….

… and my socks:

As you can see, I use all black socks. That makes sorting much easier and whenever there are a few socks I had to sort out because of wear and tear, I can go to H&M and get a new pack for only very little money.

Finally, the door of the desk doesn´t house more files or anything like that, but rather my son´s diapering supplies and when not in use the notebook-adapter.

I decided on switching portions of the wardrobe and desk functions with the purpose of making this space as kid-friendly as possible.

There is not much, my son can do to drawers full of socks other than make a mess. With paperwork, that is a completely different story, Therefore I decided to assign some of the lockable wardrobe space as office shelving.

As for the crafting: Any project can be completed at the desk. Most of my supplies I stored in a sealable small container that is hidden away from toddler view. Since we don´t have a lot of space available, I only allowed myself to have that box worth of supplies. That way I can prevent that things get to crowded in here.

So there you have it. An introduction on our tiny yet functional office and craft space. Maybe it will give some of you ideas on what to do with your own tiny spaces.

Linked up here:
- Thrifty Decor Chick - Office and Craft Space Party

Cheap scarf storage solution

 Do you also have that problem where your scarfs just fly around everywhere? No matter where you put them, they always end up in the way. Finding a place for my scarfs has long been on my to-do-list. I wanted a way that made them very easily accesible, yet still out of the way.

The other day while walking through the stores I found the solution: 

There you can see them peeking from behind the wardrobe.



I got this little kitchen helper with hooks for spoons and the like at the Euro-Store (Dollar Store) and knew I had found just what I needed.
I attached it to the hidden side of our wardrobe. That way you can´t see the scarfs from most angles in the room, and they can be stored away neatly.



I found this among the kitchen supplies but it is just perfect to put away scarfs.



Do you have smart ideas for organizing your scarfs?

Linked up here:
- Tuesday´s Treasures