Happy New Year!! It is the perfect time to get things organized, simplified and ready to go for the new year! This past week I started in the kitchen. Here are the steps I took and the products I used to get my kitchen back in working order.
STEP 1: Take everything out. I did this by sections, starting with my upper cabinets. I followed these up with my pantry and drawers. (Blog post with pantry and drawers coming in the next few days)
STEP 2: Throw away, give away, sell. Every time you take all of your junk out you find things you don’t need, don’t want or don’t use. Decide what you want to toss, what you want to donate and what you want to sell. I usually try and sell things on Facebook Garage Sales and then whatever doesn’t sell I take to a Goodwill drop off location.
STEP 3: Make a plan and measure. Before you just start putting things back in you want to have a plan of action. For the kitchen cabinets I wanted to get all of our coffee mugs and cups to one area, all of our plates and bowls to one area and our kids/baby stuff to another area. Also, measure height, width and depth of your space so you know what you are working with when you go to buy your organizational products.
STEP 4: Buy your organizational products. I decided to use The Container Store for the entire kitchen project but you can also get items from Amazon, Walmart, Target, HomeGoods and Ikea…just to name a few.
STEP 5: Organize your items and configure space. I include this all in one step because you have to play around with what is going to work. It is like a game of Tetris getting everything to fit just right.
Since we have a baby coming in the next few weeks I decided to go ahead and incorporate the bottles into the cabinet plan. The used the InterDesign Linus Packet Organizer for the bottle parts, InterDesign Linus Deep Drawer Binz for the bottles and lids and the InterDesign Linus Storage Binz (large) for the bibs. Since I haven’t had wine in a LONG time I had fun re-arranging my wine glasses prepping them for use come February! For the wine bottle openers and Koozies I used the Medium Undershelf Basket and the koozies are in the Linus Shallow Drawer Organizer Clear (6″ x 9″ x 2″h)
We usually use paper plates but when we do use real plates we use the white square plates. I re-used an old cabinet shelf but a similar shelf is the Medium Cabinet Shelf that used to stack the bowls on. For the square salad plates that I rarely use is used the Small Under Shelf Basket. For the “toddler ware” I used the Large Under Shelf Basket for the bowls and two madesmart White Lazy Susans. The lazy susan will allow me access more without knocking all the bottles and cups over each time I am searching for what I need.
I arranged my cups from least used (at the top) to most used (at the bottom). I used the Small Undershelf Basket with an old Kuggis Ikea bin for my lids and straws. I then used the Medium Under Shelf Basket for coffee filters, sugars and a creamer cup. I then used an old cabinet shelf but similar to the Medium Cabinet Shelf and stacked our Tea Bag Storage Containers on top.
If you are an Amazon shopper here are all the links for the InterDesign products that I used:
- Interdesign Linus Deep Drawer Binz
- Interdesign Linus Packet Organizer
- Interdesign Linus Shallow Drawer Organizer
- Interdesign Linus Storage Binz
Here are under shelf Baskets and cabinet shelves that are similar to what i used and can be found on Amazon!
Here are a few more cabinets that I just re-organized. Although they aren’t “pretty” like the others they are organized and will be much easier to use.
Remember that organizing isn’t about perfection! It is about finding a system that works for you and for your space! Next up is the pantry and kitchen drawer organization project…hope to see you back for that post!!
