I got most items cleaned and put away over the course of last week, but we made the mistake of taking a couple small items back for exchange last Saturday... and buying tenfold more. Bloomingdale's had a 20% off sale that we fell for, and we fell hard: returned four linen napkins, and exchanged for tea cups with saucers, ramekins, salad bowls, more baking trays, and a serving platter. Same story for Williams-Sonoma.
So how am I going to get the rest of this:
And our new purchases:
Into this cupboard? Which is already full of items, albeit poorly organized.
Not to mention new members of our stainless steel family...
Fancy cheese knives and a beautiful salad serving set that seem too precious to be carelessly thrown in with the rest of our scratched, pedestrian stainless steel cutlery. These got their own special drawer in our hutch until further notice. Basically, I'm avoiding making an executive decision until we run out of room again. I did line a yucky drawer with clean white contact paper in the process, however - a small victory.
The only solution to this organizational madness, my friends... is IKEA.
At least the least expensive solution. ;) The open-topped baskets are what I'm looking for. I think creating compartments for the smaller loose items will help keep things ship-shape. I'll be sure to post the results once I have conquered this cupboard.
What say you, readers? How do you prefer to organize your kitchen?
4 comments:
my kitchen cabinets are as packed as my closet! and just as overflowing! We have a beautiful buffet I bought from restoration hardwarde (got the job just for the 40% discount!!) and that holds a lot of things we don't use as often-wine glasses, margarita glasses, martini glasses, party trays, etc. The kitchen cabinets are packed but with thinks we really do use regularly. We have some baskets on the top of the top cabinets that hold some odd things, like bundt pans, etc. hey, whatever works!
Well, I have a huge kitchen. It's old-school style (just for cooking, not open to the dining room, basically a giant square with counters and upper and bottom cabinets).
I still have to constantly edit. I love clean cupboards so I remove stuff I no longer use or like pretty quickly. Then it goes into basement storage, where it basically dies.
I think the open baskets are a good option. Do you have a pot-rack for hanging things? Do you have wall-space you can hang things from? In my previous house I had a smaller, open kitchen and I really relied on those elements.
We've been married 10 years and we still buy kitchen stuff. You should see what we had shipped home from France!
I got a cool mid-century dresser from Craigslist and am using it as a credenza to store pieces like trays, the nice dishes we don't use much, and other random things that aren't too tall for the drawers. I'd say it's the equivalent of an extra cabinet.
Here's mine: http://cardiganjunkie.blogspot.com/2010/07/mid-century-craigslist-find.html
Pamela - I agree that it's nice to have a separate area to store lesser used items, it helps keep one sane! :) Good for you on getting a 40% employee discount, woohoo! My kitchen is also packed, I guess it really is time to clear things out and make room for the new. ;)
Dani, I don't have a pot-hanging rack or any wall space, unfortunately (not even room for a spice rack, boo!) It's a really funky space, with a door that leads down to our garage which takes up any wall space there would be. We do have a hutch in the dining area where we keep wineglasses/cookbooks/etc. I just have to do like you say and "self-edit" the cupboards in a big way! I think we have the space, it's just a matter of optimizing it. I did love your kitchen posts you did a while back -- they were very inspiring.
Haley, that credenza is AWESOME. What a great find! I love the inspiration photo you posted as well. We don't have room for anything like that in our house, but perhaps some day we will. :)
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