Everyday Simple

I've been long frustrated with this space. For a while, it didn't bother me - I wasn't looking at it every day. But any time I tried to pull anything out, I couldn't reach it without knocking something else over. The same thing bothered me about this cupboard on the other side of the kitchen:

Let it be known that I also hate this cupboard. It is a horrible corner cupboard. You can see all of the way into it because of my iPhone's camera flash - but it's actually very dark in there. I can't reach anything, I can't see what I'm grabbing, and there's no good way to organize our cans. After getting frustrated with both cupboards and wanting to tear them apart and reorganize them, I had a sudden burst of intuition - what if I switched the two cabinets? Put the canned goods by the sink and the "not-used-everyday" items by the oven?

Let me show you the layout of our kitchen:

I also despise this cupboard. I despise most corner cabinets in general - you can never get to the back of them, let alone see what's inside. They are horrible for storing things you need to get to. And unfortunately for us, we don't have a pantry in this house.

To me, it made sense to have the canned goods near my main cooking area and the other random items over by the sink where they will be out of the way. But something had to change. My current system wasn't working. I finally came to terms with the fact that these cupboards needed to be switched and started pulling everything out like a mad woman. Luckily Danny was at school for those next few hours that I tore the kitchen apart - it was a bit of a mess. 

Turns out, I like this a million times better. I have enough room for 8 different canned goods to go side by side, I can see exactly what I have, how many I have, and there is a ton of room to grow in there. I've got a little white basket that holds random cans of items I only buy occassionally, a wire basket to hold my potatoes and onions that fits nicely in the back, and all of our sauces and oils fit perfectly up on the top shelf. It's a miracle. It all fits like a glove in this space. I sometimes open it just to look at it. 

So - what's in that corner space where the canned goods used to be? All of our "not-used-everyday" items, plus our tupperware. It may look a little bit croweded in there, but everything fits so well I get giddy everytime I go to grab something. Our bigger items fit in the awkward back space, and in since they are so big, I don't have to go digging around to pull them out. I grabbed a basket for all of our tupperware lids (a little handy trick from I Heart Organizing) and bam - this space is clean, organized, and efficient. I'm telling you, if you've ever struggled keeping your tupperware lids together, just throw them together in a basket. Simplest trick, ever, and it works like a charm. 

This picture shows you just how deep this cabinet is, though - all of our "not-used-everyday" items fit in there. I couldn't believe it. I was scared that this cupboard would be too small. Nope. They all slid right back into that dark corner and are sitting there quite happily.

So what do our other cupboards look like right now?

This is the cupboard to the left of the stove that held our baking ingredients and sauces/oils. In since I was able to take all of the sauces/oils and put them with the canned goods, that freed up a lot of space in this area. So I put like items in baskets - and I still had extra room. So I used the awkward back space to put big items that are easy to grab (right now it's our bigger pots and crock pot bowls).

We have a lot of tortilla chips in there... but in our defense, any time we go over to a friend's house for a get-together we usually make this salsa, so we always have a bag or two on hand for when we need it. And tacos/spaghetti our our go-to "forgot to make dinner tonight" meal, so I make sure to always have a box or two. We don't have a ton of snacks other than our trail mix because we usually prefer perishable snacks that we keep in the fridge (fruits, veggies, salads, etc). 

And that's basically it! Except for that tiny cupboard above the oven, but I haven't gotten to it yet. I've had several people who have been really surprised that we don't have a lot of food in our cupboards (or in our fridge - our fridge is pretty bare, too). Like Courtney, I meal plan and buy only what I immediately need for the next few weeks. I plan out breakfasts, lunch, dinner, and snacks. That way we get a great variety and we aren't holding on to anything that will expire before we might get to it. It's a great way to save money, learn new recipes, and prevent wasting food. 

And that's my latest kitchen organization. I'll be back with some more spring cleaning home improvements later this week!