Organizing cabinets...

[Kim Allen]

Ok so I am really bad at organizing my cabinets. I will "organize" them then after about a week they are trashed agian. I need a good system to keep them in order. Particularly my baking cabinet with all my spices and flour.

Anyone have some pictures or tips of nice,neat, organized cabinets?

I often loose stuff behind other things and then it just goes downhill from there. Also I tend to buy things I already have because they were shoved behind things and I didnt realize I had that item.

[crunchy_mommy]

Subbing because I was just thinking about this today. We have our spices pretty well-organized (though DH always messes it up on me ) but the other cabinets are kind of messy, we have lots of space but I don't think we're utilizing it well!! And I always have bags of stuff from the bulk bins & can't figure out how to store them nicely.

[MarchMummy]

I have a problem with this too. What is helping me is to be sure that cabinets are not overstuffed. Everything has to be super easy to put away, or I won't put it away properly. So if I have to move 3 things and then stack something else, etc, to put one thing away properly, most likely I'll just toss it in the cupboard instead of putting it in the way it belongs. Does that make sense?

I have read on here before that you should be able to put everything away one-handed. If it is that simple to put away, you are much more likely to do it than if you have to move a bunch of crap around first. I am trying to put this into practice in my kitchen.

Good luck!!

[hjdmom24]

I have a long way to go with this too but one thing I have done is put all my spices into plastic "shoeboxes". I put the savory type things in one and the sweet in another. When I am cooking I just pull out the whole box, use what I need and replace. No more knocking ten jars over to get to the one I want!

[zoebird]

i have a basket and jar system.

spices are kept in jars in one basket, that i can pull out and grab the spices that i need, and put them back when i am finished. i keep vinegars and oils in another basket, and i keep dry goods in jars in another basket. so, it works like drawers, but without too much effort. my mother uses plastic bins, but i just prefer baskets for the look.

so, my top shelf is actually a basket with my grocery bags, and a basket of plastic bags that we use for recycling and such (funny rules here, but i think they also recycle those bags at the same time). my middle shelf is dry goods, spices, oils, and vinegars. the next shelf has dried fruits, breads, crackers, cookies, and such (also in their own baskets). then the bottom shelf has potatoes, onions, and other things like that. I also have a basket of scrap paper and pens in that bottom shelf.

This is the top of the pantry, and there are two shelves in the bottom part as well. I keep those empty for the time being, as they are highly accessible to the baby. He likes to hide and play in there. We sometimes store our recycling in there as well, until recycling day.

I'm cleaning out and organizing my "earth closet" so that i can have a root cellar/second fridge. It's cool in that space, because it goes right into the hillside, literally to the dirt. door opens to dirt. but, the landlord put some shelves in there, and the temp is right for a root cellar. I think we're going to store our canning, preserving, and fermented goodies in there as we make them.

So that's me. Right now, I have recycling in there that needs to be moved out on Tuesday.