Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Kitchen Reorganizing, DONE!

My favorite part of the morning recently is to go to my kitchen, open some cabinet doors, and admire what I have accomplished. My kitchen is not fancy at all, just standard builder grade cabinets. But after this reorganizing, I feel so happy! We actually have some free space! We don't have tons of stuffs compare to other families. Of course, only two of us, and lived in small apartments for years before move in here, we tried to keep it down. But things got piled up, not horrible, but messy. You will see what I mean. There are so many pictures, so I am only showing the after shots here. To see all the before and after pictures, please go to my flickr account. Sorry about the light though, I only have time to take pictures after dinner.

First of all, is my pantry cabinet next to the fridge. It is much better now. Finally bought more baskets, and now I can see and reach all the way to the back.
Upper cabinet above the dishwasher, on the left side of the sink. It's kind of empty, since some of the bowls and cups are still in the dishwasher. But you get the idea. I did use some small baskets on the upper shelf to hold most of our tea.

Upper cabinet on the right side of the sink, holding most of our drinking glasses. But we actually only use the ones on the bottom shelf. The green set was from DH's family, don't really know the maker, but pretty old. I love the color, they look like jade. The set on the second shelf was from a yardsale years ago, I use them for dessert.
Upper cabinet in the corner. Lots of space, but kind of hard to reach the back. So we only keep big plates and bowls in there. The upper shelf is kind of empty, only holding some seasonal stuffs.
Upper cabinet on the left side of the stove. I keep all my seasonings there, most are Chinese.
The small cabinet above the stove and vent, holding all my plastic containers. Was half empty, but since I tried to switch to glass containers, ended up with more of these plastic ones in this cabinet. Probably will use them somewhere else in the house, maybe the basement.
Upper cabinet on the right side of the stove, next to the kitchen door. I keep most of my dry food in there, all kinds of dried beans, and Chinese herbs for cooking. Will need to buy more of those big mason/canning jars, so I can switch out all the plastic ones. And really need to label everything nicely, DH has no idea what I have in these jars. Oh, that's my radio/CD player underneath it, I like to play some music when I am cooking.
We don't have much lower cabinet space for pots and pans, so we bought an island with similar finish. The lower cabinet on the right of the oven, holds some big pots and the fire extinguisher.
We only have one drawer in our kitchen, I know, rediculous!
The lower cabinet in the corner was always a big headache. I cannot really put anything big on that lazy susan, and smaller things tend to fall out, and I was always afraid that something will stuck in there and I won't be able to open that door at all. Until I found some inspiration online. Bought some smaller baskets, and problem solved.
The cabinet space under the sink has always been like this. It works for me, so why change it.
Here are most of my pots and pans. I made the devices on the door to hold all the lids and some other big flat things that won't fit in a drawer, very convenient. Got the inspiration from a handman book I bought years ago.
We also bought a small microwave oven cart to save some valuable counter space. The cabinet underneath holds my recipe books, baking supplies and kitchen towels. All the baking pans and sheets are in the warming drawer underneath the oven.

OK, it's already a super long post. I will continue with the freezer (yeah, finally) and the China cabinet tomorrow.

4 comments:

Rebecca said...

So when are you coming over and organizing my kitchen:) Wonderful job!

Unknown said...

Haha! Thanks!
This whole thing is called nesting! I just cannot sit still for 5 minutes! As long as my baby don't complain/kick too much, I will keep organizing and cleaning!

illi said...

Wow! I want to reorganize my kitchen now :) Thanks for the motivation!

TranquilityKnots said...

You are welcome! I got my inspiration from other people too! One house at a time, we will spread the words and drive clutters out of this world! OK, maybe too much "Clean House" show. =)