After moving into my home 18 months ago, and meeting my self-imposed deadline of 30 days to get everything unpacked, set up and decorated, I left the spaces in the kitchen, behind closed cabinet doors and drawers, for last and umm… never got around to them. A few weeks ago, when I opened the cabinet where I kept my seasonings, I was aghast at what I saw, yikes! My next project was born, but would have to be done within a stringent budget… a really stringent budget, because, well… just because, haha!!! Here’s what it looked like…
Time to go shopping...
If you’re into decor, then you’re familiar with all the organization pics out there on social media. You’ve seen ’em; perfectly curated spaces in kitchen cabinets, drawers and especially pantries, my goodness; and even refrigerators. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again for the people in the back… home organization and storage is all about the person living in the home and how they live there. You can read and see my storage solutions for a couple other “behind closed door” spaces HERE. I’ve watched a couple of the more popular Netflix shows on organization, and as with most of the beautiful photos seen on Pinterest and Instagram, the storage items used most times are from one of my happy places, The Container Store, which can be a bit pricey. So I got my Google on, and then hit the streets. I decided I would only venture over to TCS if I couldn’t find what I needed elsewhere. And thankfully, I was able to get the bulk of what I needed from Walmart and Bed Bath Beyond, (yay!) with a few items coming from Amazon and Target, keeping me on budget. So let’s get into it!
A Closer Look...
Drawers...
Liner paper used on all cabinets and drawers is from Walmart and can be found HERE.
I already had the cutlery organizer. I just added liner paper to the bottom of each section.
The white containers in this drawer are items I already had, but can be found at Walmart HERE.
moving on to Cabinets...
These Better Homes and Garden Flip-tight containers can be found HERE at Walmart, and compared to a similar product at The Container Store, they are a fraction of the cost. I’m using the 4.5, 11.5, and 18.6 cup containers. This cabinet also features lazy susans from Walmart HERE. They didn’t have the singles available in the smaller size I needed, and I didn’t want to wait, so I got the 2-tiered ones. I’ll just keep the other part for use on another project, at another time.
What About the pantry?
I made small changes to the pantry… added the shelf liner from Walmart HERE (used on all the cabinet and drawers), added the “slide on” shelf rack (used in one of the cabinets) from Bed Bath Beyond HERE, added two 18.6 cup BH&G containers from Walmart HERE to house my Chai tea, and added the two containers housing the beverage tumblers and disposable coffee/tea cups from Target HERE. As I’ve stated in previous storage blogs… since I’m not feeding a family on a daily basis, and a big portion of my diet consists of smoothies, I don’t need a lot of space for pantry-stored food items. That said, I chose to use and style this space with my wine/champagne and chai/tea necessities, all of my china and tabletop decor items and water, as well as my kitchen staging inventory items. You can check out the original pantry reveal HERE. I didn’t really have a use for this space the way most would, so I chose to use it in a way that suited my lifestyle, and I love it!
Can't forget about Under the Sink...
So um, there is no “good” way to photograph this area. All items used here are things I already had, just re-purposed. Spaces like this seem impossible to really make “pretty”, unless you invest in some lovely pieces to be installed. This is functional, neat and orderly, and I can certainly live with that.
That's It!
For now, this is my kitchen organization. I thought about doing labels on the containers, but having lived with it all for a week now, I don’t see the need for them, and no one else is here that may question what’s in them, so… I’m good! I still may change where the pots are stored. They used to be in the drawers below the cooktop range, but we’ll see. Again, organizing is everything to do with how YOU live in your home, not on trends. Until next time, :)xo
