When you love what you have, you have everything you need.




Friday, October 5, 2012

Cabinet Cleaning

This post has been sitting around for awhile, so I figured it was time to post!  

A month (or more) ago, I decided that I couldn't take my one kitchen cabinet anymore!!!  It was a mess and everytime that I went to get something out, I had to move everything around to get to it.  Plus, I kept seeing all these amazing and organized people on Pinterest that had their cabinets together, and I was jealous!  I don't have a pantry and really don't have a lot of cabinet space for staples, so I was at a loss of what to do!  I went shopping at IKEA one day and found my soultion.  The IKEA 365+ series was perfect for what I needed.  They are narrow and tall, so that I can fit many in a row and don't have to dig to find things.



Here is the before.  I know it's small and really crammed and a little embarrassing!


And here is the after.  Going through the cabinet, I found a LOT of stuff that was expired or had been sitting open, so those got tossed.  The rest was organized into the IKEA containers.  I found some cheap tupperware containers that didn't have lids and used those to sort oatmeal, easy mac, chocolate chips, and spice packets.   I also realized that I didn't buy enough of the IKEA containers and had to improvise with stuff I already had.  

One thing that I have always done and will share:  When you pour in things like mashed potatoes, rice, polenta, etc. cut the directions off the box and store in the container with that food.  I learned this the hard way when I forgot the amount of water needed to cook the oatmeal.

This project really should not have taken long, but I wanted to make cute labels.  I used my Cricut and cut labels out of spare velum.  I wrote out the labels (now I wished I had printed them on the computer) and used Contact paper to put them on.  So far, they are sticking really good.

Another nice thing about these containers is that they stack nicely on top of each other and don't slip around. The one and only problem I have is that my rice scoop doesn't fit down into the bottom half of the container to scoop out for the rice maker.  Just FYI, in case you make 3 cups of rice every week like me.

Now, I am not one to usually keep things organized for more that a week, but so far, my cabinet looks pretty similar to what you see here.  Things have been added, but I have been trying to keep it looking organized.  So far, so good!  Now I need to tackle the cabinet with canned goods and spices!

Today I am linking with:
http://joyfulstamper.blogspot.com/2012/10/inspire-me-fridays-79-anything-goes.html

1 comment:

  1. This looks great, Kari! Tim is the organizer of our family, so he's responsible for all of our lovely glass containers and the labeling. I am pleased that I organized my scarf collection, though, and have even been good about putting my pashminas away properly since I did it a month ago! http://littlebronzelion.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/speedy-little-project-scarf-organization/

    Also, I'm pretty sure we have that exact same corn penne!

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