My kitchen is my castle! I spend a good deal of time in my kitchen cooking and space is a real problem. When I first moved into this house I had to make a very organized kitchen if I was going to be able to function and as much as I cook and love to cook this was important to me. This house was built around the late 20’s and is cute but space efficient it was not.
The first thing I did was took a built in double shelf and turned it into a wet bar for all my bar glasses, wine rack and bar supplies. Below this is a corner shelf that I turned into a coffee center by having an electric outlet installed above it. Next I installed a pan rack above my stove and got a set of stainless steel pans that were versatile. They look nice and they are a good cooking grade. Each pan has hook holes on the end of the handle so it can hand from a rack. Below this is a shelf that holds all my special oils, vinegars and sherries that I use for cooking in bottles I bought that look pretty but fit perfectly together on this small shelf. Next to my stove above my washer, yes my washer, I installed a nice stainless steel bucket that holds all of my spatulas, whisks, other cooking tools and all my pot holders.
Keeping my freezer organized is another key part. On the door of the freezer I keep a rack of mason jars that I use for drinking glasses. They are durable enough to handle the opening and closing of the door and hold a nice frost for cold drinks. I keep one ice tray only but I have a square Tupperware box that I keep filled with ice. I go through my freezer once a month, throw things out and keep it organized by category. I also make sure everything left over has labels and dates.
My spices are kept in a cupboard and are extensive so they took up one shelf. However; I keep them alphabetized so I always know when I’m out of something. I keep my flour, corn meal, corn starch, brown sugar and powdered sugar in coffee cans to keep them fresh and prevent weevils which are a common pain in the butt with flour particularly.
By keeping the glassware out of the cupboards I saved a huge amount of space. The bar has glass racks built at the top of the shelf, like you would see at a bar, and this makes more space in my cupboards. I also save the large butter containers for freezing and other miscellaneous storage. They are disposable and stack perfectly together. I will never buy another Tupperware dish again. I also have one drawer dedicated only to plastic lids, which are a pain.
These may seem like small steps but if you look around in your kitchen and find space is a problem, look at ways you can utilize what I call worthless space and I bet you can find a way to put a shelf or holder there that will free up other areas in your kitchen that could be of more use.
