Finally… A Re-org in MY Kitchen

I consider myself a pretty organized person.  Some would call me anal (retentive), but I would  certainly not go that far.  One of the things that I have been wanting to do for a while now is get my kitchen in order.  Ever since I started baking last year and created what I like to call “Baking Central”, I have been wanting every area of the kitchen to be just as efficient.

I have been thinking about the zones in my kitchen and how I can make them work better.  A few months ago, I relocated the coffee maker and mugs, and the new “coffee station” has worked out well.  So I have moved on to the most difficult area (for me, anyway); it is what I have been calling “Cooking Central” (I know, how original), but now I think the name actually fits.

I have always kept all my spices and oils and such in an upper “corner” cabinet closest to the cook top.  I felt like this worked out fine since the cook top is in the island and there’s no uppers there, just lowers and 4 drawers, so the arrangement seemed only natural.  More and more I was noticing how much movement (or Rachel Ray style acrobatics) it required to corral everything I need to cook a meal (which I normally do twice a day).  Then the light bulb went on over my head – DING! – put the spices in one of the drawers.  Of course there are so many ways to do this, custom and not, but I REFUSED to spend a DIME doing it.

That said, I finally got to work making it happen.  Needless to say, creating a spice drawer turned into SO much more…. take a look.

Couple of things I KNOW you must be thinking:

1. How do I know what’s what?  All of the spices are not labeled.
   Well, I do most of the cooking and I know what everything is.  I actually started labeling and after a few weeks I noticed that the spices that ARE labeled are the ones that are always misused.  Apparently men don’t read directions OR labels!  Maybe one day I’ll get back to that, but for now I am thinking it’s all good.
2. How are you going to get to the containers on the upper 2 cabinet shelves?
   The beauty of the new container cab is that the items up on the top rarely, if ever, get used.  In fact several of those items have NEVER been used (note to self, STOP BUYING THINGS!).  Besides, that’s what step stools are for – we keep one in the pantry for the littlest to help cook… AND for this.

So let’s do a quick recap… (1st attempt at an infographic)

Next up, I’ll tackle the pantry.  It could use some work!  Until then,