small kitchen organization

As previously mentioned, I am on a mission to organize my entire home in 14 weeks. I had done a lot to organize it in the past few months, but now's the time to fine tune and be ready for the holidays!

The first week of the challenge is the kitchen!

Our kitchen is small.

Teeny tiny.

Most people's closets are bigger than our kitchen.

So we have to be incredibly particular on what belongs in it to keep it functional.

Here's the breakdown of what we keep where

 

 We decided to keep only food items that are used on a daily basis in the kitchen. The excess and seldom used items go down to our basement pantry.

We don't have a pantry in the kitchen, so our food items must go in the cabinets.

Before, we had items that were hardly used or too big.

I purged anything old, used some baskets I already had to corral different groups of items and moved hardly-used things down to the basement pantry. MUCH better!

In moving out all the rarely used items, I was able to clear off the top of the fridge (where cereal and snack foods liked to hang out) and put them in the cabinets. Now the top of the fridge looks much better!

The big basket contains our lunch bags, and the little basket has excess tea towels.

Next came my bakeware cabinet. This is a deep cabinet, but the only cabinet available for bakeware, bowls and appliances.

I took everything out and utilized the organizational pieces I already owned.

I grouped like items and made sure they were easily accessible.

Next, the plastic plate drawer. 

Our upper cabinets contain our "good" plates and glasses, but there wasn't enough room for our plastic items.

Unfortunately, the drawer also began to house junk as well.

I just got back to the basics. Only plates allowed.

Our bottom drawer contained all of Levi's items. Sippy cups, food storage, dishwasher basket, bibs, etc.

Yikes.

I lumped everything according to category and made them all easy to reach, with the more used items toward the front. Tada!

So, that's what I've been up to this long weekend. 

It's been so nice to have an organized kitchen to cook in!

And small kitchens can be both pretty and functional!

It just takes a lot of effort.