Welcome to Day 16 of my month long series “How to Organize Your Kitchen Frugally in 31 Days”. Every day during the month of October I will be sharing an organized space in my kitchen with you. My goal is to inspire you and give you ideas on how you can organize your kitchen.
If you missed it, you may want to read why I’m embracing my outdated kitchen. It might give you a little perspective on why the pictures of my kitchen organization won’t be “magazine worthy”, but helpful for real life organization.
Today I’m showing you how I organize the corner cabinet in my kitchen. It’s funny how a “round” cabinet makes me want to store “round” things in it, but it totally works!
I like to think of the bottom shelf as a place to keep “beverage” serveware. Except for the popcorn containers, everything on this shelf has to do with serving beverages. I keep my ice bucket, pitchers, carafe and a container of straws on this shelf. I keep the popcorn containers there because they are tall and it’s a spot where the kids can easily reach them.
On the top shelf, I keep bowls that I use for food prep and serving, my salad spinner, and extra plates that I like better than my Corelle, but don’t use every day. They don’t clutter up my dishes cupboard, hardly take up space here, and are so easy to grab when I’m planning a nicer dinner.
I also keep my large liquid measuring bowl easily accessible since I use it regularly.
There you go! Try to keep like things together, get rid of what you don’t use, and enjoy organizing your kitchen!
These are the worst cabinets to have. we have one in our kitchen. I keep my spices and baking supplies in it since it it right beside my stove….although I am rethinking that. Just not sure where everything could go as there is not a lot of storage space in our kitchen. It is a good size kitchen but storage is at a premium. Thanks for all your tips this month. I have already put some to use.
Shannon
Quick question: Do you use your salad spinner? I NEVER use mine. It is on a 6 month list to retirement. If I used it would it be life changing for my salad? I usually dry off lettuce with paper towels. The spinner seems like a lot of extra clean up?
Thank you for sharing your ideas… My top shelf looks very similar to yours, but my bottom one could use improving. I love the idea of putting all of the “drink ware” together.
It’s funny, Adele, because I think using salad spinners is definitely a matter of opinion. I love using my spinner because it’s so easy to “dry” the lettuce. After I use it, I swish out the spinner really quickly with a dishwand. I figure that since I wash the lettuce before I spin it, any water that splashes on the lid while spinning isn’t “dirty” water. So, I usually just rinse it. I just leave it to dry while we are eating our meal. It’s definitely not a necessity, but I love it. 🙂
I love to eat salad, but don’t care to make it. I used to buy leaf lettuce (can’t stand iceberg!) and I just wrapped in a towel to dry, which was never quite good enough. So I quit making salads. Then I read about buying romaine hearts. Chop off the core end, slice the head lengthwise a few times then chop the other way. Toss in the salad spinner and swish and rinse well then spin. So I finally invested in an Oxo spinner and can now whip out a salad in five minutes! So after thinking salad spinners were silly for 20 years, now I am a devotee!
Ginny, love your site. Just moved my plates and drinking glasses into one cabinet. Rearranging things more sensibly. Thank you for all these tips!
I have been enjoying AND appreciating your post very much! Thank You. This is a bit off the track but you mentioned your salad spinner. I do not have one. Are you pleased with yours and if so, would you mind telling me what to purchase. Thanks. Blessings, Cordelia
Haha, it’s funny that you should ask about my salad spinner because it’s kind of a running joke in our family. I found a perfectly good salad spinner at a yard sale for $0.50 and loved it. It had a handle that spun around and around. It wasn’t the fanciest spinner, but it sold me on the product. We eat lots of salad and I don’t like how wet lettuce waters down the dressing, so I was happy with it. And then came Christmas. Evidently my mom didn’t like my salad spinner when she came to visit, so she got me this one with a pull cord. She said it was too hard for her to spin the handle on my old one. 😀 So we kept the new one. It has worked well for us, but some people have complained that the cord breaks. I’ve had mine for a few years and haven’t had a problem. It does spin the lettuce really fast and the lettuce comes out barely wet. Honestly, if I needed to buy another one, I would probably try this one (my amazon affiliate link). The benefit to the one I have with the pull cord is that it is collapsible so it stores well if you don’t have much space. I hope that helps! 🙂
http://www.amazon.com/Progressive-CSS-2-Green-Collapsible-Spinner/dp/B0050EF6RS
This is the one I got a little over a year ago and it’s been life-changing. I saw it at Target (it was only there briefly) and saw that it could go in the dishwasher AND it was collapsible and I was sold! It has worked out great for me.
I have exactly that same spinner – and didn’t use it at first, but I have been prepping vegetables for the week and keeping them in jars in the fridge – if you dry them really well in the spinner cut lettuce really will keep for a week. Not brown at all – amazing!
And I just clean it like Ginny does – it’s really easy and quick.
🙂
Jennifer
I think salad spinners are necessities, LOL, and actually have 2. A large one and a small one for things like herbs. I have the Oxo brand ones and they work very well. Now, on to my question, how did you create the lazy susan’s in this post? I have THREE (arrgh!) large corner cabinets and they are so hard to work with. I am not handy and don’t have anyone (short of hiring help) to install for me, but I would love to either get pull-outs or lazy susan’s for these cabinets.
P.S. as to the question of cleaning salad spinners – very easy. Just a quick wipe down with a soapy sponge and a rinse and dry. Only takes seconds.