Welcome to Day 22 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If you missed it, you may want to read why I’m embracing my outdated kitchen.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 coffee and tea as well as large 9 x 13 casserole dishes.
You may be wondering why I keep my casserole dishes in the same cupboard as my coffee and tea. Well, the simple answer is because that’s where I created the space for them. Do most people keep these dishes in their coffee and tea cupboard? Probably not. Why do I, and why did I deliberately create space for them here?
Well, you remember how I talked about organizing my kitchen into zones, right? Sometimes, the appearance of what is in your cupboard might not make sense to someone else. You have to do what works for you! I keep these pans here because they are easy to get to when I am preparing dinner. That’s why they in the food prep zone.
The food prep zone is where I prepare 90% of the food I make in the kitchen so that is the area where I store almost everything I need to prepare a meal from the gadgets I use to the bowls or pans I put the food in.
I picked up a cheap shelf organizer so they aren’t all stacked in a hard to reach lower cupboard. When I’m preparing a meal, they are right at arm level and easy to pull down to the counter where I’m preparing the food.
I also don’t try to keep more coffee and tea than can fit in the two upper shelves. Besides coffee and tea, I keep travel mugs, 6 large mugs, 6 small mugs, and a coffee machine accessory in this cupboard. That is plenty of mugs for our family. If you have a larger number of people in your family using mugs, or you drink a lot of coffee or tea yourself, keeping casserole dishes in the same cupboard might not work for you.
Do what works for you. Everyone’s kitchen is different. You need to evaluate yours and come up with the most logical places to store your things. Where do you use them and can you make space to fit them there? That’s your goal: try to put things where you use them.
Tomorrow we’ll be looking at how I organize paper products and party supplies.
Reading all about how your cabinets are organized makes me want to pull everything out of some of my cabinets and rethink the whole thing. Parts of my kitchen are complete chaos. But since we’re looking to move soon I figure I’ll just deal with the chaos as it is and rethink it in the new kitchen. But I wanted to say my tea is in a cabinet with serving dishes. Its a corner cabinet and I find it to be a little awkward so I keep dishes that aren’t used daily in there. And since I had a little space I also keep my tea pots and teas in there. Seems like a weird combo but works for me since its near the stove. Keep up the good work!
I have loved, loved, loved these posts for 31 days of organizing the kitchen frugally. I have gotten so many good ideas and look forward to the post each day.
Thank you.
Thanks, Dena! I appreciate you letting me know. I’m so glad to hear you’re being inspired. 🙂
Im so envious of the space you have in your kitchen, Im having to be very choosey with what I keep in mine. Im loving these ideas, Thanks for putting this series together. :o)
I am thankful for the space, Jo. Living with a super tiny kitchen for 5 1/2 years taught me a lot about being thankful for what I have. It was also a great experience and taught me a lot about letting go of things I don’t really need.
Wonderful ideas. I look forward to seeing more.