Kitchen organization...

Another one of my favorite rooms in the new house is the kitchen.  Even so,  it has taken some time to develop true comfortableness in.  Moving smoothly while cooking in a kitchen is something of a dance, as one moves from fridge, to counter, to oven, to sink, and any combination of back and forth between these spaces while preparing a meal.  Remembering where I placed specific dishes and utensils was a trick in the beginning, but once I figured out the right spot to store things and began to remember where things were, it was just a matter of time before movement in there started to become second nature.  

Having a different configuration of drawers and cabinets required me to come up with different ways of organizing and storing stuff.  The first thing for me to figure out were two corner "lazy-susan" type cabinets.  The first house that we bought (in 1987) had one of these cabinets and I remember storing food items in there, but having a nice sized pantry, I didn't need to use the space for that.  So I googled for ideas and came up with this:

I don't know that I would have ever come up with the idea of storing pots and pans, and other cooking equipment in these spaces, but as I'm using them this way, it feels like a perfect solution to these somewhat awkward storage spaces.  Handles of pots and pans can be tucked inside toward the middle, and everything can be stored with its lid on.  That may just be my favorite part - that I don't have to grab a lid from another location.

Then it was time to figure out some drawer storage issues.  

In our last house, we had a plastic Rubbermaid double-decker silverware divider.  We'd had it so long it was vintage - like us.  It worked well enough in the drawer we had always used it in, but it really didn't fit the drawers here very well, so I starting looking for something that would suit the space better.  After studying options online, I finally decided to give one of these bamboo adjustable drawer dividers a try.  I made a Christmas gift to myself of it, and I'm pretty happy with it.

It does slide backwards, since the drawer is about 4 inches deeper than this divider, but it's easy enough to pull it forward when I open the drawer.  I like this so much better than my double-decker silverware holder that never quite fit everything I wanted to put in the drawer.

Then I decided to rethink how I store knives.  We've always had a counter top knife block, and a wall mounted one, but both of the ones I owned had seen much better days (one was as old as our marriage).  Trying to eliminate what I can from the counter tops, I set out to find good drawer storage options for knives.   After studying different products online, I decided to go with a bamboo knife drawer "block", and I love it!

There's also room in the drawer to store other knife-y stuff beside it.    I actually have a second (smaller) drawer knife block nearer the microwave.  It holds the knives that were previously held in the wall knife holder. Does a couple need so many knives?   I'm sure not, but I've grown used to having a variety, and having them in different spots in the kitchen I can tell you... it's very handy to have options if you do a lot of cooking.

Next, I decided to tackle the toughest spot of all.  The utensil drawer.  Ugh.  This one I got a before picture of.  Anyone else have a utensil drawer that looks like this?

Honestly, before all the decluttering last year, this drawer (in our old house) looked much worse. Why it took moving for me to do something different, I'll never know.  

Online options were harder to figure out on this one, so I just kept putting off making any decisions.  And then before Christmas I was in Home Goods, and I found this Joseph Joseph drawer organizer:

I was intrigued by the many pieces, and imagining I could use any left over sections in other spaces, I ended up buying two sets - with the thought I could return these easily if they weren't what I wanted.

Well, it took me until sometime in January to pull it out and figure out how it works and how I wanted the utensil drawer divided.  I had no idea how the components fitted together, but look at this:

It's like some children's toys I've seen where pieces are made to fit together no matter what side you put up against another side.  Fantastic.  I will confess... this was the most expensive single purchase I made, but it was worth it.  Note:  I see it online for more than I paid  - which was 16.99 per set at Home Goods.  Now I like it even more!

I finally figured out what pieces would work with what I wanted to keep in this drawer, and this is what I came up with:

On my goodness!  It's almost hurts my heart thinking of how many years I shuffled through a messy kitchen drawer looking for the garlic press, or a wisk, or the kitchen shears, or those silly little flat plastic scrappers that always migrated to the back of the drawer.  All the time I spent getting exasperated...  No more!  I love this.   And I have pieces left over that will help organize some bathroom or office drawers eventually.

Full disclosure:  I also store several utensils in a holder on the counter for super easy reach:

But when all was said and done, I decided I so rarely (if ever) use these utensils, they can go:

Yay!  Decluttering too!

Okay, finally....

Another area that had me flummoxed was the bottom freezer of the refrigerator that came with the house.  I've never before had a bottom freezer and honestly... until I figured out a storage system, I was in serious dislike over mine. 

I went to the computer again to see what solutions others had come up with for storing food in what is basically a big box.  I wish I had thought to take a picture of what a mess my freezer was before I fixed it, but if you have one of these freezers, and you haven't yet tamed it, check this out:

Who knew the solution is the opposite of just throwing things on top of other things 'till the stuff on the bottom is so buried you can't possibly see what you have down there? 

I bought two taller-than-normal clear plastic bins (from Home Goods), and with the help of the sturdy white divider that came in the drawer I was able to create four separate spaces to store things.  I know it only looks like three different spaces, but let me explain what is pictured here.  From left to right, the first clear plastic bin holds meat, and slid down between the meat bin and the white divider is a slim package of naan bread, and another slim package of flat bread.  Bacon or any slim packages could also fit in this space.  Moving right, in the space between the white divider and the second clear plastic bin, I have packages of frozen fruits and nuts.  And in that last plastic bin on the right, I store packages of frozen vegetables.  

Except for the packages of fruit, I tried to fill the boxes with things stacked on their side or on end.  Marie Kondo would be proud, I think.  Doing this, means nothing has to be removed to get to something else.  Except the fruit.  For some reason my baggies of fruit didn't stand on end.  They are more floppy. 

There is also a shallow drawer above this space that holds the ice collection tray, and is where we keep coffee and several containers of ground grains, yeast, chia seeds... stuff like that.  Since all those things have stiff containers, and nothing can really get buried there, I don't have a need to divide up the space.

If you like this idea, I suggest that you look for the tallest bins that will fit in your freezer box.  To know what will fit, empty out the box, then measure the smallest part of the box - my freezer box tapers near the bottom, so I wanted to be sure to measure the bottom of the box, not the top, and buy a bin that would fit that measurement.  And of course, you can't use a bin that is taller than the box, so that measurement is important too.  Seriously, I'm making this sound this harder than it is.  Once you empty it out, just take all the right measurements and you're golden. 

Have fun if you do this.  Truly, this changed my relationship with my bottom freezer.  I almost prefer it over a top freezer now.  Actually, if I could keep ice from accidentally escaping when I scoop some into a glass, I would prefer it.  The ice situation is an irritant. If someone knows the solution to slippery rogue ice cubes, I'd love to hear it.

I'm counting all this kitchen organization (but mostly just my freezer) as one new thing added to my growing collection of new things in 2022 - for 8 new things!