Recipe to Remove Small Kitchen Frustrations

This post was generously written by professional organizer Lea Schneider owner of Organize Right Now, LLC. Lea works in Pensecola, Fl and writes a fabulous blog. Feel free to reach out to her if you could use some help organizing!

It was a recipe for frustration.

Take four children under the age of six; add two parents, occasional babysitters, grandmothers, a kitchen without enough cabinet space and an economy not conducive to home remodeling. Mix it all together and it spells chaos. That’s when my phone rang.

The mission was to see if I could create more space in a modern kitchen with limited storage. I can tell you that it is a real challenge in newer homes. Since they are designed with an open concept, it becomes very difficult as overhead cabinets are often eliminated in favor of a view.

As a professional organizer, I often deal with too-much-stuff in too-little space. Most often, we spend our time dealing with the too-much-stuff part of the job by making good decisions about what to keep. But what if you’ve already eliminated the clutter and you really need to keep what is left? That’s sums up this organizing adventure.

I have to say that making enough space for this large family to really cook and enjoy family meals was made possible by three things:
1.    They were open to new ways to organize the kitchen.
2.    There was under-utilized laundry room storage.
3.    My very favorite organizing product, Rubbermaid Slide ‘n Stack Sliding Baskets, fit the space perfectly!

In the adjacent laundry room, we cleared built-in lower cabinets of their typical laundry room clutter. Out went the citronella candles, dog biscuits, flower vases, assorted light bulbs and miscellaneous cleaning products. The usable items went to new suitable homes.

Rubbermaid’s Slide N Stack Sliding Baskets were quickly installed in the cabinets that you once needed to sit on the floor with a flashlight to access. Now, everything stored was easily at their fingertips. 

Frequently used food items, such as snacks and breakfast cereals, were left in the small pantry in the kitchen. All of the dinner ingredients, such as rice and pastas, were moved to the baskets in the laundry room. Labels made it quick to find what was needed.

Not only did the baskets add a tremendous volume of space to the kitchen, it made grocery shopping easier. It is simple to see if more rice or soups are needed or if plenty are on hand.