Day 2 Organization: Cabinets

Eek, it's a new year and I'm starting it with a cold...blah. Yesterday was day 2 of my personal organization challenge. I had planned on having some awesome before and after pictures of my cabinets, but after only five hours of sleep and having to fight a bug, I totally had a brain fart. I forgot to take BEFORE pictures. Fortunately, I did take before and after pictures of the cabinet that needed the most help. The baking cabinet. 

BEFORE AND AFTER

 

Before: It doesn't look too bad, right? Wrong. I could never find a darn thing in here without knocking stuff over or doing some shuffling around. It drove me crazy.

In this picture, I had Tupperware on the very top shelf with miscellaneous Easter stuff. All the other shelves are stuffed with spices and baking goods in chaos.

 

After: I kept the Tupperware on the top shelf. Below this I placed cake mixes, nuts, coconut flakes, and graham crackers. The middle shelf has mini chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and semi sweet chips in Tupperware containers. To keep smaller items together,  I placed them in DIY plastic containers (see picture below). The lowest shelf has all my spices and salts. I decided to place the smaller spice containers into a clear plastic container (see picture below).

 

Close up of my DIY plastic basket with fabric handles. I made these out of plastic lunch containers that I could no longer use due to a warping of the lids. Instead of tossing these out, I decided to make them into mini baskets. All I did was to drill two holes on one side of the container, cut strips of fabric, threaded the ends through the holes, and tied knots on the ends. Walla! I had three new baskets with fabric handles to hold the smaller stuff. Best part...zero $$$ spent. I used these to keep my baking soda, baking powder, sprinkles, extracts, food coloring, and salts together.

Used a large recycled clear plastic bottle to keep small bottles of spices together. Labeled the lid with the names of the spices inside.

 

The inside of the cabinet door, which I did earlier this year...wish I did this sooner. This has to be one of the best organizational items I found on Pinterest. Mine isn't as pretty as the ones on Pinterest, but it does the job. Plus, since I already had the hooks, I again spent zero $$$. Now, I no longer have to dig through my drawers to find my measuring spoons or cups.

 

 

Below are pictures of our lunch and drink cabinets after being organized. Here, I tried to make a "go to" area for lunch/drink items.

 

AFTER

This is an after picture of a cabinet above our microwave (refrigerator is to the left). It houses all of our bento items, drink mixes, teas, and some snacks. See that clear bag with the pink trim? That is a repurposed bulk snack tote...similar to the picture below. I used the bag to store bento cutters, egg molds, rice molds, etc...
***I always keep clear plastic bags with zippers because they come in handy to group small items together***
The picture to the left shows the cabinet directly below the microwave. This cabinet contains lunch bags, bottled water, and my husband's thermoses.

 

 

 

I placed the majority of snack items in Target baskets above the refrigerator.

 

 

AFTER

Cabinet that has some of my plastic containers. I recycled a box to help contain container lids.

 

 

 

Whew. Cold and all, I'm done organizing the kitchen. My overall tip would be that you don't have to spend a ton of money to organize. There isn't anything wrong with spending money to have a magazine perfect kitchen, but you don't have to. Just be willing to get creative and utilize what you have on hand.