Kitchen Tricks

Everyone knows I'm a super enthusiastic organizer, which is a trait I'm not ashamed of. But it has been sort of difficult in our kitchen because of the lack of counter space. It's a very spacious room, but one of the walls is completely blank where there could be a whole length of counterspace. What a shame.

We've had to get a little bit creative, and I think it's worked okay. And I got some great new gadgets & cookbooks for Christmas!

Hanging drying herbs from the wall with string. Takes up no space and looks elegant.

Little plastic basket to hold odd gadgets & accessories. This is where I put my KitchenAid attachments, mill blades, food processor attachments, and miscellaneous extras. It's a good size to slip in the cabinets, and its plastic surface is easily cleaned.

I put a few nails in to hang the measuring cups. They didn't fit well in the shallow drawers, plus I think they look cute here above the dry good jars. It makes sense, and I'm all about logical, utilitarian organization.

We ran out of space in our cabinets to put all 10 of the coffee mugs from our dining set, so I put up some removable 3M hooks above the microwave, where there was previously wasted space. And now the mugs are right by the coffee maker!

This might be my proudest organizational tool. Nathan used to use this shelving unit with his desk, and he had the genius idea to move it into the kitchen for extra storage. It now houses our recycling bins, cat food bin, cook books, KitchenAid (next to an outlet, so I can actually use it there), pretty big wooden cutting board, hanging fruit/veggie basket, all our pots & pans, and gadget storage on the top shelf. So many uses!

Our awesome new cookbooks. So exciting.

We love our quaint little kitchen and really enjoy spending time together in there. It might be my favorite room in the house, which is largely because it's where the food is. :-)

Oh and the cats seem to think that the kitchen is their personal playground.

I don't understand how he got up there. I had to help him down. Silly boy.