Kitchen cabinet organization- my plan of attack

 

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Hey guys!  I thought I would share my plan for my kitchen cabinet organization that I shared in my last post.

First, my cabinets are weird.  They are custom, which sounds awesome, right?  I hate to sound all Debbie Downer, but not really.  There are some kinda funky components to these cabinets.  Nothing is standard, and the layout, especially in the lowers, is really odd.  I didn’t get pictures of them, because no time this weekend, and during the day it was so dark because of Irma that the lighting just wasn’t right.  Don’t worry, this weekend when I actually do the revamp, I’ll take tons of good pictures, but I wanted to share my plans for how I’m going forward now.

The first thing I did was figure out my top three problems so I could work out a solution.

Kitchen cabinet organization problem #1: Darkness!

(That makes me miss The Chappelle show!) 🙂 One of our biggest issues is that the interior of our lower cabinets is so incredibly dark.  I’m pulling everything out and painting the insides of the cabinets a bright white and lining the bottoms of the cabinets with a marble liner- here’s what I ordered on Amazon:

I’ve used this exact paper before, and it holds up really well.  I’m hoping that lightening and brightening up the cabinets will help us, if nothing else, want to keep the space more organized.  And maybe make things a little easier to find, especially in the dark corners.

 

Kitchen cabinet organization problem #2: Incredibly inefficient layout

Like a lot of cabinets, our lowers have some areas with the little dinky half shelves (why oh why?!!!) and some areas with absolutely no shelves at all- just wide open, terribly inefficient space (again- why oh why?!).  But, for whatever reason, there are also little tiny doors that could be useful for tray storage- except the cabinet builder added a shelf, so a tray can’t fit.  And one corner cabinet has a shelf, and one doesn’t- but both are blocked by random wooden supports.  These little features make those spaces very difficult to actually use.

When we moved in, I just basically stored stuff where it made sense (pots and pans by the oven, that sort of thing) but I put no effort into trying to analyze the space and try to make it work.  I did, however, spend a lot of time styling the shelves.  Much more fun. Priorities, people.

 

So, this time I actually sat down, took measurements of the cabinets, and tried to see what would work.  I considered the Rev-A-Shelves that a lot of people love and are so highly rated on Amazon.  But they wouldn’t work for us because of the weird dimensions and the random support beams that are present in our cabinetry.  Plus, they’re pricey.  (I’m sure they’re worth it for the price- they get great reviews).

What I found is that I need to move some stuff around, do some simple carpentry (we’ll see) to add my own shelves in a couple of places, and add some baskets to make the storage that I have much more efficient.  I found some great options on Amazon that I think will work perfectly for what I need in this space.

Kitchen cabinet organization problem #3: Maybe we’re hoarders, and also we have generous relatives

Jeez at THE STUFF!  How did we just purge when we moved in just two years ago now, and yet we still have a Leaning Tower of Lock and Locks?

We do tend to accumulate stuff, either because we buy it or because folks give it to us.  With our small space, we’ve just got to get better about that.  We just need to suck it up buttercup and deal with our stuff!  So another great purge is in order.

The plan and timeline

The original plan was to get everything done this weekend- purging, painting, organizing, everything, with a full reveal on Tuesday.  But, I just got an email from Amazon that there is a shipment delay on my order, and probably most stuff won’t come until next week.  So I’ll get things rolling this weekend, and hope for a full reveal next Thursday!  Wish me luck- and leave your tips for kitchen cabinet organization in the comments- I need all the help I can get!

*I’ve linked items shown in the pics above in the Shop Our Home tab at the top of this page if you are interested 🙂

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Update: Read about our completed organized kitchen cabinets (life changing!) here!