Kitchen Storage Organization (Small Space Living)

Living in a small space has its challenges.  Although we redid our kitchen a couple of years ago and added lots of new cabinetry, I still needed to economize on space.  A lot of the items below were put in initially with the kitchen remodel.  But a while back I did a lot of kitchen reorganization which really helped working in the space.  I ordered some new things for this.  I also repaired an appliance, and employed an antique tea canister for fun.

One of the first space organizers I purchased was an Ikea Pot Lid Organizer, to be use for baking dishes and pie pans, rather then the pot lids it was intended for:

A more recent project, I took everything out of the drawers, and reorganized them.  Here is the big drawer reorganization:

Everything from the bottom section out to sort and purge

The bottom section reorganized: baking utensils, etc.

The top section is silverware

Speaking of silverware, I bought new stainless.  This was problematic, because the bottom of the dinner fork handles are large and ornate, much wider than before, and they did not fit in our small dishwasher basket.  I liked how the dishwasher basket fit in our small-space dishwasher, and didn't want to try and find a new one that might not work anyway.  Paul suggested opening up a few of the basket sections, so they were wider:

The basket before

It just doesn't fit!

The basket after, with four of the sections in the middle widened out using a metal rasp.

Then there is small-space pan storage.  We used two separate units in one of the base cabinets, a two-level unit for pans and lids (that have to be placed with their handles just so on the adjustable rack), and another for cookie sheets and cutting boards:

Bottom pan level

Top level - lids, and the teensy-tiny frying pan

I also repaired my grain mill (the air outlet piece).  Note that my grain mill will now be used for non gluten grains such as oat groats (back on gluten-free diet).  This deformity had been here since I purchased the mill.  It didn't affect the functioning, but it bugged me, so I ordered a new part:

Finally, I needed tea storage for some little samples I had gotten.  I found this canister in an antique store - just like mother used to have!!

End of Season Tasks

Last week and this, Paul and I have been tidying up the garden in preparation for winter.  Paul took down our birdhouse for winter storage, we gathered up the tomato cages, and covered some of our perennials.  Paul will run the mulching lawnmower over the grass to collect up the leaves on Monday, when the weather is predicted to be "warm".  We also arranged for Sears to come do routine maintenance on our snowblower. 

Paul and I also went through our canned goods, purging any expired ones, cleaning and sorting.  This was not planned; the upper shelf of our Lazy Susan base cabinet shifted down, needing an adjustment, which Paul took care of.  But I have been meaning to go through it, so all was good.  The trick is to use up all of the duplicates I found and didn't realize I had - how much coconut milk can one person accumulate?!  I see Thai food in our future, maybe some Indian or Caribbean as well.  We are well stocked in vegetable soup for the winter.  It feels good to have that done. 

Sadly, there is a frost predicted for tonight.  So I went out and collected the last of the herbs before they are frozen.  Surprisingly, in spite of some pretty cold and awful weather in the past month, three herbs survived: rosemary, oregano, and parsley.  In keeping with my international cooking, I will also need to make some recipes that use parsley and oregano (Italian, anyone?!).  The rosemary I plan on using to make a rosemary hair rinse (link to holistichabits video/prep instructions here).  Rosemary is great for the hair, and has aromatherapy benefits as well, which apparently one will smell while prepping the hair rinse.

Left to right: rosemary, parsley, oregano