I recently had the pleasure of working with a lovely expectant mama. With her nesting instincts in full force, we worked together to make the most of the limited space that her petite little pantry provided.
I always get so excited to tackle a new project that I often forget to take ‘before’ photos (I think a ‘consultation check list’ may be in order – heh, heh) but she was so pleased with the results, so we’ll focus on that! 🙂
Rachel sincerely enjoys cooking and baking, but her small {yet extremely tidy} kitchen provides some challenges to stow everything she uses on a regular basis to the maximum of efficiency without feeling over-crowded.
There is only one short wall with cabinets on either side of the sink on one wall and a narrow cupboard used for pantry goods next to the stove on the opposite wall available for storage.
Here’s an ‘after’ photo of the pantry:
Before, each pantry shelf was quite full with only a few distinctions of where items ‘belonged’. It was proving difficult to access individual items without having to move a bunch of others around in the process.
Her biggest concern in here was finding a solution for her spices. Some lived in the pantry and a few others in another cabinet on the opposite wall in varying shapes/sizes of containers. I suggested utilizing shallow trays to hold the spices {as well as any other *small* container like specialty baking sprinkles, etc}. So, rather than having to always move them around inside the cabinet to find what she needed, she could simplify the process and save time finding what she needed by only needing to remove the tray/s – sort of like a mobile drawer.
We filtered through her existing spices to determine what spices she actually used as well as dispose of any that were clearly expired. (most spices are only good for 2-3 years, if that).
After disposing of many spices, we found that she could re-purpose many of the containers to make a new uniform set! She cleaned them out and removed the existing labels and I suggested using chalk board paint to label the tops. That way, she can continue to re-use these containers and change out the contents as needed. Rachel used a gift certificate she’d been saving to purchase a few more similar sized containers to complete her set.
Chubby Nugget: Nesting Part II-Kitchen |
Great tips! I really like the chalk board paint to label the tops.
Love the little trays for everything, and all of the labels, so everyone in the house can see where to find something (and where to put it back!).
Since your client is an expectant mother, a final touch might have been to add a child-proofing mechanism to the bottom cabinet, so they don't have to do that later.
this is amazing! i need to try this :))
Im always struggling to see which spice im looking for, and lift each one out of my box to read the label. The white marker on the top is genius!