Before I show you how these cabinets function now, let’s take a look at what wasn’t working about them:
This cabinet was used for all my cooking & baking supplies. Spices were randomly stored on the bottom shelf, making it hard to find what I needed. The shelf above it held about 500 empty cans of cooking spray & other random items! Above that were more cooking oils & mixes & the top shelf held more baking mixes & cake decorating supplies.
I decided I would get the most function out of this cabinet if I turned it into a cabinet for baking only, since it was very difficult to reach the items on the top two shelves (& I eat those Martha White muffin mixes on the second shelf from the top every. single. morning.). Doing this allowed me to take additional items from another cabinet & add them here, closer to where they would be used.
I sorted all my cookie cutters & divided them into two containers. One for seasonal cutters & one for everything else. Since they are rarely used, I stashed them on the top shelf.
On the left, I stored the random baking items I occasionally use (chocolate chips, baking powders, & extra flour).
To the right, I stashed all my cake decorating bags, tips, & food colorings in a plastic shoe bin. It is so much easier to grab this bin to get what I need, rather than climbing up on the counter to find the exact color or tip that’s needed.
The bottom two shelves hold items that are used more often.
The left side holds baking oils, spices, & sugars (brown, powdered, & cinnamon) & glass measuring cups & bowls.
The left side mainly holds baking mixes. Finally, I can reach my morning muffins with ease!
I added cheap, adhesive hooks to both doors to hold some of my plastic measuring spoons & cups.
Now that this cabinet is much more functional & easy to use, it was time to figure out what to do with all the cooking supplies I removed from it!
After relocating these cups & glasses to the “To Go” cabinet & another cabinet for everyday dishes, I decided to use it to store my cooking supplies. Now, both my cooking & baking cabinets flank the stove, so everything is easily accessible where it needs to be used.
The top shelf holds our grill utensils, which are rarely used, since we still haven’t brought it back from my parents’ house where we left it four years ago! (That is definitely getting put on the “To Do” list!)
The next shelf down (left side) holds random things (microwavable omelet maker, corn on the cobb holders, cooking scale, etc.). Beneath that are large spices, vinegars, & oils. I added a wire spice rack to the bottom shelf to make finding what I need easier. I maximized the spice storage by laying spices in rectangular containers flat below the bottom spice shelf. Then I labeled them on the top/front so I can easily tell the spices apart. I also used a sharpie to label the fronts of the screw on caps for all the spices on the back two steps of the spice rack.
The bottom shelf on the right holds spice packets (in the white bin) & bread crumbs. Above that are different versions of salt & pepper. The third shelf (from the bottom) holds a plastic food cover for microwaving. (I don’t know the exact name for this, but you basically put it on anything that needs to be covered when heated in the microwave, & it prevents the food from exploding all over the inside of the microwave!)
Again, to maximize storage, I hung my recipe cards, measuring cups, & measuring spoons on the doors. I also painted them with a few coats of chalkboard paint for listing the weekly menu & grocery needs. (I’ll share more on that in a different post.)
The base cabinet below my new cooking cabinet used to look like this:
It held some of my Pyrex dishes, cutting boards, cookie sheets, & baking dishes. Several of these items are missing from this before picture, which doesn’t do the cabinet justice!
First, I moved all the Pyrex dishes to another cabinet intended for food storage, since I don’t normally cook with them. This freed up enough space that I could add my bread & cake pans to the cabinet. You can barely see them in the back of the picture below. (Since they are not used often, I didn’t mind having them in the back. In the front part of the cabinet, you can see my pie dish, round cake pans, & stock pot all stacked together.
Above that, a pull-out shelf holds my baking dishes. They stack together pretty easily, with the exception of my 8x8 dish. It doesn't look perfect, but it still functions well!
After seeing this genius cookie tin organization, I asked Mark if we could lower the pull-out shelf on the right side & if he could build something similar to store my cookie sheets, broiling pan, & muffin tins. Again, he obliged me & created this:
After lowering the pullout shelf, he cut two pieces of plywood the width of the shelf & two-thirds the height of the cabinet opening. He routed out a handle on one piece & nailed it into the front of the shelf. He added the second piece to the back. He then cut two pieces of plywood to fit between the front & back pieces (the depth of the shelf) & nailed them to the front & back. The original plan was that the sides would come all the way to the bottom of the shelf, but we didn’t have enough wood in our stash, so he made them shorter.
Here is the view from the top…
And another picture of the finished product:
I am so glad to have these spaces functional & organized! Do you have any other tips for organizing cooking & baking supplies? I’d love to hear them!
