Lauras Crafty Life: Task Management Tuesday: Week 6

I keep all of these containers in one side of a large cabinet I have. You can use a large drawer too, but I don't have any deep drawers in my kitchen. I try to keep like things together. So all of my plastic storage is here. This cabinet is above the main work surface in my kitchen and next to the stove where I need to clean up leftovers.

When you are organizing a space it is important to ask yourself, where will I use this item most and how often do I use it? This cabinet is above the main work surface in my kitchen and next to the stove where I need to clean up leftovers. I use these containers on a daily basis, so I need to be able to access them easily.

The small cups (1/2 cup size) are the hardest to deal with because they are round and the lids don't stack very well on top and the whole stack just falls right over. So, I stack the cups in the back and then place the lids in an extra storage container in front. This works really well to keep all of those small lids together and not rolling all over the cabinet!

This cup/mug rack came already installed in our cabinet when we bought our house. I originally was going to take it down because I don't store any glasses or mugs in this cabinet (they are stored in a cabinet next to the refrigerator), but I decided to leave it up. It is the perfect spot to hang my measuring cups, the apple slicer and a bottle opener. All things I use on a regular basis.

When looking to organize a space try to see things in a different light. You can often "shop your home" to find items to organize with. Thinking of alternate uses for one item can really make a big difference!

To keep things neat, about once every six months I go through this cabinet to purge stained, cracked and mismatched lids/bottoms. I recycle what I can and then throw away whatever is left.

My next tip is for leftovers. To keep leftovers from becoming scary science experiments in my fridge, I have a little trick to share with you. I write the date that the leftovers were placed in the fridge with a dry erase marker on the top of the container. This washes off easily when I do dishes. (FYI - I don't know how well it would come off with the dishwasher, but I wash all my plastic storage containers by hand. They tend to get too warped in my dishwasher).

You can't see it very well in this picture, but this container has
9/6 written on it in the indented space at the top. This is the date
this item was originally placed in the fridge.

Recently, I also organized my junk drawer. You can read about it here. This has been very helpful for finding all those little odds and ends when I need them. With my added storage basket, this drawer has actually stayed organized since July! I am very excited about that. It is the little things that keep your life running smoothly.

Lastly, to keep me on track with dinners at our house, I bought this cute, inexpensive days of the week dry erase board from Dollar Tree. It was just what I needed to write out what we were having for dinner for the week when I sit down and menu plan each week. It is magnetic and sticks to the side of my fridge. I don't always stick to the days I have written down, but it helps me to buy only what I need for a week's worth of dinners when I go grocery shopping.

{from Dollar Tree}