Monday, September 6, 2010

Kitchen Cupboards


Cup cupboard.  The most used items get the most convenient location, and least used items get the least convenient locations. We store kids' cups in a drawer where they can reach, which is why you only see big-people cups and glasses here.


My kitchen cupboards are extra tall, but still came with the normal three shelves.  So I added some extra white wire shelves to better use the space.  Many cupboards have extra space between the shelves.  Bins and labels keep small items like supplements organized and easy to pull down.



The same cupboard, with a ward directory and map on one side, and our family's "yellow pages" (most commonly called numbers) on the other side.



Baking cupboard.  Because our family makes a loaf of bread in the bread machine once or twice a day, I want all the bread ingredients in one spot, other than the yeast in the refrigerator.  Another time saver is leaving the lids off the bins we use often - wheat flour, white flour, and sugar.  One bin on the middle shelf labeled "sugar stuff" holds bags of powdered sugar, brown sugar, chocolate chips, and coconut.  Another bin on the top shelf holds small baking items like toothpicks, muffin cups, flavorings, and food coloring.


Inside the door of our baking cupboard.  Here we attach the rotating dish schedule and often-used recipes like bread and pancakes.


The cupboard above the refrigerator can be put to good use with a rack or two that holds thin pans and platters upright.  I purchased these at Lowes.



Medicine cupboard. Each pull-out bin holds a different category of medicine, like pain relievers, skin creams, bandages, sunscreen and repellant.  Label makers can be fun, but using tape and Sharpie marker, or typing and printing labels on the computer works great too.




Kids art cupboard.  These drawers hold fun stuff (from the bottom up): playdough with cutters, paper, crayons/markers/scissors/colored pencils, stickers, and envelopes.


Pots and pans cupboard.  Lids are in a bin in the back. The black binder holds our CDs in one organized spot.  A strange place to store CDs?  It makes sense only when you realize our kitchen CD player is right above this cupboard.

Corner turntable cupboard.  I like food containers that nest, so I got rid of my mis-matched old ones, and purchased the new "disposable" type made by Ziplok and Glad.  I have a pile of squares, a pile of rectangles, and a pile of circle containers.



The lids are easy to find and put away nested in a bin.

Jar cupboard.  Lids in a bin, small jars in a bin below, large jars above.

Under the kitchen sink cupboard. Bins hold cleaning supplies.  We store Costco size dishwasher detergent in a two-liter soda bottle, making it nice n' easy to pour into the dispenser. We store strainers here as well as cutting boards, because they're both used at the sink.

Inside the cupboard door under the sink.  Our kids each have an assigned cup color, and they place them here between uses.  We place the whole group through the dishwasher regularly.



Inside the other door under the sink.  Small strainers on hooks.  I love using extra space behind doors. The little hooks are attached with double-sided foam tape, which is removeable.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Kitchen Drawers

Our kids' dish drawer.  Thanks to Ikea and Walmart, we assigned each child their own cup color, which makes it easy to see who didn't clear their dishes!  My philosophy is make it as easy as possible for kids to be self-sufficient.  I've used this kids dish drawer idea for many years, and it helps!


Yes, we do have two sets of silverware.  And yes, we do use them.  We have a large family, plus our home is the party hub for both of our extended families.  Often we use plastic cutlery, but these come in handy too.  We keep a few plastic forks and spoons in a bin here for sack lunches. Other bins hold a phone headset (a life saver so a busy mom can multi-task without needing a chiropractic appointment afterward), a knife sharperner, and those tiny medicine cups.

The tiny cups reminded me... if anyone has anemia problems from low iron in your blood, we found an all-natural, good-tasting, whole foods iron supplement that is AMAZING.  It's Floradix brand liquid iron.  We had used it once before for my daughter when she was young from a nurse's recommendation. Don't ask us why we didn't think to use it on her again as a teenager when she has seemed tired so much.  She's been taking it for two or three weeks and she is like a new girl!  I'm taking it too, and feel a difference.  Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, just sharing a success story...

A drawer for large kitchen gadgets.  Bins help things stay contained.  Does it always look this tidy?  Of course not.  But it only takes a minute or two to tidy it up like this, because everything has a home.

Who wants to fold dish rags and dish towels?  I questioned this one day, "Why," I asked myself, "if they're going to be unfolded and wet and hanging there anyway?"  I couldn't think of one good reason so I've never folded them since.  I used to label the spill rags (you know, the stained, yucky ones) with a "s" written on the corners so my youngins could tell the difference.  Now they're pretty good at knowing the difference so I don't need to.  Another idea is to separate spill rags into a separate bin or pile.  If you too are liberated from folding rags, welcome to the club!  P.S. Malia crocheted the pretty dish cloth in the top right corner for me.  Made me several.  Love 'em.


Okay I confess.  I'm a container freak.  Which includes Ziploks. I just really like 'em.  If you don't have a full drawer to store your plastic like this, you can attach a wire rack inside your cupboard doors under your sink and store them there.  I keep a bin of clothes pins to shut bread bags, produce bags, shredded cheese bags, you get the drift.


Hot pad drawer.  We now also call this the homework drawer.  We moved the hot pads to one side and use the other side to hold homework folders in between uses.

Measuring cup drawer.  I am an audio book girl.  But I'm also a girl who likes a tidy counter top.  Solution:  store current audio books and music CD's in this drawer.  Check.


We store several cookie sheets and skillets under the oven.


Our "junk drawer" or pencil drawer.  I often bring this drawer to show groups when I speak.  It makes the point of how awful the drawer would look if I removed the bins and tossed all the items back in randomly.  Ewe.  I'm cheap, so notice most of my bins are homemade from sandwich bag boxes?  I think the cutlery tray was from the dollar store.  See, I'm cheap.  I love having napkins out of sight but so easily reachable.  The most-used tools like hammer and screwdriver are here, and the rest are in the garage.

If anyone else has my pet peave of hating to reach into the pencil pile and pulling out several unsharpened pencils in a row, here's what worked for me:  I created a bin at the back of this drawer for all unsharpened pencils.  I also invest in a stock of click pencils each summer on the back-to-school sales.  Then when my kids bring home old-fashioned pencils, if they're sharp, they're welcome to hang out in my pencil bin.  If they're not, I nicely banish them to the back until a child gets a sharpening fettish.  Then there is a happy reunion in the pencil drawer.  And all is well.


Kitchen gadget drawer.  Again a cheap cutlery tray (I think $2 from Wal-mart) plus a few other bins that link together. The vegetable peeler and can opener are the most commonly used items here, which mean they get the front and center space.



Flower pot that holds our most-used kitchen tools.  It frees up drawer space, plus makes it easier to cook when you can reach spoons and spatulas without opening a drawer.  If you can't find one to match your kitchen colors, you can buy plain terra cotta and paint it with acrylic paints.  Been there. Done that.  It was fun!

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Kitchen Pantry





Make the best use of your pantry shelves as you can.  I like to copy grocery stores by lining up similar itmes together in rows.  All the canned vegetables in one section, fruit in another, meat in another, spaghetti sauce and pasta in another, cereal in another, and snacks in another.   Store smaller items together in bins.


A food storage expert friend taught me to use plastic soda and juice bottles, cleaned and well dried, to store dry foods.  I store them on their sides so I can easily see what's in each bottle.  I'm much more likely to use foods like lentils, brown rice, split peas, and black beans when they're in a managable size in my pantry, than I am if they're only stored in big buckets in the basement.  Other dry food stored here are popcorn (we don't use our microwave), rock salt for making healthy ice cream, wheat bran for muffins, and so on.

Buckets on the pantry floor can hold flour, sugar, rice, and grocery bags.  Make sure the buckets you access regularly have easily removeable lids.  Gamma lids make food storage buckets user-friendly.


 Hooks can hold a broom, dustpan, mop, and duster.


Hooks for holding aprons.  You can't see it but right next to the aprons is my favorite little feature of our pantry.  It's a motion detector light.  I LOVE it.  The previous owners had added it, and we were quite enamored with it.  So we (I mean my Man) installed one in our master bedroom closet, and the garage!  Cool.



 A smaller set of shelves hold appliances.



Attach a bulletin board to the inside of a pantry door.  This can hold lists of friends' phone numbers, a ward directory, family goals, and other information.

Storage Just off the Kitchen

This is the stairway from the kitchen and family room to the unfinished basement.  If you haven't noticed, I LOVE hooks. Here we use them for Grandma bags.  A cool invention I learned from my mom, which is where you stash any items that need to go back to Grandma's house, or any other relative on that side of the family who shows up at the same family parties.  The bags underneath are the kids' church bags.  See the little yellow bags?  Our stake did a pioneer trek three years ago, and my younger kids used those leftover trek bags for years. It was fun decorating them in pioneer drawings and seeing their spirits connect with the pioneers.


The door going to the basement.  This holds winter gloves and hats. Very handy.  If you want, you could rotate this in the summer with swim suits, sun hats, and umbrellas. 


Our coat closet.  We removed the hanging rod and installed two rows of hooks -- one up high for tall people and one down low for little people.  Works great!  The nesting laundry baskets up high are for swimming stuff.  I take both nested bins to the pool, then put all the wet stuff in one bin, bringing back whatever didn't get used in the dry bin.  Nifty little system.


Do you think I own stock in plastic shoe bags?  I should!  This is the coat closet just inside the garage door off the kitchen.  The tricky part is getting kids (oh and Mom) to remember to put shoes in the pockets right when we walk in the door, and to limit each person to only a couple pairs.  The rest need to be stored in people's bedroom closets.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Laundry Closet



You can transform a laundry closet into a laundry "room" by using shelves, bins, and a hanging rod. The large bins are for dark and light dirty clothes. My philosophy is to make laundry as simple and quick as possible, so it won't be overwhelming and pile up. (Note: if this photo only shows part of the closet, double click to see the whole thing.)





My favorite tricks for making laundry simple and quick:

1) Do a batch or two every morning.  Laundry never piles up, gets mildewed, or wrinkled. It’s no longer overwhelming now that it takes only a few minutes, so it’s easy to do a load or two each morning. The dreaded mountains of laundry are a thing of the past! You save time and wrinkles by hanging, folding, and tossing right when you take clothes out of the dryer.

One mother of nine stays home every Monday and does all the laundry while she works on phone calls and paperwork. Another mom reserves Monday and Friday for laundry and cleaning, leaving the rest of the week open for errands and outings.



2) The mom's job is just to wash, dry, hang, and place in bins.  That's it. I DON'T fold and put all that laundry away every day.  That's the most overwhelming part that makes you walk to everyone's bedrooms each day.  So I hang anything I don't want wrinkled, and toss the rest into bins, like pajamas, underwear, socks, rags and towels.

I do very little folding! When pulling clothes out of the dryer, I hang the nicer items, fold a few, then toss the rest (pajamas, underwear, socks, rags, towels) into each bin.

3) I DON'T mate socks.  I purchase a large package of white socks for each person (this doesn't include dress socks obviously).  Each person's has a unique characteristic, like a pink stripe, a grey brand name, etc.  My job is to toss socks into people's bins, not to match them.  Then each person puts them into their own sock bin, and any two socks they pull out will match.  So they don't have to match either.

If the socks are hard to tell apart, use a laundry marker to initial the bottom of each sock. Some people use a different mesh zipper bag to wash each person’s socks. Others have family members pin each pair together, using clothes pins or safety pins. If several people wear the same size socks, buy lots of that type and have a shared sock bin in the bathroom or bedroom. Now only dress socks need to be mated, and each person can mate their own, because your job is to simply toss them in the owner’s bin.

4) I almost never put clothes away!  Once a week each person takes his or her bin and hanging clothes and puts their own clothes away. My oldest two children do the towels and help with preschoolers’ clothes. We do this each Wednesday as part of morning chores. Another good time to do this is between family home evening and treats – you’ll be amazed at the family’s speed and cooperation when a treat is waiting!

5) Even a two- or three-year old can put away clothes if you make it easy enough.  Do this by placing small pictures on their drawers or bins, and doing it with them until they're old enough to do it on their own, around five years old. Of course it won’t look as good as when you do it, but remember you’re raising responsible children, not perfect drawers of clothing. An older child can be assigned to help a younger child. If your child helps draw, cut, or tape the labels on they’re more likely to put their clothes away.

6) I never fold dish towels or rags! Just toss them in the drawer – nobody else cares. In our house “spill rags” are stored in a low kitchen drawer and can be used for spilled juice, dusting, or cleaning. This saves nice dish towels from getting stained.

7) De-junk clothes for less laundry. Having less clothes means feeling less overwhelmed. Help your child choose their ten favorite outfits (or an amount you set) for summer, and ten for winter. Placing a D.I. box in the laundry room makes it quick and easy to de-clutter clothes that are too small, stained, or torn.
8) Liberate yourself from washing towels every day. Replace towel rods with a row of hooks, then assign each person a hook and a towel. Once a week wash the batch of towels together and rehang. If somebody wants theirs washed more often, they can throw their own in the laundry.

9) Do you have a problem remembering to rotate your laundry, and then find smelly clothes days later? Attach laundry to a daily task, like rotating a load after putting the baby down for naps and bedtime. Or after each meal. Another idea is to set a timer in your main living area if the dryer is too far away to hear the buzzer.

10) Teach family members to empty their own pockets. Announce that Mom now gets to keep anything (money, treats) she finds in pockets.

11) Teach family members to hook hangers onto the hamper so they automatically go to the laundry room. No more searching for hangers when you need them. Another idea is to have family members bring their empty hangers back the day they put away their clean laundry.

12) Teach family members to check clothing for spots. Store the pre-spot cleaner near the hamper, and spray spots when they’re fresh. Or place a small laundry bin nearby just for items that need pre-spot treatment.

13) If you don’t like hassling with tangled metal hangers replace them with sturdy plastic ones.

14) Teach family members to sort their own laundry into two or three different colored hampers: white, dark, and medium. Or you may choose to have people use a central hamper, and you sort into piles or bins in the laundry room. Do whatever is easy for you. You might assign a child the job of bringing the hamper(s) into the laundry room, or you gather them as you pick up the house each morning.
15) If you hang up most of your family’s clothing, make it easy to hang and to find each person’s clothes by dividing the hanging bar into sections using fun foam.

16) I almost never iron!  One way we get away with that is by removing clothes from the dryer and hanging them right away, using the wrinkle shield dryer option when needed.  We also buy wrinkle-free clothes, especially dress shirts.  For cotton clothes you can spray with a squirt bottle and smooth them with your hands, or use a commercial wrinkle removal spray.

We use wall space to hang wire storage shelving for laundry supplies, and a nail in the wall to hold a sweater bag.  We tape a "hang dry" sign to the wall to be placed on the washer to remind us something in that batch needs to hang dry.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Craft and Scrapbook Supplies



Several sets of three-drawer sets make a tower to hold craft supplies.  The place we have room for this tower and my sewing machine is in our 10 year-old daughter's walk-in closet.


My walk-in closet is lined with a shelf close to the ceiling.  I've placed several three-drawer sets to organized craft supplies I don't want kids to reach, like acrylic paints, various glues, glue gun, and my own scrapbook supplies.


Our teenage daughter loves creating scrapbooks and cards, so we placed the same three-drawer sets under her desk to organize her supplies.


Labeled photo boxes or shoe boxes can hold various projects in-process for a busy teenaged crafter.  Michaels craft store offers these on sale for $1.50 or $2.00.







Toy Room

Our home didn't come with a linen closet.  A guy MUST have designed it.  But it did come with this cool tiny room off our upstairs loft, which has an enchanting slanted ceiling and it just begged me to make it into a play room.  So I obeyed.  I placed clear plastic drawers holding various groups of toys:
  • cars and trucks
  • play food and dishes
  • animals
  • train tracks (the bridges are too big to fit in the drawer so they're stored in the corner of the room)
  • balls
  • toddler toys
  • dolls
  • stuffed animals
  • card games
  • blocks
  • Lincoln Logs
  • Mr. Potato Head
  • one drawer for each of the younger kids' toys  


I found a chalk board and a play kitchen at yard sales.  Fun!  This room gets LOVED and USED at every family party.  Thank goodness it's so easy and quick for everyone to help clean up, thanks to the labeled drawers.  I personally have spent quite a bit of time in this room, not only cleaning up, but creating some pretty snazzy train track configurations with my sons.  Yummy memories.


A kid-size picnic table adds to the fun.  And a world map and ABC's on the walls makes it educational.


Inside the toy room door is a wire shelving rack that holds our VHS videos.  Our DVD's are stored in the entertainment center nearby.