Kitchen Re-Organization

I’ve been in a kitchen re-organization mood since we got our new over the stove microwave installed the other day. Our old microwave “died” many years ago but I was using it as cookie storage. We brought our counter-top one from work home to use temporarily but that meant I lost a good part of counter space. I was so excited to re-organize the kitchen! Of course along with re-organizing, I was able to come up with some tips that I want to share with you.

The first thing I did was move the stand that I was using for “clutter” to where the counter top microwave was. Only a minor problem, the stand fit under the cabinet, but I wouldn’t be able to use the top shelf as it was only a few inches of space. Solution, my hubby drilled holes about 4″ down and we moved the shelf, giving me the perfect amount of space to store my bake ware.

Because of the height just fitting under the cabinet, I had to remove the two side rails and now there were holes on the top of the legs. Rummaging through bottles, corks, and anything I could find that might fit over the holes was a bit of a challenge. Either they were too tight or had too much slack. I finally found the perfect “cap” for the legs, water bottle caps and they matched fairly well too! I’m working on ideas to add hooks where the side holes are.

As I was moving the bread box, I noticed it had a few rust spots so I was ready to toss it until I decided to see if I could revive it. Such a simple fix and now I have a brand new looking bread box!

I took a wet rag, sprinkled baking soda on it and gently scrubbed the stainless steel bread box. I rinsed out the rag, sprinkled it with lemon juice and wiped the box down, the rust was gone and it smelled so fresh! I wish I had a before picture but I didn’t plan on having it come clean.

The last part of my project for the day was to sort out all the cookbooks and recipes I had stored in the cabinet over the microwave. I had to remove them all for the install and what a perfect time to sort them out. I had so many books but only a portion of them were going back. As I started to put them in the cabinet, they would tip to the side and start of fall. Then when I would pull one out, they fell again. So my solution to this was a box, which I just happened to have the perfect sized one. A spray painted the box and it fit perfectly on one side of the cabinet and now if the books were to shift or lean, they wouldn’t fall completely over. When it comes to projects, I like to think outside the box!

I still have tons of recipes that were sent to me or from magazines that I have to sort through but I know I want to keep many of them. As a temporary fix, I pulled out a plastic shoe box from my storage to hold all the loose papers. A perfect solution for my cookbooks and recipes and it looks so neat and organized now!

So my quick fixes did the trick just by using what I had around the house!