The spice cabinet

This was a two day project with the majority of the work done on Sunday, January 7th. My husband helped me. 

I did not remember to take a picture as he was clearing the shelves. But I took an empty photo!

I also took a picture of what went in recycling and garbage -

Like a recent refrigerator clean out, many things expired around the first of the year. However, I did find a few very old things (that I never use). 

I pitched/recycled expired items as well as items I absolutely never use. I was pretty ruthless. The cupboard was too full for easy use, I wanted to reduce everything, the entire cupboard’s contents, by 30-40%.

The little black wire baskets work well for me. They each used to hold 9 jars. They now each hold 3. I eliminated 2/3 of my spices. Ruthless.

Of everything I pitched, I only put three replacement things on my grocery list (immediately) - 

I did not order replacements for the rest of the culled/expired items, I am going to see if I need any them before I re-buy them. My guess is, I will only need a couple.

Here is where we were, Monday, January 8, 2024, after the cabinet dried over night and I replaced keeper items.

After my grocery order pick up on 1/11/24, the cabinet was here -

The drawers between the stove and the sink

The top two drawers were organized years ago. Everything has a designated area, they are full, they stay tidy.

The two big drawers were recently reworked to give each item a more defined space. 

I culled nine pans (below) in this process. They were either too heavy for me or no longer useful or did not fit in this space or were unnecessary duplicates. They were rehomed/sold/donated.

I divided my remaining pans into two groups. Every day pans are in the middle drawer. Speciality pans and molds are in the bottom drawer.

By doing the dishes every day, there are usually only 1-2 every day pans involved. Cleaning out the dishwasher, it is obvious where each of those pans are stored. Lids have to go on pans for everything to fit. It stays tidy. 

Having this drawer be full solved a cleaning out the dishwasher willy nilly pan placement problem. In the photo below, one pan and its lid are in the dishwasher. There is no mistaking where they go when the dishwasher is cleaned out later.

The speciality pan (bottom) drawer is rarely used, it will likely just stay tidy. 

Previously these items were in several places in the kitchen. Now like things are all together. If I moved to a house with a very small kitchen, probably nothing in this specialty pan drawer would move with me. But here, this house, I have plenty of space. We use these items over the holidays. 

The only other pan we have, the large Le Creuset wok, lives in the drawer under the stove. It was used constantly during lock down, it is rarely used now. I have the space for it, so it stays.

 

There are two smaller drawers in this section, they are polar opposites

A picture says it all -

The drawer on the left stays tidy/organized with no effort. 

The drawer on the right, magically turns to chaos. It is the only drawer in the house that has to be sorted/culled several times a year. It is a very hardworking drawer, but clutters easily. 

My morning medicine is crucial to my day. It is vital that my pill strip (above) lives in this exact spot under the light switch/next to the refrigerator. 

It is logical that my pill strips and medicine are in this area, hence the left drawer.

There was an episode with a debate on whether medicine belongs in the bathroom or the kitchen on Grace and Frankie long ago. 

Besides my medicine in a drawer, our household medical supplies are in a very small bin in the cabinet above the microwave (far right, below). It is safe access for adults. It is easy monitoring of expiration dates. 

 

The two big drawers under the microwave

The middle drawer has always worked hard, but previously was not inspiring -

My recipe binders moved to the bottom drawer in the island, that helped this drawer immensely. I added smaller bins, instead of the two bigger boxes. I added microwave cozies (previously on the counter, on top one of the crocks).

The bottom drawer is all things baking, really only utilized during the holidays. The pans and molds moved to another very defined area (the specialty pan drawer). The rest was reorganized into bins (below). 

The microwave section

The only upper cabinet, in our whole kitchen, was a necessity to secure the microwave. It is a very large, deep cabinet. It is hung high, we have 9’ ceilings.

This cabinet’s recent clean out happened very quickly/easily with my husband on the ladder, handing things down to me and wiping shelves. I sorted and handed keepers back up to him. 

Most of the items/removed went to a young family, a few were sold:

An ice shaver

8 of the very large canning jars

Several large and a lot of tiny Tupperware 

Spice jars

With the upper shelf of this cabinet cleared, the punch bowl and cups moved, from the pantry, up there safely.  If we did not have room, this is an item that would go. Present life, it is not used. It is hard to tell what future life might be. We have room, I love it, so far it stays. 

The cabinet above the microwave now looks like this -

Here are close ups if you are really interested -

The counter under the microwave, holds the toaster. It is very rarely used, but it stays.

This counter, proportional onto the cabinet above it, is very large. It can easily become a clutter magnet. 

When an area attracts clutter, in my opinion, there are two options: leave it empty or put purposeful things there. 

I love collections. For me, they feel like “art”. I look for opportunities to put little collections in unexpected places. This area is cohesive. It is united by the color blue.

Rather than hanging things on the wall, which is awkward because of the deepness of the space, I opted to lean two trays. They can still be used as trays, but their main purpose is now “art”. I value practical things that double as art.

The heavy metal blue fish trivet is also “art”, but gives a very defined place to put things (in and out of the refrigerator and microwave).  

The arrangement of all the items, and the addition of the little rush seat chair with the dog biscuits, says - I am special, do not make a mess here. 

 

Note - All three of the crocks (above) are vintage Roseville. This is a famous (by Midwest standards) pottery that operated for about 60 years. The history is here -https://rosevillepottery.org/

I tried five crocks (below), it was too many. 

I went to three Roseville’s (above). I like that these are all vintage from the same pottery, a true collection.

My two lower cupboards with built in dividers

My kitchen cabinets are mostly comprised of drawers, there are very few cupboards.

Besides the cupboard under the sink, and the cupboard above the microwave, I only have two other cupboards in my whole kitchen. 

These are both lower cupboards with built in dividers.

The cupboard in the island has horizontal shelves for glass baking pans and bread pans. 

I have reduced the volume in this cupboard by at least 2/3 in the last couple months. I rehomed/sold/donated a shocking amount of glass baking dishes.  

The 1/3 that I kept, fits the space -

Yes, previously, we had to Tetris-in too much stuff with great precision. It was ridiculous.

It is now very easy to get pieces in and out of this cupboard and everything has a very visible/assigned spot. One item coming out of the dishwasher, has an easily recognized spot, no Tetris, no Willy nilly.

There is a vertical cupboard on the left side of the stove with a drawer above it. 

The small drawer houses things I need for the oven -

The cupboard with the vertical slats is hard working.   It holds cookie sheets, cutting boards, a grease screen, large trivets, a baking stone. My waffle maker also fits there, perfectly. 

Here was the vertical cupboard in its before state -

Here it is, empty, with the dividers removed -

There was a surprise in this cupboard, behind the waffle maker there was a panini maker that none of us knew we had. 

Here we are now - 

The large round trivets and baking stone are anchored in a bin so they do not roll to the back of this cupboard. The waffle maker and panini maker need a good scrub and they will go on the cardboard/foam core layering that protects the cupboard from any drips.

 

The bottom drawer in the island, continued

 The bottom drawer in the island is valuable real estate. It is large. It is centrally located. The island is my cooking base. 

This drawer had turned into a grave yard.

The mandolin and food processor were impossible for me to manage with my arthritis. 

Neither of my girls wanted them. The fifth person we asked, middle’s neighbor was very happy to take both items. When she said “yes”, we put them in the car and delivered them to her. 

If she had said “no”. I would have listed them for a low amount on Facebook Marketplace. 

My knives and hammer: My knives are all old, I have replacements ready. I use the hammer to tap a very large knife through watermelon and squash.  I replaced the hammer with a new, sealed version that has a larger head and is heavier. A clerk at the hardware store helped me, there were a lot of options. The old hammer left rust marks, it is now on a hook on the pegboard in the garage.

I was all about “like things together” in this recent clean out and reorganization. 

This bottom drawer in the island was available to hold items that were scattered and a problem in other locations. 

Some people have a recipe box. 

I now have a very large recipe drawer. 

Remember, my recipe stand, which will hold books and binders, is located on my island. 

This was my first go -

My second -

My third -

Present -

The goggles are oldest’s from high school. Youngest used his/this pair through high school and college. I replaced the elastic. We keep them because some people are very sensitive, slicing onions.

I have culled a lot of cookbooks over the years. One more was rehomed in this project. I was not overly attached to it. It did not fit upright in the bin.

You have seen this photo previously in the post about the magazine which I use as a cookbook for boards/charcuterie.

The middle drawer in my island, continued

When I started on the middle drawer in the island, I was strictly concerned with the water issue. 

Several things (grater, egg slicer, lemon squeezer) can retain hidden water which can later leak out and mar the wood drawer. The flour sifter leaks flour. Flour and water make paste. 

This was my first attempt -

My closest Walmart has a lovely organizational aisle. The manager puts all available items on one huge aisle, so one can wander with their drawer measurements and consider all the possibilities.

I buy and leave all tags on and save my receipts.

I return what does not work and buy exactly what I need of the ones that do work. 

Over the course of a couple weeks, I redid five drawers,  four of which got the same style of bin, in the same length, but different widths. These drawers were different sizes. I left all the labels on all the bins, until I was confident.

Here was my second attempt -

Here was my third -

Since I do the dishes every day, most everything remains clean and in this drawer. 

When one or two things are in the dishwasher,  holes/place markers are very apparent. My husband can tell where things go, exactly. 

The things that might retain hidden water or flour, have a protected spot in a bin. 

Like things go together in bins. 

I can reach in and find anything immediately.

This is a very hard working drawer at our house.

The two big drawers in my island

The two lower drawers in island are huge! They have been re-evaluated and re-organized many times over the years. 

January 2024, this is how they looked when I started - 

Maybe we can all agree, they were tidy. There wasn’t anything actually wrong with either drawer. 

But several factors combined to call for change. 

- I can no longer work the mandolin or food processor (arthritis).

- since I do the dishes every day, I do not need all the measuring cup and spoons.

- I have been steadily moving away from plastic, toward glass and stainless. 

- some of these items retain hidden water coming out of the dishwasher which can ruin wood.

- The hammer sheds rust. (I use it to tap the knife to cut watermelon and squash.)

- The sifter sheds flour.

The three, top drawers in my island

Several years ago, I reworked all of the top drawers in my kitchen. I bought wooden dividers and decluttered/organized.

Most of them remain tidy, automatically. 

One needs a deep dive several times a year (future post). 

The top drawers in the island stay pretty organized and attractive.

This first drawer (above) holds all things tong related. It also holds scoops and pizza cutters. Corn on the cob holders and egg coloring holders are rarely used any more, but I keep them. 

The second drawer holds my flatware and my grandmother’s flatware, intermingled. We use these pieces every day. (My mother’s flatware is identical to mine, some day when I am cleaning out her house, I will simply add hers to the mix.)

The third drawer holds my husband’s family’s flatware. I added to this set (eBay). If we have a large gathering, we use this set. 

Before I started doing the dishes every day, I had a habit of leaving flatware in the bottom of the sink, dirty. One day it would not seem like there was enough for a load. Then there would be too much for a load. 

This was a big issue. 

Sometimes every fork and spoon, from both flatware drawers, would be dirty in the sink. 

I had a large collection of flatware holders (below) for the dishwasher. 

Sometimes, I would do a load of flatware, with all these containers full, because every fork and spoon, in the whole kitchen, would be dirty. This includes every soup and serving spoon. 

Sometimes it took two loads to get the flatware all clean. As I said, flatware was a big issue.

Since I do the dishes every day now, I use the flatware tray on the third rack. So even if I only have a small amount of dirty flatware in the sink, it is washed daily, it does not accumulate. 

I rehomed most of my extra flatware baskets for the dishwasher. I only kept the two that came with the dishwasher. The third rack tray (above) and the long bottom rack piece (below).