18 Feb, 2010
Bakeware Baking canned goods Food Storage kitchen Organizing Solutions Pantry Pasta RIce stacker shelves Vegetables
Situation:
An incredibly large pantry with built-in shelves and drawers but a very industrious and busy cook. It seemed to have a life of it’s own and created it’s own systems if we didn’t keep an eye open for small hands and hungry mouths!
Challenge:
There were so many shelves and drawers that it looked deceptively easy to organize. This is a common situation with too much space in pantries, closets or other areas in your home. Because of the expanse of storage space, you keep buying more and more products to fill it up. Sound familiar? This actually wasn’t the issue in this pantry but a good thing to keep in mind if you have a large but out-of-control storage area.
Solutions:
We decided what zones were really necessary to keep everything organized in this space. Zones were super important since this was a very busy mom with a multi-cultural family with a variety of palettes.
Specific zones were created to include:
1. Condiments, Sauces
2. Asian Cuisine
3. Canned Goods: Soups, Veggies
4. Canned Goods: Mexican
5. Baking / Entertaining Zone
6. Rice/Pastas
7. Teas / Beverages
8. Snack Zone
9. Breakfast Zone
These are the zones created specifically for foods. After that we created storage for appliances and other items to include:
1. Entertaining 2. Baking 3. Cooking 4. Paper Goods
Click here to see more specific solutions for storage and zone organizing for pantries. I use these solutions frequently when I work in with clients and you might end up with some new ideas for your own pantry!
PS Please post any good solutions you have developed on your own in the comment form below so that others can benefit from your clever tips and tricks!
30 Oct, 2009
kitchen oven Pantry Storage
Situation: An oven that had turned into a cabinet. A pantry that held almost everything but food and food storage supplies.
Challenge: This was a very dangerous choice. When space seems to be at a premium, folks will often default into using areas for storage that are really meant for other things. The real pantry was used to store games, wrapping paper, office supplies, almost everything but paper goods.
Solution: Get rid of excess grocery inventory, clear the pantry and make room for what supplies and food needed to be kept on hand.
21 Sep, 2009
Assisted Care Car Garage Clothes Cluttering Counter Checks Dumping Ground Enough Space Holiday Decorations Kitchen Area Kitchen Bar Kitchen Counter Living Room Lunch memories Possessions Purchasing A New Home
Situation:
This kitchen bar counter had turned into a dumping ground for all things that didn’t have a pre-defined place to live elsewhere. The owner had spent the past year investing all of her energies traveling to see her husband in an assisted care living facility. She simply did not have any energy at the end of the day to maintain her own home.
An additional challenge was that this home had been her main residence for 40 years and, as is normal for everyone, she had accumulated many duplicate and unnecessary possessions.
Challenge:
Determining what types or categories of items had actually found their way to this area. Most of the items did not belong in the kitchen/living room but ended up there by default because there wasn’t any space in the other parts of the house to store them.
Like most classic organizing projects, we had to begin organizing and de-cluttering other parts of the house before we could tackle this particular area. For this client, our work began in the garage. Once we had the garage organized and purged of all unnecessary items, we had created enough space to move what she wanted to keep and store from the kitchen area.
Solution:
Begin by tackling, purging and organizing the two car garage which had initially room for only one car. Once that area was organized, we had space to bring in the other items from the kitchen that needed to be stored there long term. These items mainly consisted of memories, clothes and holiday decorations.
Many of the duplicate items were given to her daughter who was in the process of purchasing a new home so it was a win-win for everyone!
17 Jun, 2009
Alzheimer Alzheimers Desktop System File Cabinet file folders Important Information kitchen Loss of Memory Mom Paper Reminders Paper Storage papers Paperwork Visual Clutter
Situation
Client was at the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s. She kept notes hanging up everywhere so she could remember important information. The problem was that she had so much information hanging up that it turned from useful information to overwhelmingly visual clutter. She had not ever used file folders or her file cabinet for years and instead used the floor and counters for paper storage. I think her reasoning again was that being able to see all of her papers would help her remember what she needed to do.
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