Thursday, August 25, 2011

Organizing the Pot and Pan Drawer

Our house has a pretty small kitchen.  To optimize the space, there is a cabinet underneath the breakfast bar that we use to store our pots and pans.  When we remodeled our kitchen a few years ago my husband insisted that I spend the extra money to have pull out shelves put in, I'm so glad I listened to him :)

Unfortunately it's still a pain to get into the cabinet and I tend to keep it overstuffed with items I don't use regularly.  As I've been thinking about my basement organization (I haven't forgotten it, I'll get to it next week.  I PROMISE!) one of the spaces I wanted to create was a kitchen storage space.  My kitchen drawers and cabinets are packed with items I don't use regularly but I use often enough that I don't want to get rid of the them.  My thought was to create an easy to get to space in the basement where I can grab the cookware that I use infrequently rather easy.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit but I'm quite a slackard.  I decided to start in my pot and pan drawer since it's one of my most frequent go-to places and quite frankly the easiest to deal with!  I wasn't feeling overly ambitious this week (I started my yoga classes and have been nursing some sore muscles) but didn't want to lose my momentum.  By accomplishing something, even such a small task, it keeps me accountable. 

To start with I forced myself to honestly answer what items were used regularly.  This was fairly easy and didn't require a lot of sacrifice.  I choose to send the griddle, steamer, double boiler and waffle iron downstairs.  I kept my pots & pans, my That's a Bowl from Tupperware, the quesadilla maker, a mixing bowl and my wooden salad bowl in the cabinet.  Assuming the pots get put away correctly, this should enable me to keep a fairly organized cabinet and get at my pots a little easier. 

I'm having problems with my camera so hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures up shortly.

What did you get accomplished this week?

I'll be posting this at I'm an Organizing Junkie

You might also like:

The Unplanned Giving
Bathroom Organization
Tomato Salad Recipe

8 comments:

  1. I wish I could say I got something done this week, but its been a bust as far as organization goes. However, I did start reading the "Joy of Less" which has me really motivated to starting purging next week.

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  2. Oh so true - "By accomplishing something, even such a small task, it keeps me accountable" Keep up the babys teps and you'll go far in the end. :)

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  3. Maryalene - You've taken some good first steps by reading a book that motivates you. Good luck with your purging next week. Even getting rid of a few things will make you feel better. The longest journey starts with a single step :)

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  4. Martianne - Thanks for the encouragement. I'm on vacation next week so I'm hoping to have significant progress to share next Friday!

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  5. I'm accomplishing nothing, visiting in SC with an eye on Irene.

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  6. I guess we can let your lack of accomplishment slide this time :) Hopefully Irene won't put to many kinks in your plans and you get home safely.

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  7. Hi Liz,

    I survived my own garage sale!! lol We did fairly well ($330 + additional last minute sale of King Turd's rototiller at $300!)

    Everything that was left went directly to the Salvation Army with the exception of 3 things. An Enviro propane stove, my Kneal Knee Cruiser & a SwissGear 10-person tent. They were all pretty expensive items that are worth it to hold onto until we find the right buyers.

    The canopies are down & in the shed & the garbage & excess boxes are loaded into the trailer to head to the dump on Monday. The only thing left in the yard are a couple of items that a guy asked we leave so he could pick up tomorrow.

    So good to get that done AND cleaned up. Now, I'll never have to do it again!!

    Great job on rearranging your pots & pans... do you think if you put a pic on the inside of the door where things go that that would help getting stuff back into the right spot? Just a thought.

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  8. Great job on the rummage sale! Any fun plans with the proceeds? I'm sure it feels really good to get so much accomplished - congratulations.

    You know, part of 5S is to hang a picture as to what it should look like. I don't know if that would help in this area. It's a pretty funky cabinet located under the breakfast bar. I think I will try that though on another cabinet I want to get cleaned out this week.

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