The Home Neat Home I did in our rental house was very well received, so I spent a morning photographing how I’ve organized our current abode, which we bought in September 2011.
Of course we start in the heart of the home – the kitchen!
Going right to left, we’ll start on the bottom with the cabinets. On the far right next to the fridge are mixing bowls, colanders/salad spinner, and my two most-used appliances: the vita-mix and the rice cooker. Lots of airy space leftover. The rest of the appliances are in the basement pantry.
Next comes the dishwasher and then our big pots, extra pots and sheet pans. I love having that vertical rack to keep the pans and our meat cutting board. I dislike that you have to reach so far back for some of those pots, but those are ones I use probably once a year, so it’s no big deal.
Coming around under the sink, we have cleaning supplies, recycling and dishwashing stuff.
I got the grey recycling bag at IKEA and LOVE it – so easy to just pick up the tote and take it to the bin. In this we put glass and plastic throughout the week. The blue bowl holds counter cleaner, towels, extra dish soap and one kind of dishwasher cleaner.
Pot holders never take up valuable drawer space, and this cling wrap holder fits our three drying mats perfectly. I love these because they take up no counter space and we just pull them out after doing the dishes and put them away when the dishes are dry. Machine washable and from BB&B!
To the left of the sink is our bakeware cabinet. It holds a basket of pot lids and then baking dishes. We probably use these once a week – if that – so the depth again isn’t a huge problem.
Because all of our daily stuff HANGS!!
I have never had a pot rack until now, and I will never go without one again!! It came with the house, so I don’t have a where-to-buy, but I bet it’s IKEA or similar. I love that it’s flat against the wall so there’s no head banging potential.
Back to the right for the drawers. All of our drawers are pretty neat but one – I have one “catch all” for things I rarely use but that are bulky and unitask-ish.
Starting on the right, we have serving pieces and cloths.
Followed by the dishwasher, and then silverware. I always think you should put silverware near the dishwasher and cooking supplies near the stove. Note that we have a holder that accommodates my long antique iced tea spoons and then another little container on the left for tiny spoons.
Working around the drawers, we have measuring utensils on the other side of the sink – spoons, cups, straws, clips and little measuring cups like the one for the rice cooker. The grater also fits perfectly in there : )
To the right of the stove are our cooking utensils – anything that doesn’t get daily use and therefore goes in the drawer instead of the canister on the countertop. I love the organizing bins – they seem so expensive when you’re browsing at Bed, Bath and Beyond, but they really do serve a great purpose.
The next drawer down is the “food storage” drawer. Glass containers, plastic wrap, bags and lids. This is about 2/3 full right now because we almost always have some glass containers in use.
And here is our one misc. catch-all drawer. This could be organized, but considering we rarely use this stuff, it’s fine as is for me!
Finally the upper cabinets –
I keep oats, nut butters, breads and things in the shelves next to the fridge and in a basket on top of the fridge. This is handy for grabbing things everyday.
The first upper cabinet holds all of our drinking glasses and mugs – plus small bowls. I got the risers that the colored mugs are on at IKEA and LOVE them – it doubled our shelf space!
The next cabinet over has all of our white daily dishes. I like to keep white with white rather than bowls with bowls. It separates the daily from the colored/special ones and the grouping makes more sense to me. I don’t have a ton of colored plates though, so they get to have a spot in here too. Up top are fancy bar ware – martini and champagne.
Next we have a skinny but deep cabinet that houses barware – mostly overflow beer glasses, wine glasses and special cocktail glasses. This cabinet might be converted to a baby cabinet soon!
Our final upper cabinet holds all kinds of cooking spices, teas, baking and coffee
This magnetic spice rack was an OpenSky special a few years ago – love it as a space saver!
Under this cabinet are a few vintage boxes with cooking ingredients we use everyday: salt, pepper, vitamins, olive oil, vinegars, cooking sprayers, chia seeds, coconut and of course our knives on the knife rack – never taking up counter space. The cutting boards have been allowed out here too because of the wooden + bright color theme : )
Other than our fruit bowl and utensil holder, the only other counter space real estate is devoted to this corner – our Tivoli radio and two big antique jars with teas and straws.
The Living Room
As you may know, one of my tricks for small kitchens is to store dishes in the dining room. But since our dining room here is tiny, they made their way around the corner in the living room. This is still a very short walk from the kitchen and since I use these bowls just for breakfasts and special occasions, it’s an OK distance.
All of my non-white, daily bowls
With a few big serving pieces on top –
This great IKEA shelf holds all of our other huge “hard to store” serving pieces – and adds character to the room as well!
Since bowls are beautiful, my favorite, most used bowls overflowed into our Billy bookcases from IKEA
Along with the colorful french press. I love it when kitchen stuff can also be décor.
All those linens I use everyday for my blog photography? They get a whole chest to themselves!
Favorites on top get their own vintage box and become part of the décor:
And all the rest are stacked into IKEA boxes and tucked away. [Just now noticing how unbalanced the two green boxes are! ]
Also in the living room – clutter is managed in this chest by the front door:
The top drawer are small things used frequently upstairs – pens, chapstick, mints, camera gear, extra keys.
The other drawers house sunglasses + winter weather gear
And the top has a catch-all for sunglasses, headphones, and keys
Bedroom + Bath
I must give a big shout out to my IKEA closet – it keeps all my clothes neatly organized by category! A dream come true.
Of course the best part is the felt organizer shelves that house my make-up, perfume and jewelry : )
I have a few off season clothes in the attic and my dresses in the master closet with Matt’s shirts and pants, but for the most part this closet makes up for not having a master bedroom walk-in.
Another master compromise of this house: no grand master bath. But our bath is just fine for now and as a bonus it does have a nice closet inside. Rather than using this for linens, I chose to just fill it with toiletries and store my linens in the guest room and laundry room.
Baskets, unique containers and IKEA bins hold everything sorted by category – everything from extra toiletries to medicines to a basket of only travel things and hair supplies.
Underneath you’ll find the upstairs cleaning supplies!
And the medicine cabinet houses all of our everyday tooth and grooming things (mostly Matt’s because he doesn’t need an IKEA organizer for his “make-up” : ) )
Storage Areas
A huge selling point for this house was all the storage areas it has. An entire WALL of closet on the lower level and nooks and crannies too.
Plus this great walk-up attic that holds suitcases, memorabilia, holiday things, camping gear, extra boxes, and more:
But two floors down at the start of the lower level basement, you’ll find our pantry. All overflow food and appliances go here! It’s about as organized as I can make it given the variety of categories of food down there. Because it’s overflow I only have 1-2 of everything and rarely need to go down to get something.
Note the spare jars though!
Continuing the Wall Of Closet is a big shelving area that is only about half full right now – some of the things are actually empty!
On the right, we have lots of household storage: infrequently used serving supplies, extra paper towels and TP, candles, and two bins of gifting supplies (bags and tissue paper)
On the left we have all of my purses and space for more to come. I love having a Goodwill collection box too – makes it easy to corral those items!
Across the hallway we have an antique desk that houses a bare minimum of office supplies and things like coupons to be saved, spare notebooks, USB drives.
Underneath I have two file boxes for important papers. I got these boxes from Target and really do not like them! They are falling apart on me. In search of a better filing system. Another thing to note: I only save the bare minimum of paper. I have most things saved electronically on my computer, which is backed up online with Carbonite. I only print things that need to be printed – like receipts for taxes or important bills that come in the mail.
This little nook is under the stairs – it now holds recreational and exercise equipment, but I have a feeling it will become a baby hideout and toy storage!
Our family room has a lot of room to grow storage-wise. It’s pretty sparse now, but I can see how all these blank spaces will fill with bins and maybe shelves to store toys and games
Laundry + Linens
We are lucky to have a beautiful laundry room that has space for storage as well on a cork countertop. I keep sheets and our favorite towels on top in vintage boxes my mom found on Ebay
And overflow on this rack underneath
The counter also has laundry materials – Method + Soapnuts are my current favorite laundry brands
And I repurposed this antique box of my grandmother’s to house my blue glass collection and the essential oils I use with the soapnuts!
Under the counter is also a cart that holds all of our main cleaning supplies – iron, cloths, extra bottles, etc.
And overflow linens – extra bedspreads, bathmats and more are stacked neatly in the guest room closet
There is one room in this house that is NOT very organized – and that would be the Man Cave aka The Brewery. It’s all Matt’s space, so I let him have at it. I do have some organizing going on in the cabinets to the right – things like lightbulbs, paint, tools and what not are in bins in there. But Matt loves his room!
That’s my whole house organized in one [very long] morning of capturing!