Kitchen Storage

Yesterday, blog buddy joeh, wrote about the storage war in his kitchen, where his beloved wife Mrs Cranky (that's what he calls her) had her dishes stacked in the cupboard like a Jenga puzzle.

I decided to show you all how I store my stuff in my teeny, tiny kitchen.

this is my crockery cupboard where everything has its place. See that white rectangular thing between the plates and bowls? And the same on the top shelf between large bowls and smaller ones.

it's a shelf stacker, lightweight metal, bought from Ikea two days after I moved in here, when I got sick of having to pull down or lift up the small plates to get a larger one.

here's a closer look, large plates on the cabinet shelf, smaller plates on the stacker, bowls are off to the side and lesser used things are up on the top shelf.

under the cabinet is the microwave, with the coloured plastic plates I use for cat food

next to the microwave, on the edge of the hotplates is the old chipped mug with the plastic forks and spoons I use for serving up cat food. For Lola of course.

two steps away, (literally two steps!), is the other corner of the kitchen which I call my coffee corner. Here you see all my mugs, which don't fit in that tiny crockery cabinet. Most of the utensils I use daily are here too, because the drawers are too small to hold everything. 

 In between this corner and the microwave corner is the sink, which you won't be seeing because that's where I stashed all the junk I didn't want in the photographs (*~*)

the jars hold International Roast Instant coffee on the left, raw sugar in the middle and Milo on the right

the tray they sit on has a pretty cups design and was found in a thrift shop for $2

the hanging shelf which holds my daily vitamins is from Ikea

and so are the rails and hooks, sold separately, the hooks being in packs of five for just a few dollars, about $3.95 I think

even my scissors and measuring spoons are up here, to be easily seen and reached

next to the hotplates, back on the other side of the kitchen again, is this utensil holder, again from Ikea, with all my wooden spoons, the small blue and white jug holds bamboo skewers and a plastic whisk, the saucer it sits on is used as a spoon rest when I need it

one step to the left is this matching utensil holder with the plastic utensils used for the nonstick cookware, all the saucepans are in the skinny cupboard just under this tiny section of benchtop. The brown stoneware container in the back corner holds herbal teabags and the smaller on in front and to the left of the plunger is filled with honey, for the tea of course.

on the wall is the big wire strainer (and you can better see the teabag pot and the honey pot.)

and my oven mitts, the small pair are thinner and more suited to bringing hot dishes out of the microwave, the striped pair are elbow length, insulated and great for getting things out of the real oven.

the plastic trays behind the hotplates catch any splatters from cooking and are easily taken to the sink for washing, much easier than me trying to reach in and crick my neck and strain my shoulders trying to wash down the tiles. 

So that's most of my kitchen, half a step left from the oven mitts is my fridge and that's right up against the door opening (no actual door just a space) to the living room.