• Week 2 Assignment: Declutter, Give Away, and Organize Kitchen Equipment
• Cure Clock: 4 weeks (plus a weekend) remaining
• Cure Takers: 695! and counting (sign up here)
How is Week 2 of the Kitchen Cure? Are your cupboards and kitchen gear freshly decluttered and organized yet? Or are you saving this part for the weekend?
Here's a little inspiration for your Kitchen Cure efforts: a check-in with your fellow Cure-takers, a great storage idea for cookbooks, a look at my formerly embarrassing tool drawer, and more results of my own Kitchen Curing. Don't forget to check back in tomorrow, too, for another Kitchen Cure download goodie!
Here's my own progress. You can also see how I reorganized my pots, pans, pot lids, and plastic food storage boxes here. Where's your photos? Show us what you're reorganizing in the kitchen. Even if you just neaten up and restack your kitchen equipment, it can feel so good.
TOP ROW
• 1, 2, 3 - My own freshly decluttered tool drawer. My drawer is too shallow for a knife tray to fit in front to back, so I had to place it sidewise. Three bamboo trays from The Container Store round out the organizational setup. These are low enough to stack, if I ever want to add another layer. I got rid of some duplicate tools, too, and moved serving utensils like pie servers to the flatware drawer where there is plenty of room for them.
• 4 - Divided tool jar into two. I don't have a BEFORE photo of this, but the tool crock was jammed so full of spatulas and spoons it was almost impossible to pull one out. I purged duplicates and plastic gear that I never use, and divided the tools between two glass jars (I had these jars on hand already).
• 5 - Second tool jar and whisk cup. The first jar holds metal spatulas and tongs. This jar holds plastic spatulas and wooden spoons. The small cup holds my little whisks. (I have a whisk addiction!) I also put the olive oil on a small plate.
BOTTOM ROW
• 6 - Seasoning tray. I took a ceramic tray that I already had and arranged all the little seasonings that sit out on the counter on it. This neatens things visually and will hopefully catch stray pepper and soy sauce drips. (That adorable soy sauce pot was a wedding gift from Dana. It's from Rare Device.)
• 7 - Stand mixer attachments.I took Elizabeth's advice and took these attachments out of the cupboard and tucked them directly into my KitchenAid instead.
• 8 - Veronica's cookbook storage. Veronica lives in Chicago, and she says:
Our pantry is completely over-stuffed — I freed up over a foot of shelf space by moving our cookbooks into the kitchen. The microwave used to sit on two wooden crates turned upside down — I moved one crate to the top of the stack and turned it on its side. Luckily all of our cookbooks fit perfectly inside. Now it's way easier to see the books, and I think it's pretty darn cute too.
• 9 - yivich is catching up... yivich is just checking into the Kitchen Cure - welcome! Like many of you, she is just getting started, so she is doing last week's assignment. She says:
I'm getting a late start so I'm still working on Week 1's assignment, here are the pictures of my fridge, freezer, and pantry. Unfortunately finding good prices at the store yesterday has led to all 3 being MORE full now, not less . . .
• 10 - jkdmb03's BEFORE pots and pans. This is from the Flickr Kitchen Cure pool. jkdmb03 writes:
These lids drive me insane. I swear there is one big one that does not fit a single pot or pan in our possession
What about you? Are you decluttering equipment and tools, and restacking your baking pans? Are you still doing some work from Week 1? If so, that is absolutely fine, but try to tackle at least one organizational issue in your kitchen this weekend. And send us photos! Don't forget to take a look at all the knife organization photos your fellow readers sent us:
• Reader Gallery: Knife Storage Solutions
Check back in tomorrow for a download goodie. You can find last week's here:
• Kitchen Cure Download: Eat This! Grocery Reminder
Kitchen Cure 2009 Process
• The week's assignment is posted on Monday - You have a week and a full weekend to get it done before moving onto the next thing.
• Check-in and update is posted on Friday - We'll do a check-in like this one every Friday, so you can see how it's going for everyone and get some inspiration to push you through the weekend.
• Assignment-related posts every day! - Every day we'll post one or two tips, good ideas, or resources to help you complete this week's assignment.
• Flickr Group: 2009 Kitchen Cure - For sharing photos
• Submit your photos and updates directly to The Kitchn - You can also send your photos and updates directly to us. This is the first place we'll look when putting together these check-in posts.
• Kitchen Cure Homepage - You can always access all assignments, check-ins, submission form, tip posts, and the discussion board right here on the Kitchen Cure homepage.
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I'm lagging this week. I got off to a good start, working my way through the cupboards clockwise, but I'm stalled. I hope to get through the rest of it this weekend.
I have the same knife holders in my drawer, love them. I will have to look into those bamboo storage trays as I have so many tiny things to store. Thanks for the tips. Robin
I just moved, so I did this about four months ago. The hardest part was getting my boyfriend to part with his subpar gadgets when we had duplicates (not that all mine were great, but I was OK throwing a rusty can opener in the trash).
It is SO NICE to have everything in one drawer and easily accessible. If I can't find something, I know it's because it's dirty or in the drying rack and I don't waste time searching for it.
I have to say, at first I wasn't too into this week's assignment. Since I have just one cabinet that is reserved for pots and pans, I tend to keep it pretty well organized. Also since I'm the only one who actually cooks in our home, its not like the food cupboards and fridge that gets messy if I'm not on top of keeping it organized. But seeing Sara's knives and utensils all organized like that really motivated me to see what I can do to better utilize these spaces (I do have a pretty well organized pots/pans area, but the tool drawer can be and will be revisted, and I am really into Veronica's cookbook storage!) I'll upload photos this weekend
My biggest challenge was really small. About 2 square feet of a cupboard occupied by part of my collection of spices. Functional new containers (Tupperware) lacking labels and an appropriate holder, consequently a real drag to use.
Encouraged by this week's assignment, I got to work with the labeller and labelled them and went out this afternoon looking for something to put them in. I found the perfect baskets:
* they are exactly the right size to cradle the containers so they don't fall over when one is removed
* because the containers lie down in the baskets I can read the labels without having to take the containers out
* the baskets use up about 98% of the depth of the shelf (little wasted space)
* they stack, so I can also use the height of the cupboard well (I have a lot of spices).
As posted elsewhere I resolved to discard a broken old light that was sitting in pieces on the benchtop, and while I was at it I got rid of a powerboard/ adaptor and associated cable organisers that weren't really serving their purpose any more. Replaced with some individual "universal adaptor" plugs in the wall. Result is nicely streamlined and I have a whole lot more bench space!
3rd activity was to neaten up the white board I use to keep track of fridge and freezer contents and leftovers (same idea as the organisers posted in the Cure). We've been using it for months now and have optimised the layout, so I used the labeller to make some tidy "headers" and dividers and induce a bit of visual organisation. Great result - in the first place we look in the kitchen!
Thanks for helping me give myself the little "push" I needed to do this; I think it will make me feel lots better about my kitchen. Bought a couple of potted herbs yesterday and it feels more "homey" already.
I FINALLY got around to decluttering my cabinets and drawers! This was a busy week for me so I did most of it this weekend. I was sort of dreading the drawers because other than the silverware drawer, there was no rhyme or reason to where things went. But I buckled down one night with a cardboard "giveaway" box next to me and was shocked at how full the box was and how empty the drawers were at the end! The amount of duplicates i had were crazy - 3 sets of swizzle sticks (i kept one, even though we don't really use them except at an occasional party), 3 full sets (about 30 total) of wine charms (bye bye to all of them!), and LOTS of various wine openers (including 5 of the cheapie $1 kind from liquor stores). umm...most of the corkscrews i'm keeping 9i have my reasons). and as a bonus i found these really kitschy Playboy coasters that i haven't seen in years!
anyway, it was such a successful mission, that i tackled the cabinets with newfound enthusiasm and allowed myself the freeing feeling of tossing the random formal crystal pieces that have been taking up valuable space since our wedding 5 years ago! I have a whole box of stuff to pass on to some other sucker!
I've been too timid to actually sign up for the kitchen cure but the inspiration has been so powerful - I have noticed it taking over and I've doing the cure anyway! I just cleared out my cupboards and made a home for my new set of good quality pots and pans (rather than the old hand-me downs I have had forever).
Everything is so pretty and organized now...
Thank you AT, its readers and posters!!!!
You all inspire me :)