The Kitchn Archive: Mar 2015

When I became an adult with my own kitchen, one of the biggest surprises of renting was how few apartments come equipped with garbage disposals. Although I dump most of my food scraps in the compost bin or garbage, I still like the convenience of rinsing away the last few grains of rice or container of stinky leftover soup down the drain with the help of a garbage disposal.

Magnetic knife racks are a bit of a misnomer because they’re good for far more than just knives. You can also use them for storing bench scrapers and metal spatulas (see above). Here are six ways you can use a magnetic knife rack around the kitchen. A few years ago, we geeked out a little over Regina’s brilliant appliance cabinet makeover — and we still can’t get over it.

So, you’re ready to take the next step with that cutie you’ve been flirting with for some time who happens to work at a restaurant. You met them at a party, where they told you about their dream of opening a restaurant or winning Top Chef and now you’re totally smitten. You like food too, so you know it should be a perfect match, right? Let’s step back for a second.

Last on my list in my kitchen organization project is the one deep, dark corner cabinet. We all have them and I’m guessing no one likes them, but I found a way to make mine work for my servingware collection by adding one simple (no-brainer) organization tool. My deep, dark corner cabinet has no pull-out shelves and about a 12-inch opening sandwiched between the refrigerator and stove.

You know how moving goes. You pack up all your dishes and glasses, all your pots and pans, and all your canned goods and half-empty boxes of pasta. You have big plans for your new space. You’re going to unpack your stuff in the most organized way possible! It sounds great in theory, right? I had big plans for my new kitchen the last time I moved. I bookmarked all of our organizing posts (all of them). I felt ready and excited. Queue the moving truck and bring on the packing tape.

There’s this vertical base cabinet in my kitchen that I initially thought would be perfect for storing baking sheets, trays, and cutting boards, but as the skinny cabinet got crowded, it became increasingly difficult to find what I needed. Then, once I did find what I needed, removing said item from the cabinet inevitably created an avalanche. What the cabinet needed was something that would prevent a domino effect when one item was removed.

I’m about to show you one of my favorite kitchen types. It’s what I like to call the Ugly Duckling kitchen — the kitchen with vintage cabinets, dated countertops, basic appliances, or other uninspiring details. The Ugly Duckling kitchen is often found in rentals, and likely hasn’t been updated in a few decades. On the surface it really doesn’t look like much. But Ugly Duckling kitchens?

I’m one of those hyper-organized people who loves to make lists—grocery lists, packing lists, to-do lists, books to read lists, home improvement lists, you name it, I’ve listed it. So when I redid my office a few months ago, acquiring a large dry erase board for my weekly deadlines was tops on my, um, list.

A few years ago I made a very small change to the food cabinet next to my stove that immediately made it neater. It’s such a simple thing that I’m a little embarrassed I didn’t come up with the idea earlier, but now that I’ve implemented the change, I’m totally set on this new way of doing things. Here’s what I did.