Organizing Our Small Ikea Kitchen

It’s time as soon as once more to throw open each cupboard, drawer, and door to point out you ways we organized our smaller kitchen, which we slowly renovated over the past two years (extra on that gradual however regular reno right here). This put up must be an particularly enjoyable one since you’ll see simply how a lot we’ve improved the storage on this kitchen, which we shared in this put up virtually two years in the past. And, as standard, we made a video walk-through of the entire thing too, which additionally explains a couple of future plans involving two outside cupboards that we plan so as to add to the close by kitchen porch. So yeah… tons to cowl.

We’ll begin with the video, as a result of it’s really essentially the most complete solution to perceive precisely what goes the place in our new kitchen. Sherry additionally snuck some Penny footage in there for you, as a result of she is aware of what you actually come right here to see. Plus you’ll get a sneak peek into our utility closet, which appears to be like utterly completely different than it used to when it simply housed our HVAC system & an enormous water heater!

Be aware: You too can view this video on YouTube.

The final time we shared how we organized this small kitchen, it was September of 2020 and we’d solely lived right here for 3 months. We had been enthusiastic about how practical we had made it in such a brief time period by working with what we had – and largely had been thrilled that we’d efficiently downsized our belongings from our final kitchen and it really labored for us. At this level within the pandemic we had been cooking nearly each single meal at residence and had two children residence full time doing at-home-learning… nearly each single meal all of us ate was saved and ready and consumed on this small kitchen. As a reminder, that is what it seemed like at the moment:

Slowly through the years, we added issues like: a pantry cupboard, new (secondhand) home equipment, up to date cabinetry, backsplash tile to the ceiling on that again wall, and so on – and as you noticed in our kitchen reveal put up, the kitchen now appears to be like like this!

So let’s dive into the three main storage areas – the decrease cupboards, the higher cupboards, and the pantry cupboards – to point out you all the organizational enhancements we’ve made alongside the best way. Disclaimer: the video is way more thorough than pictures can ever be, plus it mentions these outside kitchen cupboards we ordered, and the way we predict issues will shift a bit once they lastly arrive – so watch that everytime you get an opportunity.

Organizing The Decrease Cupboards

We really LOST decrease cupboard house as a part of this renovation, which appears like a downgrade on paper, however we gained a complete floor-to-ceiling pantry cupboard + 4 higher cupboards (3 alongside the again wall and 1 over the fridge). So it was for certain an enormous acquire in the long term. To jog your reminiscence, these are the three skinny backside cupboards that we took out:

We eliminated them to convert that window right into a door so we’d have easy accessibility to the porch on the market, the place we now have a grill and an outside desk that we use SO OFTEN as a result of they’re so handy to have proper off of the kitchen.

The kitchen porch is sort of a big outside extension of our kitchen, which is fairly nice to have in a spot that’s heat virtually year-round, so if in case you have a smaller kitchen with the choice to create a little bit outside extension of it at your own home, full with an outside desk and a grill (and possibly even an outside cupboard or two for storage of issues like grill instruments), we’d undoubtedly advocate it.

That is the previous cupboard space that we had earlier than we added that door to the kitchen porch. The cupboards had such thick wooden framing that it felt very uneven and inefficient. It was troublesome to retailer something wider than 12″ in there and it required loads of bending or squatting right down to see no matter you had been retrieving from the again of the cupboard or that little half shelf on prime. In the event you evaluate that to a pantry drawer or cupboard drawer, which pulls out and comes proper to you with out as a lot crouching, you may see why our up to date kitchen has much more decrease drawers than cupboard doorways.

These three drawers above our skinny earlier cupboards additionally had that tremendous thick framing, which stole loads of room that in any other case might have been used to retailer issues, and like all the drawers in our previous kitchen, they had been shallow and slim, which vastly restricted what may very well be saved in them.

Right here’s the place issues begin wanting up. By eradicating these three skinny cupboards and including that door to the brand new kitchen porch…

… it allowed us to place a brand new 24″ base cupboard in what had beforehand been a very useless nook. As you may see from this older photograph beneath, the previous cupboards didn’t have a lazy susan or another fancy nook swing-out shelf like most fashionable kitchens do in that nook. The cupboards that had been the place the door is now actually simply blocked entry to something that might have been saved in that nook.

So despite the fact that we misplaced about 40″ of previous cabinetry, we gained 24″ proper again the moment we put a pleasant huge cupboard in that nook that was useless, blocked off house.

And since we’re huge proponents of drawers as a substitute of doorways in your decrease cupboards (a lot simpler to get issues out! much less bending! everyone wins!), this new 24″ base cupboard… which seems to have 3 drawers however really has 4… is a WORKHORSE.

The highest drawer is our “junk drawer” that we outfitted with two of Ikea’s bamboo storage trays (this and this) that match completely. We had a lot house in it that we added issues like our automotive keys, the canine leash, and my pockets in there too because the drawer is true subsequent to the door that we use most. It’s actually helpful for grabbing belongings you want earlier than leaving, and it’s a pleasant clear look to have them tucked right into a drawer as a substitute of at all times amassing on the counter.

The following drawer down is our crucial instrument drawer. Sure, it’s bizarre, however we’ve at all times had a instrument drawer (in each kitchen we’ve ever owned, all through the previous 16 years as householders) and it has turn out to be a behavior we simply can’t stop. Now we have some lesser-used instruments saved within the corridor closet, however it’s good to have the stuff we use commonly down right here so we will seize stuff to shortly cling an image, measure one thing, tape one thing off, and so on.

The underside drawer is the deepest, which allowed us so as to add considered one of our favourite Ikea kitchen options: a hidden drawer! We are able to retailer ALL of our glass bakeware, containers for leftovers, and college lunch stuff in a single place, which is greater than I can say for the previous drawers that had been right here.

We additionally added Ikea’s pegboard organizer to higher wrangle all of our storage containers in our deep backside drawer. It appears to be like a little bit chaotic on this photograph (if it got here in white it could mix with the drawers much more), however it has been an enormous assist. Issues don’t rattle round in right here, and there’s much less digging for what you’re searching for. That open space on the again left is the place the children retailer their lunchboxes, however we took these pictures again once they had been in class… therefore the lunchboxes being gone.

I do know it sounds loopy, however this new 24″ cupboard has made us worlds happier than the previous cupboards we eliminated ever did.

The Beneath Sink Cupboard

Okay, let’s transfer on to beneath the sink. As a reminder, that is what our previous sink cupboard seemed like. The massive wooden divider in the course of the 2 doorways was a little bit little bit of a bummer, however we had pared down sufficient to make it work – particularly with the assistance of these wire cabinets on the doorways.

The brand new cupboard is similar measurement (36″) however the huge full-height doorways make it simpler to entry issues… so we’ve crammed extra in there, I assume. Ha! I understand that is hardly Pinterest-worthy, however it’s actual life. We at all times attempt to use the storage bins we now have (even when they’re mismatched!) earlier than spending cash on one thing new, in order that’s what you see occurring in right here. We additionally had saved a couple of belongings you don’t see within the photograph above in our laundry closet earlier than (like Sherry’s beloved Folex, our wooden conditioning wax, the Lysol, and so on), and now all of them get to reside down right here in a single spot.

That assertion is true of loads of random gadgets really. We undoubtedly had been simply looking for a spot for issues three months into dwelling right here once we wrote that preliminary kitchen storage put up – so some issues simply couldn’t be within the kitchen resulting from lack of room – so that they had been relegated to the laundry closet, the corridor closet, or some other place. It’s VERY NICE to have issues multi function spot once more, so there’s not that complete “are the magic erasers beneath the sink…? No they’re within the corridor closet!” factor.

Some issues don’t change although – we’re nonetheless counting on lazy susans beneath the sink (we particularly love this clear divided one) to entry our on a regular basis cleansing provides. And we’ve used the identical wire cabinets we’ve had all this time to create two ranges of storage that permit us to condense some issues that had been within the laundry space/corridor closet/and so on. It makes the entire space actually versatile for us.

The Cupboard With Our Utensils and Pots & Pans

To the proper of the sink cupboard is the place we retailer our flatware, pots, pans, and different baking dishes (brownie pan, cinnamon roll pan, and so on) because it’s proper subsequent to the range.

To make extra room on the opposite facet of the range for a way more environment friendly cupboard than the one we had there earlier than, this new cupboard turned barely smaller than the previous one (solely by an inch or two). However once more, as a result of the Ikea drawers are extra effectively designed with out such thick wooden framing that steals loads of house, it really works more durable and permits us to retailer much more than earlier than. The highest drawer is for our utensils and we used one other bamboo tray that Ikea makes (so it suits in there completely with out wasted house) to maintain all our utensils and serving spoons and stuff in place.

I do know it appears to be like extremely bizarre that we now have a drawer with only one single pan in it, however that’s actually how our drawer appears to be like. It’s the pan we use essentially the most, and I determine if we ever want the drawer house for one thing else, we will simply add it in there too, or we might hold that pan out on the range. At all times good to have room to develop, proper? And sure, it’s this pan (we needed to see what the hype was about) and since I do know a few of you’ll ask for our assessment: we prefer it, it’s simple to scrub, we like the colour, we like that it’s non-toxic/inexperienced, and we use it mainly each time we prepare dinner dinner, however since so many individuals sing its praises we determine you have already got one too.

The underside drawer has our deeper pots and saucepans (greater than only one – ha! You possibly can see all of those drawers higher within the video, btw), plus we used one other hidden drawer to retailer a few of our steel baking pans for issues like cinnamon rolls and brownies. It’s so good to not have all of that stuff jumbled on prime of itself in a single huge drawer.

As a fast reminder, that is what the previous cupboard seemed like right here. We undoubtedly made it work, however it concerned much more bending since nothing was a pullout that got here to you.

Now on to my favourite “transformation,” which we’ve gushed about earlier than… as a result of to know it’s to find it irresistible.

The “Oil Drawer” Cupboard

We’ve shared this image a number of occasions as a major instance of how inefficient the previous cupboard was to the left of the range. That cupboard was 7″ huge, however due to the cumbersome wooden body, the precise cupboard space within the drawer was solely round 4″ huge. After some failed makes an attempt at storing spatulas, spoons, and dishcloths in there – all the things was too huge or cluttered! – it turned our notorious “oil drawer.” As a result of that’s all that match.

Ikea has restricted choices for small cupboards, so we puzzled if their 12″ two-tiered drawer might actually make that a lot of a distinction (that’s nonetheless a slim cupboard, irrespective of the way you slice it). However IT HAS BEEN AWESOME. The highest shelf is deep sufficient that we will retailer an entire slew of oils, vinegars, cooking sprays, and small kitchen devices (can opener, peeler, citrus squeezer factor, and so on) all STANDING UP.

A whole lot of these items had beforehand been saved in these three cupboards we eliminated for the brand new door on the opposite facet of the room, so it has been nice having it multi function spot as a substitute of doing that factor the place you open like 3 completely different drawers looking for one thing as a result of related issues reside in all 3 locations.

And that’s simply half of the great things occurring with this new pullout cupboard, as a result of we now have that complete backside part too!

The previous cupboard was teeny tiny and couldn’t even be opened all the best way because of the door molding. It was vertical so it seemed like it could be good for baking sheets and reducing boards, however it was at all times sort of a hard-to-see clutterfest in there, and also you often needed to squat down and take all the things out simply to get to 1 factor in the back of the stack.

Now we now have all that stuff on the underside shelf of this pull-out drawer, and we screwed in a few of these steel partitions to maintain issues from rattling round and to maintain all of them from leaning towards each other. So now we will attain in and seize the muffin tin or the reducing board with out having to take out all the things that was previously blocking it. And now as a substitute of fishing round in a darkish slim cupboard, it’s a pullout, so all the things rolls out to greet us. Plus it’s all a lot simpler to see as a result of it’s not in a darkish slim cave of a cupboard.

We nonetheless retailer flat pans and skillets within the oven warming drawer. That’s a behavior that can by no means die. And whereas we would not have a ton of kitchen devices (we don’t personal a crockpot for instance, as a result of we had one for years & by no means used it) however we do have an enormous skillet for pancakes (it’s arduous to see however it’s the black speckled factor on the underside of the stack beneath that’s virtually as huge as this drawer). What can I say? I take my pancakes significantly.

One very last thing that I identified within the video too, which could appear easy, however discovering a pleasant knife block that you just prefer to hold out on the counter can prevent from having to retailer that stuff in a drawer, so even simply making that change can unlock some extra drawer house and make issues really feel much less cramped.

Sufficient about these decrease cupboards. Let’s look upward to the uppers.

Organizing The Higher Cupboards

The unique kitchen had uppers once we purchased the home, however we took them down once we had the soffit taken out as a part of our preliminary renovations. So by the point we moved in, this kitchen was sans higher cupboards. Which isn’t really a criminal offense to us. We designed your complete pink home kitchen with out them (and the 2 duplex kitchens simply had hood cupboards over the range & a cab over the fridge).

So for so long as we’ve lived on this home, till the ultimate section of our kitchen reno, we simply had some incarnation of open cabinets. We emphatically love open cabinets in a kitchen (our final kitchen had them too, in addition to the one earlier than that!) however over time we determined that the shiny white cabinets subsequent to our kitchen desk had been loads of good practical open storage for us, and we didn’t additionally want all of them alongside that again wall of the kitchen anymore.

In order a part of our ultimate step of the kitchen reno, we determined so as to add higher cupboards – each for the general look of the room (weirdly sufficient, the ceiling appears to be like taller with the higher cupboards as a result of they draw the attention all the best way up) and larger (possibly as a result of the muddle is behind them and the fronts are so clean and easy)?

The higher cupboard on the proper of the room holds plates, mugs, and mixing bowls on the underside two cabinets. The highest two cabinets are extra of Sherry’s ornamental objects – fancier serving bowls, further vases, and so on. These ornamental gadgets had been in our bed room cupboards on both facet of the hearth earlier than this level (vases don’t really feel that loopy in a bed room cupboard – however it’s so good to have them within the kitchen by the sink!). Plus shifting them in right here freed up extra space within the bed room for bed room stuff… like our podcast microphone. Ha!

In the event you’re questioning the place our bowls and consuming glasses are, these are on the (nonetheless remaining) open cabinets subsequent to our kitchen desk. As I discussed within the video, we personal extra glasses and bowls, the dishwasher was simply full once we took these pics/made the video. We love storing glasses and bowls on that backside shelf as a result of they’re simpler for the children to achieve once they make themselves a bowl of cereal or seize a glass of water. Possibly as soon as they’re taller (which is occurring shortly) we’ll transfer all the things collectively to that higher cupboard, however for now this works properly.

We’re nonetheless engaged on the group of the higher cupboards on the left facet of the room. The massive cupboard primarily homes the hidden exhaust fan for our range, however we’ve tucked some bins with further spices, baking items, and different miscellaneous stuff round it. The massive black case on prime accommodates our grill instruments, which can finally transfer outdoors as soon as the 2 outside cupboards that we’ve ordered lastly arrive. In order that’ll unlock some further house for extra bins of anything we would must retailer as time goes on.

There’s one other, narrower cupboard subsequent to this one (you may see it within the video) that holds our strainer, nutritional vitamins, and different miscellaneous baking & cooking stuff, together with Sherry’s coconut oil and apple cider vinegar inventory (she is who she is). You possibly can see it within the video if you would like a peek.

We’ve ordered some further cabinets to take advantage of that nook higher cupboard, so… get excited. Replace: they got here earlier than we bought this put up up, so possibly Sherry can share a fast peek on Instagram Tales typically.

The Pantry Cupboard

Our pantry cupboard is by far the largest addition that we made to this room by way of practical cupboard storage. The house merely didn’t exist within the prior incarnations of this kitchen and boy are we thrilled to have it.

Previous to having the pantry cupboards, we used the 2 Ikea Fjalkinge bookcases as our “pantry storage” on the alternative wall, which is the place our fridge was on the time. All of our shelf-stable meals was saved within the decrease drawers. It wasn’t essentially the most spacious or versatile answer, however it labored for us for a lot of months.

Now these two bookcases reside upstairs in our household room and we’ve earned much more meals storage on the opposite facet of the room, thanks to those new floor-to-ceiling Ikea cupboards that we in-built round our fridge, which we moved over to that wall (extra on that right here).

The highest half is all shelving and we’ve used numerous bins and trays to wrangle issues. There’s a wide range of pantry stuff in right here, however essentially the most notable factor is that the addition of the pantry has allowed us to seize a couple of extras of one thing that’s on sale (like cereal or nutella, the necessary stuff), as a result of we now have room to maintain “backstock” meals on the very best shelf. That prime shelf is simply “surplus” – so we glance up there to refill no matter must be refilled down beneath the place our youngsters can seize all the things – and if we don’t have it up there, onto the buying record it goes. We’ve additionally bought issues like paper towels, coolers, s’mores provides, and even our microwave within the cupboard over the fridge.

A lot of the motion takes place beneath, within the three decrease drawers. That is mainly snack and dry meals central in our family. Each of our youngsters put together their very own faculty lunches, so conserving these properly stocked helps that occur simply and with out fuss each weekday morning. It appears to be like a little bit stuffed on this photograph, however we had simply gotten again from the grocery retailer. Possibly it makes up for less than having 4 glass cups on the floating cabinets with the remaining within the dishwasher 😉

That just about covers all the kitchen cupboards in our new kitchen. By creating higher storage in right here, it has additionally helped us fine-tune the storage and group throughout the remainder of our home. As one other instance, we now not need to hold keys and the canine leash within the laundry closet as a result of they’re proper in that drawer by the facet door which we now use each day (we park on that facet of the home, so it’s an ideal route for strolling in & out).

And as for our revamped utility closet within the kitchen (which can be SUCH AN UPGRADE), we’re hoping to jot down an entire put up about that quickly. It’s wild to suppose that there used to simply be an enormous water heater proper behind that door that blocked us from utilizing virtually all the closet.

In the event you’d prefer to know the sources for something in our kitchen, from the fruit bowl to the toaster or the runner and the pendant gentle (all of the issues!), they’re linked and listed proper right here on this put up for you. Plus this web page is one thing we put collectively to attempt that can assist you discover the sources for all the things in our total home.

And if you wish to dig deeper into some kitchen group posts of the previous (or should you simply need to nearly snoop by our different kitchens), be happy to examine these out:

*This put up accommodates affiliate hyperlinks, so we might earn a small fee while you make a purchase order by hyperlinks on our website at no further value to you.

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