Kitchen Organizing Made Simple, Part One

I have been promising on Facebook that I would share what has kept me busy for so long and away from crafting – it has been organizing! Let me rephrase, organizing the “Becki way” aka cheap and easy. Don’t get me wrong, I love The Container Store, Ikea and the like. I am just too frugal to want to spend the money on most of it. It is more than that, I believe. Apart from not wanting to part with my money is the satisfaction of figuring out how to use what you have or finding a cheap, or even better, free way of making it yourself.

God forbid if my husband ever buys wood working tools – it would be on like Donkey Kong!!

By now, most of you have seen Infarrantly Creative’s organized measuring spoons. I loved that idea. Measuring spoons and cups always seem to be a pain and always lost in my house. So this was perfect!

The other Beckie did a little better than me in the free department. She says to use the 5-gallon paint sticks from Home Depot (freebies!) for the rails. Well, guess what? My Home Depot cuts them really, really short! Like, so short they can’t be used for this project short. Think they knew I was coming? :/ No biggie. My hubby just purchased a yard stick that was about the same thickness for about nineteen cents. Hey, that’s almost free. We only needed one because he cut it to size and had enough for two rails.

I also didn’t paint mine black. I started to but since I had to make due with a yard stick, both sides were embossed with measurements which showed through the paint. We didn’t care for how that looked so I got creative and pulled out my chalkboard vinyl. The adhesive of the vinyl stuck very well to the rail. This has a great advantage for me as I can change the measurements of what I hang up with a swipe of a rag. I have two sets of measuring spoons up right now, but when I change out my metal measuring cups with plastic ones I will hang those up instead. Yes, the metal clang got annoying fast. I sometimes still forget I have these in the cabinet and scare the tar out of myself.

Another thing I changed from IC’s design was the conversion chart. With everything that is going on now in real life, I didn’t feel like making my own chart even though I have tons of vinyl in different colors. That’s where Square1 Masterpiece comes in and a free printable from I Should Be Mopping the Floor.

Kristi’s free printable was just what I was looking for. Ya know, for those of us that don’t like math. Or babysit three year olds and home school teenagers. *winkwink* The colors even matched my kitchen. She also has a label for the spoons too as she hung hers up in the cabinet too with sticky hooks. Another great idea!

The Square1 printable fabric is better to use than vinyl here, I think. I used Square1 before on my boys bedroom doors a few years ago. When moving the youngest out of his room and the oldest moving out, I removed their names. After being on there for two years, nary a sticky spot on either door. Vinyl would leave a mess. If we move, I can take my chart with me.

There is another chart that I am going to put up, I just haven’t had time to print it yet. It’s from Cooking with My Food Storage. I really don’t need a few of the measurements this chart has, just the buttermilk part. It’s one of the easiest things to do in the kitchen besides boil water and I can NEVER remember the milk to vinegar ratio. DOH!