How do you...

organize your kitchen?

This is something I have been struggling with since I've been married but more so since moving to this house. I think it's about this time every year that I get the itch to organize and purge and make our spaces more useable. You know, spring cleaning. Only it hits our house in the October/November season.

Anyhow, we don't have a lot of food storage in our kitchen. Most of our bulk items go in our "pantry" in the basement. Not the most convenient but I can't complain as few people actually have a whole room for the sole purpose of storing food and cooking items.

My plan is to do this:

I want to buy this cart, or something similar, to put in our dining room where the hutch currently resides.



Serving dishes & table linens will be stored on the shelves below. On top I was thinking I would have a beverage station. There would be a shelf on the wall above the cart with canisters containing cocoa mix, sugar, tea, coffee, honey, marshmallows, etc. (I like the top shelf.)



The actual table top would contain the coffee maker, electric tea kettle, and this mug rack with all my mugs.



There might also possibly be a silverware caddy containing stir sticks & straws. What makes this idea appealing to me is that when company comes the don't have to squeeze through the kitchen to get their drinks and it frees up an entire cabinet in my kitchen that is now filled with teas, drink mixes, & mugs. But the most exciting part to me is that when we have dinner guests the cart can easily be wheeled into the hall and then the table can be expanded & chairs added. Right now the hutch takes up a lot of room & there isn't even enough room for our family to sit comfortably around the table, let alone guests.

My other thought was to put the newly empty cabinet to use by making somewhat of a baking station there. It is relatively close to the oven & right now the baking items are kind of scattered hither & yon around the kitchen. I would like to consolidate it somewhat. Like this:



All of my most commonly used baking tools & ingredients all in one place. I utter a contended sigh at the thought of having this in my kitchen.

I would also get this to hang over the peninsula.


Here, my pots & pans would reside, freeing up another entire cabinet.

I would then have two free cabinets to store food in.

I also thought this was a good idea for the pantry downstairs.



They are those soda dispensers. I found some here for $3.95 a piece.

Well, i was just curious as to how others oragnize their kitchens.