When the cupboard is FULL

[Suzanne F]

On the discussion thread for TDG: Desperate Measures: Storage, Trillium raised the question: what do you do with your storage containers when the cabinets are full? Trillium likes Metro shelving. I like old bookcases, and the tops of the cabinets.

What about you?

[IrishCream]

I bought cheap plastic shelves at Target and have taken over my laundry room.

[DaveFaris]

I make a donation to a needy organization.

[trillium]

My bookshelves are full of books, all 5 of them. And they're overflowing because we just keep buying more books. You can't wheel your bookshelves closer to the kitchen during a mad cooking spree, can you? You can with Metro shelves (also can be had on the cheap at restaurant supply places, or huge size knock-offs at Costco).

Someone came over to our house for the first time and said (picture a charming tennessee accent) "My goodness I've never seen anyone use kitchen things for decoration in the living room before". Whadda mean about decoration???

regards,

trillium

[sparrowgrass]

I have a barn.

[Jason Perlow]

We have cheap IKEA shelving downstairs in the basement that we put up when the kitchen was being redone. I doubt Rachel will ever take them down, they still have all sorts of crap loaded up on them.

[fifi]

Since I am in an apartment temporarily, having sold a house with a big kitchen and walk in pantry, I have plenty of ideas... Some pots that I don't use all the time are under the bed in the "guest" bedroom. I also appropriated that bedroom walk-in closet. The second bathroom cabinets also have various large pots and other kitchen ware lurking there-in. What I did was ultimately winnow out those things that I don't use all that often and hide them away in otherwise unused storage spaces, no matter how unusual. Of course, it does get fun when I am looking for that old enamel steel pot that I got from my grandmother... bedroom? bathroom? As an added advantage, the search usually results in finding that long lost thingy.

[Rail Paul]

I boxed several baking pans and flats, they moved down to the basement. Since I don't ofen bake cakes, no need to keep them in the kitchen. Bought a hanging grid for pots and covers, that took 12 items out of the cupboards and onto the wall.

Disciplined myself to stop buying bags of flour on sale (99 cents vs 1.59) which added about 1 cubic foot of freezer space. I'll pay the 60 cents.

Bought two storage holders for wine glasses. Store nicely in the basement, bring them up when we entertain, don't need to keep them around.

[Dana]

I bought an over-the-door hanging shelving thingy. It's great as long as it's used for pasta, crackers, marshmellows, etc. I tried to put soy sauce, worchestershire, chili oil, etc. and the top bent and it all came tumbling down. Naturally, "the girls" were over for lunch. Not fun.

[Anna N]

I converted the hall linen closet into a pantry and store the bed-linen in under-bed boxes and towels stacked in the bathroom. Hung a steel-bar shelf above the stove. Built an island that fits in a wasted doorway in the tiny kitchen with a shelf unit above for good dishes (at the very top) and all my vinegars, cannisters, etc. on the shelf below that. The base also has deep shelves and stores my mixing bowls and small appliances. Put a butcher block cart in the corner of the dining room nearest the kitchen and store other pantry items there. Screwed cup hooks on the underside of the counter (inside the base cabinets) to hang my saucepans. Hung a two-tier wire basket from the underside of the upper cabinets and store fruit in there. Still there's kitchen stuff everywhere!

[Mottmott]

I recently hung two 4' Enclume racks over my stove for pots/pans, sieves, flame tamers, etc. (Love em, they're solid and the hooks don't try to escape when you hang the pots.) That emptied out most of the base of an antique kitchen hutch. But oh, it's still filled. The stuff that was left just took a deep breath.

Then I added about 10' of new 42" wall cabinets this spring. Well, they're filled now: my new determination to master Thai and perhaps other Asian cooking has introduced a whole new range of condiments to help fill them. And then, too, I had room to go out and buy a slew of new mugs and some super mixing bowls at the Flemington factory store mall. How can you resist Royal Doulton mugs when they're selling them for 99 cents on the day you happen to be browsing? But you still can't throw out all the old mismatched ones can you? Or even resist large stoneware mixing bowls for a couple bucks. You can put them in the oven! How could I resist? Help me.

I may have the refrigerator situation in control, though. Even though I usually live alone, it's always stuffed. So many condiments and storage items, hardly room for the food. Today my (second in 5 months) new fridge is in reasonable openness as I have just been able to move all the flours, nuts, and other long term, bulk type storage items into a second one I will keep in the basement. Not however, my usual assortment of stocks, tomato sauce, make ahead bake later items because I had to throw them all out when my fridge died the day before the 4th of July. Just get a repairman then! It took Frigidaire almost a month to replace it , so of course I had to find a middling sized used one to keep our food on the porch while following the Fridging instructions not to turn off the old one til they came and got it. (What was that about? All with the implication that the warranty would be voided!) Now the temporary replacement is happily and permanently in the basement.

But best of all, I have potential: shelves line two walls of the stairwell leading to the basement. Once my family who are staying with me til their new house is ready leaves, I will be free to use them without fear of stuff tumbling as people trot up and down to the basement fridge for that's where such things as beer is now stored. And then, too, once in their new home, I can unload a lot of stuff on them.

[KateW]

My boyfriend bought me a microwave cart and I hate to say it but it's just about the coolest thing he's ever gotten for me (besides jewelry, of course). I don't keep my microwave on it but I keep my cutting board/knife drawer (drawer pulls out of the board) on it, and inside it I keep baking goods, my oils, a box of straws, a stack of saucepans, stuff like that. Basically everything that was in a big box or bag is in there and not cluttering up my cupboards and counters. It also has hooks and a bar for towels, oven mitts, etc. I keep my cutting boards on the bottom shelf. There is practically nothing on my counters anymore except the microwave, blender and toaster. I'll stop gushing now.

[lex_cheapeats]

Bookshelves, bricks & boards, milkcrates piled to pretend they are bookshelves... and then I ask my father-in-law (who makes wooden toys) to make me something "custom", that never quite fits either the space or the items I want to put on...

Until the Great Kitchen Disaster of '01, I used a glass shelving unit. Looked very cool and stylish. Way slicker than the milk crates, but functionally the same... well... not quite functionally the same. Milk crates don't smash nearly as well when a bottom side of the shelf gets bumped too hard.

My kitchen still smells of Almond extract.

[bloviatrix]

Because we keep kosher we have a huge amount of stuff (3 sets of pots, 3 sets of dishes, etc). Plus, we're in an apartment so we're further limited. In order to install a dishwasher we pulled the fridge out of the kitchen and it's in our dining area. We converted a closet into a pantry. I have boxes of baking equipment on shelves in the living-room bookcase. And then there's the "second" bedroom. AKA the attic, the basement, the garage and the office. There's a bed in there somewhere, but I'm not quite sure where. But there are extra boxes of cereal, 15 packs of paper towels, soda, etc. When we entertain in the winter and I'm out of fridge space, I open the windows in that room and rename it the "cold room" for chlled platters.

[Marlene]

We have an extra pantry in the laundry room where I keep items I use a lot and one downstairs as well where bigger items such as paper towels etc are stored. For when the big one hits my husband keeps says. (He could barely restrain himself from saying I told you so, during the blackout yesterday). We have more books than I can count. Since my office shelves hold mostly cookbooks, we have six Ikea shelving units downstairs under the stairs and 3 more units in my husband's office downstairs. We were just saying we have room to put several more bookshelves in the living room. Anything except clear out the books we have

Edited August 15, 2003 by Marlene (log)