If you walk through our kitchen, right before the stairs to the basement there is some open shelving. I remember when we were still house hunting and I saw this open storage I said something along the lines of, "oh this is going to be excellent to store all my knick-knacks and rarely used kitchen tools". Well, after we moved in and I threw all my extra crap on those shelves, this is what it looked like.
The first thing I did was take an inventory of what was on those shelves to see what was actually necessary to be stored upstairs:
- Kitchenaid mixer
- Crockpot
- Blender
- Paper towels
- Straws
- Bug spray
- Dusting cloths
- Light bulbs
- Candles
- Trashbags
- Water filters
- Jars of change
- Shades for the chandelier in the dining room
- Tissues
- Reusable shopping bags
- Disinfectant wipes
- Empty pasta jars
- 4 extra place settings (I only keep 8 in our cabinets)
- Extra silverware (I only keep 8 place settings in our drawer)
- Serving platter
Oh & a partridge and a pear tree.
- Kitchenaid mixer
- Crockpot
- My nice casserole dishes
- A few milkglass vases
- Blender
- Paper towels
- Napkins
- Jars of change
And I stopped falling down the basement stairs because I can now keep my eyes open when I walk past. Success? I'm thinking so :)
Have you had any random cleaning/organization bursts lately? Do you have any open shelves? If so, how do you organize them?
i LOVE to organize...it's my favorite. i'm moving feb 1st and i can't wait to clean up all of my stuff and organize it all in my new place. great work with this shelf! :)
ReplyDeleteI love getting settled after moving . . . but packing for it is the worst! Good luck with everything!! :) Any organization tips for open shelves? They've got me a little stumped and that's why I was thinking baskets would make them look more streamlined . . . what do you think Jen?
ReplyDeleteLooks good! I'd love to have more storage open or closed in our teeny flat. OH well, we're moving soon. I kinda like the palm trees.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a huge improvement! If it was my house, the shelves would always be a huge mess.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Your wreath is finished. I just need to get to the post office...
@ Brandi - I can't wait!! :) Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteThe palm tree liner makes me laugh. I think the shelves would look great painted with a pop of color and baskets like you suggested.
ReplyDelete@ Krystle - The palm tree liner is in our bathroom too! Apparently the former owners were channeling Florida :)
ReplyDeleteA pop of color with baskets would look great!! Now my wheels are turning . . . Thanks! :)
I agree with Brandi... if that were the Little House (and it couldn't be, since the LH has NO storage) the shelves would constantly be in chaos.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see what you do with them! And probably you should leave the palm trees. ;)
Maybe you could even talk that husband of yours into shelves that use the full depth of the alcove - that extra space might be useful! I am a big fan of baskets but I feel like the cost adds up so quickly! It could be cute to just leave the shelves white and paint the exposed edge a bright color, like this http://pinterest.com/pin/34973334575836530/ or just do a fun stencil or something on the back wall http://pinterest.com/pin/92323861080653371/
ReplyDelete: ) Rachel
Nice progress - You should definitely get some woven baskets. I bought a bunch from Target for my bathroom open shelving and I love them.
ReplyDeleteI love what Krystle said about the pop of color with baskets! Start looking for sales and coupons! lol
ReplyDeleteI used baskets on some of our open shelves, but mostly our shelves are used for books, so it's not a big organizational dilemma.
What an improvement!!! Love the woven basket idea. That's one of my favorite looks.
ReplyDeleteIt really looks great! I seriously need to do get my act together and do this at our house. When we moved, I shoved things in drawers and closets and never looked back. Yikes! It's pretty ugly!
ReplyDeleteMy entire house looks like this right now. And I've been walking around with my eyes closed for weeks now. haha. I love the basket idea, or even some pretty bins with labels.
ReplyDeleteAt our last house, we had open shelving in our bathroom of all places. I got rustic looking square baskets from Target and organized lotions, hair stuff, etc and just threw them in the baskets. Worked pretty well!
ReplyDelete@ Rachel - I love that picture you pinned where the edges are painted a bright color! So cute! Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDelete@ Kim - that's exactly what we did too. Now i'm trying to go through all those cluttered spaces and make sense of it. hahaha.
ReplyDelete@ Diana - You better watch where you're going! Hahah :)
ReplyDeleteLove it! It looks great! We just "organized" our basement shelves but it's all out in the open and not very eye pleasing. I really would love a pantry to store more. I also am thinking of a buffet in the living room to store all of our "kitchen" things like platters, crock pot, etc, so it's less out in the open.
ReplyDelete@ seventhandw - we have a hutch in in our dining room where we store our china and vases and such. I can never get enough space though - hahah!
ReplyDeleteGood for you for organizing! We have stuff squished in every shelf and cabinet we own. I really do need to go through everything like you did and get organized! ;)
ReplyDeleteI love all the suggestions. My only rule for open-shelf storage is that it has to be pretty. For example, my kitchen-aid mixer stays out bc she's cute, her cousin the blender, however, cannot. Baskets are a good idea but not everything will fit in baskets so I'd recommend doing a little of both. Plus, I think once you get rid of that charming palm print it'll do a lot to help the aesthetics. haha. What are people thinking?!
ReplyDeleteWe have the same plates but in red!! I thought the box on your shelf looked familiar!
ReplyDelete@ Amanda - I love these dishes! Aren't they the best?!
ReplyDeleteWe love them! Thankfully, we have only broken one so far, but they are seriously nice and sturdy.
ReplyDelete