Blog - Graceful Order

Organizing a Deep Pantry Cabinet

November 10, 2014 · by Maria · 7 Comments

I wish I had a closet pantry, or better yet, a walk-in pantry. I also wish I had long legs and could relate to those people that say that they forget to eat. I have none of these situations going on under my roof.

Since I don’t forget to eat, I had to figure out how to organize my pantry cabinet. The biggest issue in this type of pantry is the depth. Most of the time I forget what is in the back of the cabinet. My pantry cabinet is beside my refrigerator and I found that most of the shelves were not practical for food storage. They were too deep and I could hardly reach the ones towards the very top (remember the long legs deal?). I want to share with you how I solved both problems in my kitchen.

The first thing I did was find containers that were a perfect fit. I got rid of all our chip bags that kept collecting in the back of the pantry and thus expiring. I did the same for grains.

The second thing I did was add large baskets in the back of the deep cabinet that housed similar items. In this picture you can see that all my canning jars and gadgets are in the white plastic basket towards the very back. Next, I labeled the cabinet at the very bottom with a label that read “Back of cabinet-Canning”. That way I won’t forget what is inside the containers that are towards the back of the cabinet.

Next, I added more shelves. This very narrow shelf was perfect for a pull-out drawer for bread. Next to it, I stacked the kids mac and cheese.

Under the bread is another narrow shelf that has all of our snack bars. I organize them inside a scarf/sock organizer. The one pictured below has the adult snacks and there is one right behind it for the kids. This system has been one of my favorite additions to the pantry.

Above the bread is YET another narrow shelf that we (as in my husband while I watched) added, and I use it for my boys utensils.

And then we get to one of my favorite organizing tools of all time – turntables! I have two turntables in this cabinet: a large one towards the back and a smaller one in front of it. Since the one in the front is smaller, I can still reach back and access the other condiments. (I linked similar sized turntables).

Now the last shelf is the highest one and it was almost completely inaccessible to me before. I could only reach a few bottles in the very front. I added a turntable and dedicated the shelf to cooking oils. In the back of this cabinet there are extra oils that I use to refill the turntable.

So you know what? Who needs a walk-in pantry when you have limitless turntables and KIND bars? I know…it would still be nice, a girl can dream. In the meantime, I will enjoy this little space and all the practicality it has brought to my family!

xo,

Maria

Other related posts are : Organizing the Kitchen Sink , Pantry Makeover , and Coffee Station Organization

5 Places We Forget to Clean in the Bathroom

November 6, 2014 · by Maria · 12 Comments

This post already has me trembling inside my hot pink cleaning gloves. Cleaning our homes is such a repetitive routine that we can often forget obvious areas that need attention. I’m sure there are more than 5 places we forget to clean in a bathroom, but these are the ones on top of my list.

Clean the Door Handles

Cleaning the door handles should the part of our cleaning routine. Not only because sticky hands touch the door handles, but germy ones too.

Clean the toilet flush handle

Just like the door handle, it is easy to clean the rest of the toilet and forget the flush handle. Usually people flush before washing their hands so …enough said.

Clean the toilet hinges and caps

Especially if you have boys, there can be a lingering odor in the bathroom even after you have cleaned. The answer to this issue is periodically removing the hinges and bolts off the toilet and cleaning underneath. I know…eww.

Clean the toilet brush

The toilet brush is used for cleaning but it can get pretty dirty itself. After cleaning the toilet bowl, I throw in about a 1/2 cup to 1 cup of washing soda and let the brush sit in there for a few hours. Then I rinse it and place the brush back in the holder. Don’t forget to also wipe down the holder before placing the clean brush inside. This is a natural and biodegradable way to clean the brush without having to use bleach. You can do the same for the plunger.

Clean the waste basket

If the bathroom waste basket looks pretty clean, you may want to just clean it with a disinfecting wipe. If it looks like it needs a bit more attention, I do the following: fill halfway with water and add about half a cup of vinegar and a few drops of tea tree oil. I let it rest while I clean the rest of the bathroom, then I dump out the water and wipe down the inside and outside.

There are other areas in the bathroom that need attention but I just mentioned the ones that tend to skip our minds. What areas can you think of to add to the list?

Until next time!

Maria

Other related Graceful Order posts are:

Updating the master bedroom

Under the bathroom sink

Organizing small bathroom sinks

This post includes a few affiliate links. Thank you for your support of the Graceful Order blog!

White and Gold Thanksgiving Table Setting

November 4, 2014 · by Maria · 8 Comments

Last week I shared an easy and quick Thanksgiving table setting. Today, I am sharing another option that will take a little longer, but the results are worth it. This white and gold Thanksgiving table setting is elegant yet earthy and thanksgiving-ey and beautiful-er. Okay so I can’t adorn the English language but I can set a mean table. Let’s dive in.

As I shared in the post about updating the dining room, our dining room table is more formal than I would like. I love it but I am always trying to dress it down to match the rest of the house. It’s just that when you have kids, a mirror-finish dining table can be a little scary. Ya know what I mean?

So I look for ways to marry fancy and less fancy. Hence the white wooden pumpkin on the gold pedestal. I found this beauty at Homegoods and I knew it would be a great centerpiece.

Our table is really long so I usually like long displays throughout the table, instead of an actual singular centerpiece. I “shopped” my house and Target (they essentially look the same since I shop there so often) and I pulled items together to create mini-vignettes throughout the table. The gold coral pedestal is actually an upside-down tea light holder from ZGallerie.

Here is another similar arrangemt.

I love the contrast of the casual rattan placemat, the fancy gold-rimmed plate, the casual print napkin and the fancy white and gold pumpkin (that were only a dollar, by the way).

The gold candleholder in the background is from ZGallerie and it holds an Erin Condren candle.

One full look at the table. I think it came together great. I have to decide between this look and last weeks table setting. What do you think?

Feeling Thankful,

Maria

Organizing Costumes

October 30, 2014 · by Maria · 3 Comments

You wanna be Spiderman or Wolverine today? How about Supermom?

Over the past 10 years we have accumulated quite a few costumes in our home. Kid’s costumes can be pretty expensive and if you have more than one little one, it’s wise to keep them so that they can later benefit from dress-up options (and your wallet can benefit too!). Organizing costumes is a task that can take a while, but saves a lot of time and aggravation in the long run.

I used to keep the costumes in one big box in the garage. Then it turned into two boxes because the costumes and accessories were just too many. The contents of the boxes were spilling over because although I had a pretty good idea of what costumes I had, I didn’t know the sizes. Bottom line, it was a mess.

I came up with a great system that I want to share with you that has really worked for us. The first thing I did was purchase 2-gallon zip lock bags; these are ginormous and that’s exactly what you will need. I separated all the costumes and placed each one in a bag, removed the air from the bag and wrote on the zip lock bag the name of the costume and the size.

I then “filed” the costumes in a large plastic container. I was able to fit two containers worth of costumes into one by simply placing everything into the zip lock bags.

This is also a good opportunity to donate whatever costume is too small for any of your kiddos. This year when deciding what my 3 year-old was going to wear, I didn’t have to make a mess trying to find the right size since it was already written on the bag. This is definitly a time and space saving project!

I would love to hear from you how you store your kids’ costumes.

xo,

Maria

Other Graceful Order posts about fall include:

Easy Thanksgiving Gifts

Five Minute Thanksgiving Table Setting

Fall Mantel

Decorating a Fall Porch

Five Minute Thanksgiving Table

October 27, 2014 · by Maria · 7 Comments

Seriously, it took me five minutes. Granted, I used the same plates and placemats that were already displayed in our dining room but even if I had to add these, it would be close to a “Five Minute Thanksgiving Table”.

What is the trick to this fast table setting? Using swags as a centerpieces. Swags are meant to hang above doors or hallways, and they usually have a bendable metal frame. All I did was straighten out the swag to eliminate the curve and add it to the center of the table. In this case I used two since my table is so long.

Then I added these leaf napkin rings to some bright orange cotton napkins. I placed the napkin above the plate so the napkin ring would stand out a bit more.

The finishing touch was the green goblets. Well, the real finishing touch will be the turkey but that will take a bit more than five minutes to finish up!

This is a very quick and easy tablesetting even if it takes you longer than five minutes. I will share another thanksgiving table setting later this week so stay tuned. In the meantime, share with me your favorite ways to set a thanksgiving table.

For more fall tips, check out my perfect thanksgiving gifts, fall porch and fall mantel posts from earlier in the month!

xo,

Maria