Blog - Graceful Order

Pantry Makeover

April 28, 2014 · by Maria · 1 Comment

Earlier this week, I posted on my cabinet pantry. You can read about it HERE.

This week, let’s concentrate on making over our pantries, regardless of whether they are in a closet or within cabinets.

If you do have a closet pantry, you can also read HERE about how I organized my friends pantry last year. It is pictured below.

1. The first step to organizing the pantry is to get everything out of the pantry. Yes, everything. This will allow you to think fresh about new ways of storing your items.

2. Secondly, create 4 piles. One pile for expired (trash) items, another pile for unopened items that can be donated (like the 4 cans of cranberry sauce that you buy as a backup just in case your recipe for the fresh one fails), a pile of daily used items, and lastly, a pile of rarely used items.

3. Clean your shelves and allow them to dry before placing items back inside.

4. Look for baskets or containers around the house that you can use to unite like-items. Below, I have a picture of one of my bins that holds asian condiments.

5. Finally, re-stock your pantry.

A pretty label never hurts. If you decide to containerize items by type, add a label.

Turntables are great because everything is viewable with a simple turn. There are different sizes, so be sure to take measurements before purchasing.

In the picture below, I have a large one towards the back and a smaller one right in front. This way I still have space to place the boys’ cereal beside the turntable.

Stackable bins are great to put towards the back of deep cabinet with large items such as canning jars. I purchased these at Target.

Canning can take up a lot of room and you don’t do it everyday so it doesn’t need to be center stage.

Once you place them in the back of the cabinet, you can label the front of the cabinet so that you don’t forget that you have 20 cute mason jars waiting for fresh salsa!

You can now place items that are used more frequently towards the front.

OXO Containers are my favorite for dry storage. The containers holding the green snacks are from a brand called Sistema.

As you are re-stocking your pantry, create zones whenever possible. Maybe you can have a baking zone, a breakfast zone, and a snack zone.

I have my baking station right on top of my refrigerator. You can read about it HERE.

I hope these ideas are helpful and can help you custom-organize your pantry to fit your space and lifestyle.

And don’t worry about keeping extra cans of cranberry sauce. Fresh cranberry sauce always turns out and sometimes people don’t even touch it! 😉

Happy organizing!

Maria

Cabinet Pantry Organization

April 21, 2014 · by Maria · 8 Comments

I don’t have a pantry per-se. I have a set of deep cabinets that flank my refrigerator. I use these kitchen cabinets as a pantry.

Perhaps you have a similar setup or are fortunate enough to have a large closet pantry or a walk-in pantry (swoon!). Either way, we all need to maximize the space we have so that we can see what we have and need at-a-glance.

Deep cabinets are awesome. They also present the challenge that things get lost towards the back of the cabinet. Basically, the good part is that a lot of stuff fits, the bad part is that a lot of stuff fits.

The pull-out shelf unit pictured below is awesome for deep cabinets! I purchased it about nine years ago at Home Depot and it was so worth the money!

I store most of my cans and pasta in this rack and I love that it pulls out to reveal everything that is towards the back.

HERE is a similar (nicer, more expensive) version but you can probably find something similar to mine in a hardware store. It is very sturdy and holds so much weight!

This is what it looks like when I pull it out of the cabinet.

The very top is perfect for pasta and flat cans of tuna.

In the other side of the cabinet are the snacks.

My husband added a few narrow shelves to hold smaller items.

One of those shelves holds this garment divider that I use as a snack divider.

We like KIND bars. 🙂

Underneath, are the boys’ snacks. These are the two bottom shelves and therefore the most accessible for them.

I also have a basket full of asian condiments.

Above the snacks, is another pull-out drawer (used to hold chips) that now holds my toddlers plates and lots of beans.

We like BEANS and KIND bars.

Above the pull-out drawer is another narrow shelf that holds the kids’ pasta and sometimes a loaf of bread.

I could be making lobster thermidor for dinner and they would prefer one of these colorful boxes. Go figure…

Above the pasta, are three lazy suzans. I am not tall and without the turntables, the top shelf is otherwise inaccessible to me.

The one towards the front has random condiments, and behind it is another turntable that holds vinegars.

In the slot next to the oils, I place the kids cereal dispenser (pictured below).

The very top shelf is full of oils. The lazy suzan holds everyday oils, such as coconut and olive oils.

In the back are extra bottles of vegetable oil. I rarely deep fry, but when I do, I use a whole bottle!

That’s my cabinet pantry! Do you also have this kind of pantry? How do you maximize your space?

In a couple of days I will post a step-by-step pantry makeover that will benefit any pantry style!

Until then,

I will be making beans and eating chocolate-covered peanut bars (because I don’t actually know how to make lobster thermidor)!

Maria

Organizing Grains

April 9, 2014 · by Maria · 3 Comments

I shared this blog entry last year but decided to share it once more since it pertains to our kitchen series and it is a good tip for storing grains:

The rice that I purchase comes in these cute little plastic containers. I love the look. The problem is that I buy different kinds of rice, so I stack the containers and they end up falling out of the pantry. I keep the rice in the highest cabinet in my kitchen and I need the items up there to be sturdy so that I can grab them with no problem. I am 5’3″ on a really perfect and sunny day.

As a solution to my problem, I decided to move the rice into these “Lock-and-Lock” containers that I had purchased years ago and was no longer using. I purchased these on QVC but I couldn’t find the set to link here. Instead, I found similar containers (that even had a pour spout ) on Amazon and you can find them HERE. Also, HERE is a link for the smaller ones. I use smaller ones for the items that I don’t buy in bulk.

Of course, any set that is stackable will work.

I can make white rice without a recipe but brown rice for example has a different recipe to follow. Have you noticed that based on the brand of brown rice they will give you different cooking times? I usually use the same brand and I printed these small labels (that I made on Microsoft Word) and typed the suggested recipe. I placed it on the outside of the container using double stick tape. If you have the patience you can laminate the label before sticking it on the container and that will make it water-resistant. I love and admire patient people. I really do.

I did the same for quinoa. I could do a whole post on how much I love quinoa.

I used the rest of the matching containers to put arborio rice, cracker meal and polenta. As you can see on the very side of the cabinet there is a label that says “oatmeal”. I did that to remind myself that there is a large container of oatmeal behind the rice. Only do this for items that don’t get used weekly. They can be stored in the very back of these deep cabinets and the label will remind you that it’s there. Otherwise, you will buy an item that you already have and you end up with enough granola to feed the church!

That’s it! Another quick, easy project to make your life easier!

In a couple of days we will finish tacking the rest of the kitchen!

Happy Organizing!

Maria

Organizing Plates and Platters

April 1, 2014 · by Maria · 2 Comments

I have shared with all of you how much I (we) enjoy cooking and entertaining family and friends. I also love plating and food presentation, so over the years I have accumulated quite a few dishes.

It is always a challenge figuring out how to store so many dishes in a relatively small kitchen. I don’t have many cabinets and I use most of them for pantry use (we do not have a stand alone pantry closet). I keep some dishes in the dining room hutch, but the majority reside in the kitchen cabinets.

Here is how I store and organize my dishes.

I have also collected quite a few glasses over the years. I keep most of them in the dining room hutch.

Below are the ones we use daily. The goblets are inexpensive and sturdy; they are Libbey brand and you can find them HERE. I have also seen them at Marshalls and Homegoods. The smaller tumblers are not as sturdy but they are inexpensive and I love the size. They are from CB2 and you can find them HERE.

All the other white plates are from different stores that I have collected over years.

A pet peeve of mine is stacked plates. It’s not a big deal if they are plates that you seldom use, but your everyday plates should be easily accessible. You shouldn’t have to lift salad plates to get the dinner plates on a daily basis.

I have cabinet dividers and risers in almost every cabinet to maximize the space and to make my dishes easily accessible.

The metal divider/shelf below is from Target. You can find some white ones “here”. Walmart and Homegoods also have a good selection of cabinet organizers.

I do have some colorful dishes but 90% of them are white. I think that food looks better on white plates. I also love that I don’t have to worry about them matching. Plates that I bought last week match the ones that I purchased 15 years ago.

I love cool plates like these concave ones. By sliding the shelf against the cabinet, I made space for these narrow plates.

Most of my drawers hold serving platters. These are too big to fit in my cabinet. They are perfect in the drawer.

In this drawer I keep the bowls that we use most often.

Organizing is an art! This is a standard size drawer and I was able to fit quite a few serving dishes by playing around with placement.

I love opening a drawer where everything has it’s place and is not shifting all over the place. Because all these plates fit in here so tight, there is no room to budge. As Martha would say – “That’s a good thing.”

The bottom drawer is the deepest. In here I keep all the clear baking dishes.

As you can see, I rarely buy dish “sets”. I prefer to buy them separately so that I get exactly what I want. I may love a plate but dislike the coffee cups that come with them in the set.

I want to leave you with some good tips for building your plate and platter collection:

Get rid of plates and cups that you no longer like or use. We sometimes keep things in our cabinets that we don’t even like, instead of making space for something we truly enjoy.
If you only want or have one set of plates, make them accessible by placing them on a removable shelf riser. This will double your space!
If you buy plates separately like me, it is best to buy 9 if you need 8. That way if one breaks, you still have a full set. If two break…well…try not to break two!
Take your time buying dishes. It is fun to collect things that you love over time, instead of buying things that are on sale to fill up a cabinet.

I hope you enjoyed these ideas because I really enjoyed sharing them with you!

Tell me – do you collect plates too or is one set more than enough?

Always Organizing,

Maria

Gadget Drawer Organization

March 20, 2014 · by Maria · 7 Comments

The gadget drawer can either be a pleasure to open or a pleasure to close. Mine used to be the latter.

I was never really happy with my gadget drawer(s) before. I would put the items into baskets within the drawer but the organization never lasted. The items would shift around in the drawer and I was back to square one.

I found these organizers about a year ago and they are called DrawerDecor. I only bought one at a time because they were not inexpensive and I wanted to make sure they were worth the investment.

They are so worth it, I loved them instantly!

It is basically a repositionable basemat which you can cut-to-size, so that it perfectly fits your drawer. The mat includes dividers that are also repositionable; you can adjust both the mat and the dividers to fit your gadgets or utensils. If you ever need to change the positioning, you simply lift the matt or the dividers and use them over and over. Genius.

They have them in an assortment of colors and since I am such a crazy gal…I chose…drumroll…NATURAL.

I totally meant to choose red or something more fun but let’s face it, my idea of fun involves rocking chairs. Natural was the color for me.

I had more gadgets than I had dividers, but the cool thing is that since the mats are non-skid, I was able to place large items (like my kitchen timer) and they didn’t shift.

After I fell in love with this organizer, I ordered another set for my other gadget drawer. However, I used the repositionable dividers that came with it, for the drawer pictured above and simply used the mat to hold larger items.

I placed all my timers and miscellaneous bowls and brushes in this drawer and they don’t shift at all. I have had these organizers in place for over a year and they work great for me.

Of course, there are other ways to organize your drawer that don’t involve buying these mats. This is just what worked for me. I wonder if any other silicone mat will have a similar effect. You wouldn’t have the dividers but it may hold the larger items. Also, acrylic dividers that come in different shapes are a good option.

So lets get to work.

1. The first step in organizing your gadget drawer is to take out all the utensils and gadgets. This is very important because once the items are out of the drawer, you will be pickier with what you allow back in.

2. Get rid of doubles. Unless we are talking about timers. In that case you need 14. I am kidding, but I do collect them and around the holidays I actually use quite a few of them, at once.

3. Lastly, get rid of gadgets that you don’t ever use. Sometimes we have the best of intentions when we buy something and it just ends up taking up space. I usually give items away so that I don’t feel guilty about not keeping them.

You will be left with your favorite tools — the ones that make cooking more fun. Your drawer will now be a pleasure to open!

You can find the organizers that I mentioned in my amazon store HERE
. I only recommend products that I love and have made my life easier or prettier. This one checks off both boxes.

How do you organize your gadgets? A crock, in the drawers like me?