First off I apologise for the shocking quality of the photos in this post. One of the reasons I’ve never really shared any photos on here that have been taken inside our home, is that the light just isn’t conducive to decent photos. So, well, sorry!
If you’re a regular reader you’ll be aware that normal sewing activity has been put on hold for the summer as we spruce up our home and try and get it working for us in the best way possible. We live in a very small property with practically no decent storage built in. When we moved here we had to try and fit in the contents of a 3 bedroom detached house into our 2 bedroom bungalow. Add to that the ever growing collection of toys the Little Tornado seems to accumulate, and you can probably understand that STORAGE is an ever present dilemma. I hate clutter and mess. I find it oppressive and find myself getting agitated. (You wouldn’t like me when I’m agitated. Heck, I don’t even like me when I’m agitated!) The old adage “a place for everything, and everything in it’s place” is sooooo true. I find that if things have a “home” I find it easy to keep things tidy. The problem with a property that has little or no built in storage (and little space to add any), is finding a home for everything. You just end up with random piles of “stuff” dotted around with nowhere to go. We all have a junk drawer/cupboard/bowl (delete as appropriate) somewhere in our homes, right? Receipts, packs of cards, Euros from last years holiday, earphones, screws that we might need one day, chargers for phones we no longer own…….rummaging through stuff to find a screwdriver or some batterries that I know I’ve seen somewhere….. well I decided some time ago that enough was enough.
I’ve been on an “organising” drive these past few weeks and have been finding creative ways to maximise the storage that we do have. One of the conclusions that I’ve come to is that the humble old cupboard door has storage potential just waiting to be unleashed. With a few screws and fixings I’ve used the insides of our kitchen cupboard doors to organise and make it easy to access the stuff that we use on a daily basis, and free up storage space inside the cupboards in the process…
With a few screws and miniature bulldog clips at 15p each from our local post office; I’ve put an end to hunting around for J’s prescriptions and hospital appointment letters. The shopping list is at hand for when I open the cupboard and find out we’ve run out of something, and money off vouchers are there to grab before I head off to the shop. Now I just need to print off an A5 size planner to pin up and fill in at the start of each week and we’re good to go….
Left: These cutlery holders from Ikea (erm mine were only 50p each from the charity shop though, hehe! fixed to the inside of the door keep all my everyday cleaning materials to hand, and free up space under the sink (that part I’m still organising!)
Middle: I used tool clips and cup hooks from my local hardware store to keep everyday diy tools to hand so that if a little job crops up I can do it there and then instead of putting it off because I can’t find the screwdriver. The miniature screwdriver kit is velcro’d to the door and is in constant use with Elliott’s toys constantly needing repair or new batteries
Right: A simple cup hook to store chopping boards, racks etc
Tool clips, cup hooks and bulldog clips. Cheap as chips to buy but are now my new sanity saving heroes. Erm, if you do fancy organising your cabinets like this, a word of warning from someone who learnt the hard way. Don’t eyeball it. Double check the length of your screw against the width of your cupboard door. Wouldn’t want a hole right through to the outside would you….ahem! (Yes. Yes I did. It’s only a teeny one though and I don’t think J has actually noticed yet. Shhhh!)
And what about this canny idea for your fridge door…….
Haven’t had to rummage around for a pen since. Not mine this one. I shamelessly copied it from here….
