I'm hitting publish on today's Five Minute Friday post much later in the day than I had planned, but there have been some exciting things happening here today! I can't spill the beans just yet, but hopefully I'll have a big announcement sometime next week! In the meantime, I know you all love organization as much as I do...so let's talk about that.
If you have kids, then you know exactly what I mean when I say that sippy cups are a pain in the rear end! They take up a lot of space (especially those with the ginat wing handles) and, when empty, they are really tipsy, creating a domino effect each time you reach for one. If I had a deep drawer to put them in, that would probably be a great solution - but I don't... so I had to find a way to keep them on a shelf without loosing my mind. And as an added bonus, I also managed to make room for all of our water bottles at the same time. Bonus!
Back when I still had a baby in the house {my babies are both toddlers now...tear} I used a basket on our kitchen counter to corral all of the bottles, and over time I added a second basket to hold sippy cups.
But once we became a bottle-free household, I really wanted to clear the sippy cups off the counter as well - so I had to find a new place to store them. That dilema gave the kick in the rear I needed to finally clean off the shelf where I was storing my spices.
I completely removed the spices {I'll show you next week where they ended up}, I cleaned off the shelf, and then I started at the empty shelf and envisioning sippy cups falling on my head each time I reached into the cabinet. Rather than simply sitting the cups on the shelf, I grabbed another basket. You've heard me say it before, and I'll say it again. Contain. Contain. Contain!
By turning all our winged sippy cups at an angle, thy fit in the basket much easier than I expected!
We also have another set of sippy cups that are actually stackable {what a novel concept, right?!}, as well as two different sizes of non-lidded plastic cups that our older is starting to use. For these, I reused one of the lazy susans that previously held spices in this cabinet. The lazy susan makes it quick and easy to rotate and grab what I need without knocking one stack of cups over as I reach for another.
I placed the lazy susan and the sippy cup basket on the shelf, and lo and behold... there was still enough space for another basket!
I've never had a good place to store all of our water bottles. They were always taking up space on the floor of the pantry, or were out of my reach in the cabinet above our fridge. I grabbed another basket, and sure enought, all the water bottles fit in there like a charm.
Five minutes later my countertops were clear and our sippy cups, plastic kids' cups, and water bottles were put neatly away in a manner that keeps me headache free!
It's important to always rethink whether there is a better use for you limited cabinet space. This shelf wasn't functioning well as a place to store spices, so I relocated the spices and found a better use for this precious real estate.
By clearing the shelf off and starting fresh, I was able to brainstorm a better use of the space.
Labels: Five Minute Friday, kitchen, organization, organizing, shelving
