If you remember from this post awhile back we tackled Tessa’s lazy susan before baby Will was born. She had been on a path to nesting and was cleaning drawers left and right. While cleaning out her lazy susan we discovered an overflowing amount of sippy cups, lids, and plates and while the numbers were pretty amazing it was still not as exciting as the time we found goggles and tonic water in her makeup drawer!
Tessa wanted to create a space in the kitchen to hold all of the kid’s cups, plates, and also a spot for the baby bottles. First off we had to edit what she wanted to keep and what had to go. The first step to containing clutter is to sort through what you have and only keep the items that are in good condition and items that you still use. After we sorted through the cups and lids to find matching pairs we then had to come up with a plan on where to store these items.
Tessa had a few priorities about the space:
- It had to be big enough to contain all of her kid’s items including baby feeding items. She didn’t want to use multiple cabinets in the kitchen–only one cabinet.
- It had to be accessible for her kids and easy enough for them to get items in and out.
- A system that was easy to keep organized.
With that in mind I set out to find a perfect solution for her that would be kid-friendly.
Bottom cabinets can be a big, black hole and things can be thrown inside that you will never see again because they disappear somewhere in the back. To make lower cabinets functional when you are storing small items you need to find a way to keep like items together. Tessa had a large bottom cabinet that was filled with mis-matched glass containers, placemats, and random dishes.We were able to move these items to where they belonged in her kitchen cabinets and clear out an entire space for the kid items.
We used the Elfa Glider system to create individual spaces for all of her kid items. We sorted the items into three categories: kid sippy cups and plates, baby bottles, and pump supplies. The pull-out drawers make it easy for the kids to grab the item they need and they can even help put clean items back when it’s time to empty the dishwasher. Also, there’s room on the bottom for a lunch bag to be stored.
Happy to say that now Tessa has a space that’s big enough, kids can reach, and keeps it all simply organized.
And when the sippy cup phase is finally over (she’s got awhile): These pull-out drawers can be used for so many different purposes in the kitchen:
Once again, Container Store to the rescue!
