Kitchen Cabinet Organizers: What to do with a 33 Inch Base

What good is a set of kitchen cabinets if they’re not easy to use?  By default, most cabinets come with the standard doors and shelves (and drawers in the cae of base cabinets), but there are better ways to store things.  This comes ot mind when I look at my own kitchen…

Messy Base CabinetI’ve got a 33″ base next to my fridge.  The drawer is a mess; that’s our “catch all” and is in constant need of weeding out.  Below, in the door part, is just a single fixed shelf.  Because of the layout, pan storage ended up being there, and we throw a Kitchen Aid mixer in too, just for good measure. 

I hate this cabinet.  Getting into it is a pain, stuff never stacks right, and because we’ve got a partial overlay door, there’s a stile right in the middle of the thing that I have to go around every time I want to get something.

Situations like this are things you don’t necessarily think about until after the kitchen is done.  Kitchen designers can look during the design phase and maybe have better ideas, but the fact is they’re not you and don’t know how you work.  Maybe you don’t either yet.  This is where organizers you can get after the fact might help.

Roll Trays / Sliding Shelves

roll trays

 

In my case, roll trays would be handy.  I’d have to get four, two per door, or maybe just one on the Kitchen Aid side and two on the other side.  Something like this picture would work.

This is an organizer I found on http://www.condells.com, and they offer the shelves in the widths I’d need to organize the lower part of my 33″ cabinet.  I think 14″ wide would do it.

 

For The Drawers

bamboo drawer organizersCondells didn’t have any drawer organizers that looked good to me, so I kept hunting and found something I think would totally work.  Its a sort of “build your own” setup, but I like the idea and freedom offered by these small bamboo boxes on http://www.containerstore.com.

 

You can lay them in like this and keep any “out of control” drawers under wraps.  For deeper drawers, there’s nothing to stop you from stacking them two high to maximize space.

 

Meal prep for me would be a lot nicer if just that one cabinet got fixed. There’s more I could do, like one of those spice racks on the back of a door, or something besides a big cup on the counter for mixing spoons.  And don’t even get me started on the fights I have with 12″ base cabinet full of cookie sheets and casserole dishes…

Sometime in the near future, I’ll be accessorizing this cabinet.  We’ve been in the house for about five years now, and I’m getting very familiar with what does and doesn’t work in the space we’ve got.  Lack of kitchen cabinet organizers is at the top of my list.  What to get and how best to employ them is still something I’m not sure about, but trays and a drawer organizer for this cabinet will probably be first to happen.

Happy Memorial Day, and good luck with your own organizing adventures.

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