Off the Wall Organizing in the Kitchen

No matter how big the kitchen is, or how much cabinet and counter space they offer, there never seems to be enough room. Our kitchen appears to get smaller by the day. I feel like every week I'm reassessing the way it's organized and trying to make it flow. This week I'm going to share a few little tricks I've added in our kitchen to create more room by using up every bit of free space!

Command Hooks
I am in love with all things Command. Not only do they have the ability to add a hook anywhere you want, but also they're removable so if you change your mind, it's ok. I change my mind a lot, so me + Command hooks = match made in heaven.

Ok, enough about the love, let me show you how I've used them in our kitchen.

I've always struggled with where to store oven mitts. They're not supposed to be too close to the stove because they could catch fire, {part of my job is fire safety training, once you research all that, you see fire hazards everywhere}. However, you need them next to the stove so when you forget you were baking your own pita chips and they've nearly caught fire, you're able to quickly grab the baking pan out of the oven without getting second degree burns {not that anything like that ever happens in my kitchen}. Thank you Command hooks for saving the day!

Right next to our stove, we have a small cabinet. I stuck a hook right on the inside of the cabinet, and hung up our finger fire savers oven mitts. 

With the oven mitts on the side of the cabinet door, it saves space in our drawer {their previous location}, and they're nice and hidden away but still easily accessible. 

The next little storage I've used Command hooks for in the kitchen is in our cabinet under the sink. I talked about our organization under the sink in a previous post {link here}, but I failed to mention how I used the back of the cabinet doors. Yup, Command hooks on the back of the doors again. It honestly saves so much space, especially for awkward shaped items like a dustpan and brush and a squeegee. 

It's like the people who made the dustpan and squeegee knew I was going to use Command hooks to hang them. They each have a tiny hole made perfectly for a hook. 

Cost: About $4, just depends where you get the hooks. Sometimes Target has them in their $1 bin!

Time: About a minute per hook. I apply the sticker for 30 seconds, with pressure, and then add the hook, applying 30 more seconds of pressure. I'm pretty sure that's not what the directions say but I've never had one fall. 

Over the Door Organizer
Does anyone else have a door in their kitchen that doesn't really serve much purpose? If not, maybe you have a pantry door {you luckily little devil}. Ever thought of adding an over the door organizer to said door?

Our door leads to the living room and is almost always open, so tucking this Real Simple organizer behind it was a perfect organizing solution for many of those items that we don't use daily, but would like easy access to. 

Does anyone else have an obscene collection of koozies and water bottles? And sadly, this is after sorting through and getting rid of the ones that weren't our favorite. We may need an intervention.

I love that the organizer has such big pockets, they each can store so much! Annnnd, organizer's dream, it comes with 4 labeled pockets. Ah l'amore.

Cost: $20 at Bed, Bath and Beyond

Time: It took me no more than 5 minutes to load this baby up. And I still have plenty more pockets to add more! 

Magnetic Spice Rack

Some of you may remember when I added this spice rack to our kitchen. You may also remember my stress and frustration with the project {link here}, BUT months later, it's grown on me. 

Defying gravity, these little magnetic spice canisters have remained in place. They are so simple to see, use and put back. And having them stored on the cabinet door saves SO much space on our cabinet shelves. 

I have not painted over the magnetic paint with the original paint color yet, I'm too scared. Some part of me feels that if I add one more layer over the magnetic paint, none of the spices will attach anymore. Call me crazy, but I'm not taking that chance. 

Cost: Ugh. 

Time: And ugh.

Read more about the time and cost of this project here. It was not as easy as I'd have liked for it to be, but again, I am happy with it. 

DIY Storage

Of course, I had to add a little DIY into the mix. This little storage box is SO simple and so useful. I could never find a convenient place for all those long awkward boxes of cling film, parchment and wax paper. So I made a convenient place for them. 

Foil is not stored here; you may have noticed it on the shelf near the oven mitt. We purchased a Costco size box of foil nearly 4 years ago, still using it. Love Costco. 

This is simply a box, covered in paper leftover from a previous project, a layer packaging tape {I can't remember why, but it's there}, and then stuck on the cabinet. If you look closely, you can see just how little time I actually spent on this. It's neither cut nicely, nor covered nicely. But it's on the inside of the cabinet so who's going to see it?!

I actually used 3M Command tape to stick this sucker up. I love how easy it is to remove and doesn't pull away any part of the paint. I figured this would be a good move here because I'm sure when we leave this apartment, the new dwellers do not want a teal striped box dangling on the inside of their kitchen cabinets. But I do!!

If you choose to do something like this, cereal boxes probably work perfectly! Make sure to measure the height and width, but also the depth, since you will still need the cabinet door to close. I had to cut that little divot in mine so it would fit nicely with the round shelf on the inside.

Cost: Free!

Time: 15 minutes to create and hang the storage box. 

I guess I really should have titled this post "Off the 'Door' Organizing", but that's just not a catchy. How have you added storage space to your kitchen? Do you use your cabinet doors for storage? 

Thanks for visiting!