Organized Cabinet

So you know how the old saying goes, "be careful what you wish for because you just might get it"? Yeah, that happened to me. Back in October (can't believe it was that long ago!) I posted about my wish for open shelving in my dream kitchen as part of the "50 Simple Things to Update Your Home" series. Not too long after that, a hinge broke on a cabinet door and it was just hanging by one. The local hardware stores didn't have a perfect fit, and as you can see, these cabinets use fancy European hinges and have a circle drilled into the interior of the cabinet.

I found a website that could potentially have had the proper hinge, but they required so many measurements that it was getting too complicated. The hubby and I decided we'd make the best of it and decided to keep the cabinet open.

The good part was that it was an end cabinet and so it doesn't look so random. The bad part was that it doesn't exactly have the most beautiful things to look at. I used this as a perfect opportunity to organize (i.e. purge) and change things up a bit.

The first step to organizing any space is to empty it completely and then scrub it down.

Step two is to sort everything into categories to keep, relocate or trash.

I got rid of all the expired vitamins, medicines and sunscreen, as well as things we no longer use or need. I decided to relocate the everyday paper goods - paper plates, plastic cups, etc. to our pantry since that just makes more sense. I moved the cookbooks here so they are easy to get to and decided that we could do without one of the shelves.

I picked up a few containers from the dollar store to organize the medicines and vitamins into two sections - one for stuff used daily, and the other only for when someone is sick. I put the other random, seldomly-used plastic ware on the top shelf. But it just wasn't doing it for me so I decided to splurge at Target and get some nice looking containers. After all, I'd be looking at them every day and I knew the dollar store containers could easily be repurposed elsewhere.

Lucky for me Target was having a storage sale and I got these white containers there. The basket on top is from the Nate Berkus line and I love how it adds a natural element to the space. So much better!

And no post would be complete without a good side by side before and after!

So much better looking, don't you think? Have you ever had a kitchen cabinet door fall off?

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