Recently, I decided that it was about time to put those shelves to good use. I started with the shelves near the garage door, which were being used to store random vegetables, a loaf of bread, and occasionally, my husband's (too big) lunch cooler.
Yuck. Not pretty at all. But after a little creative thinking and some shopping, here's what the shelves looks like now:
I got these adorable tiny plant pots at Home Depot. (They had dead plants in them when I bought them, so they were on clearance for $1 each.) I disposed of the dead plants, and replaced them with cacti that I found at Walmart for less than $2 each. It turns out that it's not too expensive to buy plants when you're in the market for tiny ones!
Next, I tackled the shelves on the other side of the kitchen, next to the door to the backyard. This is what the shelves looked like before:
We we obviously not utilizing the space very well at all. Like I said, it's hard to find things to fit onto such narrow spaces! Here's what it looks like now:
The only things I kept on the shelves were three recipe books which just happened to be the perfect size. I added two more cacti from Walmart, some small decorations, and three more of the same baskets I used on the other shelves, from eBay.
In the baskets, I decided to organize my kitchen linens. A while ago, I bought some really cute towels and dishcloths, and I was excited about the idea of keeping them out in the open where they would add some color to the room. Also, this freed up a lot of space under the kitchen sink, which was awesome.
On the top shelf, I keep dish towels. I rolled them up so that it's easier to see all the colors. :)
In the middle shelf, I have a few more dish towels, and a bunch of dish cloths. I switch my dish cloth once- sometimes twice a day, so it's super handy to have them all within easy reach right beside my sink.
On the bottom shelf, I keep my supply of cloth napkins. They're so easy to grab now that we use them a lot more often.
Here are a few before and after pictures:
Do you have any difficult-to-utilize storage spaces? Sometimes all it takes is some creative shopping and attention to dimensions. Hopefully I've given you some ideas to get you thinking. Happy organizing!
Laura