Organizing

For Christmas, David and I got a whole slew of new spice blends to try out.  There was only one problem: our cupboard was already pretty crowded, and it was already a hassle trying to find the seasonings we wanted.  Or, when we left the seasonings at the front, it was a hassle moving them to get to the flour, sugar, and other staples.  The shelves weren't tall enough to stack spices 2 high, so a double layer turntable wouldn't work.  I didn't want to get one of those organizers that could only fit certain spice bottles, either, because I didn't want to transfer all the spices to new containers.  I took some careful measurements, and then headed over to Bed Bath and Beyond to see what the options were.  And I found the perfect solution!

It's designed to fit 18 spice bottles, and since 10 of our new spices are half-height, we fit 23.  It has 3 racks that pull out and tilt down, so you can see exactly what you have.  And do you see how perfect the height is for my cabinet?  Here's the full-on view:

I did have to transfer the white flour and white sugar into smaller canisters to make everything fit, but I'm really happy with the result.  (Yes, we do have over 30 bottles of various spices.)

My next source of frustration, which had been a frustration for awhile, was the freezer.  It had no shelf.  I asked my landlord about getting a shelf for the freezer, and he said there isn't a shelf to fit it.  I don't know about you, but those holes placed mid-height of the freezer, at the front and back of the left and right sides sure make it look like there should be a shelf to fit the freezer.  I copied down the model number and looked it up online: no freezer shelf.  Then I decided to measure it and see if I could just pick a shelf that would fit--how many varieties can there be?  A lot.  And, when you search for a freezer shelf, you can't just search by the dimensions, you have to search by the manufacturer and model number.  And when you select a shelf to fit a model number, they don't give you the dimensions.  So basically, no luck.

Then I had looked at Bed Bath and Beyond, to see what I could come up with for just a basic wire shelf like people use in their cabinets.  I wasn't that happy with what I found, so I forgot about it for awhile.  Then, the freezer started bugging me again.  So, I went back, and bought 2 shelves which weren't going to be a great fit, but then again, nothing was going to be a great fit.  I was pretty impressed with what I did.  The shelves leave a gap of about 3 inches in between each other, and a gap of about 2 inches from the back of the freezer.  But, I found a decent solution for that: place things that won't bend or slip over the gap.  See?

Why yes, we do have about 15 lbs of cheese in our freezer.  And at least 5 lbs of frozen strawberries.  And we're running low on meat.  But focus on the organization.  This makes the freezer so much easier to deal with!  Food doesn't fall out and attack us!  Hopefully, we'll also keep better tabs on what we have, so we don't have as many times where we unknowingly run out of ground beef.  (Right now we are knowingly out of ground beef.  It just hasn't been on sale.)

Speaking of sales, we were running dangerously low on brownie mix.  And by dangerously low, I mean that we only had a few of the super fancy brownie mixes that we save for sort of special occasions, and none of the regular brownie mixes.  This is a problem, because brownies are a key source of chocolate consumption in our home.  We go through about 3 mixes a month.  And we were out.  And they weren't on sale, at least, not on sale for the price that I will pay for them.  For 2 months.  It was very sad.  Then, last week, they went on sale.  We bought 12.  Then I though about it again and went back for more.  We are, happily, now stocked (for at least the next 2 months).