NYC Apartment Kitchen Organization
More apartment pics! I feel like I’ve been promising the details/photos of our kitchen for a while now, so I’m happy to say today is the day! It’s taken a while to get the kitchen under control and there are still a few things I haven’t quite figured out a solution for, but it’s come a very long way in a short time! Here’s my round up of items that have helped up organize this cramped little kitchen!
Darrell surprised me with this awesome spice rack storage. It makes everything so easy to access! We are starting to running into an issue with the heat from the stove/oven affecting the spice containers so we’re probably going to move them to inside a cabinet door most likely.
The utensil holder was a gift from our wedding registry. It is still available through Amazon.
So few electric outlets in this apartment! We use a few of these surge protectors to help. I love that it has a USB port. We keep a phone charger cord in the kitchen which is great for evenings when we are cooking from a recipe on our phone after a long day with little battery left. It’s also got a touch night light feature which I think would make it excellent for beside a bed too. The surge protector in our bathroom is just like this.
This cute two-tiered gold produce basket is the perfect size for us! I took these photos right before we left for vacation so we don’t have much occupying the basket currently but it usually full to the brim. I love that it elevates everything keeping it off the counter but in reach. And the colors usually look cute and welcoming sitting there! We have the gold paper towel holder that matches on the other side of the sink.
And yes, another Alexa! This one is most heavily used for adding items to our grocery list and setting timers! Among many other things.
We stole this idea from my sister and brother-in-law’s kitchen! I love having a “home” for the measuring cups and spoons. This eliminates the constant digging around for the right spoon or cup. A few were in the dishwasher at the time of this photo but we like to keep two sets of measuring cups and spoons on hand to make meal prep more efficient. These sticky hooks are from Amazon.
I have organized our cabinets to have the most used items on the lower shelves where I can reach them. Anything above the second shelf, I have to get the step stool out to reach. Which is super annoying, but if Darrell is around, he can grab things from the third shelf for me, haha!
These awesome hanging shelves were Darrell’s idea. I absolutely love them! As you can see, we use them for a variety of purposes. On the bottom shelf, it's used for aluminum foil, plastic wrap and paper plates. Second shelf houses plastic food storage so the lids go on that hanging shelf. And the third hanging shelf houses the mandoline slicer and its parts. We also use one above the stove (it seems so odd to me that the microwave isn’t above the stove but that’s irrelevant) where we store the cooling rack and charcuterie boards.
Pots and pans and lids, oh my! This was probably our biggest frustrations with the kitchen when we moved in. For a long time, Darrell was just storing all of the pots and pans on top of the fridge. That location was not working for me at all because I could never grab what I needed without using a step stool and it was just hard to maneuver it all every time we’d go to cook something. For a while, we were trying to use two plastic narrow pantry style shelving units on wheels beside the fridge to store nonperishable food items. Well about 3 days into those and I was furious. A wheel had already popped off and I could grab the shelf to pull it out without it coming apart from the piece below it. So we took the wheely shelves apart and Darrell now uses the bottom sections to store extra toiletries under the bathroom sink. When we eliminated the awful shelves, I was determined to find a hanging shelf for the pots and pans. Well, the space between the wall and the fridge is an uncommon size and it was super difficult to find something that wouldn’t be too deep so it could be hung low enough that I could reach most items without the shelf hitting the fridge. We found this awesome wall-mounted shelf on Amazon. It is the perfect size and it holds everything nicely with hooks. I use the side closest to the wall to hang my aprons.
Below the wall-mounted shelf, we store the Swiffer Wet Jet, step stool and trash can. Speaking of the trash can, we fill it up so fast because we have to have such a small can in order to fit the garbage down the trash shoot in our building. Thank goodness for recycling options in our building - that helps cut down on the waste a ton.
Under the kitchen sink, Darrell put in two of these shelves with gliding drawers. These are perfect for neatly organizing items like extra sponges, Swiffer Wet Jet Pads, extra soap, cleaning products and dishwasher detergent! We had intentions of using the same type of shelves under the bathroom sink but the cabinet isn’t tall enough to allow for them! I love their little dividers for keeping things straight.
Although not pictured, another item we use in the ONLY (and might I add, narrow) drawer in this kitchen, are these small plastic organizers that allow you to basically build your own drawer organization set up. We use them to organize our silverware and frequently used small items that don’t necessarily belong in the utensils container like a vegetable peeler, ice cream scoop and hand can opener. They’re awesome for all sorts of purposes including night stand drawers, bathroom drawers, desk drawers, etc.!
You can shop all of the items from this post below!
