When we downsized, my husband and I managed to find a smaller home with a bigger pantry (12x8 with a 9-foot ceiling) and I think even more kitchen cabinets than we had in our very spacious previous house. This is probably because we’re in a custom home, but with so much storage space we have not had to be super organized, so we’re not nearly as buttoned up as I normally prefer. Still, I’ll pass along a few things that do work:
-A lid organizer for food storage containers
-Tiered shelving for canned goods
-A drawer organizer for steak knives with an individual slot for each
-Original spice bottles lay flat, in alphabetical order, in a large drawer next to the stove
-I don’t like having a dish drainer on my countertop, so we have one that stays in one side of a double sink. It has holders on the side intended for glasses, and I slide my sponge behind one so it’s hidden away and can drip dry. Dish soap and hand soap are next to the faucet in decorative labeled dispensers.
-Finally, we drink a lot of water and installed a special Pentair Everpure filtration system that dispenses filtered water from our kitchen faucet, so there’s no standalone filtered water unit taking up floor space.

Great ideas, Kyle! Thanks!

so exiting! love seeing your kitchen coming together. looking great.

we have limited storage in our 1955 mid-century. so every inch counts. I have vintage ball jars with dry goods in an open pantry, I can see what needs to be replaced, and the green glass is fab. We cook a ton, so basics are on the counter (knives, vitamix, utensil, salt) cutting board

I do have these long narrow drawers for both refrigerator, (and some to hold lenses for my classroom they work great--the long ones go all the way to the back-great for yogurts, drinks, seasonings. Both i-design and M-design are of good quality.

We also have the Cambro restaurant supply storage bins. Giant ones for flours, smaller ones for other things, and smaller ones. Love they are square and stack well. The Online "webstraurant Store" has the best prices anywhere I found.

https://www.webstaurantstore.c.....sport.html

Janet, we cook a lot and we try to be very efficient. When we designed our kitchen we put in many of the cabinet features you have added. I love the vertical tray cabinet the most and find myself wishing I had added a second!

I find myself with a shockingly disorganized and overflowing spice cabinet and have set myself the task of remediating that this week.

I ordered some additional modular inserts to corral the current hot mess.

Mr. A recently gifted me a rechargeable cordless label maker (swoon) so I plan to go nuts with labeling.

Nothing useful here for you, J, just chiming in to encourage others who may be dealing with a similar cabinet somewhere.

Such great solutions and suggestions here!

This weekend we went to the storage unit and started bringing kitchen things back home to start putting away. I did some preliminary organizing. It was amusing to realize how many kitchen utensils we own, but when I sorted them out, I realized we really do use most of them, even some that only get used a couple of times a year.

We went shopping for dishes and think we found what we want at Pottery Barn. Silverware from West Elm. Starting fresh with all new! I think I’m even giving away the 30 year old mixing bowls to start fresh. Again, the modern new space makes some of the old stuff look shabby. But some old things retain their charm!

I did get a fair amount done in my spice cupboard yesterday - Photo 1 is the morning's hot mess (had moved some things out of the upper shelves the day prior, so they don't look quite as terrible as the lowers.)

Photo 2 is how it looks right now, as I await my new jars and risers.

When all is said and done, my hope is that this cabinet will contain ONLY herbs, spices and perhaps extracts - not the motley assortment of condiments, sauces, sweeteners, dried mushrooms etc. it had before.

The shame (or joy) of all this excess is that this cupboard isn't even the end of it. I have a whole section of another cabinet that contains nothing but Indian spices and a small dedicated coffee grinder.

If you cook in more than one cuisine, it gets out of hand rather quickly.

Almost complete! Or maybe completely complete.

And look - lots of room for new spices when I decide to tackle a new cuisine.

April, that looks amazing! Very organized.

Our spices are mostly still at the storage unit. But we now have lights installed and all appliances are in, but the dishwasher is not hooked up yet, and the island appliances (freezer drawers, beverage fridge, wine fridge) need handles. So we are not fully functional or moved back in yet. Getting there though!

Janet, you have the patience of a saint through all this. We are entering Week 7 of a total roof-and-gutter replacement and the constant pounding and ladders at windows is driving me mad.

At this point, 7 weeks to you must sound like nothing!

April, oh, the roof work! We had part of our roof reshingled, and construction of the kitchen included building a new dormer, so I hear you! That overhead noise is the worst!

One day we had workers cutting countertop material at the same time someone else was sawing the brick hearth off our fireplace — OMG the noise level! We have been treasuring the quiet moments when workers leave for the day!

I need to take more new pics of the progress. But here in pic 1 is the front of the house with all outside construction done and exterior paint in progress.

Pics2-3 are our new place settings — dishes, napkins, and placemats from Pottery Barn, silverware from West Elm, and Tahari napkin rings from Home Goods!

Pics 4-6 are the kitchen with the island and light installed!

So beautiful!