One of the first things I thought about doing when we first moved away from home and into a smaller home was find the best tips and tricks to share for others, like us, who live in a smaller home. Small home, tight spaces - how in the world do you make them work?! Sometimes I'm in my very small bathroom thinking.. oh, how I wish I had more counter space. Because pulling out my toothbrush and toothpaste every.single.time I need to brush my teeth is getting to be a real inconvenience (you can roll your eyes here, I actually did, too) ;). Yes, every time we have company, I cringe a little, literally, at the sound my table legs make when we have to pull the table out so we can actually have enough chairs to seat people - didn't have that problem before. Yes, I love my cozy living room, it's the best room in the house! But once every seat on the couch is full and we still have to bring in chairs, it feels even smaller. How did we find ourselves in such a smaller home? How will I make this work?
Let's start with my homemade pantry. (Easy on the homemade and pantry part)
1.Baskets:
Let me start by saying what a basket nut I've become. These have helped me organize in so many ways. I wanted wicker vs wire for this particular shelf because it's more eye catching, in my opinion. These also have handles so if it's something I can't see very well at a glance, I can easily grab the whole basket and put it on my kitchen table to see everything inside. Convenient.
2. Stack dishes:
Have we already talked about my cabinets and their weird smell? I decided I would move all of the dishes I often use out of the cabinets, for now, and onto one shelf of my pantry. I actually got the idea from Taza here. While I'd like to have my shelf look even remotely close to that neat, right now this shelf is for everything I don't want sitting on my kitchen table or in my funky smelling cabinets. My rice cooker is on one shelf looking super awesome, dishes on the next, food on another. Soon you'll see what a little purging and organizing will get me with these shelves!
3. Store food:
Growing up, my parents always had some sort of bakers rack in our actual pantry. It was always where my mom kept multiples of everything, it seemed! My sister and I always joke that we could grocery shop at my parents because sometimes, if there's a good sale, my mom will buy 4-5 or more of the same exact product. I absolutely love this and when I have my head on straight..which is rare.. I'll do the exact thing and stock up on non-parishables for the pantry that I know we couldn't really live without.
Right now I'm only storing food like canned goods, extra bags of sugar and lots of baking stuff on this shelf because it's in the brightest room we have, the laundry room. I'm not quite sure yet about the sun hitting the food through this Texas heat and how it'll lessen the shelf life of my food. I know you're thinking, why is your pantry in the laundry room? But the kitchen table is literally just feet away from this shelf which is actually just several feet away from the stove. It's really such a cozy home and we do love it.
I'm excited to share with you how else I've made this house work for me. This small area was just begging me to put some sort of shelving in it and it just so happened to work perfectly for the kind of shelf I wanted. You can find the exact one we purchased here.
I hope the idea of having a shelf for extra cabinet space or additional pantry space has given you hope for your small living quarters. It's the best decision Trey and I have made since we've moved to this new home.
Happy Monday!
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