Help with Some Organization in My Kitchen.

all of my food stuff is stored in glass jars, except the bread. Seriously, all cereals/snacks/grains/baking supplies. The glass jars are lined up along the back of one counter, allowing for the cabinet space to be used for canned goods & soft goods like my bread. My jars are antique, but you can buy new. I use 2 sizes....larger on bottom, smaller on top.

I like this system, because everything is uniform & easily available. No digging in cabinets! & the containers go straight into the recycling.....

I use a bread box on my counter. It looks neat and uncluttered that way.

And I have a sliding drawer under the sink. I found it in the housewares section of Fred Meyer. It has a base that you screw into the bottom of the cupboard. And a plastic basket that hooks into glides on the base. It' cost around $20. I've also seen this sort of sliding drawer in coated wire.

Do you have room to hang a 3-tiered basket somewhere?
http://wishkitchen.com/catalog/images/9308952CR.jpg

Other than suggested bread box, what about a shallow shelf to hold spices and stuff on your counter? Or have you looked into wall-hangings? They make tons of organizers that can just hang to your wall.

I am having a hard time understanding/visualizing your problem cupboard. But I have seen lots of drawers that can pull after you open the cupboard.
http://www.rtacabinetstore.com/RTA-Kitchen-Cabinet-Storag...

Do you have room for a rolling center island? They make great ones that can give you more drawers/cabinets and even a towel holder, plus chopping space.

I had O. of those cupboards! I hated it! And beside it was O. of those "tray-sized cupboards" (thin, for cookie sheets).
We had a carpenter friend of ours switch it out into O. corner cupboard with an "L-shaped" hinged door. WHAT a difference!

As for the bread/buns issue...I used to have a bread box, but now just use a nice basket in O. corner.

I put stuff in our oven and microwave. Out of site but still very handy.

ok, so for the bread, get a bread box! I have a wonderful stainless steel one and I LOVE it.

For the deep cupboards I got cardboard boxes about the same size and put a peice of wood, or something else to make the bottom very sturdy and got cheap skateboard wheels and fixed them to the bottom of the box, now the items in the cupboard are in a drawer and roll out! No more issues of pulling things out!

My kitchen is the same. Great Question because even though I didn't have an answer for you, for which I am sorry. I did get some great ideas just from your one question. I hope you figured it out!!!!!! Sorry I couldn't help!

I use baskets to store our break in and baskets for deep cupboards so that I can pull them out and look through to find what I want.

Is your laundry room near your kitchen? Our last house had an empty wall in our LR that we put shelves and that was our pantry. You could also buy those kits at Home Depot or Lowes that has a pull out shelf on a track so you can put things in the very back of a cabinet but yet you pull the small drawer like thing out to get to the back items. Can you change the way the door swings on the pain that is the cabinet by your sink? Not sure I understand what you are describing but maybe if you change the way it swings, it will swing the opposite way and not into your space.....? You can always buy slide in and out things for cabinets now, just go peruse the section in home depot or lowes. Or better yet, take a picture of it and go and show them and ask for help.

We have very limited space in our kitchen and an odd layout. There is no dining room, so our kitchen must fit a small table to eat at.

We are updating our kitchen on a budget this next summer. First, ripping out the dishwasher, it hasn't been used and I want space. I don't mind hand washing dishes. We are installing 2 large sliding drawers where the dishwasher is at now that will hold baking pans and cookware.

Next, we are building a buffet that will be used to hold our microwave on top and additional storage. It will be made from unfinished stock base cabinets. We are painting them, adding finishing touches to make them look nice. It will be topped with a nice countertop to match the rest of the kitchen. It will also have hidden wheels so I can use it for extra counter space when needed.

In your case, add sliding drawers, these are extremely easy to make out of cabinet grade plywood.

We keep our bread/rolls/buns/etc. in a large basket on top of the refridgerator. That saves us some space.

I feel your pain! I have a shelving unit off to the side (kinda between the kitchen and living room) that serves as a pantry. In that awful cabinet, I have right by the door a big plastic basket with chips, snack food stuff. beyond that, extra lunch boxes, past that storage for paper towels and paper napkins--I usually make the kids go in after them, but it isn't terrible. Don't have to get in there that often. GL

Well, I have some of those deep cupboards; I store my lesser-used items in back and then the more used items in front of them.

As for the bread/rolls dilemma, here's an unconventional suggestion: could you (or someone who sews) make some drawstring bags in a breathable, washable fabric that would look cute in your kitchen? Just put them in the bags and hang the bags on some hooks on the wall. This will save your counter space. I saw the idea in a Walforf-y book and haven't used it myself, but it's cute.

I have a bread box....but if you don't have the counter space how about what my inlaws do--a basket on top of the fridge?

I have one of those stupid cabinets, too. For the most part I pretend the way back space isn't even there...I use the regular space you can see easily for all our crackers, granola bars and such...the empty space way off to the right that you can't see well is filled with, well, nothing. Such a waste. The builder of the house should've put in some sort of lazy susan, but didn't. Now you've got me thinking...what to do with that space??! Sorry, not much help except for letting you know you're not alone.

I have a nice wire basket for my breads and rolls. It holds quite a bit and corrals everything nicely.

I also have a cabinet like that. I have some small baskets that is use for items that I put in the part of the cabinet that I can't easily reach. I put things in there that I don't need that often, but when I do need them, I can just reach for the basket, pull that out and see everything. Much better than having random small items getting lost back there!

If there's one thing I want to change about my kitchen is the lack of pantry - I've got LOTS of cupboards - but I REALLY want a pantry. In 2012, I hope that is one of the changes we will be making in our home - the kitchen....to explain - we lived in Germany were my kitchen was small - and my "counter space" was the 30" between the sink and the stove...so I had to do all of my prepping at the table...so when I saw all the counter space in my kitchen - i told Bob we HAD to buy it...I have 6' between the wall and the refrigerator and a bar/island that is another 6' of counter space!! I was IN LOVE!!! (lol!!) Once we moved in? yeah- I saw the problems!! oh well! we can change it.

Now on to you...I too have the corner cabinet. What did I do to help access the items? I found a heavy duty lazy Suseann (spelling) and put items on that and turn it as needed.

We have a storage room and my husband built shelves for me for storage - that's where I keep my stock...including paper towels, napkins, extra cereal etc.

If you have a microwave - put your bread and buns in there. That's what my mom does in her motor home. So they are only out when the microwave is being used.

Hope this helps!!

Any chance you have a small closet near your kitchen area that you can sacrifice? If you put in shelves, this might make a fantastic pantry! Other options could be a cabinet like this for food items:

http://www.target.com/p/ClosetMaid-Pantry-Cabinet-Alder/-...

Or pull out racks like this to make the awkward cupboard easier to navigate:

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/stylePage.asp?RN=205&

http://www.target.com/p/OXO-SoftWorks-Large-Pull-Out-Draw...

IKEA is a good store for small houses and apartments. Check out their entire storage and kitchen sections. If you don't have a store near you, you can order online. www.ikea.com

Store breads and other foods in the fridge...taste fresher and last longer too.

Maybe you could find a bread box for the bread.
Could you fit some drawers in your cupboard? I have a set of cheap wire frame drawers that I put in a similar cupboard. I can pull out the whole drawer if I want and set it on the counter to get stuff out.
My mom has a really cool cabinet organizer that is like a full pull out shelf. When you open your cabinet drawer all you see is a flat panel with a handle. When you pull on the handle you roll out a shelf that you can access on two sides, basically like a shelf that is at a 90 degree angle to your cabinet door. It looks like something you would get from California Closets. I think she had it made. You probably could too, just make sure you have really good hardware to support the drawer when it if fully pulled out.

I have a small kitchen too... I have a china cabinet that I keep my dishes in to free up the space in my cupboards for food. We also keep our bread in the fridge, it keeps it fresher which is a bonus. In a cupboard like that I would keep cookie pans.

Sorry if someone said this already (don't have time to read all these nice ladies' comments!) for your cupboard that goes way back on the side - we just had our basement kitchen finished and the cabinetry shop had a really nice thin metal rod type drawer that's a little high tech and a little spendy but you don't say anything about being on a tight b-u-d-get (four letter word haha!) but the drawer pulls out to the front and then another section pulls out from the side (smooth!) and then glides out to the front. pure genius. ;) Good Luck!

I too use a bread box. I'm a bread 'snob' (used to work in a bakery), so I like my bread fresh or not at all. My MIL gave it to me for Christmas, so maybe you can start hinting to your friends/family now. ;)

Lazy Susan(s) perhaps in the cupboard that goes way back? I know those are sort of 'standard' on the corner cupboards that many kitchens have these days. Cupboard drawers that pull out are also popular, but unless you have a nifty craftsman in your house, or money to spare, that is probably not an option.