Quick tip: sorting out tupperware

As part of our project to get our flat organised, I found a great tip on Pinterest via The Kitchn. To help store your tupperware, use old CD storage racks to store the lids! That way you can always FIND the lid (which drives me round the bend) and the boxes themselves stack fairly easily.

We had been storing the tupperware under the sink, but it is apparent that we have a mouse, so that was definitely no longer viable. Also everything was in a big IKEA bag, and finding things was a nightmare. This is a great solution and doesn’t take up that much room.  I didn’t have any CD storage racks, but I got one for only a few quid on Amazon. Thanks The Kitchn!

Getting organised: Quick wins in the kitchen

Over the weekend I began to tackle my project to get our flat organised. Thankfully P is very handy with a drill – each of the three things we did took under 10 minutes to do and has already started to make our tiny kitchen feel calmer and more easy to use.

Our main problem in the kitchen is storage – we have none of it! Our one drawer was overwhelmed with things and the tiny cutlery organiser that we had just wasn’t cutting it. All the knives being all over the place was actually starting to feel a bit dangerous and things like the herb chopper were taking up way too much space.

Quick win? A bigger organiser. We took anything that can be hung up out of the drawer (see then next win to see where they went) and arranged everything that was left behind into a new divider.

Easy peasy!

The next project to tackle was the number of pot lids we have. Where do you store your pot lids? We had been storing them with the pots, but it felt like every time I picked up a pot, all the lids would crash down. It was driving me pretty nuts.

Quick win? Installing a rack above the hob to store the lids on. Plus we have some hooks we can use to hang bits and bobs that we want to keep near the stove.

Our final project was to make a piece of furniture a bit more functional. We bought a great kitchen trolley from IKEA not so long ago, which is brilliant. Our kitchen is really very small, so this gives us another work surface and somewhere to store big items.  But it doesn’t have any drawers, so our issue of storage for things like serving spoons, tongs, sieves, etc, didn’t really get resolved when we bought it.

Quick win? Installing another rack – this time with loads of hooks on it.

In total we spent around £30 on two racks and the cutlery divider.  It didn’t cost too much and although all three of these things are small projects, they have already made the kitchen feel hugely more organised and made me feel more relaxed! I know where everything is, things no longer fall over when I try to get pans out, and it looks nicer as well.

Now if only I can find solutions for our tupperware, none of which seems to stack properly or nest within other pieces. Any ideas?

Top Tip: Removing gluey residue from glass bottles

One of the problems I have found with the various glass bottle projects I have wanted to try (or have tried, like these champagne lights) is that the paper on the bottles can be incredibly difficult to remove. The label itself is usually easy enough – soak the bottle in some warm soapy water and it comes away, but often this leaves a sticky, gluey residue.

I did a quick search online and found this video on About.com. It recommends that for hard to remove gunk, you should use peanut butter. I’ve heard of peanut butter getting gum out of hair before, but this was a new use for it for me! Apparently the oil in the butter breaks down the glue and makes it easy to remove. It sounded fairly unlikely but, I have to say, it worked a treat! How about that? You learn something new every day…

Before

During

After!