Thank you so much to Roeshel for allowing me to guest blog here at the DIY showoff. I have never guest blogged before but jumped at the chance when Roeshel put the call out. Hopefully Niski gets better really soon, I am amazed at Roeshel’s ingenuity, the little Show Off undies and grocery cart, talk about making the best of a bad situation.

For anyone wondering who the heck I am. I’m the author of Maillardville Manor, you may have seen my computer/craft room submission here at the DIY Showoff a couple of weeks ago. I live in British Columbia Canada with my husband (who does all the heavy lifting here at the Manor and painting for that matter), and our dog Max (a 4 1/2 pound yorkshire terrier with an attitude). Maillardville Manor is about decorating, budgeting, pets, and eco friendly living, with a strong undertone of organization, and no where in our house needed more organizing then our small kitchen.

We have a good amount of cupboard space for a small kitchen, but we also cook a lot and those cupboards filled up fast.

We received a beautiful set of pots and pans as a wedding gift and we wanted to make sure they stayed beautiful. We didn’t want them clanging around in a drawer or cupboard getting scratched and dented along the way. Our little kitchen had no room for a traditional pot rack so we improvised using an Ikea hat rack and some S hooks. The result was a very functional statement in our kitchen.

The next item on our to tackle list was our pantry or lack there of one. We bought a plain jane cabinet from Ikea and purchased two Akuram glass paneled doors, voila we had a pantry. We lined each shelf with pretty green shelf liner and then neatly stacked our food inside (I say neatly because with glass front doors I’ve pretty much dug my own grave).

With our leftover shelf liner I thought it wise to line under the sink, we keep our garbage under our sink and enough said. Our garbage cans are from Ikea’s Rationell Series, as is the pullout shelf. We keep all of our cleaning products on that little pull out shelf (a.k.a. the best $20 I ever spent). The garbage and recycling bins fit nicely and leave just enough room for a few bottles of dishwasher liquid.

Our dining room barely fits a table and 4 chairs so the idea of a sideboard or hutch is a pipe dream to us. So we pared down and organized the rest, determined to make all of our dinnerware fit into one cabinet. We invested in like items, meaning all of our dinner plates are the same, so they would stack together neatly. Likewise for our side plates, and drinking cups, they all fit perfectly aligned, side by side. We consigned all of our mismatched wine glasses and invested in a set of crystal goblets and flutes. We chose white ceramic for everything because then matching wouldn’t be an issue, we could buy the pieces that fit our cupboard and not be stuck with a set containing matching platters or bowls that don’t fit anywhere.

To round out the kitchen I have two favorite products I love to use and display. The first is a drop in dish rack. We hand wash our knives and larger items and having the dishes drip dry into the sink and not on the counter was a $2.48 luxury I wasn’t going to pass up.

And second would be my two ceramic bowls with little ceramic lids, perfect for serving and storing. Both were from Target recently, however both were on clearance so I have no idea what their availability is like.

There’s our kitchen, what’s the saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” well in our case a little organization keeps the metal health professional away. Anything to make the morning run smoother is worth my time and energy.

Thanks again Roeshel for having me here on the DIY Sho
woff, I hope you’ll come visit me over at The Manor and  as always well keep Niski in our thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery.

How much more usable living/storage space could you have with an under deck drainage system?