The cabinet no one opens

Dun dun duuuuun.

We have one. The cabinet we rarely open. Or when we do we open it real quick-like, throwing the item inside and shutting the door fast so the rest of the stuff doesn’t fall out. I didn’t always have a cabinet like this – it started in the past six months or so and it just got worse with each month.

Well, it was time to address it. This is when I find blogging to be so funny -- showing the insides of my cabinets for the world to see:

The really messy insides. But sometimes seeing someone else take care of a mess spurs me on to take care of mine, so that’s why I share.

The first thing I needed to do was address the top of the cabinet – it had become our dumping ground for the past couple of weeks. I address piles by making them into smaller piles instead of putting individual items away one at a time.

I ended up with an upstairs pile, a garage pile, a holiday pile (??) and a I-have-no-idea-what-to-do-with-you pile:

That one goes to live on the island where other random stuff goes, till I decide to address that whole area. One thing at a time people.

I tackled the actual cabinet last night while I listened to The Bachelor finale (he’s a gem). I moved the alcohol down to the basement and was left with this:

Well, and a few things that I had already put back in. The items in the boxes are going back to the store. Except maybe the herb keeper – does it work? I’m waffling on that one.

I took the extra crock pot down to the basement because we only use it for parties. A couple of the items went to other cabinets – you know…where they belong. :)

The long stuff like the platters are too wide to fit into our dining room/library built ins so I keep them in here. When I stacked them up it felt like it was such a waste of space. They barely took up any vertical space:

So. I had an idea to create a shelf that I could stack them on that would take up less surface space.

I took measurements and went out the garage and cut some scrap wood down:

The wood is 20 by 16 inches and then I cut some “legs” to four inches tall.

I just screwed the legs on:

Be sure to use a drill bit first before drilling the screws so you don’t split the wood!

I slid it in to the cabinet and it was a perfect fit! The longer platters fit great underneath and it’s sturdy enough to hold the others on top without a problem:

I was quite pleased with my quick little DIY shelf, especially considering you can buy wire and wood products for just this purpose:

My scrap wood stash pays off again!

Here’s the cabinet, blissfully purged and organized:

It took me a few minutes to purge and less than ten to cut the wood down and make the little space saving shelf. Now I’m looking at the other cabinets to see where I can use more. :)

Do you have a cabinet that you open real fast? Or even better – that you can’t close all the way? Uh huh.