If you’ve heard of Barbara Hemphill’s book “Taming The Paper Tiger” then you know it’s about organizing paper. Well here’s how to tame the chaos tiger in your cabinets. In this case, I’ll be showing my very own kitchen cabinets.

I basically use the necessary “tools” in the cabinets that will maximize the space, help keep things organized inside, and be easy to see to find what I’m looking for. And since all cabinets come in different sizes, I just needed to determine the best fit, or solution for each space.

The food pantry

My pantry is deep and food can be lost in the back, so I used a combination of round turn-tables, hanging shelf baskets, and clear containers that act as drawers. Some shelves are maximized to hold more than it could have held without a hanging shelf basket.

With large round turn-tables on the first 3 shelves of the pantry cabinet, nothing is hidden from view.

The hanging shelf basket maximizes the space on that shelf.

I was pleased to find these clear plastic storage containers with handles at a dollar store.

On the bottom shelf I used another hanging shelf basket and clear plastic storage containers (in 2 sizes to fit in the space).

Inside the other door of my pantry is a shelf for my spices which is maximized by a smaller, more narrow shelf above it and another turn-table below for spices I use the most.

The kitchen cabinets

My dish cabinet utilizes space-saver shelves so dishes can be stacked on them without over-stacking dishes on top of each other. I certainly got a lot of dishes on that one shelf for such a small cabinet space!

Under my sink I used some storage containers to hold household items and some tools (since I lack storage space in my apartment), and a dish pan to store some cleaning supplies. It’s better to keep things contained in something than loose because I can just pull out the dish pan when I’m cleaning to access all the stuff I’ll need.

I don’t have much counter space so I store my toaster and Magic Bullet in my cabinet. But I also store my coffee in it since it’s just above my coffee maker. Although I don’t like mixing food with other kitchen items, I made an exception to my rule so that I could have a “coffee center” area.

These are the main things I wanted to show you – that you can use storage containers, bins, shelf space-savers, and turn-tables in your cabinets to keep things organized and make the most of the space inside.

Happy organizing!