Good morning! I wanted to share with you some changes to our kitchen storage. A lot of you are living with kitchens just as small - or smaller - thanmine, and it can be tricky to find a place for all that crap. Finding a place other than just piling things on the counter is even trickier. If you're like us, you have a lot of "counter food" - things like tomatoes, onions, bananas and the like, which don't do well in the fridge. For a while, we were keeping these things in bowls on the "island" and kitchen cart, along with appliances and coffee gear, but that just meant our entire work surface was covered with bowls of food. This island represents pretty much the sum total of our meal prep surface, so I really couldn't sacrifice it to the produce or coffee gods any longer.

This picture is taking it way back (like, months!), but it shows that precious counter space was being used by my kitchen aid and food jars (holding sugar, coffee and tea), and the bar cart is overloaded with more food, the knife block and measuring cups. It wasn't particularly functional, and it also looked sort of messy and chaotic, which I have a tough time with. Especially because we have such an open floor plan - read, it's all one big room - so it's not like we're containing the chaos to one area. Meanwhile, the strip of wall above the island was only pressed into the lightest of duty, holding those Ikea herb prints. So I thought to myself, "Self, " I thought, "we can do better."

And so we did.

I started off by hanging the wire baskets I discussed here. These were $3 each at the Target dollar section, and they're big and roomy - bigger than your average hanging fruit basket, which we needed. I initially only hung two, but then went all out with all three, because we needed the space. I keep apples and onions separate from other fruit because they emit gases that cause other fruits to ripen and go bad quickly. So the top basket is apples (and impervious stuff, like squash), the middle holds onions and shallots (and the occasional potato), and the bottom one has the rest of our fruit.

You guys. It's bananas how many bananas we eat. They are West's single most favorite food. I also love them. I also freeze them for smoothies and bake with them. So we buy them buy the bunches, and now they have a perfect little hanging spot -- two 'S' hooks that loop into the bottom wire basket.

Next, I hung a magnetic knife strip. I'd actually had this for so long, but hadn't hung it up because of the weird situation in which our couch backs into the island. I could imagine some grisly accidents with the knives in easy toddler reach. In the end, though, I figure I still have a baby, not yet a toddler, and I prefer the general teach-obedience to over-baby-proofing route anyway. Once West is swinging from the chandeliers, I'll probably have to reconsider and eat my words, but for now, this was a good call. That knife block was a space hog!

And finally, I slid this magnetic message board here to hold our weekly menu. The menu used to be on the chalkboard planner, but that too is receiving a wee makeover, so I moved the menu here. The message board also hides an unsightly but necessary power outlet, so I can slide it out of the way when I need to plug something in, but don't have to look at my super's crappy paint job and poor choice of almond-colored-switchplates all day. FTW.

Just look at all that counter space! Moving the knives and fruits and veg to the wall freed the cart up for the mixer and coffee paraphernalia, which in turn freed up the work surface for actual work. Next up, some window gardening. I'm looking at you, lettuce! And, finally, I'm going to sand down and refinish that kitchen island. I love that thing - it's a beast for storage and a great big surface to work on - but it's just in poor shape. It needs a little TLC. And I'm just the gal to do it. Oh. And washing those damn windows. For the love. It's on the list, friends! Talk tomorrow!