I'm just starting out with my home business. Hopefully in the future, I will be able to rent a space, or add an addition to my house. But for now, my kitchen and dining room have been overtaken by cake decorating stuff. Are there any good tips or storage suggestions for keeping all this stuff organized?!

Hi
in my garage I have a wall with peg board and which my pans are hanging on. but I do have I also put in plastic bins
and my cake stuff is in a large plastic pull out drawer (arts and crafy type I got from costco years ago)
one drawer has color's
one has tips (i put my tip in a large bead box)
fondant stuff
dragee's and jimmies
and so on

I have stuff in the kitchen, front (enclosed) porch and spare bedroom, lets not forget the basement. So storage is something I am learning. In my basement I have character pans that I don't use too often in a large tupper tote. My kitchen has no storage. My front porch has industrial shelving with plastic shoe boxes from the dollar store. I have sorted and labeled each box. I am slowly taking an inventory of what I have right now because its easy to not know what you have after you have accululated so much over the years. I have a really small kitchen so my latest solution is those clear and white towers (drawers) on wheels and this way I can roll into the kitchen when needed and back to the porch when done. I watch too many tlc shows and see that they have everything in clear containers with labels so thats been my newest kick. Hope that helps!

I also use the multi drawer, clear plastic units on wheels. I have large rubbermaid totes for pans I used freq. Just started putting some less used pans in those new, extra large ziploc bags and then hang them on a hanger in my closet. I have no basement but lots of closet space, so that works for me. It is an on-going challenge!

What about your storage of ingredients, sugar, flour, cake mixes, etc...?

I'm pretty lucky and have a lot of space in my kitchen, but i am at this point bursting at the seams. I was thinking about trying to get a buffet and baker's rack to house some of my things and get them out of my kitchen.

Did i mention that I also have to fight for space in my kitchen with my home-brewing dh! *rolls eyes*

home-brewing-well, the combo should be fun....can't help on the storage thing-sorry

We had a utility closet that we converted to a pantry and I use all of the top shelves for my cake stuff and the very top shelf is where I stack most of my pans. Rarely used pans are in a large rubbermaid tote in another room. As for flour, sugar, etc, I purchased some large foodservice type containers from www.acemart.com that each hold 25lbs of flour or sugar. I bought smaller ones for things like brown sugar, coconut, oats, chocolate chips, nuts, etc. They were worth the investment. In the kitchen I also have a couple of those rolling plastic drawer thingies for storage of smaller items. I put a piece of styrofoam in one drawer and cut skewers into small pieces and stuck them in the foam. I store my tips on these.

My DH built me a whole new set of cabinets and countertop on the opposite side of my kitchen just for my workspace. He installed a pull out piece that's great for cooling racks or more workspace. I also have a dorm size refrigerator over there for only my cake stuff. I also have a wire rack hanging over the counter where I keep some of my frequently used ingredients and cooling racks. He made small hooks so that things can hang beneath the rack (measuring cups, leveler, cookie scoops). He's done so much to help me out and still doesn't have room to make a sandwich in the kitchen.

I purchased something similar to this http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_5/601-3452499-4563316?%5Fencoding=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B0002DUQA4 from Target. It doesn't have the drawer at the bottom and it cost A LOT less. It sits in a corner of my dining room, and really doesn't take up that much space. It even blends in nicely with the color of my dining table. It works for me, and keeps everything hidden!

Sorry I can't help. I am not very organized (yet). After reading some of these ideas, I hopefully will get my stuff organized in one location. Now, my stuff is in the basement, kitchen, closet and garage. AAAHHHH!

Good Luck with your reorganization!

I have 2 storage cabinents that are about 6' in my kitchen. Most of my character pans are on the wall, some are proped on top of the cabinents. I have a basket on top of each that I have mini pans in. Inside the cabinents I have boxes and baskets to hold alot of the little stuff. I also have shelf room for bigger items.

I have these in a couple of my closet and pantry-on the inside of the doors

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=1-1/qid=1149208628/ref=sr_1_1/602-7276880-6377452?%5Fencoding=UTF8&asin=B00077JFWA

They REALLY increase the storage space available, I store a lot of cake mixes and pudding mixes in mine, or other stuff to free up shelf space in the pantry/closet

I use hat boxes. I have my bags in one...tips in another..colors in another...I stack the hat boxes in the corner of the dining room. They are cute boxes and they hold a bunch of junk.