OK... it is time to reorganize the shop. I have a large open building with no divider walls. I want to add some walls to separate the ovens/freezer/fridge from my main work area. The cost of air conditioning the whole place is silly.

This also means I can plan some new storage and organization. What I'm looking for from you is some suggestions for storing awkward things like...
- Cake Boxes (It is impossible to stack different sizes because the weight makes the bottom ones difficult to get to.)
- Boards
- Pans UGH!
- Ingredients
- Rolls of Ribbons
- Heat sensitive things like shortening/oil
- Fondant Flowers & Royal icing decorations
etc...

You get the idea! I don't want to spend tons of money but I do have a budget for it. Any clever organizers out there?

Pans: my dh built me a floor-ceiling pantry with sealing doors in our garage (opens up to the kitchen). I keep all of my pans on 2 shelves, and my non-perishable ingredients on another. It's extremely convenient for me.

RI decorations: I bought a small 3-drawer Rubbermaid thing from Walmart. it's on casters. I keep the different kinds of flowers separated in ziploc baggies in the drawers. That rolls nicely into a corner of my kitchen pantry closet.

For the ribbons, you could attach a couple dowel rods verticall to a shelf. This way you slip the ribbon spool on the dowel rod and when you need some just pull the ribbon and the dowel rod will allow it to spin.

I hope that makes sense.

Oh and for the boards you could do small vertical shelves.

I bet some cubby holes (like they use in Kindergarten) would be good for lots of things. I wonder if I could find some used ones.

You can also hang a curtain rod for your ribbon, one of those cheap ones works best since the rod is thin (so it fits through the hole in the ribbon spool).


And if you could find a large enough shelf, you could get those file organizers (the ones that are vertical and have spaces that are tiered or whatever) for your boxes. Put the boxes on one edge and sort them by size. It won't matter that the organizer isn't wide enough if the shelf is wide enough to support the ends of the boxes. Does that make sense? I'm not the best at describing things!

My DH made me a storage box for my boxes. I carry 5 sizes of boxes and it has a slot for each size. It looks like a big toy box. I have it under my counter and out of the way. Boxes are so bulky. I have an enclosed proof box and I store my pans in there. It has slots for full and half sheet pans, I use the pans to store my different size baking pans on. It also keeps the pans from getting any dust on them because it has a door that closes. Also a large shoe bag is great for storing smaller items in each of the shoe slots.

Hi Jen, I found a few things on these websites that helped me in my very small kitchen.
This one has a wall rack for pastry bags, tips, etc.:
http://www.pastrychef.com/WALL-RACK_p_11-1037.html

There is a baking pan organizer on this one, plus a ton of other organizer things.
[/url]http://www.organize.com/kitchen.html[url]

Another idea I figured out was to put my rolling pins in a wine rack. I bought a shelving system at Lowes, and the wine rack just attaches underneath one of the shelves. Works for silpats as well if you don't mind them being rolled up.

HTH- [/url]

Love the wine rack idea!!

Thanks Jen. It's those occasional thinking outside the box moments that come in handy once in a while!

i like the cubby hole sort of idea for the boxes and boards. and the 3 drawer cabinet on wheels from walmart for the ribbon and small things like that