I thought I was doing good when I devoted the top of a closet to my stuff, but it seems like every time I need something, it's on the bottom and I have to pull everything out. I have a Wilton box and a converted tool box and a big cardboard box of misc items. That still leaves cake boards, turntables, rolling pins, styrofoam, separator plates, you get the idea.

I need some organizational help. Pictures would be great too.

Bev

Ah see my garage does not have cars in it, it has cake stuff in it.

Mine is anywhere and everywhere....pantry, laundry shelves, everywhere! I'm thinking about one of those Rubbermaid-type cabinets with the doors on the front.

I have 4 drawer wheeled cart next to the kitchen. So far it holds everyhting but pans.

I moved my dining table into the living room and made the dining room my "shop" I have 2 tables in there and 2 rolling carts. One plastic cart with 3 deep drawers in it.

My toolbox and my "colors" box sit on the biggest cart, along with my huge roll of saran wrap stuff, my turntable, my rolling pins.

The drawers hold cake circles, my fondant tools, imprint mats, etc, and some tool-y stuff like packing tape for my boxes and such.

My other cart is currently being used to hold stuff I need during the current project but I want out of my way on the table. The bottom 2 shelves hold some cake decorating books and a few dummies.

Under one table I keep all my food containers, like buckets of fondant, and containers of sugar, flour, baking powder, pan grease, etc.

I plan on making the other "under table" area my "pan" place. I have all my pans in a huge blue lidded tote, and I'm going to have my DH bring it upstairs and put it under the table. I think. I'm still working that out.

I moved my dining table into the living room and made the dining room my "shop" I have 2 tables in there and 2 rolling carts. One plastic cart with 3 deep drawers in it.

My toolbox and my "colors" box sit on the biggest cart, along with my huge roll of saran wrap stuff, my turntable, my rolling pins.

The drawers hold cake circles, my fondant tools, imprint mats, etc, and some tool-y stuff like packing tape for my boxes and such.

My other cart is currently being used to hold stuff I need during the current project but I want out of my way on the table. The bottom 2 shelves hold some cake decorating books and a few dummies.

Under one table I keep all my food containers, like buckets of fondant, and containers of sugar, flour, baking powder, pan grease, etc.

I plan on making the other "under table" area my "pan" place. I have all my pans in a huge blue lidded tote, and I'm going to have my DH bring it upstairs and put it under the table. I think. I'm still working that out.

My absolutely wonderful hubby convered a little used walk in hall closet into a cake supply closet for me. It now has wall to wall shelves and holds all of my stuff, including all of my many many pans.

I just love that man

I do cakes and cookies.

I keep all my cookie cutters in 4-5 ft tall rolling carts that are stored under my stairs. There is a small closet area that and I use it to store these carts. I bought them at walmart.

I also store my tubs of Satin Ice in there. I keep all my tips in a nail box/tool box plastic storage thing on my counter.

I keep all my small bottles of Americolor in small plactic drawers on my counter. I have EVERYTHING labeled.

I have a scrapbook room and that is where I store all my boxes.

All my pans, round and square are in the bottom of my pantry.

Last year for my birthday my hubby and parents gave me a Stanley brand tool cabinet. It's meant for the garage and men's tools, but I love it. It has three shelves and four pocket shelves for the doors. I put three of the shelves relatively from the top half up. Then I bought a rubbermaid dresser with three drawers and put that in the bottom half. Drawer dividers went in the top two drawers and on top of the dresser and viola, I've got storage.

Most of my cake pans and gumpaste stuff go on the top three shelves. The top of the dresser holds tips, couplers, paint brushes and gloves. The top drawer holds colorings and sprinkles. Middle drawer holds cookie bags, sticks, and various sundries. The bottom drawer holds all of my candy melts. The pocket shelves hold icing bags, decorating books/instructions, and stencils. My very large pans, box of freezer paper, turntable, and large fondant roller all fit on the very top of the unit.

The best part is if I wanted to, I could arrange a whole work place with this stuff. They have different units that all connect and interlock, including some table top areas that are covered with stainless steel. It came from Home Depot and was around $100, I think.

Dawn

mine is in the kitchen cab's, and in the cab. in the hallway that we purchased from a second hand habitat for humanity store. I don't know if anyone else has any of these stores but they are great. You can go purchase other items that people have purchased and can not use or have pulled out of the house they are remodeling and are still in good condition. The proceeds go to benefit the habitat for humanity houses.
I purchased a 2 door oak wood floor cab. there and then went to lowes and purchased a piece of basic counter top to go on it which than gave me additonal working space as well. i think it cost 35.00 for the cab. and 25.00 for the counter top. Now when we move the whole thing comes with us.

I had enough room in my kitchen to put a 6 ft table in one corner and then I hung several shelves above it, which holds almost everything.

In EVERY nook and crany I can use - LOL!

Jen

In EVERY nook and crany I can use - LOL!

Jen

The title should read more like: Where DON'T you keep your decorating tools?!

when we built our house, there was an inlaw/nanny suite located behind the kitchen. We had the builder make some mods to it, and it is my bakery room. We had one of the closets made into a sink area, where I have a large commerical double sink, and the other closet was kept as a closet, but no rod, just shelving. It had a door to a adjoining bathroom and we had the door not put in (it is framed behind the wall incase we ever want to put the door in) and instead the door leads into the hallway, so I have a bath right off the room still. There is also a linen closet in that hallway that is all shelves that I use for dry ingrediant storage and fondant storage. (not allowed to mix my stuff with family stuff according to the rules) Anyway, as far as storage ideas! One one wall, I have a number of these hanging wire shelves that Ikea sells in their kitchen area. I have on them the bottles and bottles of americolors and other stuff. I also have my lorain oils and squeeze bottles of extracts (I buy them by the gallon and put them in the squeeze bottles) On the other wall I have those garage organizer thingies, you know, with the drawers? They have labels on them and are full of tips. I have a large one that is full of the smaller cutters, and other misc things like tape and such. I also have a craftsman toolbox that has all my larger cutters, my tapids, my rolling pins, knifes, icing knives, spaculas, my matts, and such. In the closet I keep my pans (I have probably about 200 pans) and way up high in the closet are plastic shoe boxes full of cookie cutters and cupcake papers and stuff like that. All my not often used pans, odd shaped and such, are way up high in the closet in the hallway. I have three stainless steel tables and they too have shelves underneithg, that hold bins for flour, sugar, hi ratio shortening, and powdered sugar, another table has nothing but fondant and gum paste that I have already mixed and ready for use, with the labels of colors and such, and the other table, which holds my three kitchen aids has all the bowls and such for it. I also have a wooden table for working on that has my rolling mats hanging along next to it (on a towel rack) that i use for making gum paste flowers and such, and it has a rolling plastic walmart buy that has drawers of dust, small colors, and brushes.

*phew*. I hope you can get some ideas from there. Even with al lthat, I have a guest room upstairs that is full of shelving that houses all my SPS plates, my boxes and my drums!

Speaking of organized, I bought one of the those hairdresser traveling bags, that has drawers in it, is on rollers and has a handle like a suitcase. I put in it a couple of icing spaculas, some crisco, all my emergency kit stuff. even some straws that I can cut incase I have a heavy cake topper at the site, and couplers and tips and everything i need. I just have to pack up buttercream when I leave for deliveries. Even has a camera in there, a level, lets see, even my GPS! haha!

Ok, don't laugh, but I actually have a very large and I do mean large Craftsman double stacked (6 feet!!) rolling tool box/cabinet in my kitchen. It is at least color coordinated with the decor in my kitchen in a beautiful vibrant RED!! It is quite awesome for storage actually. The smaller/shallow drawers are perfect for tools, cutters, impression mats etc. and the deeper/bigger drawers hold colors, rolling pins etc. And the very bottom of cabinet is a door holds my larger buckets of fondants and icing stuff.
Unfortunately the pan storage is a whole other problem in itself!! Right now they seem to go a little of everywhere I have room!! Someday when I win the lottery (yeah right, I think you have to play to win!) the first thing I would do would be a major kitchen remodel geared around my growing cake obsession!

I have two sets of rolling drawers that I keep in our breezeway (what was probably an open (outdoor) porch at one point, but is now a "room" between my house and the apartment over the garage. This breezeway also houses my pantry (wooden shelving units) and my washer and dryer. I also have a large box from a computer printer and two large plastic tubs.

Since I'm still having difficulty staying organized (DH keeps piling things in front of my drawers so I can't see the labels I put on them or even open the drawers!! ) we'll be moving all my baking stuff into the apartment. I just have to finish emptying the furniture (had done it before, but for the holidays DH "cleaned up" by throwing everying thing into the empty dresser) and donating all my mom's dishes and stuff in the cabinets. That's the part I'm dreading - wrapping dishes - or else this would've been done already.

We have a bar dividing our kitchen from our dining room. We don't sit at it, so I have the rolling plastic drawers under the bar that keeps everything except my pans. I also put a small bookshelf under there that holds my tupperware cake takers and my turntables. For the pans that I use often, I have 2 large rubbermaid bins that I keep in our office, and for the pans that I don't use often, I bought 4 under-the-bed rolling bins. They stay under our bed and roll out easily if I need them.

i have shelves in the kitchen and shelves in the pantry that I use. it seems to be generally organized as I know where to find what i'm looking for. but then again i'm just getting started and don't have the volume of stuff that a lot of people here have

i have a bakers rack that holds alot of my stuff..square pans, round pans, all my hearts...and 3D molds, it holds all of fondant, frosting, powdered sugar and i put all my boxes that carry my kits for set up on that as well....i have all my molded pans hanging in the dinning room....two walls fully covered...my daughters baby dresser is now in the dinning room full of all my colors...wires, airbrush colors etc...it seems the more organized i get the more stuff i get and the more space i need!!!! oh yea and even though i try to keep my stuff separate....i still have a couple of shelves in the pantry that i have taken over!!!! i am in san fransisco right now visiting my sister....and believe it or not....they have given me a drawer in their kitchen for baking stuff when i come over!!! hahahahhahahaha

I have a porch off my kitchen that we never use with wall to wall stacked shelving, a few hooks, etc... When I started doing some decorating I would pile my pans up in there but I have since removed everything non-cake and have all my stuff in there! It's perfect!

i've got one of those rubbermaid 6 ft tall 2 door cabinet thingys.. it has 4 shelves, and ALMOST enough room for all my cake stuff pans on top, pans on shelves, mixer and cake mixes on the bottom, i usually store my colors and dusts, etc in a cake pan size i rarely use.. and everything else (levelers, board wrap, cake boards, stands, etc crammed in everywhere else it will fit!

I bought one of those large white cabinets from Lowes ( the largest size I can find) it sits in the garage. Has four shelves - top one is for novelty/holiday cake pans. Shelf two round, square and mini cake stuff. Third shelf holds cookie cutters, cookie molds, cookies bags, ties, etc. Bottom shelf hold most of my cake board, abay cake cutter and a few other things.

In my kitchen above my fridge - airbrush, colors, gumpaste cutters, mats, filling and a few other things. All my cake decorating books are in my hall closet second shelf ready for my to get too.

My husband got me this for Mother's Day and even installed a counter top on it!!! Its awesome! I use it all the time and its full! I purchased some small baskets from walmart so that I could organize my tips/colors/whatnot..in the top drawer. It fits my large fondant roller perfectly and it has deep drawers for the larger items that I have!

Brenda, I love it! Can you lock the wheels so you can knead fondant on it? What a great idea.

I'll definitely get some of those white rubbermaid storage drawer thingys. How simple!

Thanks for the ideas everyone!

Beverly

Yes the wheels lock up, its rather large, I purchased a huge piece of vinyl at walmart to do my fondant work on. It was the best gift I ever got, lol. My husband said he felt foolish going to Home Depot (or Lowes...not sure) to tell them he needed a tool box for his wife for Mother's day...they were like, sure you do....lol.

I have an "office" that my husband set up in our basement. It has cupboards, a refrigerator, a large table and chairs, as well as a desk area. I've got plenty of room for all of my "stuff" and I can now shut and lock the door so no one touches a work in progress.

My mom had an old "hoosier" cabinet (I think that's what it's called) in her kitchen that she couldn't move w/her into their new house; so she asked if I wanted it. I made a place for it in my kitchen & it's crammed full of cake stuff & even has cake stuff piled on the top of it.

It works okay for now, but I can tell it won't work for much longer, unless I add on to it.

I made my pan storage out of the wire cubes. I made different height shelves by attaching extra squares inside the cube with zip-ties at each corner. All the small supplies seem to fit into drawers and othe small spaces but pans take up so much room and I always needed one that was burried deep in the pile! This method really helps to see each set of pans (it's really messy in this pic - been too busy to straighten it!) and it's pretty inexpensive too. The picture doesn't show it but there are 12 shelves is about 5 feet tall and fits inside a storage cabinet from the hardware store.