This week, I want to talk about simple fixes that make a big difference.
Over the holiday break, I ended up with some pockets of downtime (amongst all the holiday festivities and family gatherings) and decided to try to address some of those little annoyances and problems that crop up in every household.
Two issues, in particular, came to mind: poorly used space in two of our larger kitchen cabinets and my kids’ shoe and jacket situation.
Ineffective kitchen cabinets
Sadly, I neglected to take good “before” pictures, but there were two large lower cabinets in our kitchen that were really ineffectively set up.
This is not the cabinet’s fault, of course.
The previous owners had a secondary cooktop on the countertop above this cabinet, so the cabinet itself had been designed to accommodate the under-counter vent system and mechanics of the cooktop.
Well, this was one of the first things A. addressed when we moved into the house in early 2022.
He pulled the old cooktop and replace the existing vinyl countertop with a slab of butcherblock.
The cabinet, however, remained the same – an empty shell with no inner shelving and the false drawer fronts. There were no actual drawers or shelves inside.
Last week, however, A. randomly decided to build out some drawers and add a shelf!
OK, I may have requested the shelf, but he went above and beyond, and the difference is truly noticeable!
From the outside, it might not look like a major difference, but inside…
We had a real shortage of drawers in our kitchen before, so these drawers made it much easier to spread out and easily access kitchen utensils.
The items inside the cabinet itself didn’t change significantly. However, this sturdy, deep shelf stores my “entertaining” items – large platters, decorative chargers, a basket of linens, and disposable utensils/napkins for outdoor dining – much better than the shelf risers I had cobbled together previously.
I was also able to move the Crockpot into this cabinet given the new shelf which freed up room in another cabinet for the InstaPot Joy gifted me!
Overall, A’s efforts were greatly appreciated and I am already loving the more effective storage space.
Onto problem #2….
Storing children’s outerwear
For us, in these colder New England months, children require a fair amount of gear – gloves, hats, jackets, boots – in addition to the regular everyday clothing and shoes.
Because my three boys are perpetually covered in mud and sand, we usually stash all of our outerwear in the garage. This means that most of the time, the shoes and such come off in the garage.
It does help minimize the dirt that comes in the house somewhat, but it also means that the kids are shedding their outerwear in our frigid garage – and putting it back on when it is time to leave as well.
This means that my kids – the youngest too, for the most part – would drag their feet and complain about having to put on cold socks and shoes and jackets. (I had moved a three-drawer storage compartment out of our entryway closet a few months prior so that I could store socks right next to their shoes. This cut down on the endless trips back and forth from their room to the garage when they would repeatedly forget to go grab socks, but it also meant that even their socks were cold come winter!)
Initially, I held firm and figured they could tough it out; the outerwear warms up pretty quickly once it is on their warm bodies, after all!
But then I decided to have mercy on them. After all, I didn’t want to keep my jacket in the garage and put it on out there either!
Enter, the simple fix.
Our entryway closet is pretty spacious, and I knew it could work for the kids’ stuff; I just had avoided storing their items there because…see previous comments about dirt and sand.
I pulled out our few cleaning tools that were stored in one half of the closet….
And grabbed a shoe rack that was actually sitting outside by our basement sliders….
And mounted some Command hooks to the right of the closet door since none of the boys are tall enough to hang their jackets on the hangers – and let’s be honest, how many kids are realistically going to put their jacket on its hanger anyway?
I repurposed a few DollarTree storage baskets I had around the house (surplus from other organizational projects or that weren’t being used to their full potential) to store the socks and gloves too.
And wah la!
So far the system has worked fairly well, though there is definitely more dirt and sand in our entryway than before, and the kids often forget to put the baskets back on the shoe rack after they pull out their socks.
I’m pretty happy with this adjustment so far, but we will see if it truly stands the test of time.
Oh, I also found that the underutilized little storage table that was tucked in the closet fit the kids’ snow pants pretty well. All I had to do was hang the umbrellas and dog leash that were previously stored there.
I love simple fixes that make a big difference.
I’d love to hear your ideas! Leave a comment below.