Kitchen Organization

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A long time ago I read about Julia Childs's kitchen organization ideas. She kept everything out in the open and quickly accessible.
 I love this philosophy, and since I read about I have thought that having tools at the ready is just as important as having things already chopped up before one starts cooking. It is all part of the mise en place. I have followed this model in a few different ways.

Utensils at the ready in canisters:

Glasses on racks:

Hooks for aprons and pot holders:
And that leaves us with my project for today. One of my friends once said to me when we first got engaged not to put things on our wedding registry we didn't have space to store. Well, we have already received more gifts than we really have space to store. And sure there are some great options for dining room/kitchen storage (that cost a fortune), and maybe one day we may even be able to afford one of these beautiful storage solutions. But in the meantime, I got a cheap bookshelf from Staples, and moving objects over to these opened up the space in a lot of our cabinets. I put our dish towels, napkins, and tableclothes in baskets. I brought all the beautiful Le Crueset pieces and I think their primary colors really add to the decor of the dining room.
We have room for cookbooks and magazines with recipes in them. We have room for vases and candleholders, which I think are attractive enough to be on display even when they are not being used. And besides if one day we get one of those nicer pieces of dining room, the bookcase can be used for its intended purpose to actually store books. I would just love to get one of those ceiling racks for the pots though. Ah, a girl can dream. In the meantime, Bon Appetit!

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