Baking Cupboard Organisation

Over the past couple of years, my baking cupboard organisation has fallen short. I used to bake on a weekly if not daily basis before I had children. When I was pregnant with my first, I completely went off all baked goods. Cake was disgusting and I barely baked at all. I couldn’t stand the smell (shocking, I know).

Now the children are older, I have a little more time to bake and I’m not horrified at the thought of cake.  I often have more ingredients in, and I’m trying to get back to baking more. Flats in London, though, are tiny and often the smallest rooms are the kitchens, which gives you very little space to organise with. Our baking cupboard is more a ‘baking shelf’ and until this morning, was a hot mess with half empty packets of flour and a few items that were out of date as well as several duplicates of things because I’d end up buying things twice because I wasn’t sure if I had any.

Last week, I sat down and worked out a plan for the shelf. It looked a little like this:

 

This is part of my re-organisation process. I rarely walk into a store and just pick jars or storage containers off the shelf. I need to have already measured the space, looked up containers, visualised them within the space, draw them into the space (in a little sketch like the one above) and then I make purchases. That way, I don’t have to stop mid-process and I haven’t wasted money on anything or time having to return things.

Once I had everything I needed, I cleared everything off the shelf and then gave it a thorough clean.

I then put some of the containers in just to visualise how I was going to position them.

After decanting everything into the containers and throwing away things that were out of date or ruined and putting other things where they actually belonged, I was left with this:

Here’s what I used:

Lakeland storage caddy – At £4.99 this was an absolute steal. I knew I needed something that would keep small bits and bobs together, but that was easy to pull out of the cupboard when I needed it and would also fit my very shallow cupboard without taking up too much of the width. This was perfect.

IKEA KONCENTRAT and KORKEN jars – These were also very inexpensive and they have an excellent seal, so I used the KONCENTRAT jars in two sizes to store chia seeds, flaxseed and cocoa powder. I would have loved the same jar in a taller size (straight and narrow) but the only alternative was the KORKEN jar which I was happy to get at £1.75 a jar.

OXO Good Grips POP containers – I LOVE these containers. They are a little more expensive but they have this fantastic seal when you press the little button in the middle down and to release the seal, all you have to do is pop the button up again. We had a nasty weevil infestation once and everything was ruined. I’d like to see them try get past these!  They come in a variety of sizes as well so no matter what you have to store, you should be able to find a size that is just right for your space.

I then needed to label everything and was umm-ing and aah-ing over chalkboard labels and printed labels – If you’re on my Instagram, you probably saw the poll! I ended up going with printed labels because I had some longer things to type out and they just wouldn’t fit the label properly using the chalk marker I had. I also think the size of the printed labels is perfect and doesn’t overwhelm the jars.

I am thrilled with how this turned out and even happier that I was able to get it done with a relatively small budget. I can now see everything on the shelf at any given time so making shopping lists is quicker, taking things out to bake with is quicker, and it just isn’t an eyesore anymore.

Do you have a shelf you need help with or recommendations for how to organise your space? Leave your question in the comments below – I’d love to help! I hope you enjoyed the baking cupboard organisation process and hope that you are inspired to tackle a drawer, shelf, cupboard in your own home to have it looking great and working better for you!