Storage 101: Blind Corners

This is the first part of my 4 part series. To read the backstory on how we started reorganizing around our house, click here.

We have two blind corner cabinets in our house. We never used them efficiently from the start, but we never really had a reason to need to. Until we did.

For those of you who aren't familiar with blind corner cabinets, they are cabinets with a "blind" corner. Essentially, it's a cabinet, but then either to the left or the right, there is extra room but unaccessible straight from the cabinet door. If you're a visual person, I've created a nice diagram. 

This is exactly like one of our blind corner cabinets. The blind portion is almost exactly the same size as the area straight ahead of the cabinet door. So we were really losing out on half of the space of the cabinet by not using it properly.

In 2020, we gained lots of small kitchen appliances and kitchen gadgets as well as upgrading some to nicer/more permanent options.

1. We got an immersion blender, and to be exact, it was winter 2019 when we received it. It had no permanent home in our kitchen so it sat in the box on top of the refrigerator next to other miscellaneous items with no permanent home for almost a year. Using it was pretty precarious and we caused a few avalanches.

2. We bought an electric griddle. This griddle is advertised to store vertically in a slim space. However, the cabinets in our kitchen came with a shelf in the middle to create two tiers so this was impossible for us. The griddle is 15"x19"but none of our cabinets have a 15" height clearance. We attempted tucking it into the space between our cabinet and our refrigerator, but this caused more problems because we didn't want the kids to find it or it to scratch against anything. So we were forced to find a place to store it flat.

3. We upgraded our colanders. We had a set of three with stainless steel mesh, but over time, I realized stainless steel mesh was not my preference. We bought another set with perforated stainless steel which we absolutely love. I'm not going to get into the differences between the two here, but if you don't know the difference and you're curious, google them or send me a message and I'll tell you all about them! We didn't get rid of our old ones because sometimes I need more than one strainer in a large or small size, so it helps to have multiples. 

4. We got a kitchen scale. I. Never. Knew. How. Much. I. Needed. One. These things are amazing. I can weigh my baby food in exact portions. I can measure breastmilk and use a bottle without measurements on the side. (1 ml = 1 g) I know exactly how much my meat weighs when I vacuum seal it to freeze. I can double check the accuracy of weights from grocery delivery services. And I haven't even mentioned that I can bake with extreme accuracy! Can you tell how much I love this kitchen scale? And it was a gift!

We were able to store all of this in the existing space in our kitchen cabinets AND make everything more accessible. How did we do it?

We installed blind corner shelves in one of our blind corner cabinets.

I've looked these up for years. We looked into Shelf Genie. I googled different types. I looked up DIY videos and how-tos to get ideas for what people did with a tight budget. Nothing seemed to fit what I wanted to do so we put it off for a long time. Then back in 2020, when all this organization began, I decided it was time to purchase blind corner shelves and install them for my birthday present. 

This is the model we purchased. They're manufactured by Rev-a-Shelf.

Before buying them, I did a lot of homework, the main thing being measuring. We measured everything. I measured cabinet heights, cabinet lengths, cabinet depths, small appliance heights, pot heights, cutting boards, baking dishes. I measured a lot. Why? Because installing these shelves would involve rearranging pretty much every lower cabinet in our kitchen. 

And they're not cheap. 

There was one thing I couldn't measure and had to take a gamble on after purchasing and that was the space I would lose due to installation. Because this shelf rolls in and out on a track, it needs a few inches of height for installation. Nothing I read online in product descriptions stated this important piece of information. Our cabinets had double shelves so it was extra crucial this would work. 

So I gambled.

After they arrived, that was the first thing I did. I set up the track on the kitchen floor for a mock install, had my husband hold the shelf in place on the track because nothing was secured, and measured the height I would lose from the track installation: 4". 

4" is huge in the construction world. In this case, it meant my original storage plan of what I was intending to store on these shelves had to be scrapped and redone. Otherwise, we were going to be returning the most expensive birthday present of my life. 

So we went with plan B. And it actually worked out better than I thought it would have. We managed to rearrange all of our things, store the four extra kitchen purchases in our existing space, and make everything more efficient. 

We were so pleased with the way this turned out, and using these shelves is actually a lot of fun. The gliding is extremely smooth, and it really does live up to its name: "The Cloud." 

Now, you may be wondering how this can be more efficient since the shape of the cabinet is a perfect rectangle, and the shelf resembles nothing like a rectangle, which means you are losing out on square footage of storage. This was my conundrum for a long time which is why it took me so long to make the purchase. 

The answer is twofold. Yes, you are losing out on square footage because storing items directly into the cabinet and packing it in like tetris is the "best" way to use the most space. No, you are not losing out on efficiency because I can locate items located in the very back of the cabinet on this sliding shelf and take it out without displacing any other items in 10 seconds or less. This is impossible if I had crammed everything in like tetris: I would be left unpacking the entire cabinet to locate something in the very inside. Their design is the most efficient at maximizing the storage and maintaining maximum efficiency in an effortless way. 

My blind corner no longer disappoints me, but instead, brings me joy when I slide the shelf in and out.

When we have more time to complete DIY projects again, we can attempt the other one. I have an idea in my head, but it's not perfected. Anyone want to help bring my idea to life?  😀

Next time: The Pantry

Storage 101: The Catalyst

Spending an increased number of hours at home this last year made me realize how dissatisfied I was with a lot of our storage and organization solutions. We've made do for the last 5.5 years in our house, but this past year was a big breaking point for us because so much of our time was spent inside at home, so it unkindly revealed parts of our storage that were not working. 

Now to understand me, you have to realize, I grew up "wrong" in a way when it came to storage and organization. My mentality up until about....last year was paying for bins, drawers, containers to store your stuff was "wasted" money. It was always seen as more useful to spend the money on actual items of use instead of something to organize the items. Sure, we bought shelves and drawers to organize, but that was where it ended: shelves and drawers. What we needed to learn was how to organize the actual shelf or drawer.

Which leads me to two of the big names in storage and organization: Marie Kondo and The Home Edit.

In 2019, we watched Marie Kondo's series on Netflix Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. It was entertaining to watch and resulted in us refolding all of our T-shirts to stand up. That didn't last and my t-shirts reverted back to the old way I'd been folding them for the last 15 years. In 2020, we watched The Home Edit. I was again inspired to reorganize after watching their techniques. My home reorganization has been a blend of both techniques and mentalities. 

Fun fact: Marie teaches her kids how to be tidy and keep things neat. I aspire to do that, too.

What I took from Marie Kondo:

- Sparking joy: There's a lot to be said about this mentality. I'm not going to get into the spiritual details she includes in her cleaning mantra as I don't agree with them entirely. However, I do agree that there is a sense of joy that comes from a well-organized space. Clean lines and organized containers which are visually appealing bring a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment when the contents are used. 

What I did not take from Marie Kondo:

- A lot of her folding methods to organizing clothes/sheets/towels involve folding on a flat surface. This is hardly possible for me because I don't have a flat surface to fold my clothes. Half the time, I'm folding laundry while my kids are playing. This means I have whatever sofa space is not covered by toys and books. I don't fold clothes on the floor because 110% of the time my floor is not clean enough for me to want to fold clean laundry on it. Therefore, I will pretty much never use her folding methods. Even as a short person, I fold everything standing up.  

I never understood how "house goals" could be a thing until I watched this series. 

What I took from The Home Edit:

- Using clear storage bins you can see through is extremely valuable despite the cost. The mantra "out of sight out of mind" is very true. We do not think about the things we cannot see and those are the items most often overlooked when it comes to storage. Think about your pantry or food storage. Chances are, the things you can't see are the items which expire and go bad. 

- Organization has to suit the daily needs. Frequented items need to be easily accessible. Just because you have 50 cubic feet of pantry space does not mean you can use the whole space because nothing located in the back will be easily accessible if you stack the front all the way up.

What I did not take from The Home Edit:

- Color coding items. They organized books and board games by color. This does not speak to me at all as a person. Does it look cool? Yes, yes it does. Is it functional for what I want when I organize books or board games? No, sorry.

- Labeling: I don’t label my bins. Being clear already, I can see what’s inside and know what the intended category was when I created it. Even if it’s not clear, I can tell what was intended to go into it to begin with. 

Why We Did It:

1. Being inside all the time meant little bits of disorganization and mess left us very unsatisfied and annoyed.

2. It was the cheaper option to maximizing space. We're not moving anytime soon. We're not undertaking any remodeling additions or layout changes.

3. We have the means to. I know not everyone does, and believe me, we've been there and done that when we reused old boxes and cardboard containers to create space dividers and organizers. I actually still do in small amounts. There's nothing wrong with creating DIY organizers. Does it look as nice? No, it doesn't. Does it save a lot of money? Yes. If that's where you are in your life stage, there's nothing wrong with organizing with what you have. 

The Spaces we Organized:

- Kitchen Cabinets

- Pantry

- Master Bathroom Drawers

- Master Closet

- Hall Bathroom Drawers

Follow along as I unpack the spaces we organized and how we did it. 

Part 1: Blind Corners