Cabinets vs. Wire Rack
Cabinets vs. Wire Rack
Quinn and I finally tackled one of the most nerve racking projects we have tackled yet with our house. It didn't cost us anything (for now) but will most likely in the future.
The reason we feel it is the most "nerve racking" project is because we both have never taken down cabinets or counter tops before, and visually this is a big change. They were perfectly good cabinets in quality, but just wasn't working with our lifestyle. I get really irritated if I can't find something I am looking for, and with food, we both tend to shrug our shoulders if we can't find it, and just go buy more... Through this reno, I found 2 halfway used rice cake packages, a multitude of pancake syrups THAT HAD NEVER BEEN OPENED... and a bag of hard rock marsh mellows... This NEVER happened when we used a Wire rack for our pantry.
Now this may not be the system for anyone else, especially the type of space you live in, but for us, seeing what we have easily, helps reduce unnecessary purchases. Thus the change!
Yes, what you are looking at are perfectly good cabinets with a counter top included. When we first moved in I actually really like this space, but after moving in and living in the space for a bit, I realized how totally impractical this space was being used. The cabinets and the counter top were only 12 inches deep so, not much could fit inside the cabinets. I tried food storage, then switched it up and tried pots and pans, and much more and nothing seemed to work. I was flustered and had no clue what to do to make this space useful for us.
I had finally given up when Quinn suggested we adapt back to using our wire storage rack we used in our apartment we had before we move here. We bought the rack at Costco probably a year ago for $79.99 for our apartment which didn't have hardly any space for a pantry. We took a trip to Costco and stumbled upon this beauty and thought, "YES! This will work!" We needed something that would obviously hold our food storage but was easy for us to see what we actually had in the house.
It worked fabulously for us in our apartment so when Quinn suggested it about 3 months ago, I literally thought the same thing! So we measured it then, and I got WAY to excited! I mean come on! It is OFF the floor, so our roomba can sweep underneath it! It can store our trash cans, the dog food container, their water bowl, and I can push their food bowls under it when they are done eating. ALL our big and bulky cooking appliances, the toaster oven (which we use more then the microwave these days) AND basically our whole pantry, with room to spare!
I was insistent then, that if he didn't help me soon I would figure out how to do it myself, he wasn't quite on board yet (even thought it was his idea) so I waited until I couldn't wait any longer. Three months later (after Quinn has finally gotten his sugars under control) I convinced him, on super bowl Sunday, to take the cabinets out and bring in the rack from the garage! We are both so happy with the results! I have more then enough space in the former pantry, and I have plenty of space left on the wire rack!
Not to mention this gave me an excuse to get rid of the food that had expired (which was the biggest issue we ran into with our previous set up). Our only cabinet we considered a pantry was plenty deep and tall, but there was no way to see what was in it, unless we took everything out and put it all back. I had researched options before, such as pull out cabinet aids, but every time I did, the price was outrageous to me. I mean $100 for a pull out cabinet aid... I'm sorry, I know its probably a lot of work to do all of that, but we simply have other things to spend our money on, and we needed a solution we were comfortable with now! So the de-cluttering and reorganizing made my heart happy!
Quinn being such a sweetheart, helping me get the counter tops out. These buggers were really wedged in there between the corner of the wall and the back splash.
We still have a remaining former back splash to deal with, but for now I am ignoring it until I come up with what I want to do for this wall. I am playing with the idea of doing either a stylish wallpaper or a Faux brick. I am leaning more towards the faux brick, but that will be more expensive, more work, and harder to get rid of if I don't end up liking it.
So I have decided to give this set up a few months for me to decide if I really like it. I definitely am in the process of getting organization aids (baskets and such) to make it more presentable but also to help us see what we have and don't have, so stay tuned for that, because I will be doing updates!
On the off chance I don't like it, we didn't damage the cabinets or counter top when we uninstalled them, so we could put them back if we feel we need to. So either way I see this as a big win for my sanity!!
Quinn and I finally tackled one of the most nerve racking projects we have tackled yet with our house. It didn't cost us anything (for now) but will most likely in the future.
The reason we feel it is the most "nerve racking" project is because we both have never taken down cabinets or counter tops before, and visually this is a big change. They were perfectly good cabinets in quality, but just wasn't working with our lifestyle. I get really irritated if I can't find something I am looking for, and with food, we both tend to shrug our shoulders if we can't find it, and just go buy more... Through this reno, I found 2 halfway used rice cake packages, a multitude of pancake syrups THAT HAD NEVER BEEN OPENED... and a bag of hard rock marsh mellows... This NEVER happened when we used a Wire rack for our pantry.
Now this may not be the system for anyone else, especially the type of space you live in, but for us, seeing what we have easily, helps reduce unnecessary purchases. Thus the change!
I had finally given up when Quinn suggested we adapt back to using our wire storage rack we used in our apartment we had before we move here. We bought the rack at Costco probably a year ago for $79.99 for our apartment which didn't have hardly any space for a pantry. We took a trip to Costco and stumbled upon this beauty and thought, "YES! This will work!" We needed something that would obviously hold our food storage but was easy for us to see what we actually had in the house.
I was insistent then, that if he didn't help me soon I would figure out how to do it myself, he wasn't quite on board yet (even thought it was his idea) so I waited until I couldn't wait any longer. Three months later (after Quinn has finally gotten his sugars under control) I convinced him, on super bowl Sunday, to take the cabinets out and bring in the rack from the garage! We are both so happy with the results! I have more then enough space in the former pantry, and I have plenty of space left on the wire rack!
Not to mention this gave me an excuse to get rid of the food that had expired (which was the biggest issue we ran into with our previous set up). Our only cabinet we considered a pantry was plenty deep and tall, but there was no way to see what was in it, unless we took everything out and put it all back. I had researched options before, such as pull out cabinet aids, but every time I did, the price was outrageous to me. I mean $100 for a pull out cabinet aid... I'm sorry, I know its probably a lot of work to do all of that, but we simply have other things to spend our money on, and we needed a solution we were comfortable with now! So the de-cluttering and reorganizing made my heart happy!
My dungeon of a Kitchen... This will be changing soon... Hopefully!
So much space!!
Getting the top counters done! It is already making the room feel much bigger!
We also were lucky enough to find a sweet note on one of the cabinets!
"God is good. Thanks Father! Kent, Ruby, Dave, Kurbe Hales."
Oh my heart!
(Visual Aid below)
So I have decided to give this set up a few months for me to decide if I really like it. I definitely am in the process of getting organization aids (baskets and such) to make it more presentable but also to help us see what we have and don't have, so stay tuned for that, because I will be doing updates!
On the off chance I don't like it, we didn't damage the cabinets or counter top when we uninstalled them, so we could put them back if we feel we need to. So either way I see this as a big win for my sanity!!
Either way this change has freed up the coat rack from the trashes which makes me feel like its not so cluttered. I do however think we need a small shoe rack underneath where to coats are.
Something like this...
Something small and simple, but tall enough our Roomba can get underneath it. I am all about furniture that the roomba can get under! ( having two dogs means LOTS AND LOTS of hair...)
Also I am considering getting rid of these IKEA shelves that were here before we moved in. They are nice shelves and we used them when they were up, but I don't know if they are worth it, or where I would put them now. Any ideas would be great!!
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