To ask what the ruddy hell you'd use this for? And kitchen questions.

[Welshmaenad]

So I'm about 24 hours away from the end of a kitchen fit. You'll have to forgive the stupid questions but my brain is fried from work stress and three weeks of tripping over Bags For Life full of my crockery and half eaten packs of biscuits. Usually in the same bag.

Firstly, I have this pull out thing that the nice kitchen designer put in for me, it's very snazzy, but what the fuck do people actually put in these things to be useful?? It's next to my hob, if that helps.

Secondly, and this is really boring, but how do you organise your kitchen? The layout is quite different from my skanky old one, which I never really settled with anyway as we only moved in in April last year, and it always felt really disorganised and chaotic and when I packed it up I found five packs of arborio rice. How can I be one of those streamlined, efficient tidy people I hear tell of??

Scuse the mess and plywood floor. It will look nice at some point!!!

Oils, spices, etc.

Grocery type things, tins, oil, herbs and spices

Oils, spices, Nutella! Salt and vinegar, sauces, etc

Yes oils and spices.

I agree, oil, spices, herbs and such shit.

Secret chocolate stash for when you are cooking?

Oil spices vinegar, tinned tomatoes and pulses

Nothing helpful to add but love your units and Belfast sink envy not sick btw

It's for two cucumbers

I've got chopping boards in mine

Ours is fancy crockery / stuff only needed for large dinners are at the top.of cupboards.
Pans, roasting tins etc in a low corner cupboard.
Tins and basically anything a toddler can't destroy in the last low cupboard.
Then the normal height cupboards are organised by type of foods so baking stuff / carbs / cereals / biscuits and treats / jars of sauces and boxes of toms, beans / spices, oils etc etc
It's not the best but better than no order at all.

Wine.

Agree with organisation starting with the dishwasher. Plates and glasses as near as possible to make unloading easier. Pans near the hob.

Oh, my parents have one of those on either side of the hob. As Emma said, oils, spices, herbs, salt and various seasonings that's it's nice to have close at hand when cooking.

Your new kitchen looks fab. Am v jealous of your lovely sink.

As to how I organise my kitchen. Er. I don't . I'm in a rental with a badly laid out kitchen that's always freezing, so I've given up. Cleaning stuff under the sink, stuff needing refrigeration in the fridge, frozen stuff in the freezer is about as far as it goes .

Oils spices herbs and shit.
Things like rice and pasta I have a plastic box all the packets get chucked in.
Have another for baking. '
Have a stackable one (a small veg basket thing) that holds things like packets of herbs and spices (I fill up jars), peppercorn, gravy cubes, Maggie snatchers, roasting bags - all the small things you always loose.
I also have a small cupboard between the dishwasher and the washing machine to hold powder, tabs, fabric conditioner etc.

My kitchen is something like this - closest to dishwasher are plates and bowls etc. Pans are midway between dishwasher and hob. Glasses next to fridge (water dispenser), cups next to kettle. Chopping boards and knives near each other at the bit of workgroup where I chop stuff, next to hob.

Bins unfortunately are nine million miles away at far side of kitchen which is a little annoying but otherwise is perfect for us

What to store where...

YY to plates etc nearest dishwasher. Everything is with one cupboard width of diswahers in upper cupboards apart from mugs which are over by kettle.
Upper cupboard nearest hob has foodstuffs that you use a bit then replace like oils, vinegar, mustards, spices. You want to be able to get them while you're cooking without budging.
Things like tins where you remove and don't replace, are over other side of kitchen. I have large plastic baskets in Lower cupboards (developer didn't use enough deep drawers for me) so I can pull them out to get baking stuff, flour sugar. Stops things getting lost at back

It's a bit late now as your kitchen is already in but when I had a refit I designed all my storage around what I wanted to use it for and where it was in the kitchen (as far as possible). So crockery next to dishwasher, tea and coffee next to kettle, knives next to worktop, condiments and oil next to hob etc.

Pull-out larder units great for store cupboard ingredients to help prevent stuff disappearing to the backs of units.

My mum always used to keep a piece of paper on the back of cupboard doors with the contents listed and add or cross things off as she used them. Never been that organised myself! I'd love a magic way to keep track - often find myself in the supermarket wishing I knew whether or not I need something (I often shop on-the-go).

I have one of these. Oils in the tip and chopping boards in the bottom.

Nutella! Oh, clearly we've met before!!

Thank you for the tips, I think oils etc is the way to go (why I didn't think of this I don't know!)

Plastic boxes to throw things in sounds right up my alley. Shall hit up home bargains forthwith.

Thanks for your nice words. I'm absolutely in love with it, it's everything I want (now I've left my ExH and get to choose things for myself) Both my parents have passed away recently and I am incredibly lucky that they left me the money to make such improvements to mine and the kids' new home, I think my mum in particular would have been very excited about our new kitchen

I have poundland plastic tubs (classy me), big ones. All pasta in one, all rice in another, all cake decorating things in one, all sugars in another, and so on. Keeping categories of things together definitely helps for me.

Organisation - I like cups and drink stuff near the kettle. Cutlery near crockery. Pots and pans and baby friendly stuff down low, good up high.

We got a new kitchen in September & we spent the first couple of weeks moving things around to make shore it was just right. We have cups and plates above the worktop one side of the cooker, drawers each side of the cooker, spices in the cupboard above the worktop the othe side, then measuring jugs, mixing bowls, scales, cheese grater and stuff like that in the other high cupboard. A magic corner cupboard with pull out baskets for pans under the counter before you get to the sink. And a big double larder cupboard for the 6543 packets of cereal we seem to have. Plus rice, pasta, tinned toms, baked beans and all that stuff.

With your magic slidy cupboard I think Id put chopping boards in the bottom and oil, pepper and herbs in the top, but I think I'd want them in a box or 2 so I could lift a selection out at once.

Ideally I'd have liked my herbs & spices stored standing up in the top drawer one side of the cooker but it turned out not to be as good an idea as I thought

I put everything (especially biscuits) in little plastic boxes and label the boxes. Exciting nice stuff high up, boring things like plates low down so the toddler doesn't snack on things when I'm not looking.

The good chocolate biscuits hide in a box that's mis-labelled...At the back of a corner cupboard that no one goes in..A bit like the slidey one

Cleaning stuff?