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!!!

Oooo actually, as PP said - it is ideal for your sink stuff - to save cluttering up around the sink area - and will help protect work surface. So washing up liquid, caddy with cloths/scrubbers etc. Then just to keep everything together your day to day cleaning sprays etc underneath.

Oooo I love a good organise. Please can I come and take over your post-it note distribution play?

I inherited a rack like that- very nifty for all the clutter that would otherwise get pushed to the back of cupboards.
It's where you keep your most-used pan lid wedged at the side of chunky spice jars.
Oil and vinegar bottles on the bottom rack. And the emergency carton of long life milk.

It's all done bar the floor, and the paint on the ceiling, so thought I'd share because you've all been kind!

wolf whistle
I have eye-level oven jealousy!

That is gorgeous!

Sgt I gave fibromyalgia so the designer recommended it so I don't have to bend - little genius it's more waist level in me though as I'm nearly 6ft!

Tall bottles and spice rack type bottles. If I d it a bit of a pain tbh as the bottles wobble and little DS can get to it easily and dismantle the contents.

Do you have a TK Maxx nearby? they do these great cupboard organisers - like long thing perspex boxes with a handle on front. they make them for fridges too. So handy for storing jars/ sachets etc as it slides out easily without having to root to the back, knocking everything over (if you're anything like me)

Gorgeous, love the tiles! Id go for oils on bottom shelf, spices on top. I put pull out baskets in my cupboards so i could stuff similar stuff together. Enjoy the kitchen!

That is my dream kitchen 😍😍 it's gorgeous.

Speaking as a cleaner, if you go oils and salt etc in that thin cupboard, cut a plastic or rubber drawer liner type thing to ever so slightly bigger than the floor of it and slot it in, then when things spill or drip you can pull it out (slow so the salt doesn't all scatter to the back) to clean. Could also be useful on the very tops of all the units to catch the greasy dust.

ATruth not just yours! My two year old delights in emptying the tupperware drawer and then climbing in and grinning at me. She always makes sure to drop a container or two down the back of the drawer somehow, just to make my life more interesting when I try to close it and it just flies back at me, then have to scrape my arm and hand trying to retrieve them!

OP - your kitchen is gorgeous... very envious. I wish I had a drawer like that by my hob, instead I have the oil, salt, pepper and most used herbs/spices on the windowsill by the hob, which does not please me!

That's a gorgeous kitchen!
You have a lot more space than us but having a nook of an ancient rented kitchen has brought about some efficient tetrising.

Cupboard next to sink (or dishwasher I suppose) has plates/dishes etc. Shelf above those has glasses. Cupboard twinned to that has mugs and cups (lighter than plates to put away so further from sink, and closer to kettle.)
Drawer under sink universally for cleaning accoutrements.

Handy small narrow cupboard on ends of unit for baking things, food colouring, stick blender etc.

Pots and pans and mixing bowls in cupboard by hob, along with potato sack.
Pasta/rice/noodles and other carbs in top cupboard beside hob, along with condiments.
Snacky food (chocolate, dried fruit, biscuits) in next cupboard along, with adjoining cupboard for tins and packets.

Your kitchen is lovely!

My immediate thought when seeing your slide out drawer thing was tin foil/cling film etc. I would love to have a proper place to store them.

Oh those tiles!
We are looking at tiverton in sage (i think it's called) with those tiles!
It's great to hear such a positive story. Fabulous kitchen! Your mum would indeed love it I am sure!

Oh... and spices oils and shit gets my vote too!

I have huge kitchen envy op, it's gorgeous, I hate hate my kitchen, it's small and old and can't keep it clean properly, I can't have an extractor fan over my cooker because I have an open fire in the same area, but I'm saving up so hopefully won't be too long before I can smash it to pieces and start anew

Happy days in it op

Thank you all so much! Feel like I'm finally getting somewhere with making our house a home! Next project is a log burner in the living room - figure I'll have it done in the summer when it's more pleasant for them to be on the roof!

In my house I don't really have very good organisational skills when it comes to organizing my kitchen (but I'm moving soon so maybe this will improve) BUT one rule we do have is no food in the bottom cupboards, this is to stop small children and dogs alike from helping themselves should the opportunity allow. I actually keep my (4) dogs food, treats, bowls, toys etc in a cupboard in the top corner of my kitchen so its out of the way, safe, and I'm not tripping over everything on the floor.

I love your tiles!

We have one of those little pull out bits and I would like to use it for oils and chopping boards. What I actually use it for is cordial bottles (with the lids on very tight!)as it doesn't have a child lock on and the dc can do least damage with those!

You sound like us! We've recentaly had new kitchen and wood burner.

As for organisation, I just keep moving stuff around. It disorientates the rest of the family and keeps the buggers out of my kitchen!

I chose to have one of those narrow pull-out drawers under the kettle, near the sink - it's got 3 shelves, I've got the top one high so it's just right for mugs, then under that DD's squash bottles, biscuit tins, hot chocolate and lots of herbal teas. They're great as things don't get shoved to the back, become inaccessible and forgotten like with normal cupboards. A lot of my other low-level 'cupboard' space is big 'pan drawers' for similar reasons.