Please help me with some storage ideas. I live in a less than 1000 sq. ft. apartment and the more decorating supplies I buy the smaller my kitchen gets Plus, I hate clutter!!! I purchased some storage bins but now they are in my livingroom I seem to just keep moving things around and they have yet to find a permanent home. What do y'all do?

Lazy_Susan

I'm lucky enough to have a space in my basement storage/laundry room where I have a shelving unit with everything organized into plastic boxes that are labeled with the contents. It helps tremendously.

And even though my kitchen isn't small, I don't have enough room for all my pans, so I keep those in a very large Rubbermaid bin that I keep next to the shelves.

This hobby sure takes up a lot of room! And there are tons of things I'd like to add to my collection!

Bought a bigger house..

I am the wrong one to give advice! lol...I bought some of those three tier rolling storage bins, that way I can move, stack on top, label and move the drawers around, not too much help for most of the big cakes pans though.

Some people here have purchased (or appropriated from a spouse) those metal tool chests, which are mostly on wheels as well.

Count me among the others who have cake stuff stored outside the kitchen. One of my favorite places is under the bed!

Under the bed, what a great idea! Never thought of that one...evil mind at work here...good thing we have a bed skirt...

Do you have room for a cabinet, the kind with a two doors and shelves? I have two of them in my kitchen. I have baskets that I stand candy molds in and can put the cookie molds in. I have some bins with handles that hold bags, candy melts, tools and that kind of stuff. They aren't the most decorative pieces of furniture but you can get them in wood finishes and they are wonderful, you could put them in any room really and you don't have to dig and can see everything. They were my MIL's idea, she's really good at storage ideas and I was running out of space. I have baskets on top that have mini pans in them and I stand 3d pans on top.

i also live in about 1000 sq feet and am cluttered.

Here is what i did: Went to the Container Store, bought that Elfa kitchen storage wall shelving unit thing (put up all by myself) and put all my pans and molds and pans and mixing bowls and pans and tools and pans on it. Holds up really well. They can accomodate any space - just measure your "blankest" wall and go in there. You can do it online too, I believe. It saved my life. Mind you, I grab my ladder to get the pans I use least from up on the tippy-top shelf, but I hide the ladder behind the door. LOL.

hmm...no help here either...kitchen full, now working on dining room (one corner down and counting)

I have a smaller home, too. That, and the fact that I have a two year old and a four year old prompted my recent decision to quit baking cakes as a side business. My husband is a bit of a neat freak and couldn't stand the chaos.

I have room in my dining are to create what I would like to call a work space. I was wanting a nice piece of furniture like an antique Baker's Rack or something such as that. Do y'all have any pics of the storage spaces you have made?

Thanks for all the advice and the starting of this forum topic.
I was looking at my clutter aka cake decorating tools and was thinking of posting this very question on the forum looks like you beat me to it.

Well its off to Walmart to buy storage bins for under my bed.
As an added bonus my husband will never know when Ive added to my "hobby" (all consuming passion).

Tamara

I had my hubby add me a walkin pantry he made it double the size that i requested. So that I would burden him again, he we are less than 1 year later and its full.....Im talking supper full........I keep everything in small rubbermaid containers so that its together and easy to find but the more room i have the more things i find to buy. So i guess Im warning you if you find extra room im sure youll find something to fill it with

Jejejejeje I use the bed Idea too, and the trunk of my car for a couple of weeks, to hide it from my dh, so he doesnt make any comments about how often and how many cake stuff Im getting...

Unfortunately my dogs sleep underneath my bed and they eat everything in sight!!! So the under the bed thing is not going to work for me

I have a small kitchen too, there never seems to be enough room! As it is we have to store our loaves of bread and other things in a big bowl on top of the fridge cuz its the only room we have

I was getting sick of not being able to find any of my things quickly and I went and bought a basic tool box from Home Depot (they are almost the same as the "tool caddies" that wilton and other companies sell without the big price tag!). I store all my small things in there, like my tips, colourings, parchment cirlces etc.

We moved in here about 7 months ago and they already had hooks under the cabinets, and it holds all my glass liquid meausuring cups. My spatulas and plasic spoons are in a white ceramic vase type container (it was a utensil set) on the counter. I finally got my basic dry ingredients (sugar, flower, brown sugar) into canisters and they are on my counter. I'm only 5'3 and hate having to get a chair to reach things I often need! I have so many pans, they are stashed all over the kitchen.

The storage drawer of the oven is so full of pans that it keeps coming off its rollers, and its a freaking $%^# to get back on!! As I speak its sitting there half off the hinge, but I would have to take out every pan to put it back on. So I have to find somewhere in the kitchen to put at least some of them. The people who lived here before us left a dresser, after reading this I'm thinking of refinishing it and bring it up into the dining area which we rarely use I plan on getting more pans too...guess I better figure out where the devil I would put them!

I feel your pain about being short. I am only 5'1" and my hubby likes to put things on the top shelves (He's 6' tall). This is where my gymnastic abilities really pay off. I don't have a step stool so I have to climb on the counters to reach things.
I have also utilized the space under my stove (you know...that little drawer). But it is now full. I don't have any canisters for flour and sugar. That would be very helpful. I think I may go shopping for a nice set this weekend. That will free up some cabinet space for me.

I live in a small apt. also so I took tacks and put as many of my cake pans
on my kitchen walls as i could get to fit up there and its kind of cute and gave me space of other items

My kitchen is very small too. My condo is almost 1100 sq. ft. so you can imagine I have a smallllll kitchen. I'm glad I came here. I like the bed tip. That's about the only other place where there's room. So I take it alot of you keep your cake supplies totally separate from everything else?

ladies it looks like we are all in the same boat!! I hate my kitchen ... everytime I have to use something I have to get on the floor take everything out of the cabinet to get stuff out ......I wish I had a lazy susan .... I hold back from buying more stuff just because I don't know where to put it.... but reading the posts made me think of something .. I'm going to buy some kind of storage system on wheels ..that way when I'm not using it I can just roll it into the garage .... I keep most of my stuff in a beach bag because I decorate with a friend at her house and I'm still taking classes ..... the large beach bag is convenient ..whenever I need it to dissapear, I just throw it in the closet and voila!!! no one would ever know I'm a storage challenged individual

As soon as I get home from work (day job), I am going to take a photo of my cake decorating wall. LOL. It's funny. Ceiling to floor! We should totally post our pics - maybe we can get ideas from each other since we all seem to live in about 1000 sq feet!

Oh - I store those HUGE, CUMBERSOME cake plateaus under the last shelf of my storage rack. It makes it hard for the person to get in and out of that kitchen chair, but, those things don't fit anywhere else.