Hello! Today we’ll be continuing our kitchen tidying series. Part 4 is dedicated to dishes - both dishes you use to prepare and serve food and those you eat from. If you’ve seen pictures of our kitchen, you know we have open shelving above our counters. We took our upper cabinets down a while back because they were basically empty after KonMari-ing, and they were so dark it made the kitchen seem small. Plus the top shelves were impossible to reach without using a stool or jumping up on the counter. I know open shelves aren’t for everyone, but they spark joy for me!

After seeing some examples of live-edge shelves on Pinterest (my husband’s worst enemy), I fell in love with the look. I got Jeff to agree to taking down one cabinet on Mother’s Day. He’s so funny. He said, “Just so you know, I’m not taking down all the cabinets today.” Did you notice how I asked him to do it on Mother’s Day? All the cabinets came down that day.

We painted the walls, and are still working on finishing up the trim. Someday we’ll probably get a new oven hood, but until then, I just painted the cabinet that houses the current one white and have my cookbooks stored in it.

We drove about 2 hours out into the country to a place I saw on Craigslist that had huge stacks of live edge wood for sale. We got to pick the piece we wanted and the kind people there sawed it in half for us. At home Jeff cut it in half lengthwise and basically did all the rest of the hard work too. I’m the idea person, he executes. I think it’s a great division of labor. He sanded and stained them, spray-painted brackets, then hung them up for me. I just love them. I think they’re organic looking and they remind me of the outdoors. The kitchen looks like a totally different place. We ended up giving the old cabinets to my brother-in-law and he hung them in his laundry room, which made us both happy. Recycle, reuse, baby! 

Since we’ve made this change, we have to be strategic about what we keep on the shelves so they don’t look messy. And you’ll notice I don’t have different sized things stacked on each other. I don’t like having to move things to get to other things.

It’s taken a while to figure out what to display and what to put away in the lower cabinets. We generally keep things that are useful but not as lovely in the cabinets. We have some things that are meaningful interspersed among the things we use everyday, like this bowl my dad used for cereal when he was a little boy.

Carly made this botanical art piece, and we found a smiling whale we thought was cute when we saw it at the store.

Our regular plates and bowls are on a turntable, and our serving bowls are on pull out drawers. Our baking dishes are on another drawer, and our cookie sheets and muffin tins are stored vertically above the fridge. Pots and pans are on another pull out shelf that makes good use of a corner cabinet. 

Y’all, I’m so thankful the previous owners remodeled the kitchen and left me all the storage systems they did. If you don’t have much space, or are limited as far as what you can do to your existing cabinets, use your imagination to do the best you can. Remember, just because you’ve stored something in a certain place since you moved in doesn’t mean you can’t experiment with something new. I think after 9 years in this house, we’re pretty settled on where we like things, but who knows, we may change it tomorrow if it sparks joy!

Happy Tidying!

Sue Fehlberg is Arkansas’ only Certified KonMari Consultant