Do you ever feel like your kitchen is overcrowded and messy? Read more to learn How To Organize a Kitchen and to get some super helpful tips!
This is just a small portion of my kitchen tools, decorating supplies, and fun food making stuff.
To say I have a lot is really an understatement.
So, when Toni from Make, Bake, Celebrate and Betsy from Java Cupcake asked me to join in on The Great Baking Closet Clean Out Giveaway, I couldn't say "no."Seven fun food bloggers have cleaned out their closets, will show how they organized all their kitchen gadgets and decorating supplies, and are giving away some excess supplies on their blogs.
As a group we are hosting a Grand Prize Giveaway and one lucky winner gets $250 in gift cards.
I'm giving away a Mystery Box Filled with Kitchen Stuff too.
I don't have before and after pictures to show you as I have always kept my supplies really well organized. For those of you who don't know my story, I've owned two retail confectionery stores. My first was quite successful and I was able to sell it when I decided to relocate from Kentucky to Ohio. I opened my second store, Candy Garen, in my hometown of Centerville and was happily running my business when I got sick.
After six painful months, through three major holidays, struggling to get through the day, I decided it was too much, and promoted one of my employees to manage the store so I could take some time off. The first weekend I left her alone, she didn't even show up and I never saw her again.
In that moment I made the tough decision to close the shop, but didn't want to give up my business so I moved it home. At the time we lived in a small house and working from our tiny kitchen was tough.
When my health returned, we moved into a new house and I transformed the morning room, right off the main kitchen, into my Candy Garden Room. I love my space.
I work at three stainless steel tables when making my chocolate. I have space for two chocolate tempering machines that each hold 50 pounds of melted chocolate, as well as, ingredients and supplies.
There's even enough space for a full-size refrigerator and my rack of baking pans.
At the holidays all of those pans can be filled with chocolate bark or popcorn in one day.
I store most of my ingredients in Rubbermaid and Tupperware containers. I need tight fitting containers to keep everything fresh and I love that these stack so nicely.
My stainless steel tables have one shelf so I used a few pieces of shelving from a garden greenhouse that I was no longer using to create another shelf to make my ingredients more accessible.
These tables are pretty deep. Behind the tubs pictured above are 50-pound cases of dark, milk and white chocolate.A few years ago, when I was selling a lot of chocolates to companies to use as holiday gifts, I would have as much as 700 pounds of chocolate in my house at one time. Crazy, I know!
When I started blogging, I began using a lot more tools like small cutters, clay extruders, alphabet stamps and more and found shallow drawers were great for storing the small pieces.
Fortunately, my kitchen is huge. It was the main priority when we built this house.
I have so many drawers and cupboards and they are packed full.I love seeing my clean kitchen. Believe me, it hardly everĀ never looks like this.
You may be laughing at all those measuring cups and spoons, but I hate to clean dishes while I'm working. My dishwasher is my best friend. So while I'm on a crazy baking spree, this drawer can be half empty.
I use kitchen drawer organizers to keep everything in its place.
Have you ever seen so many scoops? I love having a variety of sizes and use them all.
This drawer is organized with those plastic shoe boxes. They are an inexpensive storage solution.
My kitchen gadget drawer has lots of plastic organizing trays.
I know exactly where everything is in this drawer including some of my favorite kitchen tools.
When people come into my kitchen for the first time, they are amazed by the number of spatulas I own.
See them all on top of shelf? I counted 17 metal spatulas and 22 rubber spatulas. There are days when every single one is coated in chocolate and in my sink.
This cupboard used to be nicely organized, with plenty of wiggle room. Since I began blogging, I have purchased lots of baking pans and silicone molds.
What you can't see is that all of this stuff is two deep, so double the number of molds and pans you are seeing. Thankfully most things stack nicely.
This isn't even all of my pans. I have two drawers and a lazy Susan cupboard full of them too.
In addition to storage in my main kitchen and candy kitchen, I have two large cabinets in my laundry room filled with more Rubbermaid containers and boxes.
Everything has its place. If it didn't I'd spend my days looking for supplies instead of getting any work done.
I have a storage room in my basement too. The room is the same size as my candy kitchen. It houses my 1000Ā + candy molds which are stored in file draws. It's a great way to organize them.
You'd think that was all the stuff I have but this room is also filled with shipping boxes, tins, baskets, and all sorts of packaging materials.Whew, that is a lot, isn't it?
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Maylin Rodriguez
I love making cupcakes and cookies for birthday party. I love my family very much and my small cakes make them happy. I also like experimenting with new recipes. š
Michelle Cruz
Awesome kitchen!! I love baking anything and everything but my favorites are cookies and cupcakes (I am a huge cookie monster!) Even more than baking and eating, I love decorating for all occasions but my favorite holiday is definitely Halloween!! That's actually why I found and started following you š
Michelle Cruz
Awesome kitchen!! I love baking anything and everything, but my favorites are cookies and cupcakes (I'm a huge cookie monster fan)! I love decorating almost as much as baking and my favorite holiday to bake and decorate for is Halloween! That's why I started following you actually š
mlaiuppa
What I like to make depends on the time of year.
Around Easter I love to make chocolates. I have several bunny and egg molds and am now experimenting with powders.
At Christmas it is cookie time! I roll and cut. None of that drop stuff for me. Next year I think I'll be working more with my snowflake cutters of various sizes. I want to do iced cookies with piped lines; no sprinkles.
Fourth of July and Thanksgiving it's pies and Halloween and Valentine's it's cupcakes.
I love my dog (and all of the dogs of family and friends) so I will make home-made dog cookies at Christmas for little treat bags. I make small ones for the occasional cat and the cats don't seem to mind at all.
Right now I have my eye on a rolling pin that will print little dogs all across my rolled out cookie dough before I cut the cookies. I so want that pin! And I will have it before next Christmas. I know just where to get it.
Pat Blazejewski
Hello. I must say I love the kitchen & your awesome work area. Since following you I have acquired a lot of baking supplies and happily so. I love to make different things, but i enjoy baking cakes and cupcakes for special events, holidays and family gatherings. I have made several of your edible crafts which always gets high praise. Please enter my name in your contest, would love to add to my collection of gadgets. Thank you.
Anonymous
Halloween is my favorite holiday(and how I found your blog lol) I'd love to do a big snack spread for next year!
spgoddess55(at)msn(dot)com
Sweet Lucy
I love to bake cakes and make candies. Specifically, I create a lot of varying types of truffles for friends and family. Especially for Thank-You gifts. My daughter plays hockey year-round on several leagues . . .and that involves a lot of carpooling favors and lots of thank-yous to her coaches!
j likkuna
Hi! Thank you for this amazing and inspiring blog. I always love to try everything new and exciting recipes. My graduation is at the end of this month and I've been searching for the PERFECT cake for the party.
Charlene W
I am most likely to make cookies because they are the easiest to store and are generally eaten the quickest in my house. The biggest reason to bake in my house (other than my husband just wanting baked goods) is when we have friends or family over for board game nights
Denise Z
Wow can you feel the excitement and heat coming over the internet lines! What a wonderful space you have, of course I am envious but not in a bad way you have my dream kitchen space wise and it gives me a goal to continue to dream about š I have never made candy, but I do enjoy making cookies, cupcakes, and can make a mean loaf of bread. I generally use my tablespoons for the cookie dough and cupcakes to get them in the pan or on the cookie sheets and someday plan to try those nifty scoops I have seen. BTW would love to see a post on using the scoops, it looks like such an efficient method and not near as messy, which I think is one of the main reasons I don't do more. Thank you for sharing with us today and for this treat of a giveaway opportunity - kitchen gadgets rule! š dz59001[at]gmail[dot]com
Mandy Cordeniz
Thank you for proof that I don't have too much cooking stuff! My hubs is always giving me a hard time for my "crafty closet", which had taken over the guest room. I love making cakes and cupcakes for the holidays. We use fondant and cutters a lot these days. My next project will be a "Frozen"-inspired cake for my daughter's 7th birthday. I might need a consult, Beth!
jrrbay
love your organization. having my kitchen remodeled right now and hope to have s dedicated baking/candy area. my current project is planning my granddaughter's christening party. dessert table with baked goods and candy. love to win your prize with hopefully some molds in there which would work.
beth
Hi Beth,
Iām a grandmother that loves to make candy, cookies and cupcakes for my grandchildren on all the special occasions. One of my granddaughters is a ballet dancer and my grandsons love sports and super heros. Please enter me in your contest for the mystery box. Thank you so much.
Carol Uipi
Liz
I like to bake cookies and cupcakes, but I want to expand into trying to do things with chocolate and candy, and maybe even a cake too. Already bought a candy thermometer but haven't gotten around to figuring out what to do with it.
Holidays that get me excited to try different things include Halloween, 4th of July and the Superbowl (or really tailgating when going back to college football or bball games!). I always love the idea of doing something complicated for Christmas, but that tends to be just cookies and cookies. Oh, and I like cheesecake, but am currently a little intimidated by pies.
Sue
After looking at all of these organized baking/creating spaces today, I am sooo ready to organize my tiny kitchen, and garage...for the overflow! I am so envious of your beautiful kitchen and all the space! Lucky you!
I was sorry to read about your business and health issues, but am glad that you are well and sharing your talent and creativity with all of us, Beth! š
Tammigirl
Also? I love to bake for birthdays and every day. Also Christmas - it's a big bake holiday for me.
We fire up the ovens for cookies, cakes, cupcakes, pies, at least once a week. Sometimes more than once daily.
Tammigirl
That is a LOT of stuff! Wow! I am going to share this with my family so I can say "Yes, yes I do need this 'one more thing'!"
Heather B
I love baking EVERYTHING! Cupcakes and cakes are my specialty though.
Anonymous
hi beth - LOVED seeing all your beautifully organized baking tools...
I have SO many baking supplies - I should be GIVING AWAY some as well, instead of vying for MORE!!! I can't even justify my addiction by having a business, but I do have 5 kids and like to make "treats" for all their occasions. I make cookies, decorate cakes, and love doing anything with sugar art.
my stuff is no where near as organized as yours - and sometimes looking at it all gives me the shakes... :0)
thanks for all the great inspiration!!
jodi from atlanta
Pandora (e-mail entry)
Hi Beth!
Loved your post about paring down and organizing your home Bake/Confectionary Shop! I do not Facebook so would appreciate an entry for me plz? I love working w/ chocolate, doing fancy decorated theme cookies (esp flora, fauna and holidays). You are an inspiration and although my much smaller kitchen will never match yours, it is a pleasure to have appropriate tools and turn out edible art that so pleases the recipient! You have awesome organizational skills to boot!! Thanks Beth, PW