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 ever 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 1000Â + 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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NoraLynn Johnson
Hi Beth. I am commenting to be added into the drawing! I love to decorate and sweet treat that would go great with whatever table scape I'm working with!! Cupcakes are my favorite to work with, I love trying new flavor combos and making them look sooo yummy!
Side note.... Your kitchen is amazing!
-Nora
Taerie (e-mail entry)
I'd love to be entered into your giveaway!! But the only entry forms I could see were for facebook comments. I love making cookies and have started making cupcake trees, usually for the camera club. I have been on the lookout for a candy mold in the shape of a camera to make some chocolate cameras.
Taerie
Lachelle
I love to bake cookies and any day is worth celebrating....a good score on a test, a cheer me up day, birthdays--of course, too,
Michelle J.
I love to make cookies, cupcakes, sweet breads, and kid snacks. We love celebrating birthdays and giving favors for parties/ showers.
Kristen S.
I love making cakes and candy, especially cake embellishments. I know this sounds crazy, but I love baking and creating so much that I'm making the cake for my own butterfly and Jane Austen themed wedding at the end of June in addition to a Kransakake (Norwegian...kind of like a stacked cookie tree) where we will hide cake charms in so that everyone gets a pull and a love and life related charm to keep. This week we narrowed down the flavors: Guinness and Chocolate filled with a dark chocolate ganache, and Orange Blossom (filled with homemade orange curd.
beth
You are a brave woman for taking on your own wedding cake. I didn't have a cake at my wedding, instead I created a huge tiered table filled with chocolates. At 5 am the morning of my wedding, with curlers in my hair I arrived at the venue to load the table with sweets. It took hours, but looked amazing.My guests were blown away and loved that I handcrafted it all. Good luck with your cake and congratulations on your wedding.
Abby
I have four little ones who would have a blast in your kitchen! I love to bake anything that my children can help with, and as far as their concerned everything is worth celebrating. We love using silicone molds for cupcakes, popovers, and "muffin tin" meals too. Thanks for sharing your amazing organization!
Lauren
I would love to win! I love to bake for any and every occasion. I especially like to bake cookies and decorate them. I also like to make pies 🙂
Heather Esposito
I love making cake pops and cookies just because. Who says you need a special holiday or occasion for a sweet treat?
Charity Hardin
Oh my gosh! What I would give to have a playdate in your kitchen!!! So many nifty toys, and so well organized too! I am very active with the Cub Scouts and am always making some kind of Scout-themed treat... I bet you would have some awesome ideas!
Chrissy
I love to make everything - cookies, cakes, cupcakes, pies, tarts, cheesecake, etc... I'd love to make candy and chocolates too, but I'm not very good at it. Any sort of helpful candy/chocolate-making tool or molds would be a dream! As for a theme, I'm quite partial to Harry Potter, Hello Kitty, and other fictional/literary/video game/cute things.
Natalie Hoffman
What an amazing giveaway Beth!! I love your kitchen and supplies! I LOVE making cupcakes and making different Candy Melt decorations for different occasions. But I also make cookies, cakes, brownies, brownie pops, cake pops, and funnel cakes. I make these things for birthday parties, family get-togethers, and holidays. I mostly cater to kids though 🙂 Especially my 6 year old daughter. She loves animals, especially birds, chicks, and cats. She also loves My Little Pony hehe ^_^ But lately I've been wanting to make more cakes because you can get so much more creative with them!
Shelby
I love to make a little bit of everything, cookies, cakes, some chocolate / candy ! Id really love to learn more about modeling chocolate because the things you make with it are beautiful and so creative ! I dont have any type of supplies or tools for such a thing . I would love to have something to do with the ARMY , POLICE, WEDDING , PARTY - with martini glass type molds , and also any type of monogram or letter molds would be awesome !
Natosha Zachary
I love to make cupcakes and chocolate candies. I just started baking cakes. I'm the mom of a 4 yr old boy who plays t-ball. We love to watch Disney movies, play with legos and our cats and dog.
Patti (e-mail entry)
Hi Beth,
I couldn't see where to leave a comment.
Sometimes it works for me, sometimes it doesn't.
Anyway, I must say I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the way you have organized all of your stuff!
I can't let my husband see a pic of it or he will make me do the same thing.
I know it would be to my benefit, but it just seems like a HUGE undertaking.
You have inspired me, so maybe it will get done sooner, rather than later.
Keep doing what you do, cuz I love it!
Patti
Anonymous
Wow! Super organized! I love the idea of having so many measuring spoons and cups- they're always needed 🙂 Hmm... My mom and I really enjoy making and eating cupcakes. We love getting the little Wilton candies to put on top for the occasion. The most recent was hearts for my cousins engagement!
Hannah
I bring cookies and cupcakes to parties all the time. I love celebrating with sweets, in particular for birthdays and weddings. I also love animals and the outdoors, which are cause for celebration all their own!
Barbara Bradford
I just want to win a day with you in your kitchen.... Looking at all the equipment and how you organize it and use everything is a lesson in itself. My first love has always been decorating cakes. Now I am trying to learn the art of cookie decorating.
Anonymous
I'm so jealous! I wish I could have so many pans and a chocolate tempering machine. I have two little boys who like to help out in the kitchen and cookies are a favorite.
Allison e-mail
Hi Beth,
Couldn’t get an entry on your site. Please enter me in your contest. I LOVE to bake treats of any kind, although it is mostly cakes, cupcakes, breads and novelties. Everyone thinks that I have children because I do so much novelty baking, but it is for my husband's staff. :o)
Thanks,
Allison
Kelli Davidson
Holy Cow Beth! All that storage is amazing - I think I am more impressed with all the organization. I love to bake cakes and put little doo-dad's on the cakes. Generally I like to put sports related stuff on it for that little boy in my world! I use the extra room in my garage to store in several different Hoosiers and metal kitchen cabinets..........maybe I need to get organized like you! 🙂