
Q: I was wondering if you or your readers have a solution to this problem?
Sent by Jaime

Editor: Does this look familiar? Let Jaime know how you'd tame this jumble in the comments below!
• Got a question? Email yours with pic attachments here (those with pics get answered first)
Comments (12)
For a minute there I thought you had my pictures from a few months ago! I had the same exact setup and finally got smart about my kitchen cabinets. My first suggestion would be to get them out of that cabinet and put them where you see them from the top, not from the bottom/side. I cleared out two lower drawers and toddler proofed them with tabs. One holds all the bottles/sippy cups and there's a small tupperware container holding their lids/bottle nipples. The other is for plates with the plasticware in a heavy duty cup. My drawers are relatively deep so I don't have to worry about anything falling over. Sharilyn over at lovelydesign was so creative in coming up with dividers for her daughters plates and such. They're paper boxes made to fit each specific type and size of dish. http://lovelydesign.blogspot.com/2009/10/making-perfect-boxes.html
I hope that helps! Good lucj!
I don't have any of that stuff. Just use French bistro glasses (pretty much unbreakable), and ceramic bowls (IKEA has extra-sturdy porcelain bowls), and glass straws (made out of Pyrex glass, so they are hard to break). We've used this stuff right from baby's first foods and never had anything broken. And the silverware is teaspoons and tiny appetizer forks. Everything stores with your regular adult dishes and you don't have any nasty chemicals in your food.
All of the kiddy cups/plates/bowls are in the bottom of our kitchen island cupboard. They can reach them to get food for themselves. They are the items that they are required to empty from the dishwasher & put away therefor they must be low & within their reach. I keep all of their cups in a small-ish underbed storage tote without a top on it. They still have to dig through to find matching tops & cups. The plates & bowls are stacked on a shelf above that.
Now don't get me started on my plastic food storage containers. That cupboard looks exactly like your cupboard!
My daughter's dishes are in a below cabinet drawer as well, and it's not so organized. But she puts her dishes up and gets them out herself. If this is not an option, atleast try to stack all plates together, bowls together, cups, etc. Unless you have 3 or 4 small kids, you can probably lose more than half of the dishes, too. good luck
We use regular (breakable) appetizer plates for my girls for most of their meals. I do have some divided plastic plates that are used pretty regularly. I think the best solution is to have only one style of plastic-ware so that it stacks neatly.
I keep some of these things, especially all the cups, on a shelf on the wall. Very similar to this:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20022765
So there is room to stack, and the cups with handles can hang on a hook.
how many plates, cups and bowls do you normally go through in 24 hours? maybe just have that many. even if you want to have extra (for tiny visitors) stash them elsewhere, or in this cabinet but within something so they aren't part of the daily rotation.
Maybe some bins that pull out? It would make putting things up a touch more involved, but at least nothing would fall on your head...
For the sippies, maybe try a small lazy susan, like this one from The Container Store: http://www.containerstore.com/shop/kitchen/cabinetOrganizers/lowerCabinets?productId=10007006
These are also pretty narrow, and might be good for stacking plates and shallow bowls below a shelf of cups or something: http://www.containerstore.com/shop/kitchen/cabinetOrganizers/upperCabinets?productId=10000698
I also agree with the suggestion of eliminating some of the extra cups and dishes that you don't use everyday, and just stash them for when the dishes don't get washed right away or when you have guests. You could easily stick a plastic container with extra kid-ware under the sink, or in the top corner of a pantry.
First of all, chuck all the plates and bowls that don't fit each other and get a set that will stack into each other. We are using the "preserve" brand recycled plastic plates & bowls. They don't have the little dividers- but I've found those aren't really that necessary after all. Then go to Target and grab a plastic bin that can fit into the cabinet, for the bottom shelf. That's where we contain the snack cups and random things you absolutely need. For the utensils, grab a fat, wide glass and stand them all inside. Good luck!
We took our eclectic mix and slowly replaced them with one style that all fits together... then we used cut off cereal boxes as cupboard organizers... plates in one, bowls in another, containers in one, the lids in another... My little kids love to sort them and because everything has its own box it looks neat enough and we can find stuff!!!
these are all such great suggestions. i am tackling this project today!