Before & After: I Redid My Cabinets Using Marie Kondo Organizers from The Container Store
In my experience, the best way to create calm when you’re in the middle of an uncontrollable situation is to find one thing you can control. In the middle of this not-great start to 2021, I received a box full of stuff from the gorgeous new Marie Kondo collaboration with The Container Store — the perfect balm for a messy space and an emotionally exhausted me.
I’d recently organized my pantry, and these organizers seemed better suited for cabinets, anyway. (In true Marie Kondo style, the products are simple, beautiful, and serene. The Container Store x KonMari line is made from sustainable products and everything is so beautiful, each piece can really be used anywhere in the home.) As luck would have it, I had some cabinets that could stand to benefit from that sweet KonMari method.
Shop The Container Store x KonMari line here.
I had a cabinet that held brightly-colored kids’ plates and bowls (and markers and a digital camera?) and a mish-mash of other items. For years, I’d put things “away” without really thinking about where they were going. I always felt too guilty about donating things that were gifted to me with good thoughts and sweet intentions. And I had some countertop clutter issues. But it was time to get rid of things and get organized. (It’s not like anyone is coming over anytime soon to realize that I haven’t saved their holiday plate!) I did the “spark joy” exercise and let some things go. And then more! Until I got down to the bare necessities. Then, it was time to put these gorgeous new organizers to work.
It’s amazing how getting down to basically nothing allows you to really create the space you want. You can see that my all baking/decorating supplies are stuffed into the bamboo pantry bins, and I need to point out how much JOY it’s bringing me. I’m so glad to have everything together in a tidy box that I can take in and out of the cabinet. No more knocking a million things out of the cabinet as I search for the pink food coloring!
I can’t even tell you what used to be on my middle shelf before, but clearing all that junk out allowed me to solve a major war I’ve been silently waging against my husband. Every morning he gets up early and has his coffee routine (it’s a huge ordeal involving a scale and a hand crank coffee mill and a notebook and more) and cleans up after. But his “cleanup” means just lining everything up along the back of the countertop and I hate it. With the second shelf free, I was able to make a new home for his family of coffee paraphernalia. Everything together, in its place, and he is so happy about it!
I pared down to four sets of dishes — which feels a little extreme, but we’ll see how it goes. (I stashed another four in a lower cabinet to use for when life goes back to normal and we can have friends over for dinner again.) I’m using the two small pots with lids for storing kosher salt and sea salt; they would also be great for white and brown sugar, if you’re putting together a coffee station.
My corner cabinet was atrocious. You can’t see it in the photo, but there are pipes that run along the back wall that prevent the middle shelf from being lowered, so it’s always been difficult to properly utilize the space.
But now look! I used another bamboo basket to hold storage bags, cling wrap, and other lunch box items like bamboo utensils. The real star of this cabinet is the canister set. I keep my dry goods in the pantry so I was free to use the set however I needed. I found I could easily hide my “morning routine” (dark chocolate) in one, lollies for my daughter in the other, and dishwashing tablets in another! The canisters have silicone rings, so I don’t have to worry about the tablets drying out or stinking up the cabinet. I also found the modular canisters to be perfect for the large space and could easily stack two large without issue.
Oh! I forgot to mention that I also got a ceramic double bottle wine holder. I popped it on the top shelf in the corner cabinet and found it was the perfect place to store my cooking wine. In addition to pantry items, the line also offers some really beautiful refrigerator storage items like a bamboo egg bin, and a gorgeous berry colander that is perfect for storing and snacking! There’s also a diagonal drawer organizer and a spice rack that I’m coveting.
If you’re wondering where everything else went, it either expired and found its way to the trash, was donated, or got moved somewhere that made more sense. Having less stuff to wade through in my cabinets makes me very happy, and I’m annoyed that I didn’t do this sooner. I gotta say, though, that this task was so welcome when the world feels like it’s not just turning upside down, but doing flip flops, and this collection helped bring the serenity.
This post originally ran on Kitchn. See it there: Before & After: I Redid My Cabinets Using Marie Kondo’s New Organizers from The Container Store