This post is sponsored by Brother
We’ve been really enjoying cooking meals in our newly remodeled kitchen over the past eight months! We were getting used to cooking outside or in our electric skillet in our laundry room, but it’s so nice to have a real designated space again for daily meals.
We try to eat at home as often as possible. We loved going out to eat during our remodel (and still do, let’s be honest there are great restaurants in Seattle). But with vegans, semi-vegetarians, non-dairy and all-around health conscious family members, cooking at home means we can all eat well (and more affordably) and have better control over what ingredients are in our meals.
A transition to more cooking requires better organization. Enter my Brother P-Touch D210 label maker. This little gadget is my new organizing BFF. Have you ever used one? It is addictive, but in the very best way.
Knowing what you are going to cook, having quality ingredients on hand and being able to find what you need when it comes time to prepare are key for us in being able to prepare healthier meals. Even when we were working on our kitchen, we thought about how we could be better equipped and organized for meal prep to make it more enjoyable to work in. This led to our decision to install four shallow drawers on either side of our stove and a Lazy Susan cabinet nearby for pots and pans to help maximize our kitchen space.
We mostly shop in bulk so we ended up with lots of small bags or jars of unidentified items stuffed in the drawer. Unlabeled bags or hard-to-read grocery store twisty ties made it difficult to know when something needed to be replenished. Disorganization was causing a slowdown in meal prep because we’d have to open up the bag and smell or taste things to make sure we knew what was in the bags!
While we’ve been excited to prepare daily meals, I’m actually not a great cook myself so if faced with missing ingredients for a recipe I’ll easily give up and order something. After a few too many pizza deliveries in recent weeks, ahem, I decided it was time to take our organization to the next level.
With the P-touch, it is so easy to type in a word, print out a label, stick it on, and voilá, a minute or two later, you’re better organized. I LOVE IT!
I love that I don’t have to fear making mistakes. I can preview my label before I print it. I’ve also been having fun with different fonts, borders and symbols.
In fact, the P-touch offers 14 different fonts, 97 frames, and more than 600 symbols so you can really get creative and personalize your labels! The P-touch TZe tape is laminated, so it’s water, fade and temperature resistant – perfect for the kitchen.
Now that I’m on roll with organizing and my kitchen is in order, I have many more plans for labeling around the house! Stay tuned!
How could you get more organized with labels?
You can purchase the P-touch D210 labeler at Amazon, Office Depot, or Staples.
How do you keep the spice containers from sliding around in the drawer?
Many of them have magnets so they stay put. The others are just in there tight so they don’t move around either. :)
I also have a Brother P-Touch, although it is an older model and it doesn’t have those fun symbols… I might have to invest in a new one! I love it and it makes my label-loving self very happy!!
When Mom moved in with me, we agreed on where certain things went and then I labeled shelves. Saved us both time and frustration of not finding things and made it easier to return them to the same place. I still label the upper shelves so I know where things are without dragging the stepladder around.
My main pantry in the kitchen has pull-out shelves. I purchased wide-mouth mason jars, white plastic caps, a good funnel and a hand held vacuum sealer (Fresh Saver brand – under $50). I labeled all of the lids so I can easily read what’s in the jars. I vacuum seal certain food items to avoid them going bad or hardening. Best thing – no food moths or other bugs come into the house, hidden in the folds of the box. It does a bit more time when I get back from shopping, but it is easier in the long run.
I love it! Thanks for sharing, Liz.
What a great idea!
I have a similar sized spice drawer but purchased the very small Ball canning jars, maybe 8 oz? I attached round chalkboard stickers from Amazon and labeled each one with a chalk marker. They don’t move around because the drawer is totally full and I also have a drawer liner. This is the best thing I ever did. I open the drawer and see 35 jars alphabetically.
That’s cool! We just used jars we already had on hand. My jars don’t move around either because some containers are on magnets and the containers are lined up tight so they stay put!
I have a Brother P Touch – not that one but an old one. I’m also addicted!! Everything in my pantry that I transfer to a clear plastic container is labeled!
Could we see the Lazy Susan also?
Love the spice idea. It’s so much more convenient then moving them vertically!
Oh yeah, for sure! I need to get back to my kitchen posts this fall! :)
Hi Melissa, I love your kitchen and all the thought put into it! I’m going to be using some of your ideas in the future! So nice to follow you and your girls! Keep up I the hard work! Lisa
You’re so sweet, Lisa, I’m so glad that you enjoy following along with us. Thank you!
I have a P-Touch (PT-D200) which I originally bought to help me organize my file folders. Once I got started I kept finding more and more uses for it. I have a spice drawer that I’ve labeled the tops of the containers they came in, but your spice containers are much cooler! I like that they uniform – not all sizes like my crazy collection of spices!
I also love the labeler but can you tell me a good place to buy refill tape that’s not so expensive?
This is probably a long shot, but since you are so open and real with us (unlike many other bloggers), would you be willing to open all your cabinets and show what you have stored where? I am especially interested in the wall with the fridge. Love those big cabinets! Storage in a smaller kitchen/older layout is something many people struggle with, so it would be helpful to see inside the cabinets. I wouldn’t expect you to fancy up the insides or anything, just a quick snapshot so we can tell what is stored where. Thanks in advance!!
Hi Melissa,
Love every detail in your kitchen. The spice drawer is fantastic. Can you tell me what height they are?
We have a tiny galley kitchen which is the next project in line to be done….hurray!!! What length is your longest counter space? Tiny kitchens are indeed a challenge…particularly if one removes the upper cabs.
Congrats.on the masterpiece you have created!!
Thank you! We feel like we have SO much storage now, it’s been great.
The actual INSIDE of the spice drawer is 2.5 inches tall. It’s perfect because we can really fit a lot of small jars them without wasting a lot of space. I think the counter from the window to the dutch door is just over 12 feet? But of course that includes the sink, too. I love having the long counter unobstructed all the way around the corner, it’s AMAZING to have that much space to work, even in a galley kitchen.
Hi Amy,
Thank you! I’d be happy to share more about our cabinets. Thanks for asking! And thank you for permission to not fancy them up, that’s so nice of you to acknowledge the extra work that could be involved!! We aren’t that fancy as you know, ha, so I’m really grateful you don’t expect it of me!
Love the idea of using containers that stand and looking at the labels from the top. I have mine in a similar drawer, but in the original containers and it gets very messy. Just this morning, I stood there for 3 minutes searching for the curry powder … tried alphabetizing, but I’m not diligent enough to keep it that way!
Thank you. Oh, ha, yes definitely it’s nice to just look down and see what you need. That’s one reason I like using different types/shapes of jars, I can remember the shape of each container more easily and I don’t have to deal with alphabetizing!
I would like to ask the same thing as Amy above. I’d like to see inside your other cabinets for organization. We have a smaller kitchen space like yours. And would you please, please do a post all about your sink. The care of it…all the details etc…Thank you so much.
Sure, I’d be happy to share more on our cabinets and the sink! Good post topics, thank you!
The round glass jars are spaced quite a ways apart, how do you keep them from sliding? The one jar looks like it may have something on the bottom, not sure.
They really don’t slide around, they are heavy so they seem to just stay put! Some of our jars have magnets on them and they stick to a magnetic strip.
I am wondering about the width of your range? My 40″ range cannot be repaired due to the parts not being available anymore. The dumb thing was barely 10 years old when the oven stopped working. I am so glad the cooktop is ok! There is granite on both sides, so I really need a 40″ to slide in the space.
Really enjoy your blog! Love the kitchen!
Ohh I love such an organized kitchen! I am really fanatical after that! :D
Greetings from Germany!