Kitchen Organizing and the Peggy Umbra Organizer

One of the many, many things on my list for 2022 was organizing our kitchen. Every time we open the Tupperware drawer or the water bottle drawer, the crazy mess inside is so disheartening. It’s silly, I guess, to let something like that affect one’s mood, but I can’t help it.

A few days ago when I emptied the dishwasher, the crap in the drawers finally overflowed, and I couldn’t close them. I took it as a sign to purge and organize!

First up, I tackled our random collection of plastic cups, water bottles, and portable coffee mugs. After recycling the broken plastic cups and setting aside the rarely-used items for donation, it was easy to create order out of the chaos! And now it feels so much better to open the drawer. Easy peasy.

Our Tupperware drawer was more of a challenge. After setting aside containers that we need to return to friends, I matched tops and bottoms and was astonished to find that almost a third of our pieces had no match! No wonder the drawer was such a mess. I recycled those random pieces, and I set aside a few matching sets to donate.

John bought the Umbra Peggy Organizer a few years ago, but we hadn’t yet set it up. The set comes with small vertical poles that you attach to any of the holes in the bottom of the organizer, so it’s completely customizable. After playing around with it, I realized that it’s perfect for organizing containers that don’t nest inside each other. It’s also really useful for corralling container tops in one spot.

Now when you open the drawer you can see every item — no more rooting under random stuff in search of a particular container.

Organizing these drawers is a small thing, to be sure, but it makes our everyday lives easier. I tend to put off projects like this, but they’re quick and easy, and they have a big impact!

What home projects have you been avoiding? Let me know in the comments, and let’s encourage each other to get them done!