Inexpensive organizing

Living in an apartment does have its perks, it often leaves me wish I had my own place that I actually owned so I could make all the changes I wanted to and not feel like i was wasting my money. 

One of those things is kitchen cabinets.  I know I'm not alone in this either, because apartment kitchen cabinets are usually less than desirable and not super functional.

For example, here is my pots and pans cabinet

WTF- gotta love that huge panel the landlord needed to cut in the back too- so pretty.

A disaster to say the least.  But, without knowing how much longer we are going to be in our apartment I was not about to go out to the Container Store or Home Depot and spend money on upgrades for cabinets I dont own.

If I could wiggle my nose this is what my pot and pan cabinet would look like

or this one, since Martha does everything perfect.

Getting my cabinet in order without spending money seemed imposable. 

While at my parents house last week I went downstairs to my Dads wood shop and gathered 3 pieces of wood from his scrap pile.  They just happened to be the perfect size for my cabinet.

4 nails later and I had this

It's not the sturdiest thing around, but its just about as wide as my cabinet so I was not worried about it tipping over.  

With some leftover drawer liner I covered the plywood top

Once I had the cabinet empty I slid in my new shelf and then put everything back all neat and organized FINALLY!

I pulled the drawer liner off in one part so you could see that it went on the top.  Now that I'm seeing this picture I should paint the raw wood edges of the shelf white (note to self, put that on the to-do list)

So happy that my cutting boards have a place to slide in, the cookie sheets are right next to them, and the pots and pans are all organized on the wood shelf AND a shelf riser in the back.

With everything organized it made me want to cook!  Come back later this week to see what I whipped up.