I recently did a huge book purge and eliminated all but my cookbooks from the three driver’s side overhead compartments in the front room. I was tired of having my kitchen stuff squeezed into a few cabinets, making it a hassle to grab a mixing bowl or the rice cooker.

I left the cabinet fairly bare but slowly started to migrate things over there. One of the compartment doors was open the other day and looking at it from a fresh perspective, I was hit with a realisation: a shelf could double my storage space in that cabinet!

The cabinet is about 75″ long and 13″ deep. My mother has had some boards in her garage for over 10 years; they were part of a shelving unit she had made me for my second apartment. The wardrobe project will require six boards and there were eight. The two remain boards offered a total length of 72″ and a depth of 12″. Close enough!!!

I grabbed a bunch of brackets and screws from my hardware bin, a paint can to use as a shelf holder, and a screw driver. Less than an hour later, the new shelving was in.

It turns out well that the shelves are a bit short length-wise; I have just enough space at the end to stand up all my cookbooks.

Now, it was time to start filling the shelves and, of course, containerize the contents:

The huge corner cabinet in the kitchen now feels a lot more open:

I have a lot less stuff than I did when I moved into Miranda and it’s nice to be able to start spreading it around more thinly. I’m sure I’ll find more things to store in those compartments as time goes on, but what a great feeling it is to create additional storage and not immediately fill it up!