Organising Kitchen Cupboards - Baking Tins

My baking tin cupboard was definitely my cupboard of shame!  Everytime I opened the doors, I prayed that nothing was going to fly out and hit me in the head!  It was one of those cupboards that you dump the items in and shut the doors quickly, before anything falls back out - eek!

For ages, I had been thinking that I needed my hubby to add some vertical shelves in there.  I thought that with vertical dividers, everything could stand up and be nice and neat.  But my poor Mick gets so sick and tired of my 'great ideas' that require me to do the brainstorming and then need him to do the dirty work, and although he had said he didn't mind doing it, I knew it wasn't going to happen anytime soon...

Enter the standing plate divider!  I saw this idea online the other day, and I just HAD to try it.  So, off I toddled to Howards and purchased this chrome plate divider, much to my delight.  (Sorry, they don't have it on the website, so I couldn't link it for you.)

I took everything out of the cupboard and sorted it into like-groups.  I am a little ashamed to admit that I have trays that would enable me to make 28 muffins, 30 cupcakes and 30 mini-muffins - I have now banned myself from buying anymore muffin/cupcake tins!

Anyway, I then grabbed all of the 'flat' tins and stood them up in my new tray rack.  So far, so good!

Now I was left with an assortment of traditional cake tins and Tupperware silicon baking forms - in all different shapes and sizes - hmmm.  I hunted around the house for a basket that would fit in the space left in the cupboard, and after rearranging the pantry, I stole this white basket for the job.  I stood all of the tins/forms on their side and lined them up one behind the other.  With a little persuasion, I was able to fit them all in - hooray!

Now, when I need a tin, I can simply pull out the entire basket and easily see what shape/size would best suit my recipe.

Finally, I popped my chocolate moulds into a super-sized snap lock bag and put it at the back of the cupboard.  I don't use these very often, but at least now when I need them, I can pull out the bag and know that they are all there.

And just in case you were wondering what happened to the other items in the before photo, I put the pot-mitts and aprons in the linen cupboard and the cupcake carrier with my other cake carriers.  A little re-shuffling, but now everything is where it belongs.

Phew - there were quite a few steps associated with this organising exercise.  Nevertheless, I am so happy with my new cupboard!  I think I might go and bake a cake :)