WHERE THINGS LIVE

When I became a stay at home mom, I decided to give the espresso maker that had been sitting literally unused for 8+ years a whirl.  I just couldn’t make myself presentable enough for a 6am coffee run (I have particular standards), bundle up the baby, and strap him into the Baby Bjorn (total lifesaver in city winters, btw) BEFORE a latte.  Impossible.  So, about 3-4 taste tests later and I was my very own barista.  My dream is to hire a live in barista one day along with my own driver but I’ll do for now I suppose. 

But here’s my simple trick for storing the “supplies”.  For two reasons – to save me time (every second is key at 6:30 am and my son wants to play cars – I’m not a morning person), and to keep my counters clutter free.

My espresso and sugar live on the shelf in the cabinet just above my machine - exactly where they’re used.  They’re so easily accessible when I need my morning fix and yet they’re out of the way so I don’t have to look at coffee cans and a bag of sugar.  Yeah, yeah, a bag.  Even if I bought the cute canisters that I’ve been secretly scoping out I just don’t have the counter space (and it's the C word).  This storage system sounds so simple because it is but so often I see people unnecessarily scrambling for things they need and then not being able to find them.  Which confounds me, btw (who doesn’t know where their sugar is??).  I find if you don’t have enough storage space to keep all like things together (baking products, spices, etc.), then you should keep them exactly where you use them.  Because, you guessed it, they’re always there when you need them.  Just because my sugar is a baking good doesn’t mean it needs to go in with my flour, baking soda, salt, etc.  I do bake quite often, but I drink lattes every day.  So the shelf vetoes the cabinet.  Done and done.

(PS, now that I'm working I still make my lattes religiously.  I've done the math of buying 1-2 coffees/day while working which is what I used to do - over $2k/year - crazy.  Glad I became a barista when I did!).