Storage is a problem, especially when the house is small. Our house is single wall construction (vertical one inch thick boards where the outside of the board is the outside of the house and the inside of the board is the interior of the house - it works best in warm climates), however, when we remodeled the bath house (a separate building since the house didn't originally have plumbing) we put in "double wall" (2" x 4" stud) construction. I have found that canning jars fit real nice on shelves set between the studs. Loads of storage space is hiding in the walls. If you have any, tear out some of that drywall, put shelves in the wall and then new drywall panels hinged to hide with push latches or cabinet doors set into the wall. Presto! Instant invisible storage. I'm also planning on building a cabinet to fit the bigger pickle jars used for dry storage since those jars are too big to fit anywhere else. Since our house is old, the traditional "pie safe" style of cabinet is easy to build and fits right in. We also have earthquakes, so having the jars hide behind cabinet doors improves their survival rate. My friend strung wires across her shelves and her canned goods survived the last 6.7 earthquake. The wires aren't very visible and about two or three inches from the shelf. She said if the wires hadn't been there, she didn't think there would have been anything left on the shelves at all.

Womacknursery.com has four or five each of the most common Tina and Victorinox knives, 4 & 8 mil tape in clear, green, Etc, as well as Parafilm, shears, rubber strips, and professional production stuf. Being a chemist I bought Parafilm M in a 225 ft by 4 in wide roll from Fischer Scientific many years ago. I cut it cross wise to a 4 in length and match the with to the diameter of the wood I'm wrapping. Since I graft mostly citrus, I use a lot of liquid chlorine bleach and therefore get most use from the stainless Victorinox blades. Sharpen on a hard or extra hard (fine grained) Arkansas novaculite stone. Stones are available at gun/knife shops or shows or RioGrande Jewelry supply Albuequrque. Super fine diamond and syn. corundum (Al2O3) can be be used but cheap ones either fail soon or are not smooth enough to get a razor edge. If you use a Tina carbon steel blade you can use silicon carbide stones available at your hardware store. Dont buy a sorry knife. Use single edge razor blades instead if you have to save $. For other savings You can cut plastic bags to strips and finish with masking tape. No tie needed. For rubber stripes, some people use heavy rubber bands. I use 8mil tape and stretch it instead. You may not need parafilm if you do something else to conserve moisture in the scion or bud wood. But it sure beats wax unless you really know wax.

I'm still working on my organization and even the type of cleaners that I use regularly. I also very much wish to purge much of the "cleaners and cleansers" stuff that I have. I still have 3 packed boxes from my move (U-Haul smalls) with everything from sifter refills to cat deoderizers in them. Much of this stuff I don't use anymore. For instance I don't have the swifter anymore, but I have refills for it :( I find that my "main stuff" is: 1) a bottle of Green Apple Lysol spray cleaner. I use this almost everywhere. 2) a bottle of no-drip Windex. Windows, mirrors, glass. 3) dishwasher detergent 4) hardwood floor cleaner in a spray bottle. I had hardwood floors installed in my new home and this is essential. Don't know what the stuff really is. Probably something "common", but I got it since it was recommended my floorer. I use the microfiber pads that attach to a mop thingee and have several of them. I've gone thru a few and have to put all of this stuff into a "rags" load of laundry. Haven't yet. I also use just clean whites rags and often just paper towels with this stuff too for wiping up spills that happen on the hardwood floors. 5) a sprayer bottle that I keep a mixture of water and clear dish soap. I use this for most spills and spot treatments on my carpets or rugs. For most things this is all I need. Anything more complicated I wick up the spill with clean cotton rags and use the soap mixture and then call Coit for same day service. Okay I'm lame, but I don't like messing up my carpet. A whole cup of full strength espresso got spilled on my carpet at my old condo and while I got a lot out, Coit (a professional carpet cleaner) got most out and if I had them in right away I think it would have all gotten out. 6) clorox wipes. I know lazy perhaps. But I find them way too conveinent. I have containers of them all over the house, even one in my car.. 7) Orange-glo "wood cleaner". This is the slimy stuff. I use a clean rag and then desiginate the rag for only this stuff. I use this to dust and shine up all my wood furniture which is just about everything: dining room table, night stand, chest of drawers, telephone stand, end tables, TV tables, etc, etc. And then other stuff that doesn't get used as often, but has gotten used since I've been in my new house: 1) orange soft scrub (has bleach). use this on the kitchen sink, the bathroom sink, the bathtub and its tiled walls. 2) stainless steel cleaner that came with my new frig. only used there. works like a charm. I'm too afraid to use anything else on the SS frig. I follow the "directions" on this. Is this a sham to sell this stuff? Would good ole Lysol spray cleaner do the trick? 3) disposable toliet cleaner doohickies. I used to just use jonny mops (oh and when I had multiple baths, one in each) and toliet bowl cleaner. but now I use the wand thing and the disposable thing. I think I have the Scrubbing Bubbles kind right now. That's all I can think of right now. I'm sure there's more. But truely if this is all I really seem to be using, when I get around to emptying those 3 boxes, it means I can just purge them. I guess time to freecycle, or something? I guess these could just be tossed? Or I guess put out on the curb when we have our Annual Cleanup done by the City. But I get the impression that these, some of the stuff at least, is considered "haz waste"? Thanks for any advice :) Cheers, --jans

Dreamingnh, thanks for the additional website! Amazingly the inset drawers seem to look nice in both the recessed look or the slab look. I am also glad I started this thread since I think it is helping all of us and I love seeing what everyone is doing to make their lives easier. 3mutts. Thank you for letting me know that you have so many drawers and went with the slab drawer for ease of cleaning and the clean flush look. Bmorepanic, that sounds very convenient your layout of the shelves and the recessed wall for the glasses and mugs so are easy to reach for and to put away. circuspeanut, thanks for letting me know that you have your cabinets at 16" and you love it to reach everything. An installer was here for an estimate and I told him I wanted the cabinets lower and he said I could do it but first find out how much extra crown molding I would need and what the cost would be if I still wish for the cabinets to reach the ceiling. I am definitely going to look into this since I would love for the cabinets to be lower. I have a tall blender but I can just place the blender on the open counter that has no cabinets over it since it is open to the family room with a half of a wall in between (so far three cabinet guys want to know if I want to extend the granite counter there to put stools there but it will lessen my walk way so I prefer not to and not to increase my granite costs). Thanks for letting me know there is not code regulation for the height of cabinets over a counter and not over a range.