Landscape design is expensive. So before you hire a designer, it pays to know what you actually want from your garden, to ensure that you really love the finished design.

Here’s how to avoid stress and keep those pesky containers in line.

Infrastructure

The best place to store plastic containers is in a drawer, rather than a cupboard. Sliding drawers are an ideal place to store your plastics, especially if it’s down low. If not built into your kitchen design, you can purchase pull-out drawers to fit into individual cupboards from a hardware store or kitchen storage supplier.

For a cheap and cheerful option throw all of your containers in a large tubs or milk crates and slide them in the bottom of the pantry.

Nesting

That’s right, you want to get your containers all cosy by stacking them inside one another. Without the lids on. 

Most households will have containers in all shapes and sizes. So, there may be a bit of mixing and matching and you’ll end up with three or four stacks.

Don’t get tricky and try to stack odd shapes inside one another so that they’re on an angle! Keep the container bottom flat inside its nesting stack.

Lids

Matching lids to containers is the name of the game, and so much easier when you can see everything!

There are a few ways to achieve this. You can put the lids in size order, with smallest at the front, and store them in a large plastic container or tub. Better yet, stack them in a rack. These are available in kitchen storage shops. 

Less is more

Do you have room for everything?

You may find that all those leftover takeaways have been adding up to more plastic containers than you really need. It might be time to consider a purge.

Throw out any containers that are cracked or splitting.

But if you’re a thrifty saver, extra containers can be put to good use in other ways. All those little rubber bands on spring onions, asparagus and leeks? Collect them and store them neatly in the kitchen so they don’t get pushed to the back of a drawer. Take some into your home office for paperclips, pens and pencils; some for the kids’ bits and bobs; others to the shed for odd nails and screws.

Time for a cuppa to admire your handy work!

Find more ideas on how to better organise your kitchen, click here.