Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Organizing Cake Stuff

I have gotten a request from one of my readers to see pics of how I store my cake supplies and what my work area looks like. (So this is for you Fiddlesticks!) I often get asked if I have any suggestions on organization. I am not sure that I have any brilliant pearls of wisdom to contribute to this topic, so I am calling upon you guys to help me out with this one.

I am very anal about certain things in my life, like my cakes, and a few other things. Some things I am a total train wreck with, such as my closet. I can't find anything in there. (Note to self: clean out closet). But when it comes to general housework and organization of "cake stuff" I am somewhere right in the middle. Everything is basically organized and has its place, but its not perfect. There is a controlled amount of mess within that organization, if that makes any sense.


This is looking into my cake room/office.




This is my work area where I do prep work like gumpaste flowers, bows, modeling and all that stuff. This picture is a few years old and I now have a larger black table to work on in that spot. As you can see on the table, I have one of those plastic organizers sold at Home Depot to hold screws and nails for your garage. It has sliding out draws, and all my piping tips are in there. Each drawer is labeled with the tip number. I have just a few pencil type holders for my tools, and the white thing on the right of the table is a dehydrator.



Please keep in mind that these pictures were taken before my room renovation was complete. As of this date, I have the lights hardwired into the walls, and I even have a real countertop now. What you see there is plywood covered with a vinyl tablecloth, LOL. You can get a general idea here how I have stuff organized in the cabinets. The thing to the left is Jack, my portable A/C, which allows me to customize the temperature in this room when I am working on cakes. I keep it 68-72 in here when cakes are out.


This is inside the tall cabinet on the right. As you can see I am a big Rubbermaid fan. I use those stacking sliding drawers all over to organize stuff. I have all my gel colors separated by color, and many of my cutters separated by category in these stacking drawers. Foil rolls are at the bottom. (Please ignore the dirty floor; I snapped this pic before I mopped.)



The upper cabinet uses more Rubbermaid drawers and trays. It doesn't look extremely organized but I know exactly where each thing is and can put my hands on it right away when I need it. Most of the time.



I also use the hall closet for my cake drums, boxes, fomecore, dummies, ribbons, pre-made gumpaste flowers and other miscellaneous stuff. I'm a little embarrassed cuz this looks kinda messy but really, each thing has a place and it works! I promise!



I have these fabulous deep drawers in the kitchen that allow me to store almost all of my cake pans in there. Very convenient and easy to get to them.

I know I am very blessed to have the work and storage space that I do. In the previous house we lived in, I did not and I had cake stuff just piled up all over the place. So this is where I need you guys to help me. If you have any great organizational tips, ideas, or photos, please leave them in the comment section or email them to me. I will post them in a later post. All those great ideas you have can really help all those cakers out there that are pressed for space.

So send those tips on in!

Happy Caking,

Sharon
www.sugaredproductions.com

8 comments:

SharonG said...

WOW! Sharon what a great room! I love it and all the stuff you have. I have all my things in my kitchen, so there isn't much room. I do try to keep my stuff organized as best I can. One thing that has been helpful for me is 7 drawer cart with rollers I got at Wal-Mart for around $20.00. This doesn't hold everything, but it has been great for me to put the things in that I use the most. I am able to pull it up to the area I am working at, and it is quicker for me to get to them. Again you have a great work area.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for sharing those photos with us! I am definitely in the boat of not knowing what to do with all my things! :) This has given me some great ideas and what a fabulous work space!! Thanks fiddle for asking! :D And Sharon! What I can see of your house is beautiful! LOVE your cabinets!

Fiddlesticks said...

Sharon Thanks so much ! Awesome Awesome! I use a tall/large rolling cart that I keep inside of my walk in pantry! Thanks for the added ideas,I love your blog its so fun and full of great ideas I try to check in at least a few times a day! You Rock!!!

Snooky doodle said...

wow you surely have a lot of space for your cake stuff. I m still organising my home and for the time being I ve got boxes stacked in the hall. It s a nightmare.

Jacque said...

I am so jealous of all that cabinet space!! :-)
Thank you for sharing this!

I think I will go close in my garage now.

;-)

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for sharing! It gives me ideas for organizing my stuff.

Anonymous said...

I got this idea from a gal that took a class with me. She had cart on wheels that was made for either scrapbooking or crafts that she got at Michaels. It had a handle on it with wheels and folded up like a piece of luggage. It had so many compartments in it! It was a great idea!
I also like the rolling bins that they also sell at craftstores. You can put labels on the outside of them so you know exactly what is in which drawer without digging threw it all! Eventually I will have all my cutters in individual ziplocs with its corrosponding veiners and labeled & alphabetized.
I keep my dusts in a small rubbermade container that is actually made for school supplies like pencils. And you can use the long skinny containers that are made for spagetti for your floral wires! You can have one for each size if you'd like!

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