Large Utensil + Knife Drawer Organization

Hey peeps!  All two of ya that stop by on your work breaks.  hehe.  Well I last showed you my utensil kitchen drawer that was organized and last night I was able to finish my large utensil kitchen drawer.  Check it out y'all!

And this is what it looked liked before:

That blue towel is where we kept our knives because we don't have a butcher block and we've never had one.  We just kept knives there so they wouldn't get mixed up with the other utensils and risk cutting our hands while rummaging through the drawer.  How lame.

First, I bought a expandable large utensil tray from Bed, Bath and Beyond (with a coupon of course) and assumed it would take up the entire space of the drawer.  So with that in mind I was also going to buy a Kaboosh knife holder to keep on the counter top.  Well it turns out the utensil tray was too long to fit in my drawer.  See?

I was bummed for a few moments because I really wanted to have full use of the tray while completely expanded.  No can do.  I then turned it to see if it would fit and if it would work.

It did fit but I was not able to fully expand it.  I did realize that I had a decent amount of space on the right side of the tray and wondered if a knife tray would fit in that area.  So I grabbed my son's handy dandy kids measuring tape then looked on-line for the knife tray.  According to my measurements I had about an inch or two to spare if I went with the knife tray.  The next day I stopped at BBB with coupon in hand and bought this:

It is a Knife Dock that has cork-like material already slit and inserted in the tray.  Right away I liked this idea much better than the Kaboosh (I really didn't want big butcher knives stored on the counter) and was a little too excited when I saw that it fit well in my drawer with the large utensil tray.

I once again cleaned the utensil tray with my vinegar/lemon juice/water solution and I had a feeling that the knife tray would have some residue of sort from the cork material.  Sure enough I turned it upside down and hit it a few times and all this fell onto the counter.

Looks like a bunch of little bugs and one big one, huh?  It was a little annoying to do that but I'm glad I did so that I won't have to mess with that stuff sticking to the blades of the knives every time I take one out.  Well I hope I won't see anymore of that stuff.  Anywho after all my prepping I placed most of the large utensils and the knives in their respective trays.

 

What a difference!  Did you notice my pink knife?  :)  I was not able to fit all of the utensils and this is what was left over on the counter.  They just weren't the right fit.  heehee.

I no longer use those black utensils so off to Goodwill they go, the wooden spoons will go in my utensil crock that sits on my counter and the cheese slicer, pastry blender, large tongs, and rolling pins will be placed elsewhere.  Somewhere in my bottom cabinets.  This of course creates a new organizing task because I really need one for all things baking.

Once again here is the before and after.

Yay, yay, yay for the little yet big things that make a huge difference and much more functional.  Next is the junk/catch-all drawer (hey, we all have one) and then the pantry.  Oy to the pantry.
Am I the only that gets nerdy and just stares at the neatly organized kitchen drawers just to admire their beauty?  The hubs thinks I'm a bit of a geek that way.  :)

And since I have been pinning lots of organizing items and ideas on Pinterest, I am sharing this post with Young House Love, Bower Power, Centsational Girl and Ten June  during their Pinterest challenge.  It's a challenge to get us pinners off our booties and start an actual project.

Also sharing this post with Organize and Decorate Everything.