In our little thousand-foot house, I'm always looking for little spaces that can be utilized in order for things to run efficiently and to keep our open areas open. Our kitchen is one of those places-it's filled with windows, a few cupboards, and even fewer drawers. We've added quite a bit of external storage with a few shelves and cabinets, but this past weekend we added just a bit more and I'm thrilled with the addition! I love how a seemingly unusable space can be transformed into practical storage within minutes and for just a few dollars (thanks to IKEA)!

The knife magnet was one of the new additions. With all of the cooking and baking that happens in our kitchen, the knives are almost always out. And since we hand-wash them, they tend to either be dirty and sitting on the counter, or clean and drying on the counter. The knife magnet will hopefully solve these problems! Not only will it keep the knives off of the counter, but it also frees up space in one of our two drawers, and it uses an unused wall in our kitchen. (Sidenote: we also got a new kitchen rug--the colors are fun, but more importantly, they won't show dirt and stains...that's my kind of rug!)

The second addition is one I'm even more excited about! For the past couple years, we've had an IKEA chalkboard hanging in this spot. It covered a random outlet and unwanted phone jack and it served as a practical place to keep track of lists and notes, but I've been dreaming of turning that wall into much more usable space over the past few months. And now we have! With the new shelves, we've been able to clear a few things off of the counter and add them to the bottom shelf. While the top shelf gives me some extra space to keep my growing collection of dried herbs. Both shelves are filled with empty jars at the moment, but over the next week or so they will be filled with granola, chamomile, lavender, alfalfa, spearmint, and more! I love how rewarding little spaces can be!