Slide out appliances and pots from your kitchen cabinet.

Our favorite hobbies (or side hustles) can be highly rewarding. They can also take up a lot of valuable real estate in our homes. Keeping everything – from tools and appliances to ingredients and embellishments – where they belong will help you enjoy your creative pursuit more and dread the cleanup less. Read on for ways to organize your kitchen, craft room and workshop.

Baking

There are so many pleasures when baking…the aromas, the expression of your creativity, the satisfaction of eating and sharing what you made. Save yourself some of the challenges, like unexpectedly running out of flour or sugar or having to stow your mixer in an inconvenient place, with intentional kitchen storage.

Assess your requirements, think outside of the box and do any necessary cleaning out of cabinets and emptying of shelves before reorganizing your kitchen into your dream baking haven.

Once you know what you’re working with and what you have to make room for, consider some or all of these possible solutions:

• Add shelving to your kitchen wall or purchase a standalone pantry cabinet to increase your footprint for baking supplies.
• Hang a multi tiered wire rack on the back of a door or on a spare wall. You can easily see what you’re low on and access the ingredients your recipe needs.
• Install a pull-out basket in a lower cabinet to house smaller appliances, like blenders and food processors, pans and mixing bowls.

Crafting

Many of us who have an artistic bent aren’t so good at staying organized. We’re too excited about coming up with new ideas and creating masterpieces! With a little effort upfront, maintaining a neat crafting studio is possible and will make producing art purely joyful (without the stress of wondering where your favorite glue gun is or having to pick up spilled beads).

Use cube storage and fabric drawers to hold larger items and packages of supplies such as watercolor pencils.

If you do several different types of projects, try to group all the supplies for each together. For instance, knitting needles, patterns and skeins should be in one drawer, while scrapbooking materials would go in a separate area in your craft area.

Label containers so you can quickly scan for what you need and put everything back where it belongs once you’re done. Don’t forget to look to the back of a door for bonus storage.

A door and wall rack can serve as a gift-wrap station or other craft organization center. Photo by The Home Organizing Co.

Woodworking

Whether you’re lucky enough to have a shed devoted to your woodworking hobby or you co-opted a corner of the garage or basement, you must have an organization plan for both convenience and safety.

Lock chemicals like turpentine and tools such as saws in cabinets to protect curious kids from injuring themselves. Hook bigger tools (think chainsaws) on the wall to save floor space.

Store nails, screwdrivers and similarly sized items in a drawer inside your workbench for immediate access. Place paint cans, rags, etc. on heavy-duty wire shelving.

Combine shelves, cabinets and a workbench for a compact and efficient woodworking shop.

Taking the time to organize your supplies will help your hobby stay enjoyable, without the frustration of searching for the necessities.