Bento Gear Organization

On her blog at lunchinabox.net, Biggie organized a Blog Event: Organizing your Lunch Gear in which she ask readers to explain how they keep their "bento stuff" organized.

So I decided to share my own little ways. It's not overly original, but since I live in a tiny condo, the key is to save space, and for everything to be within easy reach.

Here's how my stuff is organized so far :

As you can see in the picture just above, the "big stuff" (bento boxes, onigiri molds and containers) are in a big wooden box. Of course I will need a bigger box soon since I'm getting a new bento and this box is getting full already!

The little stuff I put in Indian spice boxes. I got several of those boxes a while ago from a place I was working at. They've been sitting around, and I thought they'd be just the perfect boxes for my stuff.

In the picture just above, you see how I've used the little spice containers to keep the little things from moving around. I have my belts in one, my little flower rings in another, then my sauce bottles (divided cause I got 2 kind) and my grass dividers. My little skewers didn't fit in one of those containers, so I used an elastic band to keep them together and just dropped the pack in the main box. Each little container has a little lid, and then there's a lid for the main box so everything stays put!

I had a spice box that didn't have the little containers, so I used it to put my egg molds. They fit perfectly and the lid keeps them from getting dusty or greasy in my overworked kitchen.

The spice boxes stacks pretty well so I just put them on top of each other over my "pantry shelf" which sits in my tiny kitchen by the fridge. That way they aren't in my way, but are very easy to get to.

After I took that picture I actually pushed them against the wall, that way my 6'2" husband won't accidentally make them fall. The picture doesn't show it, but the shelf sits right in the passageway to enter my kitchen.

Here's a view of my "big stuff box". I bought it at Ross, just because there's french on it. Being a French Canadian FAR away from home, I like stuff that have french written on them.

That box sits on top of the fridge, again it's easy to access but isn't in my way. When you live in a small space you have to figure out a way to just make things work.

I still have several other spice boxes, so I can keep stacking them up for a while! I will need a bigger box soon though. That's ok, I have plenty of space on top of my fridge, as long as it doesn't get too heavy to bring down! AH!

So there you have it, this is how I keep my bento stuff organized in my little tiny condo kitchen (of which you've seen half really by seeing my shelf and fridge hehehe).

Happy Bento!