This is probably the most practical post I’ve ever done. I know, that’s not saying much, but really, it is very practical! Honest. I mean, it has words “IKEA” and “storage” in the title. People close to me are probably surprised to hear that I actually like organizing. The problem is that I like it about four times a year, when I get the urge to sort things and create a perfectly structured all-encompassing system that would keep my things in perfect order forever. Unfortunately, I never get the everyday urge to put my things away where they belong. Marie Kondo would not be impressed.

But no matter how over-optimistic and unsustainable my attempts at the Perfect Storage System are, these efforts do help, at least in short to medium term. The things I need to sort tend to be the same through the years: books, clothes, perfume, beauty and food items. There has been recent progress on all fronts (I already wrote about the sample sorting and I might do a post on my skincare and make-up as well), but today I want to talk about food-related things.

Kitchens never seem to have enough storage space and that’s especially true for Belgian kitchens. Unless they are in a very modern house, the kitchens tend to be small – ours is better than most, but still not quite what I would envisage in a perfect world. And if you mix a Belgian kitchen with an obsessive buyer/user of spices, herbs, sauces, floral waters, oils, vinegars, teas, jams, honeys, exotic condiments, strange sugars, obscure flours, you name it – trouble will inevitably ensue.

I have sorted my stash this way and that, but the best decision I have made so far is to get those two IKEA Råskog trolleys (OK, J got them, as per my instructions). They are compact and moveable and best of all – everything is visible, so you don’t forget what you own. As these are IKEA products, they are also reasonably priced and I find them good looking. They come in turquoise (pictured) and grey and a colour they insisted on calling brown in the store. As you can see on the picture, it is very clearly not brown.

The turquoise one houses all my teas and the brown (hahahahahaaa!)one has my spices, dried herbs and all manner of bottles with contents that can be used in cooking – from rose water to mulberry syrup to verjuice to sriracha. This is not everything, of course – I also have a spice drawer and the everyday oils, salts, peppers and things are on the counter, not to mention all the other categories of food items. But whatever the things are you cannot quite fit into your existing cupboards, drawers and shelves, these babies are a nice solution for accommodating them.