When we moved from the farm, we had exactly one of these fabulous metal IKEA RATIONELL VARIERA cup racks, although I guess you could consider it a shelf divider? They come with little screws that hold the feet in place and you can even stack multiples on top of each other.

Now obviously, I started out with one of these holding cups, which are never so stable when you just stack them on top of each other. But then I started thinking that these shelves could have way more potential. So the last time we were in IKEA (a few months ago), I picked up several more. I had no actual plan in mind for them yet, but I knew it was going to be awesome. πŸ˜‰

One of the first things I decided to do was to use one of these bad boys in our oils, vinegars and other cooking accessories section of the kitchen, to make use of some dead space. As it turned out, the transformer I need for my KitchenAid fits perfectly under the rack (and is right next to a plug) so it really was ideal. Shortish bottles of things like our champagne vinegar fit nicely on top and other tiny stuff below, and there’s still plenty of space next to it for everything else. Oh, and of course, it fits behind the roll down door thing which is very practical.

I was so in love with using the cup rack for these two purposes, I decided to see how it would work for our Nespresso machine. Although the water reservoir is on the left, which makes things a little tricky, there is still plenty of space to have the machine up there all the time, and all our espresso cups fit underneath. I just love how it let us use this corner in the kitchen so practically and vertically. And virtually everything we need for espresso is right there at our fingertips.

The final shelf I bought actually ended up in our fridge. I unfortunately didn’t come up with this idea until the very end…but with all those little jars one ends up having of jelly, horseradish, condiments, etc. but never nearly enough space in the doors for it all, this rack is just perfect. I’m sure some are thinking, just get rid of some of the stuff in your fridge. But we did that when we moved…and the stuff in these little jars we actually do eat on a regular basis. I think it’s just one of those things you run into if you cook often.

So those are my cup rack success stories. I think I’m going to keep an open mind about these and see if I can’t come up with some additional uses for them. In fact, in my “pantry” buffet, I could really use some extra split level action (why don’t they make canned goods that actually stack nicely together anymore??) and this would be a cheap, simple fix at €4 each. So perhaps you’ll be reading about that adventure soon. πŸ˜‰

Happy organizing!