I’ve got a blank space baby…

...do you?

blank space

We all know the saying:


But what about the things that need to come into your home for a short time, that don't need a permanent place?  Here are a few examples of what I mean:

Gifts purchased ahead of time

Extra groceries for a birthday party or BBQ

Clothing and other items to be donated or sold

These things are all on their way out, but if you don't have a place for them in the meantime, they often get in the way!  The last thing I want to be doing when I'm trying to clean the house to have people over, is to be dodging and relocating extra bags of groceries.  I know, first world problems.  But truthfully, designating some empty space for those extra things, gives you the flexibility to accommodate those temporary needs for storage.

So, to put my money where my mouth is, so to speak, I'll share one of these "blank spaces" in my home.

We love having family and friends over to our home, and my husband loves to grill.  Being that we have three growing children, we do not have a lot of extra space in our pantry cabinet.  So especially when I get this extra food - hamburger buns, bags of chips, watermelons and cantaloupes, extra graham crackers for smores - I don't feel the need to try to find space for it in the regular food cabinet because it will just be gone after the weekend anyway!  

There's this great corner cabinet in the kitchen, and it happens to have a clear glass door on it.


And although it's tempting, I don't keep anything in there permanently.


Okay well I keep one item on this shelf all the time - the coffee.  Because this cabinet is right above the coffee maker, and...because coffee.


What I love about this spot, is that it has tons of storage, and I can see it all the time.  So when I'm planning a BBQ or birthday party for the girls, I can very easily check on what I've already gotten and what I still need to find.  Or, when the girls have very recently gone on an easter egg hunt, I can keep their little bags tucked away, out of the way, until they finish eating all of their treats.


Do you have a blank space in your home?  Think about it, many of you probably do already.  A corner of the garage where you keep items to take to donate, a shelf in your closet where you store the gifts so the family doesn't see them ahead of time?  If not, then maybe it's time to create one!