Melissa
I thought we had downsized enough before our overseas move, but it turns out I was wrong…dead wrong!
While we were stationed in Northern Virginia we had the typical home for the area: 4 bedrooms with a formal living room, family room, a cook’s dream of a kitchen, and ample storage space. Apparently in the three years we were there, I took all the empty space as a green light to fill it up with fantastic decorating finds. When we got our orders to move to Okinawa, I was realistic and knew that moving overseas was not going to offer us such spacious accommodations. I was so proud of myself for carefully researching possible housing options noting what household items would be appropriate to take, and which ones should be left behind. It seemed that every house I saw online had a decent sized kitchen with adequate cabinet space. Since I enjoy cooking, I took these photographs as permission to pack the majority of our kitchen items.
Enter reality. When we did a walkthrough of our new house I was immediately alarmed at the size of the kitchen. Literally it is a one-person only space, and if you open the refrigerator door or oven, that space quickly disappears. With only two full above the counter cabinets, a lazy susan corner cabinet, and a handful of drawers, I wondered where I would put my cake pans, bakeware, pots and pans, and various gadgets. On moving day, as our movers kept unloading boxes labeled “Kitchen Items” into my matchbox sized kitchen, my panic and stress level kept rising. My ever so calm husband assured me that I am a great organizer and that l would find a place for everything. Since I am that weird person who typically enjoys unpacking, I thought that maybe he was right. Maybe I wouldn’t have to burn all the unopened boxes to make them disappear, but I knew that I needed to research storage options…. immediately.
Fortunately, I was not facing this challenge alone. After all, the majority of the housing options off the installation did not provide roomy kitchen accommodations either. I decided to head out into the local community and explore storage options used by Okinawans. I was amazed at the ingenuity of some of the items I found available in stores! Suction cup shelving and storage hooks (and they don’t fall down!!!), under cabinet baskets to add to cabinet space, and magnet containers are just a few of the treasures I discovered. I rushed back home with my new purchases eager to make everything work.
Since real estate space in our kitchen is at a premium, I carefully organized our essential items to strategically create the perfect kitchen “triangle,” (ok, so in this case it is really a kitchen line, no room for a triangle). I still had a plethora of frequently used items leftover that needed to find a home. After some careful deliberation, we decided to purchase a dining room sideboard to make up for the lack of cabinet space. This piece of furniture helped immensely, but I was still left with the dilemma about where to put occasionally used items like our giant slow cooker, trifle bowl, and cake keeper. We decided that as undesirable as it may seem, these items would need to be stored in our spare bedroom closet.
The kitchen wasn’t our only space problem. We have the typical military gear collection, my craft arsenal, small fitness equipment items, holiday decorations, and random office items that needed to be organized and put away. I like to keep items like this easily accessible so they do not fall into the trap of “out of sight, out of mind.” With this guiding thought, we decided to make the storage space under our staircase into a craft/office supply storage area. A few storage drawer units and totes from AAFES later and it looked like a respectable space.
We arranged our guest bedroom into zones to accommodate our storage needs. One zone for actual guest bedroom amenities like the bed and night stand, another for office peripherals like the file cabinet, bookcase, and small desk, and finally a zone for fitness items. Next, we carefully loaded the military gear into the spare bedroom closet alongside the random kitchen items. We just hope future visitors do not mind our multitasking space!
Are our storage solutions Ideal? No. Functional? Yes, and that is all that matters. Of course our overseas home isn’t going to be featured as a spread in decorator magazine anytime soon, but it works for our needs while we are here. I believe that all military spouses must have been blessed with the ability to make any house a home, and, lucky us, we get the chance to hone and perfect this skill with every PCS. Making an organized home happen overseas just required a little flexibility and creativity.
