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In this video I show you organizing ideas on how I organize all of my party supplies and paper goods in my buffet cabinet in the dining room!


Video Details

Hi, everyone. It’s Alejandra. And in this video, I’m going to share with you everything that I have inside of my dining room cabinet for everything related to entertaining. So this is the cabinet that I have all of my entertaining supplies that I’m going to show you everything. But this is the exact piece of furniture that showed in my office supply organization video that a lot of people asked where it’s from. I got it from my IKEA about two or three years ago and I love it because all the drawers, they slide really nicely in the cabinets down here. You just push them and they open and then to close them, you just push them again. It’s great. I’ve had it for three years and it’s just working wonderfully.

Dining Room Organization Tips

Dining Room Organization Ideas

Dining Room Organization

So everything that I have inside my dining room is related to entertaining. I don’t keep this stuff in the kitchen because it’s all related to entertaining which I do inside the dining room. So let me show you what I have inside here. So down here on the bottom shelf, I have all of my linens. So like napkins, table cloths. Like right here, I have two sets of napkins and I organized them by like type and what set they belong to so like all the floral, all the solids are back there. And then over here, I have all of my round table cloths for our round table in the dining room. And then over here, I have all of the rectangular table cloths for our kitchen table because our kitchen table is rectangular.

Organizing Napkins and Entertaining Supplies

Organizing Napkins and Entertaining Supplies

And then on the bottom shelf here, I put adhesive shelf liner to kind of give it a popup color. I felt like everything was so dark inside this cabinet and I kind of wanted to lighten it up. So putting a shelf liner did the trick. And this took – adding shelf liner and trying to get it without bubbles takes so long to do. I think each shelf took maybe like 30 minutes or something to do. So it’s a lot of time because it’s worth it because it just looks pretty and it just gives it a popup color.

So up here, I have like a little bar kit, a cocktail set, I have more napkins. And then here, I have drink koozies. And all the containers like I try to use clear ones so I could immediately see what is inside what right when I open the cabinet. This, I just reuse from another area of the house.

And then at the very top of the drawer up here, I have napkin rings so two sets here and then I have all of the plastic. This is like picnic ware and just like plastic flatware and stuff. And I sorted everything by category so all the knives are here, all of the forks are here, and then all of the spoons are right here. And I put them inside of a Ziploc bags so nothing gets dusty when they’re away in storage and they’re just clean next time you use them.

How to Organize the Dining Room

So over here, I have a lot of sugar and I sorted them by category because we had so many different varieties but I like to put them out whenever we have company over because everybody likes a different type of sugar so there’s regular sugar, there’s Stevia, there is Splenda, there is Equal. Yes, so there’s just like so much.

And the dividers I use here, they’re just clear little dividers just like this. They are made for like home office supplies or kitchen supplies so I just reuse them for my office. And I didn’t label anything because I just open it and I could see what is what and plus I feel like if I added labels, everything would have been covered because these are kind of high, these are kind of high, and these are kind of high. So yeah, that’s about it.

And then if you feel like you’re dividers or your organizers are sliding, what you can do is put a piece of Museum Putty on the very bottom of the organizer and then stick it to the bottom of the drawer. The Museum Putty will hold it in place so when you open the drawer nothing is going to slide back. But I feel like nothing is sliding back so I didn’t do that.

OK. So on the other side of the cabinet, I have more entertaining supplies. So in here, I have – down here, this container, there are plastic cups for again, for entertaining. They’re all wrapped in plastic so nothing gets dirty while they’re in storage. And then in the middle here, I have all the plastic – not plastic, paper goods like for picnics and barbecues and stuff. And again, everything is in a jumbo size Ziploc bag so it doesn’t get dusty.

Napkin & Cocktail Organizing Tips

Then over here, I have so many napkins because I did a decoupage project like last year and we used like rainbow colored napkins. Now, I have so many sets of napkins. But all the napkins are in Ziploc bag. So again, nothing gets dirty or dusty. And then I organize these ones vertically so you can just pull it out and look up and you really see everything you have.

And then over here, I have a Lazy Susan with little airplane bottles. So I like to make cocktails like I like trying new recipes for different cocktails but I don’t want to buy like a full bottle or something if the cocktail is not going to come out tasty so I just buy small ones and then try making them. And if I like them, I can get something bigger.

Over here, I have all of my straws. So I’m a big straw person. I love using straws for like juices, smoothies, cocktails. So there is like these really thick straws, these are fun for smoothies or milkshakes. And then there are smaller straws here and then coffee stirrers right there.

Organizing Cocktail & Drink Supplies in the Dining Room

Organizing Cocktail & Drink Supplies in the Dining Room


And then here is a silverware organizer. So whenever I have a party, I’ll put the knives here, the spoons here, the forks here, the napkins here, so that’s only for entertaining purposes. Then paper cups, just for fun. I don’t know why.

So I have shelf liner on the shelves. Again, that took a long time to do. The shelf liner is from T.J. Maxx. It’s by The Macbeth Collection and it comes in different colors. And then up here in this drawer, I have all of the hot plates over here. So these are all from IKEA. There are three different sizes. And what’s cool about these hot plates is if you don’t need to use them for hot plates, you can mount them to the wall in the office or in the kitchen and use them as corkboard squares to like hang an invitation, hang a card, hang a piece of paper and they are super cheap at IKEA. So those stay here.

Ed and I love to collect matches every time we go to restaurants or travel somewhere, we always bring them back so all of our matches are here for candles. I also keep pebbles for decorating or for vases in my buffet. I keep them in a baggy so they don’t get dusty.

All of the tea lights for candles when you have party are stored in a container in here too. So there are regular tea lights and then there are a few battery-operated tea lights. And these are actually – these are from Pier 1 but I’ve actually seen them at the Dollar Store so you can get them cheap.

So that’s everything inside of the buffet. What you’re going to do when you’re organizing your dining room is keep everything that’s related to entertaining in the space instead of keeping those things in the kitchen. Since you do all your entertaining in the dining room, you want to have everything nice and accessible.

OK. So that’s everything I wanted to show you inside the dining room. I hope this video was helpful. And if you want more organizing tips and videos, you can visit my website at Alejandra.TV. I’ll see you soon. Bye!

About Alejandra

About Alejandra

Since 2008, organizing expert & certified life coach, Alejandra Costello has taught thousands of students in 132 countries how to get organized through her video-based training programs. Her YouTube videos have been viewed 100+ million times. Named 1 of the 5 most organized people in America by HGTV and “The Decluttering Queen” by Good Morning America, Alejandra’s expertise has been featured in The New York Times, Oprah.com, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, Woman’s Day, Parents Magazine, and CBS. 

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