I’m not sure what builders were thinking back in the 1960s. Did people have less stuff back then? Was what they had bigger, or taller and therefore made to fit in tall, deep shelves? Maybe there was just more time in the day to stack smaller items and precariously balance them on top of each other like tetris.
I’ve encountered older, not practically, designed cabinets more times than I should have. It seems top cabinets were all built for tall pitchers and bottom cabinets were all built with the assumption that people like crawling around on the floor reaching way back into dark depths to find what they needed.
Luckily, these days there are lots of solutions to help remedy this exact problem without requiring power tools. For this project, we used over a dozen helper shelves and sliding containers with handles that made a world of difference. She no longer has to take everything out of the cabinets just to get one thing! We also used can organizers, turn tables and stick on press lighting to help her see what’s in the bottom cabinets without requiring knee pads and a flashlight.
After this kitchen revival full of modern organizing systems, putting away groceries and finding ingredients for meals is seamless!
