The Breaking Point

“Last Thanksgiving, as relatives helped me put away leftovers, they opened my plastic-container drawer and were amazed at the chaos,” says Beth Jorgensen, whose kitchen before the makeover is shown here. “For Christmas they gave me collapsible food containers.” But the drawer was just a symptom of a larger problem. “In fact,” Beth says, “my whole kitchen needed help.”

What She Likes

The big, deep drawer where she keeps plastic containers.

The collapsible containers her family bought her.

The convenience of having cookbooks in the kitchen.

What She Dislikes

The chaos of the container drawer.

The need to pull down a stack of heavy bowls from a high shelf to retrieve the one she needs.

The fear that things could come tumbling down at any moment.