This Simple Home Bar Organization Tip Saves A Lot More Time Than You Think

Building a home bar can be a point of pride for many beverage enthusiasts or those who enjoy hosting social events in their homes. Having a well-stocked bar cart or home bar area always comes in handy for having guests over, as you're able to offer them a wider variety of cocktails and spirits. But there may come a time when too much collecting or too many bottles begins to feel disorganized and chaotic. Out of all the mistakes to avoid when organizing your home bar, not having the labels facing forward may be the gravest error. 

If you've ever seen an episode of MTV's "Cribs" or gotten a peek inside a professionally-organized refrigerator, you'll notice that usually all of the labels on drinks and food are front and center and easy to read. The same method applies to a bar area at home. Similar to how a store displays products, it's easier to reach for the proper bottle by having the label facing outward, eliminating the guesswork. With the labels facing outward, there's no wasting time lifting up or turning each bottle and hoping it's the exact one you're searching for. Think about when you visit a bar. All of the labels are facing toward the bartender and patrons, and the visual access benefits both the bartenders who need to quickly and efficiently reach for a specific bottle, as well as the guests who can study the selection on their own.

There are things to consider when creating a home bar so that the booze can flow with ease, like storing the appropriate glassware within reaching distance or organizing the different types of liquor in similar groups. An easy way to make this system of outward-facing labels more effortless is to make sure that when you return a bottle to the bar area, you keep the label facing outward as you set it back down. 

In addition to the labels facing forward, make sure you avoid overstocking the bar, which is a rookie mistake that makes everything look chaotic. Even if the labels of all of your bottles are facing outward, if the bar is too crowded, you won't be able to easily see those labels, forcing you to lift the bottles out from behind one another or push them to the side to get a glimpse of the label. If you can, try to leave some space between each of the bottles in the first row, ideally two to three inches, so that you can see the labels of the bottles in the row behind it by placing those bottles in the empty spaces behind and in between those in the first row. Put the bottles you find yourself reaching for most frequently in the first row, and place special bottles that you rarely touch towards the back, or store them in a separate cabinet if you have the space.