Do you have trouble seeing what’s behind those tins of soup you bought last week? You need to organize your kitchen! Some days we spend more time looking for all the ingredients and utensils to cook our meals than we do actually cooking and eating it. We can help you find ways to maximize your storage, simplify access, and update your kitchen work areas, all with these simple tips.
The first thing you need to do is empty out your kitchen cabinets. Now you need to sort everything into its proper niche according to where it is used. You don’t put tins of beans in with the flour and cereal. Check to see if there are some items that you haven’t used for quite a while, and aren’t going to use soon. Set these aside to give to the food bank, a friend, or store them if you can’t part with them. Just don’t have them taking up space with items that you use up often. Once you get your cupboards in order, it’s time to move on to the utensils.
The biggest storage room thieves are your pots and pans. Sometimes you can manage to fit most of them in the drawer under your stove, but more often than not, all of them don’t fit. So you end up stuffing them into a cupboard that you could be using for other things.
If you are like me, cupboard space in your kitchen is a premium. However, these smart ideas can help you get more out of your cupboards than you ever thought you could! First off, let’s deal with those bulky pots and pans. Instead of storing them in the drawer under the stove, why not use a peg board and simple hooks, and hang them on the wall? Dad built one for our mother, and our kitchen was the talk of the neighbourhood! All the pots, pans and lids fit perfectly on the wall, saving our mother a ton of room in the cupboards. If you aren’t partial to peg board, you can either make or purchase a fancy, wrought iron or copper rack to hang the pots from.
Contemporary racks don’t have anywhere to hang pot lids, so a good way to keep them organized is to add a shallow bin or plastic tub to the back of your cupboard doors. If you happen to have a deep drawer, partition it into compartments to hold the ‘awkward’ and unusual kitchen utensils.
Cookie sheets, pie plates and muffin pans can all be stored accessibly by adding horizontal dividers to one of your lower cabinets. Avoid stacking when and where ever possible. There are many different specialty organizers available for kitchen cabinets, lazy susans for corner cupboards, shelf stackers for canned goods, dishes or kitchen appliances and wire baskets or slides for deep cabinets.
A great way to keep your kitchen organized is to create specific areas. Obviously, one section is the sink area. Then you have the preparation section, and the cooking/serving area.
In most kitchens, the prep area is usually between the fridge and the sink. Basic ingredients, mixing equipment/utensils, mixing bowls, measuring cups and spoons should be kept here. Silverware, cooking utensils, pots, pans, plates, serving dishes, and containers for leftovers should be kept by the stove. It’s much easier to prepare and cook food when everything is at your fingertips.
Anything to do with clean up, trash removal or recycling should be kept in the sink area.
Not every kitchen is built with organization in mind. Some kitchens have few cabinets, others a wealth of cupboards, just not necessarily in the best areas for proper storage of foodstuffs and utensils. If you have organizationally ‘challenged’ cupboards, try to keep these principals in mind and do the best you can with what you have, and consider possibly adding free standing shelving to help keep your kitchen in order. After all, a smoothly running kitchen makes for stress free, delicious meals.
Recent Comments