10 Steps to an Orderly Kitchen
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Recipe Introduction
The kitchen is an area of your home that gets used more often
than most other areas. So it stands to reason that if your kitchen were
more organized and simple to use, your life would feel easier. Here are
10 easy steps to organize your kitchen, and make your family life flow
more smoothly when it comes to meal preparation.
List of Ingredients
1.. Pull everything out of each cabinet and go through it.
Discard or donate those things that are not frequently used, duplicate
items, broken items or things you forgot you had. Do this with each cabinet
and drawer, setting up separate areas on the floor for each group. Be
ruthless. Most kitchens are short on storage space, so the goal is to
only have things you love and use.
2.. After your cabinets are all empty, consider what is best
for you in terms of how to group items. Sort all your baking items and
pile them together. Sort your cooking items and pile them together. Group
the dishes you eat from, glassware, holiday or other seasonal items
that only get used once or twice a year, as well as those special
entertaining or serving pieces that are only used occasionally.
3.. Now that you have groups laid out on the floor, decide
where each item should be stored. Cooking and baking pieces should be kept
close to where you do food preparation. Utensils should be in the
drawer nearest to the prep area as well. Glassware might be best near the
sink or refrigerator. Make a coffee or tea station that includes sugar,
mugs and filters, and place it near the water source, if possible. This
way you avoid going back and forth across the kitchen for the things
you need just to make your morning beverage.
4.. Containerize inside your cabinets. Group together things
like packets of sauce mixes, gravy mixes, hot cereal packets and hot
cocoa envelopes, and put them into small plastic containers to avoid them
being scattered all over the cabinet. Use clear plastic shoeboxes to
store food that is in tiny boxes such as gelatin or pudding mix.
5.. Discard containers without lids, and store the remaining
plastic containers either with the lids on them, or store the lids in
another larger container so they all stay together. Do the same with the
lids for your pots and pans. A large clear plastic box will keep them
nicely together and on their sides. Another option is to store them on
their sides in the cabinet on a wire rack.
6.. Make use of vertical space. Place hooks underneath cabinets
to hold mugs above the countertop, or hang a stemware rack in the same
spot for wine glasses. This will free up a lot of cabinet space. You
could also hang adhesive hooks on the inside of cabinet doors or pantry
doors to hold tools such as measuring cups, oven mitts or other kitchen
gadgets. Consider using wall space or a ceiling rack to hang pots and
pans. Keep in mind that any space you can use to hang something will
free up flat space inside a cabinet.
7.. Use lazy Susans (rotating trays) to hold things such as
oils, vinegars and other cooking ingredients, as well as spices, vitamins
or medications. You can also use a few lazy Susans in your
refrigerator--one for beverages, so nothing ever hides in the back to spoil or
freeze, and another for leftovers or small jars of pickles, olives or other
small food items.
8.. Use drawer dividers for cooking utensil drawers and your
junk drawers. Everyone needs a place to keep those little miscellaneous
things, but they don't have to be overflowing and junky. Drawer dividers
will allow you to assign a little spot for each thing, and you'll be
able to find things when you need them.
9.. Get a magnetic sorter box to hang on the side of the
refrigerator for coupons, takeout menus, a notepad and pen or other papers
that tend to accumulate on the countertops. Each type of paper should
have its own section in the sorter.
10.. Keep trash bags near the trash can, and throw a stack of
loose bags into the bottom of the can. That way, when you pull out one
bag, there is already another one right below it waiting to be used. If
you put your trash out at the curb one night a week, use that time to
clean out your refrigerator each week too. See what food needs to be
pitched and immediately throw it out, and then take the trash out to the
curb right then. You refrigerator will house only current items and will
be less cluttered--and it only takes a few minutes.
Your personal work style will determine where you store and use
the items in your kitchen, but the goal is to get that room and its
contents to serve your needs as smoothly and efficiently as possible. If
you invest the time and energy into decluttering and organizing your
kitchen, it is an investment that will pay off in happiness for years to
come.
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