The kitchen is the one place that the family is together more often. This is where you need the most space both on the counter and cabinets as well as floor space for everyone to move around. You want to be organized in this space for a couple of different reasons. If you are organized, it will speed up your cooking time.
It will also make it easier to entertain, and get more help from the family with meal preparation and clean up. It will also reduce money being wasted on duplicate purchases and reduce the amount of items that are getting broke.
What causes this problem?
There are a few common reasons why our kitchens are so cluttered. Very often, items are put away according to where they fit, not where they are used. You usually end up with big items in one set of cabinets, small items in another and medium ones somewhere else.
A number one big problem is that most of us have more stuff than we do storage space. We collect things that we never use. We feel secure if we have abundance of things and comforted knowing that we are prepared for anything.
Plan your Zones.
Arrange your zones around the natural flow of activity that goes on in your kitchen, using existing storage units. There are a few suggestions that you can choose to follow in order to help get your kitchen organized. You need a ‘food preparation zone’. For this zone, look for the longest uninterrupted counter space between either the sink and refrigerator or the sink and oven.
This gives you all the room you need to do all the washing, chopping, mixing, and seasoning involved in food preparation, with access to water, food, and cooking sources. Choose a ‘ daily cooking’ zone. This zone should be built around your oven and stovetop. Use nearby countertop or drawers for cooking utensils and potholders. ‘Daily dish zones’ should be located close to the dishwasher and sink so that everyday dishes, glassware, and flatware can be washed and put away with minimum effort.
For your ‘food serving zone’, you need to have storage cabinets near where the family generally eats. This will make convenient access to place mats, tablecloths, napkins, trivets, salt and peppershakers, sugar bowls, and serving pieces. Finally, you need a ‘food storage zone’. This consists of the refrigerator and if you are lucky, a separate pantry. If you do not have a pantry, you can use the cabinets nearest to the fridge to keep all the food together or utilize the cabinets in the food preparation zone for easy access when preparing meals.
Other possible zones in the kitchen might be ‘arts and crafts’ and ‘cooking hobby’. Arts and crafts could consist of a cabinet near the kitchen table for crayons, paints, and brushes. If you are in to baking you may want to create a special zone just for this activity where you can store your equipment so that everything is at your fingertips.
Stretch your Space.
Add open shelving for cookbooks, displays of attractive serving bowls and dishes, stemware, vases or baskets. You can display your pots and pans by hanging a pot rack over an island or a wall pot rack over a counter or stove. Install under the cabinet models of appliances such as coffeemakers, toaster ovens, microwaves and blenders to free counter space.
You can mount magnetic strips along the backsplash for hanging knives and cooking utensils. Buy a wheeled cart with a butcher-block top and cabinet space below for use as a portable food preparation zone. Install hooks, racks, and shelves on the inside of cupboard doors or the back of the kitchen door to expand storage space. Us a cutting board over the sink to expand counter space during food preparation.
Get Rid of the Unneeded Items.
This is the hard part. If you have dozens of pots and pans that do match each other or ninety coffee mugs, sixty glasses, and three sets of dishes and do not forget the hundreds of plastic storage containers, you have to sort through them and dump a few. Find a charity or give them to a friend or if that is too hard, store them in your attic or basement until you get the courage to throw them away.
Some items that are good candidates for the garbage are chipped or broken items, duplicate sets that are missing pieces, pots and pans and utensils that are burnt or rusty and excess stemware. Only keep the amount of glasses that you think you would need for your family and if you were to entertain.
Only keep a few plastic containers. Throw away the ugly plastic tumblers if your kids are grown and do not use them anymore. Save a few with memories or for visiting children or grandchildren. Throw away the old appliances that do not work anymore and pantry items that you have not used in one year or more.
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