Whip your kitchen in shape with these easy tips
You use the kitchen every day. You know where everything is. You also make a mess. It’s time to take a little initiative and get your kitchen more organized than it has ever been. You’ll be glad you did – you will not only minimize the likelihood of misplacing stuff, you’ll also simplify your cooking routine and maximize space!
1. Place Like-Items Together
Buy some baskets or bins to organize food in the pantry. Organize by categories such as SNACKS, PASTA, BAKED GOODS, etc… slap a few labels on the sides to aid you when you’re working to prepare meals in a hurry.
2. In Your Sights
Strategically place the items you use the most at eye level in the pantry. It makes life a little easier when you just open the door and the usual suspects are right there awaiting your directive. Put lesser used products on the top and bottom shelves.
3. Contain the Grain
With a set of large matching containers you can store your baking ingredients and grains conveniently. They hold more than the boxes you buy the products in, and the twist-tops prevent spillage. You may even use Mason jars, and fill them with everything from dry cereal to brown sugar.
4. Flip your Lids
All those Tupperware lids seem to have minds of their own – they’re impossible to keep with the corresponding counterparts. So, put them in their own drawer. Keep them together by size, from smallest to largest. Now, when you need a lid it will be super easy to find the right one.
5. Hook ‘em!
Pick up a corkboard, hang hooks from them and hang it on the inside of a cabinet door. If a corkboard is too cumbersome, try a pegboard or even adhesive suction cup hooks. You will maximize space by hanging smaller pots, measuring cups, and utensils that would usually take up room elsewhere.
6. Rise, Shelf, Rise!
Use shelf risers to double your cabinet space in a flash. They’re extremely space efficient and you can use them to double the number of pots, pans, mugs, plates, bowls… extra space goes a long way to making space!
7. Lazy but Practical
If you’ve let spice bottles accumulate and be rotated until they were ultimately shifted to the back of a cabinet, you know what it’s like to have to go through each one to find the spice you are looking for. There’s no need for that, a mini Lazy Susan on the countertop will keep your spices organized, visible and accessible at the ease of a turn.
8. Tools by Type
You probably have more spatulas than you need among a plethora of other kitchen tools. Organize them by type. For instance, the spatulas should be with other grilling tools like tongs or a baster. As such, separate baking accessories and arrange them together as well.
9. In Rod We Trust
A great way of dealing with the clutter of assorted pot lids is to store them upright. This feat may be achieved by installing a vertical tension rod just a few inches out from the side, enabling the lids handles to rest on it, keeping them standing in place (works best with deeper drawers).
10. Keep ‘em Close
Put the things you use every day right where you can reach them, in a moment’s notice. Keeping them easily visible in your cabinet, ready to go, can streamline your routine and make it much easier. Consider putting other items you use often in this priority category as well.
