Guest Blogger: 6 Tips for Easy Kitchen Organization

 Guest Blog #122, Entry #588, July 15, 2011

One of the factors of a great kitchen is how well it is organized, you may have the best finishes, but once you get in the kitchen to cook, you’re ready to get out because you can’t find anything! An organized kitchen is essential for enjoying yourself, being productive and not spending needless hours, as well as optimizing space to store food, dishes, and miscellaneous kitchen essentials.

Kitchen organization is essential for your home

Image courtesy of Our Little Nest

Today, my Guest Blogger, Lisa Harris Gore gives you 6 tips to ensure your kitchen organization suits your lifestyle needs and keeps it easy at the same time!

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Have you ever been in a friend or family member’s kitchen and thought, “WOW!  Everything is in the perfect place…exactly where it should be!”  For those of us that are somewhat obsessive, I bet you’ve noticed when things are in their proper place or not.  I love it when my friends or family members know me well enough that they never have to ask where to find the glasses, plates, or silverware.  “So how can I organize my kitchen to make sense?” you may ask…let me further explain in the next 6 easy tips.

1.) First you will want to examine your kitchen.

You want to start with a plan.  In order to organize things properly you will want to place them in locations that are convenient to grab or use in the most common space.  Begin to imagine the everyday “work flow” of your kitchen, and begin to formulate ways that you can “optimize” the locations of your kitchen utensils for convenience and ease of use.  For example…if you have a dishwasher, the most common drawers and cabinets that are closest to it would be the silverware, glasses, and plates.  This will ensure that putting them away will be fast and easy.

Determine what areas of your kitchen need organizing

2.) Minimize

Now that you have a plan of where you will be putting things, you will want to minimize the amount of unused items in your kitchen.  We all have those small kitchen appliances that we “had to have” (you know, the ones you’ve used a few times or on rare occasions).  If you absolutely MUST keep your waffle maker, your food dehydrator and the juicer you rarely use, then place it in a closet or pantry area away from the main cupboards that you will be using regularly.  If you can let go of unused dishes, cups, pots/pans and other kitchen items you will find it much easier to organize and keep organized.

3.) Drawers, Pantry, Cupboards

Next you will want to go through all of your drawers, cupboards and pantry.  Go through all of the boxed and canned food.  Many years ago people thought you could keep canned items forever, but that is not the case.  You will want to either eat or donate the food that is close to their expiration date.  You will want to look at each item and if donations are possible, local food pantries are always in need of donations.  If you find items that are expired, please take caution and toss them away.  Room in any of these areas is a good thing.

Organize your drawers for ease in the future

4.) Clean & disinfect

After or during these three steps you will want to clean and disinfect each of the cabinets and drawers.   You should do this twice annually.  It’s easy to do and can be done as you go through each space.  The best way to do this is simply taking a small bucket of water and a ¼ cup of bleach with a washcloth to wipe each area down.  If you’d prefer there are disinfecting wipes that come in convenient containers that can be used as well.
After the plan has been made, the cupboards and drawers have been de-cluttered and disinfected you will want to begin to relocate the items you plan to keep.  Do so in a manner that again, makes the most sense.  You will want to place the hot pads next to the oven, the knives near the cutting boards, the baking utensils near the baking items, and the cups and glasses near the sink/dishwasher or the refrigerator.
Since each kitchen is different in layout and space, you will have to do your best to place items in the most “common sense” locations.  The final tip is to walk everyone that lives with you through your new organized kitchen.  You may want to explain why things are placed where they are so it makes sense to other and they remember where items go as well as why.  By doing this you will have an organized kitchen for a much longer time than if you didn’t.
If there’s any room that needs to be organized, it’s your kitchen and your home office, but that’s for another time.  Good luck and if you don’t use it, get rid of it!  Donations are great and tax-deductable! Less clutter = more organized space.  Good luck and have fun in the kitchen!

Lisa Harris Gore is an Award Winning Educator, Wellness Consultant and has experience in both home and office organization.  She is also an author for PSCLife.com – the web’s leading retailer of Pegasus Labs Tyme Zyme – an enzyme supplement designed to improve the body’s response and healing time to injuries.

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