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Whether you’re a singleton cooking for one or a busy parent trying to feed a half-dozen children, it pays to keep your kitchen in order. You’ll find cooking so much less stressful when everything is neat and organized! In that respect, here are just a few ways to rearrange your kitchen and keep everything close at hand.
1. Utilize Vertical Space
Put shelves on the walls. Hang hooks inside cabinet doors. Install hanging baskets from the ceiling. Vertical space is often ignored in kitchens because everyone is so preoccupied with countertops and islands, but if you’re willing to think top-to-bottom inside of side-to-side, you can create a lot of opportunities for organization. Don’t forget to stack things, too! Stackable shelves and cabinets are great ways to use vertical space.
2. Label Everything
This is especially helpful for large, walk-in pantries with lots of jars and cans. If everything is labelled, you’ll be able to tell at a glance what you have in your storage space. You can even include expiration dates along with item descriptions! You don’t have to cut the labels yourself, either. You can use online sticker makers to create custom-made applications for all of your kitchen supplies.
3. Group “Like” Items Together
If you hate spending 10 minutes on a futile search for your spatula while your omelette is burning, this is the tip for you. Instead of haphazardly tossing your utensils and appliances into random drawers, organize them by size, color, usage or type. For example, you might put all of your spoons in the same cup or all of your napkins in the same drawer. You’ll never lose them if they’re always grouped together.
4. Don’t Waste Space
There are many ways to squeeze more storage space out of your kitchen. For example, you can install a pull-out cutting board that usually hides inside your kitchen island; this will keep it from taking up space when you’re not using it. You can also insert risers into your cupboards to maximize the amount of plates and bowls that will fit there.
These are just a few things to keep in mind as you organize your kitchen. At the end of the day, the most important thing is that your cooking space works for <i>you</i>, so don’t let anyone pressure you into a design or system that you don’t like!
