The kitchen is one of the most used areas in the home and it is essentially the command center of your living area. Keeping the kitchen organized can be hard to do when you’re constantly on the run, but with these 10 easy tricks, you will be able to get this area organized and work towards maximizing precious kitchen space.
10 Great Ways to Get Organized in the Kitchen
Arrange your dishes according to use
By arranging your kitchenware according to how often you use the pieces, you are setting yourself up to not only have an easier time putting dishes and such away, but also finding things when you need them the most.
Your every day dinner set should be at eye level in the general vicinity of the stove and oven. This makes it easiest to grab dishes and serve dinner to the masses. Those beautiful Christmas dishes though, they can be stored up higher out of your direct line of sight and brought out for special occasions.
Contain the messes
Honey, oils, and herb shakers — they are so useful when cooking but can be a complete nightmare to clean up. Contain these inevitable messes and stock these goods on an easy-to-clean lazy Susan. These can be found cheaply in stores like Target and Walmart, or even online on Amazon.
Organize your drawers
Storing like tools together may sound like second nature when it comes to organizing your kitchen. However, when it comes to Tupperware, how many of us are actually able to keep those in order?
One quick fix is to create a filing system for your containers and lids. To do this don’t be afraid to get creative and use small bins within your kitchen drawers. Organize like shaped containers from biggest to smallest on one side of the drawer and file away lids in the bins on the other to create a mess free storage center.
Utilize your under the cabinet space
In most kitchens this area may seem like lost space. Not to worry my friends, it is possible to take advantage of this area and maximize your counter space! 18 inches is the industry standard for the distance between counters and upper cabinetry.
This makes the underside of cabinets the perfect spot for things like mounting a paper towel holder, installing lighting or even installing a small appliance, like a microwave. Taking things like a paper towel holder or microwave off the counter top gives you more space in a smaller kitchen to work, while well placed lighting brightens the whole kitchen and seriously makes reading recipes easier.
Turn your glass front cabinets into a showcase
While your glass front cabinets may make you squirm, hello little finger prints, you can opt to turn this space into a place for your good china to be displayed. Or, if your good china already has a home, store pasta in canisters that match your kitchen and store the canisters in these cabinets. This inexpensive trick will add some useful flair to your kitchen decor.
Alphabetize the pantry
It might seem as though alphabetizing labels may be a task only for the library, however, alphabetizing the pantry does ensure that you always know where everything is, especially when containers look similar. It would be awful to grab the Thai Chili Powder instead of paprika, wouldn’t it?
Instantly maximize your pantry space
Not a lot of pantry space can really put a damper on your extra dry good storage. To maximize this space, hang an over the door shoe bag on the inside of the closet door.
This can serve as an instant face lift to the pantry, giving you more space to store the smaller stuff and more room on larger shelves for boxed and canned goods.
Hang what you can
Hanging things like aprons, pot holders, and even pots and pans can free up counter space, drawer space and precious cabinet space. Racks for hanging cookware can be found for as little as $50 online and can instantly save you tons of space.
This trick will also keep your pots and pans from getting scratched in storage. For the smaller stuff like aprons and pot holders, Command Hooks work fabulously!
Use the outside of your refrigerator
This idea may sound silly, but there are so many bits of paper that find their way into the junk drawer that would be better homed somewhere where we could see them. Office sections of stores typically have cute magnetic boxes for holding papers.
Attach these to the side of your refrigerator for an easy and aesthetically pleasing way to sort papers like coupons, take out menus and other papers that accumulate on your counter top.
Store snacks in clear containers
Families get busy, that is just a fact, and families on the go need nutrients to help get them through the day. It is easy to grab your keys, a snack pack of chips and run. To help organize your food AND promote healthier eating for your family, store healthy snacks like granola bars and snack packs of almonds in clear containers.
These nutritious snacks will be what your family sees, so that is what they will take on their way out the door. Not to mention holding snacks in sturdy bins will eliminate the clutter of all the half empty boxes of granola bars that inevitably take up residence in our cabinets.
Organizing the kitchen can seem daunting when first thought about. Sure it will take time and a little bit of patience, but in the end you will be rewarded with a better functioning kitchen which is a great feeling.
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