When you think of spaces in your home to reorganize, you may immediately think of areas like your closets and bedrooms, neglecting one of the most-used spaces in your home: the kitchen. Whether you are a culinary chef or a microwave-meal cook, everyone benefits from an organized kitchen. When your kitchen has a flow and things are found easily, you can prepare your meals more easily. Let’s go over a few areas in your kitchen that could use some attention.
Layout and Design Matter
Your kitchen’s layout and design play a huge role in the ease of meal preparation. One of the most important factors to consider is adequate countertop space. Your counters are where you chop food, place mixing bowls, measure and pour, store ingredients while you cook, stack clean dishes to dry, and place your food to be served. Inadequate counter space leads to clutter, chaos, and difficulty when preparing and serving meals. Additionally, you want to ensure that your kitchen has an easy flow and there are not things obstructing your path. Kitchen islands are popular ways to add counter space and storage, and oftentimes people will use the island as a breakfast table. If you have stools up against the island that make it difficult to walk through, you may want to rethink the types of stools or consider getting rid of them altogether.
Organize the Cabinets and Drawers
Another important aspect of creating a productive kitchen is how you organize your kitchenware. First, you want to store items based on the areas you will use them. For example, you can store your plates and bowls near the dishwasher for easy unloading. You can put your mixing bowls, spices, and cutting boards near the stovetop to make prep easier while cooking; this prevents you from having to constantly go back and forth across your kitchen to make a meal. Additionally, organize your items within the cabinets and drawers to make everything more visible and accessible. In your cabinets, you can add extra shelves or baskets to maximize space. Meanwhile, in your drawers, you can use space dividers or small bins to help keep all of the small utensils and tools separate and orderly. For kitchen light bulbs, use a bulbNEST to keep them organized and leave it handy in the pantry!
Don’t Forget the Refrigerator
An often-overlooked area of organization is the refrigerator. A messy, disorganized fridge results in food getting shoved to the back, where it can hide and rot. You either can’t find the ingredients you are looking for or you forget about the things you do have. When you are preparing a meal, the last thing you want to do is waste time digging through the fridge to find the key ingredient. Start by pulling out everything and giving the inside of your refrigerator a good wipe-down. After everything is clean, begin putting food back in using storage bins or baskets to help group and separate different foods. According to Lifehacker, you should store raw meat on the bottom to avoid accidental drippage onto other foods.
If you want to do a refrigerator deep clean (and we all really should), check out MaidForYou’s guide to deep cleaning your fridge.
Make it Work For You
By adjusting the layout of your kitchen, organizing your cabinets and drawers, and regrouping the foods in your fridge, you will be able to prepare meals quickly and efficiently.
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