We all know the heart of the home is the kitchen — besides the bed we probably spend more time here than any other space. It’s not just a place to cook, it’s also a place to gather and entertain, enjoy meals together, and create lasting memories. Having an efficient kitchen can make our lives flow more smoothly and greatly reduce daily stress. Below are five simple changes you can make to your kitchen today to get more organized.
Declutter
You can always do this one drawer or cabinet at a time to avoid getting overwhelmed or tearing your kitchen apart. Grab a trash bag and set a timer for 10 minutes to get rid of as many unused items as you can. No. 1 on our list? The stupid plastic cups that you take home from restaurants. Other items to toss:
Stinky or broken water bottles
Tupperware with no lids
Pans with scratched non stick coating
Restaurant chopsticks
Mismatched coffee cups
Water Bottle Storage
One of our biggest pet peeves is storing water bottles. In a cabinet they always fall creating a domino like chain reaction. In a drawer they fall and inevitably get stuck to the point the drawer won’t open or close. To avoid all these headaches we like to use an acrylic wine rack to store them horizontally. Amazon has one of our favorites and it can be used in a drawer or cabinet! Gone are the days of tumbling water bottles rolling away from you.
Invest In Lazy Susans
Using a turntable is an easy way to always b items in the back to be easily moved to the front. They come in many different sizes and varieties. Here a few places we like to use them and the type of lazy susan we use in each space:
Organize your spices
When organizing a kitchen, spices are one of the biggest areas of waste we see. Rarely is there a time that we don’t throw away about 50% of the spices because of expiration dates. Take some time and go through your spices and throw away anything that’s expired — you’ll be surprised at how many have expired — and then arrange them so nothing gets lost in the back. Extra tip — buy spices in the same brand when possible, because the containers are similar and look more uniform. Don’t bother with decanting into fancy matching spice jars, it’s time consuming, messy, and spices expire fast. Here are three items we use to help organize spices more efficiently:
Spice drawer liner — if you like them stored in the drawer.
File your pans, bakeware and platters.
This is one of our favorite ways to make a kitchen function better. It never fails that when you’re in the middle of cooking something the pan you need is the one on the bottom of the pile. “Filing” flat items allows you to see everything at a glance and eliminates the need move items to get to whatever is on the bottom. The Container Store’s You Copia Adjustable Cookware Rack is one of our go-tos when it comes to filing pans. The store’s 4-Sort Wire Divider is another great option to consider.
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