Organizine Your Kitchen in 9 Easy Steps

Kitchen tasks can be divided into four specific categories: cooking, baking, eating and food storage. If these tasks can be divided so effortlessly, then it makes sense to divide your kitchen equipment by task as well and to store them in specific areas. Here are nine guidelines that will help you create a kitchen where all of your tools are easily accessible when and where you need them.

1. First, place all of your food preparation items as close as possible to the sink. Here you would include gadgets such as a food processor, a salad spinner and your favorite bowl.

2. Next, store your pots and pans near the stove. I find it really convenient to keep my pots and their lids together.

3. For me, baking is really a special occasion, so it’s fine if these items aren’t right next to the sink. However, if you bake every day, it makes sense to store your baking pans, mixing bowls and measuring cups closer to the sink. Either way, be sure to keep all your baking supplies together.

4. Organize your dishes, glasses, silverware, napkins and placemats in such a way so that the actual task of setting the table will be quick and enjoyable. In other words, these items should also be kept in an established area. As you know, the first three of these have traditional places in your kitchen. Keep napkins and placements in the drawer closest to the area where you’ll be dining. Plot your command stations so that they follow a logical flow of energy consumption. For instance, if your placemats are kept at the opposite end of the kitchen from where you eat, you are wasting steps. When you waste steps, you waste time. You need to direct your life force, not squander it.

5. Remember to create a home for your containers and other food-storage items. You are really wasting your energy and time if you are walking around in circles looking for tinfoil in one area of your kitchen and one of those infamous plastic storage containers in another. Try not to set up your kitchen so that you are constantly muttering under your breath, “I can’t ever find anything in this kitchen!”

6. Small tools can be stored in drawers in related bunches. You don’t want to be looking for a rolling pin and come across a knife sharpener and a tea ball in the same place. If you are lucky to have enough drawers, then place baking items in one, cooking utensils in another and other specialty gadgets, such as that pizza cutter in a third.

7. Many cooks have found that a container on the counter to house their most frequently used tools can be very helpful. Use an attractive container, if you can find the counterspace. Then keep those tools that you don’t use very often in a drawer.

8. Remember those drawer liners, to prevent slipping and sliding. Additionally, you might want to find some small containers in different sizes to store your tools. It would be a shame to organize everything only to find a chaotic mess the next time you opened your drawer.

9. In every kitchen there is the one drawer that I have dubbed “the guy drawer.” Here reside the screwdriver, a small hammer and perhaps some picture hooks or nails. You can find fabulous multi-sectioned plastic containers that will help you tidy this drawer and its numerous treasures. Try and keep your macho supplies to a minimum. It’s a good idea to store them low to the ground in one of the deep-bottom drawers. If you can find room for a small toolbox in your pantry, you might be able to free up this drawer altogether.