How To Organize Your Kitchen

Do The Kitchen Dance

Kitchens are like children. Each one is different with their own shape, personality and usefulness. And, they need to be cleaned up all the time! (I started to say, “Kitchens are like men…”).

Because I’ve worked as a home nurse for many years, I have seen most every type of kitchen.

Some are so sterile and spotless, I dared to walk in them with my socks on. Many kitchens are warm and cozy as the center stage of the home. Sometimes I find kitchens that have become a combo package of the bedroom, washroom, laundry room, mailbox and garbage dumpster.

In my experience, the one thing that is 100% consistent is that I have never found a refrigerator that had room for my lunch bag.

Picture your kitchen right now. Look under the sink. Peek into your refrigerator. Tell me what you see. Well, never mind. Unless you are like my little sister. She has spent years rebuilding and designing her small kitchen to fit her personality as a great cook.

Her little 8x10 kitchen nook is a well organized, picturesque place to fix a quick breakfast, or serve a great Thanksgiving dinner for family and friends.

I learned a lot from her although I have no idea where she learned so much about organization and cleanliness. She lived in her car when other young women her age where getting married and having kids.

Would you like to have that “ahhh” feeling when you walk into your kitchen every morning?

Wouldn’t it be amazing if you knew what to put on your grocery list, and you stayed within your budget?

How would it feel to have a place for everything in your grocery bag when you got home?

Imagine what it would be like if you could prepare a meal and have every ingredient on hand?

When you finish reading this article on how to organize your kitchen, you will find that you may actually enjoy cooking, and your ‘family’ will feel more relaxed at the dinner table that was under there somewhere.

If your kitchen is already out of control, I urge you to take a stand right now and become the Mother-Of-The-House (MOTH) in your kitchen!

Run everybody out for a weekend. Clean like they do on those clean house shows on TV. Make piles to discard and to keep. And only keep what you have room for! That’s the “Big Secret”. You don’t need 49 drinking glasses on one shelf in a small kitchen. Keep a half dozen on a shelf closest to the refrigerator or drinking water, and put the rest on the top shelf or in a storage box.

Rule #1 “Have a place for everything and keep everything in its place.”

When we moved to a new home a few months ago, my husband and I started to clash in the kitchen. His rule of thumb is, “If you can see it, you can find it.” I found myself getting grumpy when he stacked all the cookies and tea bags at one end of my clean counter top; placed all the bread and chips on top of the dishwasher and piled the extra paper plates and lunch bags on top of the refrigerator. He was confused at my frustration.

"Isn’t that the way it is in every kitchen? “, he asked.

"Not in my kitchen,” I said with a flutter of my MOTH wings.

Before we moved into our new home, I had counted the number of drawers and shelves in my ‘new’ kitchen. On paper, I had replaced everything from the old kitchen to my larger one. I like the granite counters to be open and clear, and a special place for everything we use in the kitchen.

The oils and seasonings are within reach as I stir the soup on the stove. Next to the stove are two sets of pots and pans. Not in the cupboard across the room from the stove, but right where I can reach them as I start to prepare a meal.

Think about how you cook; what you normally prepare for the family and the movements you make in the kitchen as you prepare the usual meals. Make it a dance to glide gracefully from the cereal boxes to the bowls to the juice glasses, bread, toaster and jam.

If you are short on storage space, use your walls and the insides of the cupboard spaces! You can nail plate holders on the wall to hold lids for most-used pots. Put hooks inside the cupboard wall for the splatter lid, and keep the strainer on a hook next to the sink for that quick grab when holding a pot of boiling spaghetti water.

Speaking of the sink. Why is it that we keep the most poison, the heaviest containers, and the least used items stored in the most used area of the kitchen in the most favorite place for small children to play? Under the sink!

Is it something from the cave days when we had to grab the biggest stick to fight off wild animals? I decided to change the rules here. First, I place old pillowcases under the sink. It can absorb leaks and is easy to clean up. Place a narrow wire shelf to hold trash bags because that is something everyone in the house will want to use, and it’s easy to say, “The trash bags are under the sink”.

Bleach, wasp spray, cleaning supplies and paper towels do not belong under the sink because they are poison or too difficult to get to when you need them in a hurry!

If your family snacks a lot, designate one shelf in the kitchen for those snacks. But, As the MOTH, you should keep that area refreshed and organized often.

If you want the kitchen to run smoothly, there are two MOTH rules to remember. Number one. As the MOTH, you must be responsible to empty the dishwasher, or the entire kitchen process comes to a grinding halt. Number two. The MOTH will always empty the kitchen trash. You may delegate who takes out the trash after you have placed it outside the kitchen.

What is the secret about the top of the refrigerator and microwave that your mother didn’t tell you? As you sit at the kitchen table, what part of the kitchen can you see from your chair? Or, what do your guests see when they enter your home?

Yep. That’s it! With that in mind, green plants and teddy bears are the only items on top of my refrigerator.

How many times have you pulled opened a kitchen drawer only to slam it shut in fear or frustration? (When I was a child, that is where we could always find baby mice.) Once in a client’s home, I opened what I thought should be the silverware drawer only to find it full of hot chili peppers. No matter what you choose to put in the kitchen drawers, make it a MOTH rule to keep them neat and clean.

Do the “kitchen dance” to discover the best place for your utensils. I keep a drawer supplied with a small hammer, kitchen hooks, magic marker, (for labeling food), scotch tape (to seal boxes of dry food), used only by the MOTH.

Mugs are kept with the hot chocolate and tea. Juice glasses on a shelf close to the refrigerator. Heavy dinner plates and large bowels store near the dishwasher on the lowest shelf.

By the way, if you have a pet and keep the dry dog food in the kitchen. I made the best $30 investment of my life to install one of those pull-out shelves under the kitchen cupboard. It could work for anything you use several times a day.

Refrigerators are like …men. They like you to take good care of them – and they get spoiled easily! The number one rule here is that the MOTH must always take responsibility for keeping the refrigerator happy! Men won’t toss out the cheese because it looks funny, or dump the milk because it’s too thick to pour into the glass.

I suggest that you do the kitchen dance inside your refrigerator too. What do you use most often? What do others use most often? Teach your family what goes where, and flutter those MOTH wings as you gently repeat the instructions over and over again.

Don’t expect anyone to remember where everything goes, but over time they will learn it’s so much easier to keep the MOTH happy when they can.

A good MOTH cleans out the refrigerator (and the freezer) the day before trash day because it’s going to smell bad somewhere if you don’t.

Lay out a table setting on the table and put candles in the center. Light them if people don’t take notice. This saves time and sends a message to all family members. The MOTH has entered the building.

Happy Dancing!

Comments? Questions? Email Here

© HowtoAdvice.com

How to Advice .com