The Kitchen: Organization and de-junking

Let’s look at organized for a bit.  When you open your cupboards or drawers, do you cringe or do ‘things’ fall out onto your toes. If you hate to look for that gravy boat, that small pan, or the lid that is going to fit your Tupperware, you are in need of some organizing.

It can be a long process to sort and throw ‘some things’ from the kitchen away, but you have to stand back, look at what you have and say to yourself – “I haven’t used this in over a year, I am getting rid of it!”

Doing this is really going to help you determine what is a necessity and what is just taking up space in your kitchen. You will find that the less ‘stuff’ you have in your kitchen, the less you are going to have to look for things when you need them most, and you will be able to cook faster and with less stress!

Now while you are organizing your kitchen, you should keep in mind that your glasses should be kept near the refrigerator. The pots and pans should be kept in a cupboard near the stove. The plates and bowls should be within easy reaching distance between the stove and the refrigerator. These give you the best positions for working quickly and efficiently in the kitchen.

Your silverware should be kept in a drawer that is easy for to you to reach. The ‘junk’ drawer should not be within the range of your working area in the kitchen, so that when children or spouse’s get into the junk drawer they are not in your working space.

Tupperware, Rubbermaid or plastic ware can be kept further from the kitchen even in the pantry because you are really only going to use these for leftovers and for storage. All the lids, the bowls, and the plastic containers should be kept in the same location time after time so you can easily find bowls and their lids.

Again, if you have too much plastic ware, your cupboards are going to be overflowing and it is difficult to find anything. Just keep the most important pieces of your collection, and get rid of what you cannot use at the same time.

Along with organizing your pots, pans, glasses, the number of your plastic ware and how to reach all of these things in your kitchen, you should also organize your food. Boxed food, canned food, fresh food, and how it is all stored in your kitchen does affect how well and fast you work in the kitchen.

Keeping your similar types of foods together will help you remember where something is no matter what time of day it is. Your crackers, boxed soups, boxed noodles and similar foods should be together so you know what is on hand. Usually these items are kept in cupboards that are overhead or above the counter because they are lighter than canned goods.

Canned goods stored on lower cupboards make it ‘easier’ on your cupboards. Canned goods kept in the lower cabinets will not weigh down the upper cabinets over the years, making your cabinets last longer.

The canned goods that are kept in the lower cabinets are easier to put away without having to lift them over your head.  Canned goods that are kept in cabinets above your head have a higher chance of falling out and hitting you on the head. Prevent accidents by keeping your canned goods stored in the lower cabinets!