5 Tips for Organizing Your Kitchen
September 25, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under Organizing and Clutter Control
Kitchens tend to be a dumping ground for everything. We walk in the door and drop our keys, purse, mail, and shopping bags on the counter. We put away the groceries and somewhere in our subconsciousness find it ok to leave the mail there. Next thing we know, we have a few little items scattered throughout the room.
I am guilty of disorganization in my kitchen. I am trying to get better though. Here are a few kitchen organizing tips.
1) Put things away when you’re done using them. If we did this with everything our lives would be so much cleaner and organized.
2) Buy functional organizational tools. Don’t just buy some baskets because you think you can use them. Access your needs and space. Decide what will work and then make the purchases. Yesterday, I bought some little plastic baskets for my kitchen drawers. I bought them for the scissors, clothes pins, kid’s medicine cups and syringes, and other small items. They were pretty inexpensive too; some were 2/$1 and some were 3/$1.
3) Give a new home to things you rarely use. If you rarely use the vegetable steamer and waffle maker, then consider storing them in the garage or basement. I have a little storage container that I use for storing cookie cutters and other infrequently used utensils. It keeps them from getting in my way and junking up my kitchen drawers.
4) Have a clean up time before dinner. Each night, have a short clean up time before you begin dinner so that you can put away all the little things that are lying around. This will help keep your kitchen clean and will also make for less clean up later.
5) Try the 15 minute rule. Set the timer for 15 minutes to clean, pick up, and organize. Sometimes we put off tasks because they seem so overwhelming. If we know that we only have to clean for 15 minutes, then we’ll be more likely to get in there and tackle projects.
What kitchen organizing tips can you share?
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I can vouch for the effectiveness of the 15 minute rule. Even if you don’t get it all, you’d be amazed at how much you get done in such a short time span!
Be selective about the permanent fixtures on your counter top. A less cluttered counter top gives the appearance of a cleaner kitchen. Even a toaster or coffee maker can go in the cabinet when it’s not in use.
These are great ideas, Karen. This kind of goes along with #3, but every once in a while I like to take a good look at what I have stashed away in my high-up kitchen cupboards. I found a bread basket I bought but have only used (maybe) once for bread! So this summer I put it to use, hauling in vegetables from the garden. It’s currently sitting in the middle of my kitchen table, filled with home-grown tomatoes. And if I hadn’t poked around in my cupboards in the last few months, I wouldn’t have even remembered I owned a basket I could use for garden produce
Hi Lynn. Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Good point about looking through the cabinets. I just moved a few weeks ago so it gave me a good opportunity to go through all of my stuff. It’s easier to forget what you have when it’s behind cabinet doors.