Organizing Your Kitchen

I don't know about you, but the kitchen is my favorite room in the house. It's hard to share it, it's hard to let anyone else use it, and it's impossible to let someone else organize it. The only good part of moving to a new house is reorganizing my kitchen. Every time, I get to put everything in the cabinets the way I want, in an easy to use fashion. If I could move kitchen every month, I would! If I had to move house every month, I might give up on living. Here's a few tips on how I keep my cabinets, dishes, and cooking utensils easy to use and well organized.

 

First up: where and when!

The first thing I do is to really take a look at my kitchen, and see what I have to work with as far as
storage. Cabinets with opaque doors, or doors we can see through? Can I reach the shelves without a step-stool or ladder? Do I need a rocket to reach the top shelf? Which shelves have a greater chance to leak or are near the stove/microwave and will get too hot to store foodstuffs? Check out all of these things, and then you're ready to start to organize.

Spices, baking goods, and other perishables.

For any ingredients I am keeping, I like to keep them somewhere easy to see. My preference is to keep them in a cabinet with a glass or plastic door that allows me to see what's inside. Then I can open it easily and get what I want right away. I often use small baskets or other such containers that can store spices in a theme; Italian, Mexican, Pizza, or any other theme that works well for you. I also want to make sure this storage space is fairly temperature controlled. If the temperature spikes, it's too humid, or it's too dry, it can have an adverse effect on your stored goods. A full plastic bottle of oil may not be full anymore after the oil heats up and overflows all over the cabinet.

If I can't use a storage space where I can see inside, or, I can't replace the doors such that I will be
able to, then I make sure to organize my spices by commonly used grouping, and store them in the closest place to my work space. I try to do my mixing and preparation away from the stove and oven (and dishwasher) so that the heat doesn't affect what I am preparing!

Cups, plates, bowls, serving dishes....

Nothing makes me more cranky than when my dish cabinets are in disarray. I try to put my dishes in order from largest to smallest, flattest to most curvy. I also make sure I sort all of my dishes by design, and put all the items with the same design in the same spot. I can't sleep at night if they're in disarray!

I store my serving and presentation plates in a separate cabinet from my every day use items. These also are organized by size, height, and design. I make sure to do it this way to maximize my storage space.