It is often said that “the kitchen is the heart of the home”. Many of us find the quote true, and we spend the majority of our time gathered in the kitchen with family and friends. Many of us also add the newest gadgets and appliances to our kitchens every year but do not add space making it easy to overfill our cabinets and drawers. With so much activity in the kitchen, how do people keep their kitchen tidy?
Our kitchen is directly off our garage and is the eating spot, mail drop, backpack storage and homework location. It can easily become cluttered with things and the counters covered. Our home is not large and our previous home had an even smaller kitchen, so I have learned a few tricks over the years to easily keep my kitchen tidy on a mostly daily basis.
Here are some tricks:
Begin by organizing. Is the thought overwhelming? Start with one drawer.
Sort everything into similar groups. Over Christmas, Santa left me a spatula in my stocking. As I sorted and organized after Christmas, I found five spatulas I had not touched in the last year in addition to the ones I use on a regular basis.
When you place things back in your drawers and cabinets, think about what you do use most on a daily basis. Make sure daily used items are easy to access and easy to put away. If they are easy to put away, you will more likely put them away.
Limit the number of gadgets and utensils you will keep in your drawers. I found two vegetable peelers in a drawer, but I only ever use one at a time. One was eliminated.
If you cannot part with kitchen gadgets that you “might” use in the future, store spare gadgets in a box in a location of your house that will not interfere with daily use.
Store appliances in cabinets that are not in use on a daily basis. I used my slow cooker twice last year, so it has been stored in a hard to reach laundry room cabinet to access on the needed rare occasion.
Before you go to bed, clean the kitchen. Wash the dishes, clean the counters and put away dishes. Taking a few moments to tidy up will prevent a longer cleanup task the following day and help prevent clutter buildup.
As you peer into your cabinets to look for space: If you haven’t used something in years, what is possibility that you ever will? If you donate the unused items, could someone else who is struggling financially be able to buy it inexpensively and make use of it? Or is it something you can sell and create some cash flow?
Writer Bio: Summer Bolte
I spend most of my time and days with my three kids, husband and dog. My kids frequently play near me as I garden, cook, DIY and volunteer. My most unusual paying job has to be feeding fruit flies in a research lab, and my most fullfilling job was being an oncology nurse for seven years.
