Having a well-maintained kitchen is the first step towards reducing kitchen-related stress. Maybe you’re a young adult who can’t manage to make themselves a meal, or a parent who doesn’t feel like they have the time. No matter what your circumstances are, having a kitchen that’s easy to maintain can help you.
A well-maintained kitchen will make it easier to find what you’re looking for, easier to put things away after cleaning, and easier to cook in general. When your kitchen is clean and organized, you’ll find that you spend less time prepping, cooking, and cleaning, and more time relaxing at the end of a long day.
Start By Decluttering: Get Rid of What You Don’t Use
First and foremost, you should always go through your kitchen to determine what can be thrown away or donated.
If there are items that you don’t use or items that are expired, you’ll feel much better getting them out of your kitchen. It’s so easy to let things expire, so try not to feel guilty about throwing things away. Instead, think about it as setting yourself up for success the next time around.
Make Sure Everything Has a Home
After you’ve decluttered your kitchen, you should only be left with items that you love and use frequently.
Whether that’s food, tools, or cookware, it’s time to make sure that everything has a home. When everything has a home, it’s so much easier to find the items that you’re looking for. It’s also much easier to put things away after you’re done.
To ensure that everything has a home, you can label drawers and cabinets and use drawer separators. Drawer separators are not only helpful for ensuring that everything has a place. But they’re also helpful at keeping drawers from getting re-cluttered once they’re organized.
Keep it Simple
Another great way to keep your kitchen organized is to make sure that everything is simple and easy to understand.
Separate items in a way that makes sense to you, or a way that will improve how you use your kitchen. If you have a system that works, don’t change it in favor of something that may be more complicated. Keep the things you use the most closest to where you stand when you’re prepping, cooking, or cleaning.
Again, labeling will also help to keep it simple. You won’t have to look through different drawers to find what you’re looking for, because everything is labeled with its contents. If you find that you like to reorganize frequently, use labels that can be changed easily, such as dry erase labels.
Keep Like Items Together
Keeping like items together is an important part of any organized kitchen.
Whether it’s pots and pans, silverware, spices, or pantry snacks, it’ll be so much easier to organize and maintain your items when they’re all together. You shouldn’t have your pot lids and large pots in different cabinets. You should have them together, so they’re easier to find and match together. There’s nothing more annoying than having the perfect large pot but not being able to find the matching pot lids. By keeping these two items together, you won’t have this problem.
Another great way to organize lids, cookie sheets, and more, is with vertical storage. Vertical storage allows you to slide in thin items for easy access and organization.
This also works for food. Within your pantry, you should always keep similar items together, such as canned foods, pantry staples, and snacks. This will make it much easier to find what you’re looking for, even in the largest of pantries.
Don’t Forget About Your Zones
Using zones is a great way to keep your kitchen organized, allowing you to quickly move around your kitchen when you’re prepping, cooking, and cleaning up.
By designating certain areas of your kitchen as zones, such as the prep zone, cooking zone, and cleaning zone, you’ll be able to cook more effectively.
For example, in your cooking zone, you should have your oven as well as any utensils that you may use while cooking. This is also a great place to keep your spices.
In your cleaning zone, you’ll want to have your sink, dishwasher, and cleaning products handy. The key to crafting these zones is to use the cabinet space around the appliances so you don’t have to walk across the kitchen to find what you’re looking for.
Schedule a Free Design Consultation with Art of Drawers
With customized storage solutions from Art of Drawers, you’ll be able to craft a kitchen that’s easy to maintain. You’ll be able to meal prep, cook meals, and clean up messes easily and effectively. You’ll no longer have to spend extra time looking for food, tools, and more. With a good organization system, you’ll always know where everything is and how to find it quickly.
Art of Drawers can help you decrease the time you spend in your kitchen, so you can spend more time relaxing after a long day of work. For more information or to schedule a free design consultation, please contact us online or at 770-800-8410.
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