By: Sonya Fehér
Beyond food, kitchens are gathering places, homework stations, information centers, and more. Whether you’re planning fall soups, holiday meals, or trying to simplify school and work routines, a well-organized kitchen makes it all easier.
The first step to an organized kitchen is deciding what you want to achieve. Do you want quicker weeknight meals? A smoother morning routine for school days? Or maybe space for multiple people to work in the kitchen at one time. By focusing on the specific challenges, you can set clear goals and create a kitchen that supports your daily life.
Next, identify which areas aren’t working. Look around and ask yourself: Where does clutter tend to build up, and which tasks feel the hardest? Also, consider where household members get in each other’s way while trying to access storage or do a particular task. Key areas to consider are countertops, food storage areas, and storage for tools, dishes, and appliances.
Are countertops clear enough for meal prep, school lunch assembly, and serving? Are the pantry, refrigerator, and freezer organized in a way that makes it easy to grab what you need, or are they overcrowded or a jumble of miscellaneous categories that makes things hard to find? Do your drawers, shelves and cabinets make it easy to find and access your tools, dishes, and appliances?
Look around your kitchen and notice where things tend to pile up. Are your counters crowded with papers or appliances? Is it difficult to access pantry staples or cookware? By pinpointing these trouble spots, you can figure out what needs to change. Then work in stages.
Declutter first so you won’t waste space or time organizing things you don’t want or need. Go through one drawer, shelf, or area at a time to get rid of anything you don’t use, that’s in poor condition, or that you have multiples of and can pare down.
Just like in a professional kitchen, creating stations for specific activities can keep your space running smoothly. When utilizing zones, you’ll group and store things in categories based upon the task that will be done or the types of items that need to be accessed to do the task.
Next, you’ll choose where things should go. Group and store things in categories. When deciding where things should be stored, consider how often something is used, where it needs to be used, and who uses it.
Once you’ve decluttered and decided where to store things, you can figure out how to make the most of your space by utilizing various storage solutions. Instead of jumping into a costly kitchen remodel, start with simple storage fixes. Consider adding baskets or bins in the pantry to corral snacks or gather pasta. Drawer organizers can separate utensils or kitchen tools. Helper shelves and baskets provide more vertical storage. Use turntables in corners. You can buy inexpensive vertical pan organizers for cookie sheets and cutting boards and add pull-outs to your cabinets
and under your sink. These small adjustments can make a big difference in how smoothly your kitchen functions.
Finally, label shelves, bins, containers, and anything else that holds a specific category of food or tools. Sometimes, it’s even worthwhile to label both the shelf where something should be and the bin that holds items on that section of the shelf. Labels help everyone know where things go and keeps us honest when putting things away. When we’re feeling a little lazy or just putting something in the general vicinity of where it goes, labels remind us that there is actually a place where something should go.
With a few simple changes, your kitchen can help you enjoy fall soup making, holiday prep, and the demands of school and work schedules. Organize in stages, focus on what matters most, and create systems that serve you—so you can spend less time searching for things and more time enjoying this busy but exciting season.
If you’d like my pantry and kitchen organizing guide with a list of categories and stations to make your organizing easier, email me at sonya@spacewiseorganizing.com.
By: Sonya Fehér Organizer, Coach, Author, & Speaker https://spacewiseorganizing.com
October 4, 2024
