Make the Most of Your Kitchen with These Tips
Living spaces benefit from organization. While most people think about home offices, garages, play spaces or closets, the kitchen is an ideal place to focus on. Not only is the kitchen often the most used room in the home, it’s considered a central spot, a place to gather and a room that everyone uses.
Even so, it’s not always easy to decide just how to organize your kitchen for making the most use of the space available. The following tips are key to help you make the most of yours!
Things to Consider First
There are several layers to consider when deciding how to organize your kitchen. Of course there are some aspects that you don’t always have much control over unless you’re doing a major renovation, but you can still make significant improvements to the space you have.
Think about layout, tasks and the frequency with which certain items are used. Consider who uses the kitchen and how. Do your children work in the kitchen while you cook? Do people simultaneously prepare meals? Is there one individual that spends the most time using the kitchen? When you look at your daily routines, it can give insight into how to organize your kitchen to meet your family’s needs.
Kitchen Zoning
The newest trend in kitchen layout has to do with zones, or stations. The idea is to set distinctive areas in the kitchen for different tasks. There are several ways to go about it but the basic zones tend to include:
- Food or consumables: This area encompasses your edibles. It should include food shelving, pantries and the refrigerator.
- Cleaning: The sink, dishwasher, shelves for cleaning supplies, drawers with towels and sponges; all of these items will be in your cleaning zone.
- Prep: The prep area is typically the longest stretch of counter or an island. It will be where you prepare your food for cooking.
- Cook: Ovens, stovetops and a microwave make up the cook zone.
- Everyday non-consumables: Your everyday dishes, storage containers and silverware go in the main kitchen storage.
- Specialized storage and use: If you have some extra features in your home, like a butler’s pantry, consider this your specialized storage and use zone. It’s ideal for seasonal dishes, fine china and party gear and will act as an area for party prep or service.
- Work: Many of today’s homes have kitchen office stations or family scheduling centers. This is your workstation. It’s a central place to store things needed for mailing, homework and other life organization odds and ends.
Keep It Organized
Once you have your zone layout, the organization and the challenge to keep it that way, can really begin!
Clean everything. Begin your organization project by scrubbing, removing clutter and generally tidying up everything in your kitchen.
Organize by task. You don’t want to be running around your kitchen to get things. Ideally, storage is based on usage. For example, dish soap works well placed under the sink and a container of flour is better suited on the counter of your prep station. Carefully consider where everything is used, then design the perfect placement for each item.
Stow infrequently used items in hard-to-reach places. Those high shelves or out-of-the way drawers are good for the things you don’t use a lot, like the summer lemonade pitcher.
Add aesthetics. Add appeal with color-coordinated accessories and by organizing in a clean, display-like way. Remove and keep away clutter by storing things in decorative bins and containers.
What helps you make the most of your kitchen? Let us know in the comments below!
