Organising your kitchen is probably one of the best things you will ever do in terms of time saving and efficiencies in the home. If you have a messy or untidy kitchen, it means you are adding time on to your day looking for that missing wooden spoon! Here are some great kitchen organisation ideas.
Pick a day when you know you have a few hours to spare. Then, if you have room, take everything out of the cupboards. As you are emptying each cupboard, sort the contents into four piles – throw away, donate, keep, and a maybe pile.
Check the dates on all food items, and throw away anything that has expired. Also throw away any packets with tiny amounts in, they won’t get used now. If there are in date food items that you know you won’t eat, add them to the donate pile. You can give them to friends or family, or to the foodbank. There is no point in hanging on to food simply to wait for it to be out of date.
Check plates and glasses for chips – if they are chipped, throw them. The same goes for Tupperware – sort it all out and if there are missing lids, throw the boxes away. You will never use them.
The maybe pile is for all those things that you don’t use, but that you think you might. At the end of the clearout, see if you have room for them. If you don’t – donate! Don’t keep too many plates – just the ones you use with a couple of spares per person.
Once you have your piles, clean all the cupboards, inside and out. Then its time to put away all your items again. But this time, think about the way you are storing them. Do you drink a lot of soft drinks or juice? Keep the glasses in the cupboard nearest the fridge. Mugs should go near a kettle. Plates and pans should be kept as near to the oven and hob as possible, for ease of serving up. When it comes to cutlery, use the biggest drawer you have, and get a decent divider. This way you can easily see what you have.
For things like wooden spoons, spatulas, mashers etc – try to store these altogether in a drawer or a couple of jars. Remember, you don’t need 10 spatulas! Its not a wedding list!
If you keep on top of things, you should only need to do this once a year – good luck!! Then move on to organising other rooms – try your teenagers bedroom next….