The kitchen is arguably the most important room in a home. Not only are meals prepared and eaten there, but it is also a common gathering space as well. The kitchen gets so much use, that it can be the victim of excessive clutter. Taking stock of the contents of your kitchen and spending some time reorganizing everything can breathe new life into the space. If you are overwhelmed by the clutter in your kitchen, follow these five steps from HGTV to bring some organization and sanity back to where it is needed, your kitchen.
1. Empty and organize the cabinets
This project is best left to a weekend day when you have some spare time on your hands. Pull out everything you have sitting in your kitchen cabinets. Go through each item individually and determine its usefulness, this will really come in handy when organizing your kitchen. Anything that does not get used or is a duplicate should be donated if it is in good working order and thrown away if it is not. Also, throw away any items that are broken or otherwise no longer functional. Once you have all the kitchen items you want to keep, group them into categories, putting similar-use items together. Group the items based on how it works best for you. Finally, reorganize the cabinets with the items that remain. Place the items where they make the most logical sense. For example, pots and pans should be placed near the stove.
2. Organize the containers
Containers can sometimes be the lifeblood of a kitchen. They have so many uses that they easily get integrated into the everyday workings of a kitchen and often get forgotten in the hustle and bustle of life. But, when they are out of place or missing altogether, they are sorely missed. So, they need to be treated with consideration. First, use as many clear containers for storage as possible. Clear containers are perfect for holding sugar and flour, and they are also great vessels for holding other items that need to be visible at a glance. A clear container is the perfect place to store small envelopes of seasonings that tend to get pushed to the back of the shelves and forgotten or small boxes of pudding or Jello that need to be contained. Containers are also essential for storing leftovers. While they are waiting to be used, these containers should always be stored with their lids. Get rid of any containers without lids and lids without containers. If possible, nest smaller containers in the larger ones to conserve space.
3. Find hidden space
Be an outside-the-box thinker. When you assess your kitchen storage space, do not forget to take vertical space into account. Making use of space that does not seem to be there can truly open up your entire kitchen. Install a series of hooks in your ceiling from which to hang pots and pans. This one change can clear out an entire cabinet that can be used for something else. Hang adhesive hooks on the insides of cabinets to allow for the kitchen storage of smaller items such as measuring spoons and measuring cups that take up a lot of space in drawers. Install a lazy Susan in a corner cabinet to make use of the space in back that otherwise is difficult to access. When you look at your kitchen through a different lens, it is amazing how much extra space suddenly appears.
4. Use drawer dividers
Kitchen drawers can become cluttered in the blink of an eye. It is just far too easy to mindlessly throw random items into a drawer with no rhyme or reason as to where they actually belong. Using drawer dividers can put an end to the needless act of haphazardly throwing anything and everything into a kitchen drawer and unwittingly creating a cluttered mess. Simply placing a divider in a drawer creates a “place for everything and everything in its place” scenario because a divider offers a specific place for all of those miscellaneous items that previously did not have a home. Immediately, everyone in the house will start thinking about exactly where every item should be placed. When everything in a drawer has a specified place, it is much easier to find whatever is needed at any given time.
5. Sort through papers
Even the most organized person can let simple pieces of paper begin to overrun a workspace. Since the kitchen is such a heavily-used room in the house, papers seem to come out of the woodwork. If there is not a specified place for all of the paper that is lurking about the kitchen, a disorganized mess is imminent. Thankfully, sorting through the various sources of paper is not difficult. Magnetic sorter boxes that can hang on a refrigerator are a wonderful solution. These boxes come in various sizes and are easily placed on the side of the refrigerator for easy access. Use these boxes to store items such as take-out menus, coupons, message pads, and even blank paper for jotting down notes. Don’t forget to throw a pen in there so you always have easy access to a writing utensil. Once all of these miscellaneous papers are off of your counters, your entire workspace will be clutter-free and organized. Plus, you’ll have the opportunity to remember what color you chose for your countertops.
The functionality of an organized kitchen can make or break its usefulness. The more organized a kitchen is, the better it will function. RWC has been helping homeowners in New Jersey remodel and reorganize their kitchens for decades. We haven’t met a kitchen yet that we have not been able to improve. If you are looking for organizational assistance in your kitchen, RWC can help you, too. If your kitchen is in need of renovation, check out our kitchen remodeling page.
We’ve been relieving home improvement stress since 1959! Call us at 973-237-7123 for a free consultation, or visit our RWC website to see how we can make your home improvement dreams come true today!
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