Kitchens That Work

Kitchen Control

No area of the home holds more meaning and importance than the kitchen, but many people feel their space is cramped, cluttered, and less than functional.  It’s still Spring Cleaning and Organizing season, so here are some ideas that I shared with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette this week for their "Order In the House" column.   These tips can help you get the simple, beautiful, and functional kitchen of your dreams.

Check out this pantry I recently organized.

Best Tips

1.      Zones – Think of your kitchen as a collection of Work Zones – for cooking, washing dishes, prepping, paying bills, or whatever you do regularly in the room.  Each zone should have all the tools close by and easy to access (and put away) that will be used for that activity.  If you use the tool all the time you might consider housing it out and in the open, put those less used into drawers or cabinets.  The things that are rarely used go into the least desirable top and lower cabinets that are most difficult to access.

2.      Command Center – Most families (especially those with children) use the kitchen as the central hub of the home.  This is a great place to set up you Command Center where communications and important temporary documents and items reside.  Hang a magnetic white board and shelf or wall pockets for notes, calendars, keys, mail, sunglasses, etc. to minimize clutter on surfaces.  Use wall hooks to keep backpack, tote bags, and other large items off the floor and easy to find.

The most important concept here is to assign a home to these vital things and use it scrupulously so you’re never frantically searching for keys on your way out the door!

3.      Divide and Conquer – The one thing that I see in every home where I work is that the flatware (or silverware) is working beautifully.  Everyone has a drawer near the sink/dishwasher with little dividers that house the correct amount of knives/forks/spoons.   If only our entire homes could work this well!   The key is to 1) have the right amount of stuff, 2) sort and keep like items with like, and 3) corral the similar items with dividers or bins so they stay where you put them. 

4.      Roll outs are fantastic for lower cabinets and allow use of all that space that often becomes a black hole.  If you are renovating or designing a new kitchen insist on sliding shelves or drawers for lower cabinets.

5.      Edit Small Appliances.  These specialty gadgets (often the result of gifts or late night TV shopping!) take up lots of useful space while providing very low ROKI  -“ return on kitchen investment”.  Take a long and critical look at your collection and count how many times in the past year you really used that rice cooker/mini blender/omelet maker/hot dog griller.  Can you accomplish the goal with other tools that have multiple functions?  Then put it back into the Universe and reclaim your space!

6.      Lazy Susan – not just for condiments on the dining table.  Use them in cabinets and pantries to get to every item easily without digging around. [See one in the photo above.] Also great for storing sticky or spillable food like honey, sugar, and syrup.  It’s easier clean the turntable surface rather than the entire shelf.

7.      Plastics.  The big ugly space stealer in many kitchens. Take a few minutes to pull them all out and ruthlessly review and toss those stained, lidless, and flimsy free containers.  Replace with more substantial ones that are sturdy and BPA safe  - I like glass best.  Seek out sets that nest into themselves and/or have one size lids to save storage room and make it a point to perform this edit once a year since they seem to breed in dark cabinets!