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!
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