Step-by-Step Guide to Organizing your Kitchen
Finally, here we are in the kitchen! We've already talked about the pantry, but the kitchen is the VIP big sis of the entire home. It's also the most important room when it comes to entertaining (notice how everyone gravitates to the kitchen).
It's important that the flow in your kitchen reflects how you live and cook and entertain. Here is my step-by-step guide to organizing it to meet your specific needs.
Step One - Find Your Zones
Whether you realize it or not, your kitchen has zones. If you find yourself crossing from one side of the kitchen to the other to complete prepping tasks, chances are that you don't have your zones set up properly. Here are the zones in most kitchens we organize:
Prepping - this is your knives, cutting boards, colanders etc
Cooking - pots, pans, baking sheets etc
Pantry - food storage (some have a separate room for this, but many do not)
Storage - dinner plates, bowls, flatware, serving bowls etc
Placing the items that are in the zone adjacent to the area you'd use them is more than half the battle. For example, knives and cutting boards need some countertop space for them to be used. I have my knives in a drawer with cutting boards under them in the lower cabinet. All items in the cooking zone should be near the stove or oven, which ever is appropriate. I also like to keep dinnerware and flatware close to one another and close to the dishwasher as well. Lastly, pantry items need to be categorized by type and stored. I go into pantry storage in much more detail here.
Step Two - De-clutter the Countertops
If you use appliances every day or nearly every day, leave them on the counter. However if you don't, find a place in a lower cabinet or pantry or other storage place to store them. Recently, I put my HUGE toaster oven in a cabinet. When we still had kids living with us, we made toast and reheated pizza, made hot pocket-type things every day. I realized that we don't use it as often any more and my countertop is so much nicer now that we've put it away. I also wonder if I am eating less toast just because I don't wanna get it out! 🤷🏻♀️
Step Three - Use Door Space
The pantry door is a great space to add shelves to hold spices or snacks for the kids. Here is a link to my fav pantry door shelf from the Container Store.
Above all, have fun organizing your kitchen and make your zones work for you. If you need to move something, move it! I recently switched my flatware and my junk drawers and it has been a great move. Changing things up every now and then is one way to keep it interesting.
If you need a pro organizer to come and do this for you, we are here! If you aren't in the DFW or Austin area, give us a call and let us help you virtually. Happy organizing!
If you've missed any of our Step-by-Step organizing series, click here to see them all.
