Why I Organized My Kitchen
I hate to cook.
When I watch all those HGTV shows where those starry-eyed couples are looking for the perfect “chef’s kitchen” with all the bells and whistles – enormous Wolf stoves, pot-filler faucets, fancy espresso stations – my eyes tend to glaze over and I tune right out. What I’m thinking is, does that chef’s kitchen actually come WITH a chef? Because that’s the kitchen I would buy! After twenty-some years of getting dinner on the table for two picky kids and one very health-conscious husband, I consider myself a competent cook, but never what one would call a “joyful” cook. (My husband very kindly phrases it as “a disinterested cook.”) After all those years, all I can say is that my finest accomplishment, aside from keeping my family nourished, is that no one ever died from my cooking. At least, none that I know of.
As someone raised in a largely Italian family, good cooks and great food were plentiful. My sister is a gifted cook who can look in the fridge, find a half a pork chop, a jar of mustard, and a moldy tomato, and turn it into a gourmet meal in the amount of time it takes me to search online for the take-out menu for the local Chinese restaurant. The difference between us is that she is definitely that joyful cook. She finds cooking to be the antidote for stress and a creative outlet for her significant talents. I, on the other hand, find the daily grind of figuring out what to cook, how to cook it, and actually getting food on the table to be one of the primary sources of stress in my life.
However, for most of us, meals still need to be prepared and we all need to eat fairly regularly, and ideally, healthfully. That begs the question – how can I make this process as simple and easy as possible? For me, that involves spending as little time as possible in the kitchen. For those of you who really enjoy cooking, like my talented sister, you want to make your kitchen as efficient and inviting as possible so you can instill more pleasure into something you already like doing. And both of those things require making your kitchen organized and clutter-free!
With hectic back to school and work schedules closing in, you may be itching to get your kitchen clean and organized, but you struggle with where to start. It can be a daunting task, but I suggest you start with your countertops. What usually clutters up your kitchen countertops are things you use regularly, but can also include a whole smattering of papers, kids’ stuff, and other unrelated bits and bobs of things that don’t belong there. Before you even begin to consider how to organize your kitchen, think about the primary activities that happen there – cooking and eating. Anything not related to those activities needs to live somewhere else. (If you do tackle most of your paperwork in your kitchen, check out this blog on how to get all those paper piles organized and under control …and off your countertops!
Consider what you use EVERY DAY – which dishes, utensils, pots, pans, and appliances? That’s the stuff that needs to live in what I call “prime real estate.” Think of your countertops, the top drawers, the bottom shelves of upper cabinets, and the top shelves of lower cabinets as “water-front” property – the most expensive, valuable part of your kitchen. Those are the places that are easiest to reach and should store only the stuff that you use every single day. They’re also the places that are easiest to PUT THINGS AWAY in when you’re done with them! That’s super crucial to keeping things organized. If you constantly have to get on a step stool or get down on your knees to get stuff out and put it away, you may go to the trouble of getting it out, but you know you’re never gonna want to make the effort to put it away! And the countertop clutter builds…
Ah, but I hear you saying, “I don’t have room in my cabinets for all that stuff! That’s why it lives on the counter!” And you know what I’m going to say next…
My favorite word: PURGE. Do you know what’s really living in the dark recesses of all of those drawers and cabinets? When was the last time you pulled everything out? The last time you moved? Well, no wonder you have no space for the stuff you use regularly, because that space is currently inhabited by the stuff you NEVER use!
Take an afternoon to pull everything out of all of those spaces in your kitchen (yes, EVERYTHING.) You will be astonished at how much stuff you have that you never use, or only use infrequently, is broken, or duplicated. Seriously, people, how many spatulas does one person need? Are you one of those folks who grabs every kitchen gadget you see at the Dollar Store? Ask yourself – do you really need those pizza scissors? How about that avocado slicer? (20 Worse Kitchen Gadgets to Ever Be Invented.) How many gadgets have you picked up over the years that just end up taking up space in a drawer because, honestly, doesn’t a good sharp knife do the same thing? Let it all go (and stop buying more.) If it’s something that you only use a few times a year – I’m talking turkey platter here – store it somewhere else like a shelf in the basement or on the very top shelf of the pantry. And yes – that’s something you should need to get up on a step stool to grab, since you only have to do it on rare occasions.
If you’re struggling with deciding whether to let certain items go, pack them up into a box, put that day’s date on it, and store it somewhere away from the kitchen. If, over the course of the next six months you find you need something in it, go get it. Use it, and find a place for it in the kitchen. If the box is unopened and untouched in six months, you can feel pretty comfortable donating the whole lot.
When you’ve pared everything down to stuff you really need and use, put what you’ve decided to keep back. Keep in mind that “prime real estate.” Make homes for the stuff you use all the time there. The things you use less often can go up high, down low, or behind other stuff. For those of you who live with other people who also use the kitchen, my advice is to LABEL, LABEL, LABEL! Put labels on shelves, on drawers, on containers, so that there’s no question as to what lives where. Think of it as the antidote to that whiny “but I can’t clean up, I don’t know where everything goes!”
Organizing your kitchen is a ton of work, for sure. But keeping it organized once you’ve finished will be so much easier, and make your space a much more enjoyable place in which to work. Whether you want to get in and out as quickly and painlessly as possible, or you luxuriate in creating delicious meals for those you love, it will be time and effort well spent! (and now I’m off to google how much it costs to have a live-in chef…)
