Have you re-organized your kitchen recently? Once you commit to making healthy meals for your family, you’re likely to find your kitchen cabinets filling up with all kinds of ingredients and equipment. And all this stuff may leave you with a kitchen that quickly gets messy and isn’t nearly as efficient as it should be.
Glass food storage containers take up lots more room than a stack of plastic containers. Bulk purchases need way more room than just a week’s worth of boxed mixes. Food processors, blenders and other small appliances are wonderful time savers but require lots of cupboard space.
While they’re not set in stone, I recently settled upon some “rules” to help me decide how to organize things in order to keep my kitchen working well for me…
instead of me working hard for the kitchen!
9 Rules for Organizing the Real Food Kitchen (for Maximum Efficiency)
1. Arrange storage for convenience.
Heavy and less used things go in a low or very high cupboard or to the back of the cupboard; lighter and more often used things are put at eye-level.
2. Containerize (that’s a word, right?).
Put baking supplies and spices into baskets or bins and bring them to the counter when you work. How about a basket for your collection of herbal teas? I have a bin that corrals all our lunch-packing containers and thermoses. We can bring it to the counter so it’s easy to grab the right container.
3. Prioritize workspace.
Clear counters create an inviting place to work and it’s easy to clean up when you’re done.
4. Looks are (sometimes) sacrificed for convenience or storage reasons.
We have a lot of fresh produce (apples, potatoes, onions) and some baking supplies stored out in the open under our kitchen island. Since these things get used up so quickly, I don’t bother too much to make them look pretty.
A bag of potatoes straight from the store isn’t the nicest way to accessorize my kitchen, but that’s the price we pay for eating frugal, nutritious meals. I’m willing to live with it. 🙂
5. Group like things together, labeling if possible.
Keep all the baking supplies together, all the canned goods together, all the kitchen linens together.
6. Consider “out of kitchen” storage options.
We have a shelf unit in our basement that holds extra dry goods and produce like (more) potatoes, squash and apples. This allows me to stock up when I get a great deal without cramming the kitchen cupboards full of food. These things keep for several weeks or longer in a cool, dry basement.
We are also blessed to have a second fridge in the basement. I can easily send a kid down to the basement for a new gallon of milk or bag of rice (or get it myself and make a mental check mark on my to-do list for a bit of extra movement in my day).
This is less convenient, yes, but so worth having the extra food on hand, plus it saves me from making extra trips to the store. If you don’t have available basement space, maybe you can find some room under beds or in the garage.
7. Maybe it’s time to rearrange.
When my blender was in use daily for smoothies it made sense to have it in a cupboard front and center. Now that the cold weather has made tea much more enticing than smoothies, I moved the blender to the back of another cupboard and made a tea and coffee station. Similarly, I’ve rearranged other cupboards based on what I’m using and what’s most convenient.
8. Little-used items should be the first to go.
If you’re short on storage space, you probably would be willing to trade (or sell!) the good china in return for an extra shelf or two. I recently discovered the dehydrator I hadn’t used in a year no longer worked. Oops! Hello to an entire extra cupboard! Don’t be afraid to get rid of things that don’t line up with your priorities in life (rule #5 on this list of de-cluttering rules).
9. Say hello to food as décor!
Besides the (kinda ugly) potatoes and onions under my kitchen island, I’ve got simple glass jars out in the open filled with popcorn, rice, and sugar. I like how they add to the atmosphere of a hard-working kitchen.
I think it’s pretty common for real foodies to tinker around with their kitchen organization. If you’re spending that much effort in the kitchen, you might as well make your time as efficient as possible!!
Pam
I recently bought ThirtyOne products which included a ton of bins. I redid my entire pantry leaving only glass items such as oils, sauces and vinegars outside of a bin. I labeled the bins making it easier for my family to use as well. My hubby likes to buy tea EVERY time he goes to the market, after I showed him we had over 30 unopened brand new containers of tea, plus the 11 that was sitting on the kitchen counter, he promised not to buy anymore. I stored most of my spices in a shoe organizer and personalized it too… it’s hung on the pantry door. I am thinking of moving it so that it’s closer to the stove, but that’s up in the air. Right now I am trying to figure out how to move my pots from under the island. I am always fighting with them when I am looking for one pot I have to move heavier items. Same goes for my baking dishes.
Angela
Pam, store your pots & pans vertically. Especially love the drawers with the dividers in them for vertical storage.
Do a google images search for … Store pots pans vertical (I can’t get the link to paste) for LOTS of vertical storage ideas
Cristina
The clear plastic shoe organizer, hanging on a door, works great for small kitchen tools if you have a lot of them. They will be quick and easy to find. For spices I have small size adjustable shelves that fit on a pantry shelf. Once in a while I put the spices in alphabetical order. Spices go stale so I try not to have too many.
Laura
I would love to apply some of your ideas and others of my own but unfortunately my husband and I immigrated to Europe into my father-in-laws home and and we cannot even move the order in which the large ktichen utensils are hung, or move the tea next to the coffee – they are currently in separate cabinets at opposite ends of the counter with the electric tea kettle midway between both. the “pantry ” is one shelf in one cupboard in the hallway next to the living room and one cubbyhol under the banquette in the kitchen….anam constnatly berated becuse they have more than one can bag of flour or sugar in them…..nice to dream and hear how the other half lives tho. 🙂
Kathy
Great article! I have a home with my son who just recently bought a HUD house and we are still organizing/redoing (to a point) the kitchen and pantry area. We still need to do some painting and to install shelves in the pantry but I am keeping your ideas in mind for the future.
Just in living here so far, we have changed a few initial ideas because we’ve realized that a different arrangement of some items will work better for us.
Once we’re finished I hope to have a well-stocked, well-organized kitchen!
(I’ve lived in apartments or rentals my entire adult life so this is new and LOADS of fun!)
Kelli
Love your ideas!!
I have one for your potatoes.
Tupperware potato bins!!
Love mine!
Wish I could post a pic!
No more ugly potato bags. Plus, they last longer.
A plus, for organic !!
Kelli
Sonia Pollatsk
Sarah, great information on storage. I enjoyed your comment regarding the lazy susan. I too twirled that thing around and around only to find duplicate spices. Not to mention the frustration….lol
Thanks for the tips. I definately will use them.
Sonia
Melanie (aka Mom)
Thank you for all these tips. I’ll think of these to see where I may apply them. Similar to #2 – I’m not very tall (5’2), and spices on a shelf cabinet has proven difficult to see what I have. I was constantly moving spices jars around from back to front / side-to-side and then started pulling a chair over to the cabinet so I can see at eye-level what I have or don’t have. I also realized I had 2 and 3 jars of the same spice! GEEZ! To remedy this, I purchased two baskets and organized my spices in alphabetical order – it makes cooking / baking so much easier to just pull the basket out of the cabinet. I also know what I have and what I need to buy.
makalove
Oh my goodness, #2! I live in a smallish apartment with a pretty tiny galley kitchen. Trying to cook healthy unprocessed foods in this teensy kitchen with few cupboards and a couple of postage-stamp sized countertops isn’t easy. Everything in my cupboards and much of what’s on my counters is “containerized.” Most of the containers are small Amazon shipping boxes LOL but they work! What’s in them is written on the front of each box, which makes it easier for other folks to find things and put things away. (At least that’s the theory. LOL) I have plastic baskets from the $1 store for countertop storage. But really, since I containerized the cupboards six months or so ago, keeping the kitchen organized has been so much easier.