The kitchen is truly the heart of your home. From cooking dinner while your kids do their homework to entertaining guests and more, you probably spend more time in the kitchen than any other space. To use your kitchen to its fullest potential and get the most done in the least amount of time, make sure it is well-organized. Check out these tips:
Store like with like
Start by taking out everything from your cabinets and tossing old, broken or rarely used items. Then group everything that remains into categories. Put your mixer, cupcake pans and baking sheets into one pile and your holiday dishes and glassware into another. Once you have everything sorted by its role, put each group of products into the space that makes the most sense. For example, cooking and baking items should be near where you prepare food, and since mixers and blenders are heavy, under the counter is a great choice. Because they are only used for a couple times a year, holiday dishes should not take up prime real estate, but can be stored over the fridge or higher up cabinets.
Organize your spices
When your family is starving and you want to pop a meatloaf in the oven, it can be frustrating to spend five minutes searching through dozens of tippy spice bottles looking for the parsley and pepper. Purchase a lazy Susan or two from Home Depot and spend an hour or so organizing your jars of spices and packets of taco seasonings and ranch dip mix. You can also put larger and/or taller items in the middle like bottles of olive oil and vinegar.
Keep utensils near the stove
To save time and avoid burning your gravy while you look for a whisk, keep your utensils next to where you use them most—the stove. Buy a pretty ceramic utensil keeper and put your spatulas, whisks, ladles and mixing spoons inside. Also, keep your knife block near where you prepare food; if you have small kids be sure to place it far back on the counter.
Store dry items in plastic containers
If you throw out more rock-hard brown sugar than you use to make cookies, and if your crackers get stale before you are through with the box, it is time to invest in some colorful plastic containers. QVC sells a line of airtight and watertight storage containers called Lock & Lock that feature colorful lids and a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Use them to store cereal, brown sugar, crackers, boxes of pudding mix and about anything else you can think of. The clear containers will also make the food easy to spot in your cupboards and you can also quickly see if you are running out of something and need to add it to your shopping list.
Clean out and organize your fridge
If you routinely find science experiments growing inside your fridge, it is high time to clean it out and organize the contents. Don’t waste valuable space on tons of water bottles and cans of soda; keep a few in the fridge and if you can, put them in the shelves in the door. Store leftovers in square or rectangular containers as opposed to round ones; they will stack up easier and take up less space. To help protect your refrigerator from breakdowns and avoid costly repairs, consider purchasing a comprehensive home warranty from a reputable company like Total Project. This way, once your fridge is well-organized, you can rest assured that if you wake up to find warm milk and defrosting Popsicles, your home warranty will quickly cover the repair or replacement cost.