How cluttered is your kitchen? ……. time to get organised!
While lockdown has been eased and some restrictions have been lifted, we still can’t travel far this summer so there's no better time to give our homes a bit of care and attention. Getting organised and decluttering is great for providing a sense of purpose. It feels good to tackle head-on one or two projects that we've been meaning to do for some time, but just never get around to … and where better to get started than in the kitchen.
Below are some key tips to help:
Logical layout
Think about organising your kitchen so that the layout matches your needs, this will help you to find what you need quickly and save you time. For example store packed lunch equipment near the fridge, mugs and hot drink preparation items near the kettle, crockery near the dishwasher so that it can be unloaded quickly without you having to walk to the other side of the kitchen to put things away.
Discard the out-of-date
Go through your cupboards and discard out-of-date food by checking sell-by dates on every item. Tins, spices, and oils are often the worst offenders as well as the lesser used cooking ingredients at the back of the cupboard. This will without a doubt create additional space.
Dare to decant
Decant packaged food such as sugar and flour into storage jars that sit neatly next to or on top of each other. This not only makes the most of all available space but also avoids the mess you invariably get with open and ripped packets. Square jars are great as the flat sides butt up against each other to make the best use of space.
Streamline surfaces
Kitchen gadgets seem like a good idea at the time, but twelve months on do you actually use them? If you use something regularly (more than once a week) you might want to give it a place on your work surface, if not think about storing it in a cupboard. The clearer your kitchen surfaces are, the more room you will have for food preparation (and space to think!).
Super shelving
Dedicate a shelf to each food type ie. packets, tins, perishables. Consider investing in a shelf-racking system to make more of the space and make food easier to find. This way tins and jars can be displayed clearly, and you don’t have to constantly rummage around at the back of the shelf.
Taming the Tupperware
Pull it out so that you can see what you’ve got (containers, flasks, drinking bottles, lunch boxes, cutlery, and ice blocks). What do you use? How many do you need? Organise food containers so that similar shapes are stacked inside each other - with lids stacked separately within a container, you will be able to spot corresponding lids quickly, without having to rummage through the whole drawer.
Under-the-sink idyll
Tackle the messy under-the-sink cupboard starting with loose carrier bags. Attach a carrier bag dispenser to the inside of your cupboard door and fill with your loose bags, discarding the remainder. Then buy a plastic carry-all with a handle to keep all your cleaning products together. You can lift this out and simply take it with you from room to room when it’s time to clean.
Having a clutter-free, well-organised kitchen really can take you from chaos to calm.
9th Jul 2020The Compare Network
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