Organizing and Storage for your Kitchen!

So much stuff, and so little place to put it! This week, lets really try and purge and organize our kitchens. It’s the heart of the home.

We’ve gotten under the sink and threw out the stuff that had made a home there for several years, and we got into the refrigerator and cleaned and organized that. This week lets concentrate on storage space. What storage space you say? Trust me, you have plenty! You just need to look at things a little different, and you need to purge some junk.

Do you have a back hall closet? Do you really need it? Really? Don’t just answer yes without thinking about it. I had two closets with one off the kitchen. I didn’t need two closets so I turned one into a pantry. I simply bought some shelves and started loading them up. Presto, I had a pantry. So maybe you don’t have an extra closet. How about your cupboards. Are they organized efficiently enough? Have you looked at different shelving you can add? Or dish racks to store the dishes upright instead of flat. How about hooks to hang the coffee mugs on?

Quick Tip: if you have a service of 12 dishes, and a family of four, store the rest of the dishes on a higher shelf. Don’t waste space, use it. Now that you only have four dishes on that shelf, put the dinner glasses near them. Make the shelf close to the dinner table to make setting the table less of a chore. Keep your silverware near there also. It took me about six different times of reorganizing my kitchen cupboards and drawers before I finally found the perfect set up. When we first move into a home, we think we know where we want to put things, but really, we don’t know the flow of the kitchen yet.

Don’t be stuck into what you started with. You can move things. Try something new. You may be surprised to find a way that works much more efficiently, and wonder why you didn’t think of it before! Now back to your storage. Really do you need three electric can openers? Do you even need one? I got rid of my electric can opener a long time ago. Big waste of space. Use a hand held one. I think they are a lot easier too! Big stuff doesn’t have to go into the bottom cabinets. We automatically just put them there. But if you only use your pasta machine two times a year, why let it take up valuable space. Put it in the pantry, the garage or even the basement. I keep my two large sauce pans in my pantry. While they will fit in my cupboards, they take up too much room and are bulky. So think about other areas that you can store rarely used items. Look for different racks and storage ideas at places like bed bath and beyond, or my favorite, the container store! Check out the ads on the right for some great savings. Next to any shoe store this is my favorite shopping place!