Organizing Your Kitchen for Efficiency

No matter what kind of kitchen you have, getting organized can save you time, space, money and sanity.  Saving time from having to look and locate the right equipments and ingredients when you are in a hurry.  Saving space by having a place for each and every thing, you will be more likely to put things back where they belong; making the area less cluttered and lessen the chance for items to be misplaced.  Saving money, by organizing your kitchen, you make your kitchen items accessible so the perishable foods get consumed before they are staled, spoiled, expired or infested and non perishable items are not purchased in duplication.

Every kitchen should have three distinct work areas:  food storage and preparation; cooking; and clean up.  Here are some points to keep your kitchen well-organized.

• Food storage and preparation.  The best places for food storage are cabinets attached to cool outside walls near shaded north facing windows.  Cabinets and walls near heat sources such as the dishwasher, stove, oven, or refrigerators are not ideal places for storing foods.  The physical pantry in your home can be any dry cool place you can store food items for a length of time, including kitchen shelves, refrigerators and your freezer.  Here are tips for a more functional food storage and preparation work center:

1   Group like items together for easy retrieval.  All cereals should be together.  Keeping like things together makes them easy to find and help prevent duplicate purchases.

2   Transfer flour, cereal and other dry staples to air tight see through containers that keep the bugs out, retain freshness, and make it easy to check inventory of the content level.

3   Organize your pantry to fit your buying habits and favorite recipes.  Knowing that you have the basic ingredients on hands make it easy to make any meal on short notice.

4   Place items close to their point of use.  Store cups and glasses near the refrigerators, ice maker, and drink maker without hampering the cook.  Place pots, pans, and utensils close to the stove.  Put cooking oils and sauces in proximity to the food preparation area.

5   Label everything that goes into the freezer.  Put prepared meals together.  Put frozen vegetables together.  Put desserts together in their sections.

6   Try to stock about three days worth of food at all times.  Include foods that you can use even during a power outage.

• Cooking work center.  The main equipments of the cooking center area are the stove, the oven, and the microwave oven.  Be sure your cooking center has ample storage for pots, pans, utensils, pot holders, hot pads, seasonings and food products that go directly from the storage containers to the pot.  There should be at least 18 inches of clear spaces on each side of the cook top for safety and cooking efficiency.  These spaces keep the pots’ handles away from traffic and provide a landing space for hot pots and pans.  Establish a major triangle in your kitchen between the stove, refrigerator, and your sink.  Anything you use most often, keep it in the triangle. 

• Clean up work center.  The sink is the centerpiece of the kitchen clean up.  The clean up center is a good place to store dish towels, cleaning products, and a garbage can.  It is an ideal spot for a recycling station.

A well organized and properly thought-out kitchen will make food preparation faster and more efficient, providing storage for the items you already own as well as those you will acquire in the future, and creating well flow traffic patterns in this most popular room in the house.