Transform Your Kitchen And Fall In Love With Cooking Again

A well-organised kitchen can make the difference between a stressful cooking experience and a pleasurable one. When everything has its place, you can move efficiently, find tools and ingredients quickly, and enjoy the process of creating delicious meals. 

Making the most of your space isn’t always that simple, though. So here are some practical kitchen storage solutions to help turn your kitchen into a culinary haven – without busting the budget!

Declutter and Simplify

Before you start organising, take some time to declutter your kitchen. Ridiculous as it sounds, it’s perfectly possible to accidentally create an organised chaos. So, remove the items you no longer use or need. This can include old utensils, duplicate items, and broken appliances. 

The aim is to only give house room to the things you actually use. Many of us have small appliances cluttering up work tops that really shouldn’t be there. When you don’t use something, but want to keep hold of it just in case, consider local self storage. With the extra space of a storage unit or locker, you’ll find a lot more use for it than just your surplus kitchen gear.

Maximise Cabinet Space

Cabinets are prime candidates for a good sort-through. They very quickly become overfull with expired spices, stuff you bought but won’t eat, or bits of chipped and cracked pottery you can’t quite bring yourself to throw out. 

Here are a few tips to help keep cabinet space under control:

• Use Shelf Risers: These create additional layers within your cabinets, allowing you to stack items and use all the vertical space.
• Pull-Out Shelves: Install pull-out shelves or drawers to make it easier to access things at the back of the cabinet.
• Door Racks: Inside cabinet doors, door racks can provide lots of additional storage. You could also attach racks or hooks for small items like measuring spoons, pot lids, or spices.

Optimise Drawer Storage

Give your drawers a makeover as well as your cabinets. There’s nothing wrong with having a ‘junk drawer’, but don’t let all your drawers end up like that.

• Drawer Dividers: Use dividers to separate utensils, making it easy to find what you need without rummaging through a pile.
• Stackable Trays: For deeper drawers, stackable trays can help you create multiple layers of storage.
• Labelling: Label the inside of your drawers to remind everyone in the household where each item belongs.

Use the Vertical Spaces

Vertical storage solutions can be a great and practical way to free up counter and cabinet space. Consider these options:

• Wall-Mounted Racks: Use wall-mounted racks or pegboards to hang pots, pans, and utensils. This keeps them within easy reach and frees up cabinet space.
• Magnetic Strips: Install magnetic strips to hold knives and metal utensils. This not only saves drawer space but also keeps your knives in good condition.
• Shelves: Add open shelves above your countertops or in empty wall spaces to store frequently used items like spices, oils, and cooking utensils.

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Make Use of Corner Spaces

Corners often become wasted or impractical spaces in kitchens where things get pushed then forgotten.

• Lazy Susans: Install a lazy Susan in corner cabinets to make it easier to access items.
• Corner Drawers: If you’re renovating or building a new kitchen, consider installing corner drawers. These custom solutions maximise corner space and make everything accessible.
• Corner Shelves: For open shelving, use corner shelves to display decorative items or store kitchen essentials.

Store Items by Frequency of Use

It’s worth organising the kitchen based on how frequently you use items, whether utensils or appliances.

• Daily Use: Keep everyday items like plates, glasses, and utensils in easily accessible locations.
• Occasional Use: Store items you use less frequently, such as holiday dishes or specialty baking tools, in higher cabinets or less accessible areas.
• Rarely Used: For items you rarely use but still need, consider storing them in a pantry or another room to free up prime kitchen real estate. Alternatively, as mentioned earlier, consider self storage options. The aim is to make more workable space, not to move clutter from one area to another which tends to defeat the object.

Label Everything

Labels can be a game-changer for kitchen organisation. They help everyone in the household know where things belong and make it easier to maintain order. Label your pantry shelves, storage bins, and even the inside of your cabinets and drawers. If you prefer a more fun label than a boring written one, investigate stickers. There are loads available, and can be especially useful to help small children identify what goes where.

Keep the Countertops Clear

Cluttered countertops can make cooking stressful, so this is arguably the most important tip. Cooking is a lot more pleasurable when you have space to work and get on without needing to clear an area first – especially when you’re busy and just need to get food on the table! Make it a strict rule to wash dishes, put away utensils, wipe down surfaces and mop up spills every day. It only takes a minute when you do it regularly with a good kitchen cleaning routine.

It’s a joy to work in an organised, clean and maintained kitchen, so maybe it’s all you need to rekindle (or spark) a love of cooking and experimenting with recipes or presentation.

 

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