A clean, uncluttered kitchen is not just pleasing to the eye; it also makes food prep and cooking a breeze. This busy space in your flat greets you every morning during breakfast and welcomes you at night when you share your hearty meal with your loved ones, so it is important to make this space as conducive as possible. Start by assessing your lovely kitchen storage.
To help you with your decluttering journey, here are 9 easy steps to organise your kitchen cabinet and drawers.
1. Empty You Drawers and Cabinets
Decluttering always starts with taking everything out of your space. Take out your kitchen utensils, rarely used kitchen appliances, cookware, spices, condiments, even plastic cups, and other aluminium foil. Place them on top of your counter or dining table. This will allow you to get a good look at all of your kitchen items, including their numbers and uses. Who knows? You might find kitchen items you didn't know existed. This will help you distinguish between the important, the less important, and those you do not need at all.
To make this process easier, organise the items you removed from your cupboard by category.
2. Clean Your Kitchen Cabinet
Now that you have emptied your cupboards and drawers, this is your opportunity to do a thorough cleaning. Get rid of the food crumbs, residues, and stains from liquid items. Use a cloth or small brush to remove dust from hard-to-reach corners. Deep-clean your cabinet interior with mild soap and water. Dry the surfaces out afterwards using a clean, dry cloth.
When removing grease from your kitchen cabinet's exterior, use a soft brush when scrubbing the wood to avoid scratches. Remember to spot clean your kitchen cabinets weekly to prevent dust and grease from building up.
3. Sort Out All Your Kitchen Items
You will have difficulty decluttering your kitchen if you keep piling everything, including the unnecessary, back in your cupboard. After taking everything out of your kitchen cabinets, sort them all out by determining what you still need, what you can donate, and what you can toss out.
The easiest items to dispose of are expired condiments or spices and rusty or broken utensils. Consider donating working but unused kitchen appliances. Give yourself a chance to let go of the items that you do not need to free up your space and make accessing your kitchen items easier in the future. This will also help you see opportunities to upgrade your kitchen appliances and utensils.
4. Arrange Remaining Items by Use
After deciding what to let go of and what to keep in your kitchen, the next step is to group your kitchen items by use. Plan your kitchen's organisation in terms of work zones. In your food preparation zone, keep your knives, cutting board, peelers, colanders, and other kitchen utensils. To avoid spills and contact with pantry supplies, keep dishwashing soap, sponges, brushes, and cleaning cloths in your wash zone. Store food items and ingredients on a separate shelf for easy access and to avoid contamination. Keep dry ingredients like flour and spices in sealed containers and jars. Dedicate a clean drawer or container for your cutlery, and keep your cookware organised near your cooking zone.
Feel free to plan your kitchen arrangement based on your lifestyle to find what works best for you.
5. Store All Your Kitchen Essentials in their Dedicated Zones
One important thing to note when organising your kitchen is that you need to make frequently used items more accessible. What is the use of reorganising your kitchen if you end up making a mess again while rummaging through your cabinet to find an item that is supposed to be kept in a more noticeable area?
Prioritse your most-used items and stock them in the most accessible areas inside your cupboard. Keep your food prep supplies near your counter, your cookware near your kitchen hob, and your baking materials near your oven. Place the frequently used items in accessible areas of your cupboard.
When organising your kitchen appliances, make sure not to crowd your kitchen counter with medium- to large-sized appliances. Plot your appliances based on how often you use them. Your rice cooker and microwave oven can stay outside your cabinets. Other appliances you use less often, like your blender and mixer, can be kept inside your cupboard.
6. Invest in Storage Containers
Kitchen cabinets are made to be as spacious as they can be. This is to maximise its capacity and give you a versatile storage solution. This big space makes smaller items look unorganised. Tidy up your smaller kitchen items with storage containers like jars, boxes, kitchen racks, or a lazy susan for your condiments. Secure your kitchen knives with knife organisers and use drawer trays to arrange and separate your silverware. For your fridge, food containers will help you sort out your food items while making them visible and accessible at the same time.
7. Label Your Items
It gets confusing when you have lots of pantry supplies stored in your kitchen cabinet. To make your pantry items accessible, especially when you have to pull out some ingredients, transfer dry goods into transparent, sealed containers and add labels, including the manufacture and expiration dates. This is to make sure that you safely consume your food.
This method also works on your fridge.
8. Welcome Additional Storage Solutions
If in need of additional storage solutions, consider kitchen cabinets or hutches with multiple inner shelves for your extra items. If you are short on floor space, utilise vertical storage solutions like tall racks or hanging rails for utensils or smaller pots and pans. Be mindful of your storage needs so you can come up with a smart strategy.
9. Keep Your Kitchen Organised
Organising and designing your kitchen is not a one-time thing. You need to be consistent in putting your kitchen items back in their proper places after using them. It is also important to do weekly kitchen check-ups to assess the condition of your kitchen and to pull out things that you do not need. Always involve your entire family in keeping your kitchen and dining area clean and pristine. Inform them about the changes in the arrangement and teach them how to read labels. Little, consistent efforts will help you save time in the future.