5 Ways to Organize Your Kitchen

While flipping through magazines, it is so easy to be in awe of the beautiful dream kitchens. The cupboard doors are gleaming and pristine, there is no clutter anywhere, every food item is categorized and everything is new and sparkling. Now for a reality check. The pile of papers on your kitchen bench seems to be growing taller every day, the pantry is in disarray and you are sick of tidying out the plastic storage drawer. It is so easy to amass a collection of every size container imaginable.

Sort and discard

Anything you haven’t used for months, discard or give to charity. All the useful gadgets that do the most amazing things, if you haven’t even tried them, it’s probably time to get rid of them. Dispose of all the odd china plates, the containers with no lids and anything that you've been hanging on to for years but have never used.

Use labels

If you store spices and condiments in plastic ware, instead of tipping it upside down to try and work out what’s in there, why not label them? You can order personalized stickers online for help with this. If transferring packaged products to containers, cut off the use by date and tape to the inside of the lid.

Rearrange

If you are constantly reaching up high to use crockery daily, why not rearrange these items to a more reachable level? This will not only save strain on your back, but constantly used items will be within easy reach.

Clear the benches

Try to have clutter free bench tops. If you are accumulating paperwork that needs to be looked at later, medications or knick knacks, try to find an alternative space for these. Anything that really doesn’t need to be there, shouldn't be there. Give all these items their own space somewhere else.

Get rid of the junk drawer

Every kitchen seems to have one. It is full of things that ‘might come in handy’. Rubber bands, twist ties, batteries, sticky tape, screws, tools, these are all things that could easily be relocated. Use plastic storage containers, categorized and properly labelled, for all the small items that you do use occasionally. Discard all the other useless bits and pieces in the junk drawer.

 When organizing your kitchen, you have to be ruthless. There is no room for hoarding or storing something that ‘you may use one day’. Have a look at the cheap stickers online available to order on Vistaprint website. You can choose colors to coordinate with your kitchen. You can also select decorative pictures to identify items such as spices, baking ingredients and dry goods such as rice and cereal. Being realistic, kitchens will need organizing every few months. This is a good opportunity to go through the pantry and discard anything that is past its use by date. However, if your first kitchen organisation is conducted logically, with things labelled and rearranged, it will be much easier to give your kitchen an organisational touch up in the future.