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The kitchen is often considered the heart of the home. It’s the center of activity and somehow is where everyone naturally gravitates. This does mean though that the kitchen can be the one place in the home that’s constantly unorganized. With a few simple changes to your current kitchen situation, you can not only save room in your home, but money too.
1. Drawer Space
Every kitchen has one – a drawer dedicated to an array of kitchen gadgets and random objects that you know at one point will come in handy but not any time soon. The junk drawer is a staple of some and a nightmare to many. An easy way to keep drawers organized is to get a few inexpensive drawer organizers the next time you pass a discount or dollar store.
Much like cutlery trays, drawer organizers have compartments for each and every knick-knack you have aimlessly rolling about in your drawer.
Plus purchasing inexpensive ones means you can easily cut out sections to perfectly fit any drawer in your home. If this simple method of organizing seems too complex for some members of your family, take it up a notch by creating custom labels for each section of your organizers to ensure there’s a place for everything (and to make it to easier to find things when you need them).
2. Clear the Counter
Another common thing amongst kitchens is that they often become a dumping ground for things that don’t belong in a kitchen. We often find kitchen counters can be littered with backpacks or briefcases, kitchen tables can be the go-to to complete projects, and lets not forget about all the writing utensils and plethora of phone and laptop chargers that somehow always winds up scattered throughout.
A great way to remove some chaos from your kitchen is take out everything that isn’t kitchen related and move it somewhere else.
Keeping non-kitchen items out of your kitchen allows you to maneuver your kitchen easier when cooking, and also clears up much needed counter space for appliances you actually use to create meals. Instead of your kitchen being a dumping ground, set up a designated area in a front hall or entrance way for belongings and allocate separate working and dining areas.
3. Hang Out
When our counters are full of appliances and utensils, the next storage go-to is of course our drawers and cupboards. More often than not though those spaces are already overflowing with your clunky or cumbersome kitchen gadgets. To maximize much-coveted counter space try hanging as many things as you can in your kitchen.
Hanging rack for cookware have been popular for ages for this very reason for example. That’s not everything you can have hanging out in your kitchen though. Magnetic knife racks are decently priced at tons of retail locations that sell kitchenware and are incredibly easy to install (and takes up less space than knife blocks). A lot of produce can (and probably should) be hung in food hammocks or baskets, which can replace fruit bowls and free up fridge space.
4. Keep it Contained
A huge contributor to kitchen disorganization is food packaging itself. Not all food packages are transparent, so we don’t always know how much or how little we have left of that food, which can lead to unnecessary spending. Food packaging can also be clunky and uneven, resulting in wasted storage space.
To combat this, invest in a set of reusable containers that can be stacked and stored efficiently in your space. This allows you to see what you’re low on when you’re low on it, and also alleviates any worry about bulky packaging not fitting in your kitchen. Making custom home labels for every container can help you know what you’re using and adds extra organization for smaller things like herbs and spices.
5. Maximize Space
Sometimes the best storage spaces are in plain sight. That weird space between your fridge and the ceiling can be used to store baking dishes you seldom use.
Nooks and crannies beside appliances or beside counters are great spaces for thin objects like baking sheets or even cook books. The backs of the doors on your cupboards can also serve as great storage spaces for cleaning supplies or necessities like rolls of parchment paper or aluminum foil. You can also place items in front of your acrylic splashback to save space.
Kitchen organization doesn’t have to be overwhelming or expensive and once you know what sections of your kitchen need it, everything will fall into place.