With the New Year in full swing and the festive rush behind us, many of us probably agree that our houses could do with a bit of TLC. After huge amounts of food, delicious drinks and plenty of chatter, our kitchens, in particular, are probably in need of a fair bit of organisation and what better opportunity to start than the beginning of a brand new year? Here, we’ve compiled some top tips.
After time spent shopping, it can be easy to just wedge food into any space in the fridge, freezer or cupboard that we can find, rather than taking the time to store it all correctly. However, when it comes to our perishables, we should be taking a little more care. Take the fridge for example – certain shelves and spots can be beneficial to different foods and when used properly, can even help it last longer and ultimately save money. For example, meat and some desserts should ideally be kept at the bottom of the fridge, where the temperature is much cooler.
To get a full understanding of exactly where different foods should actually be stored, you can use a variety of different resources to find out. In fact, finding out where food should be stored is as simple as a quick online search.
Using see-through containers in your fridge or cupboards can be a great way of not only keeping things organised but also saving and making the most of the space you have. You could store cereal, spices, tea bags, sugar, cooking ingredients and more all in their own containers or groups and with the right layout, even stack these boxes on top of one another. To keep things truly organised, you could label your containers so you can grab what you need with ease.
Instead of just having your cooking utensils in a drawer with your cutlery, sort them out into groups and allocate them a mason jar to sit in. By dividing them into groups such as ‘spatulas’ and ‘serving’, cooking will be easier as you can grab the utensil that you need without spending ages looking for the right one in your drawers.
The drawers in your kitchen don’t just have to be a large space; you can customise them with separators and racks to make them store more items. By adding racks and dividing the space up in the drawers, you can keep things organised and easy to find, which in turn could de-clutter your kitchen workspace.
If all of your cupboards are full up, why not utilise your cabinet doors? Store lids for your pots and pans on the inside of the doors, or even attach utensil holders to add spices, dish scrubbers and cloths. This way, you will be making the most out of all of your space.
When you decide that you want to organise your kitchen, one of the first steps you should do is de-clutter it. Go through all of your cutlery, utensils etc and only keep the items that you actually need and use. Don’t keep any unwanted items which will only clog up needed space, especially if you only have a small kitchen.
A really efficient way of organising your kitchen is by having allocated work zones, including an area to cook food in, prepare it, a cleaning area, cupboards full of non-consumable items and places to store consumable products.
By laying out your workspace in these categories, it will make moving about in the kitchen a lot easier and more hygienic as you will have enough space to prepare and cook food, which isn’t in the same place as the allocated cleaning area.
Make life easier for yourself and avoid your bags getting tangled under your sink or in a drawer with one simple addition – a dispenser. Create or buy a dispenser that allows you to pull off a bag with a simple tug, whether it is a black bin or recycling bag, with ease. You can even purchase dispensers for carrier bags.
Not only is this idea a great way of saving space, but it is also a nice touch to the kitchen. Put all of your spices into small food jars and attach a magnet onto the lid. Then arrange your spices on the fridge anyway that you want, ensuring that you have attached a label to the bottom of the jar. This way, you can pick the spice that you need without spending ages looking for it or battling through countless other jars to find it.
Don’t you just hate searching in the dark depths of your cupboards for cans? Invest in a Lazy Susan and this will no longer be a problem for you! With ease, you can spin the device slowly and find the product that you want. By fitting a couple into the cupboards or shelves in your kitchen or pantry, it is less likely that your products will get forgotten or go out of date. Hopefully, these 10 top tips will help you to organise your kitchen and make your cooking experience more enjoyable and easier in 2019. If you require any help organising your kitchen, don’t hesitate to get in touch with a member of our team, today.