How to Organize Your Kitchen for Efficiency

Do you find that you're spending a lot of time in the kitchen, looking for items and walking back and forth to collect items from areas other than where you're working? It may be time to rearrange your kitchen to make it more efficient!

Usually an inefficient kitchen is simply the result of appliances, tools, and other items being brought to the kitchen at different times. When you bring home something new, you tend put it where there is a convenient space. Over time, all those single items being brought in end up strewn all over the kitchen, instead of collected into areas that would be more efficient. Here's how to rearrange your items, so that you can spend less time in the kitchen and still get more done.

The Stove Area ~
The stove area is your primary cooking area, so it needs the things you cook with. The cabinet nearest your stove and oven should be filled with pots and pans. Those are the things you'll be reaching for most often while you're standing there at the stove.

Cooking Utensils ~
Again, your cooking utensils are going to be used most often at the stove. All your spatulas, your big stirring spoons, your tongs, and other things of that nature, should be in the top drawer closest to your stove. Also in that drawer (or under it), should be your hot pads and oven mitts. These are the things you'll be reaching for while you're standing at the stove and suddenly you realize you need a hot pad or a set of tongs.

Baking Items ~
When you're baking, you're going to be using things like mixing bowls, and measuring cups and spoons. As you dirty up measuring cups and spoons, you're going to need to toss them into the sink (instead of setting them down wet on the counter!). So, it makes sense that your baking tools should be fairly near the sink. Putting small things, like measuring spoons and spatulas, in the drawer nearest the sink will keep them handy, while putting mixing bowls and electric mixers in the cabinet nearest the sink will keep them near at hand.

Food Preparation Items ~
The items you use most often to prepare food are your cutting board, your knives, maybe a cheese grater, and other similar items. These items should be stored near a section of a clear countertop that you can use as a working space. If you can use the section of counter nearest your sink, it will be extra handy because tools can be dropped in soapy water as soon as your done with them.

Table Setting Items ~
If you have a dining room area that is separate from your kitchen, there is absolutely no reason that things like napkins and table cloths be stored in the kitchen. They need to be in the dining room. If you have a buffet, linen cabinet, or even end table or coffee table with drawers in them, these are perfect places to store the things you use when you set the table. Everything from cloth napkins to seasonal decorations, (such as centerpieces), and those extras like candle stick holders. Moving these items into the dining room area, will not only make you more efficient when setting the table, it will also empty out some kitchen space.

Food Storage ~
When you're packing leftovers, you're going to be walking back and forth between the refrigerator to put the leftovers in and the sink to put the now-empty dishes that need to be washed. It makes sense that all your plastic storage containers, as well as things like zipper baggies and aluminum foil, should be in the drawers and cabinets between your refrigerator and your kitchen sink.

Drawer Dividers ~
If you do have to have more than one kind of tools in the same drawer, you can efficiently divide that drawer into separate sections, using drawer dividers. These small trays can be found in any discount or dollar store and will effectively give you two small drawers, instead of one larger one. That will keep items that don't have anything to do with each other from getting mixed up. This will keep you from having to search through twice as many things, every time you look for something.

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