If you’re anything like me, you use your kitchen all day every day. Not only do I cook and bake every day but I have a lot of ingredients, dishes, and tools I use. Things get jumbled really quickly and before you know it you’re pulling out three things to get to the one thing you need. That’s where kitchen organization comes in. Thinking through your organization systems can make such a difference in enjoying working in your kitchen or being frustrated.
An Ongoing Process
When we moved in our house eleven years ago I spent a lot of time thinking through how I would use the my new space. Since I bake all our bread and most of our desserts, the set-up for baking supplies was a big priority. If you also bake a lot or hope to learn that skill you should consider how you set up your area.
The thing I have to always remind myself is that I need to change my organization systems as I change and the way I use my kitchen changes. You may start using a new piece of equipment or experimenting with a new ingredient and that will change how you work. It really helps to stop every so often and really consider if your systems are still working for you and how you can change things up if they aren’t.
Simplify!
Everything is going to be easier and more enjoyable if you make things as simple as possible. Personally I won’t use something or put it away of it’s too tedious or difficult to get to it. That’s just human nature! Even the most disciplined person is going to start piling things up if you have to unload a whole cabinet to put the pan or container in it’s place.
You have to ask yourself if your system is easy enough to maintain and be honest with the fact that we just aren’t as disciplined sometimes as we want to be.
Quick Kitchen Organization Before and After
I have an ingrained habit, it’s possibly a character trait at this point, of being resourceful. This is great the vast majority of the time. Recently I realized my resourcefulness and make-do attitude was making my life more difficult. That’s a huge sign that things need to change!
Below you can see photos of my baking cabinet. I keep flour, oils, vinegar, sugars, and other things in this cabinet. The problem I was having is that I use four kinds of flour very often: all-purpose, spelt, white wheat, and bread flour. I have a collection of sugars and types of honey I use often. There was a bin of vitamins, one of medicine, and another of essential oils and things I use for soapmaking.
What I realized is that I needed better tools to organize this space for how I use it today. I needed to buy the right containers instead of using random ones or none at all. After a quick trip to Walmart I could set things up according to what I needed today. This made it more efficient and enjoyable to use this cabinet.
A Few Extra Ideas
It’s worth it to invest in a few specific things to make your space work for you. Whether that’s some good containers or a pullout rack for a lower cabinet it is worth the cost.
Think about how use really use the space and set it up for that. It’s shouldn’t be how you feel like it should be because of something you saw on Pinterest or Instagram. You are the only one using your space so it needs to be set up for you.
Be willing to change things up if your habits and needs change. Change is hard for me because I like to find a system and stick with it but change happens. I’m buying a different brand of flour now and the bread flour works better in my sourdough. That means I need to store all-purpose and bread flour. This brand comes in a paper bag which I like but it needs a sealed container. I waited a long time to invest in a new system but the change has been great.
Finally, take your time. Live and work in your space before you buy some expensive fancy things that you might end up not using. I kept the old springform pan that I keep my oils and vinegars in. It works for me so there was no need to change it. There’s no hurry so it’s worth it to take your time.
