Kitchens are the nucleus of a home: where family members cook, bake, and eat with one another. Renowned Netflix show, Get Organized with The Home Edit, has popularized organizing every nook and cranny in a home- especially spots like the pantry in your kitchen.
From cooking to post-dinner cleanup, our kitchens can have us feeling overwhelmed and the constant upkeep may be a deterrent from doing a deep clean and making necessary adjustments and changes. Therefore, it is a must-needed stop on a “spring cleaning” tour of the house.
READ ALSO: 6 ways to transform your kitchen on a budget
Here are some tips to help you organize your kitchen this spring:
1. Invest in multifunctional kitchen appliances
Clear the clutter around your kitchen by investing in kitchen appliances that do more than one job. This could include products like a wall oven with a built-in rotisserie, an electric kettle and coffee machine and/or a 2-in-1 espresso maker that can also dole out tea.
Similarly, the Frigidaire Gallery 29.88″ Stainless Steel Free Standing Gas Range with Air Fry (FGGH3047VF) prevents kitchen-counter clutter and saves you cabinet space. The days of taking out, uncoiling, plugging, unplugging, and putting away your air fryer are gone (as are the days of mopping up oil splatters).
2. Avoid hoarding spares
Many of us are guilty of keeping unnecessary items around our kitchen including a sizable collection of coffee mugs, dish rags, numerous spatulas and possibly even an extra set of oven mitts. Since kitchen items are perceived as useful, we struggle to rid ourselves of them. However, if we took the time to audit our kitchen accessories, we’ll find ourselves eager to purge several of them.
Not only will downsizing dishware free up cabinet and drawer space for a minimalist aesthetic, but it will enable you to put your dishwasher to work more often instead of letting stacks of plates, bowls, cups and silverware pile up in your sinks.
3. Use storage containers!
A simple solution that is easy on the eyes is storing foods in clear containers. Unboxing certain grains—including cereal, rice, pasta, and oatmeal—as well as nuts, seeds, and legumes and pouring them into discrete receptacles will save space (goodbye, bulky cardboard!) and allow you to clearly see what you have so that you can avoid shopping for duplicates. Bagged items like bread and snacks can be arranged in trays while flour and sugars can be poured in large glass jars. For spices, we recommend investing in a rack so that the labels are clearly displayed. You may choose to go the extra mile by labeling these packaged foods in your pantry and cupboard, and we wouldn’t skip our under-the-sink cleaning products (which we should also streamline as much as possible for the same reasons).
4. Be strategic about cookware and dishware storage
An obvious way to declutter kitchen cabinets and cupboards is by organizing them so that they reflect which items you use the most often—and establish a more eye-pleasing configuration in the process. It comes down to figuring out a balance between accounting for item usage and mass. Special-occasion items can be stored on harder-to-reach shelves while items that you use more often, like your dishes and cups are within arm’s reach. Avoid storing heavier items, like a glass serving platter or a ceramic pitcher, toward the top of the case so that you don’t fear them toppling over whenever you reach for them.
5. Hang up cookware and cooking utensils
Lastly, we recommend investing in a pots and pans organizer that you can hang up in your kitchen. Where you hang your cookware is up to you—whether you decide to create a focal point above your kitchen island or dangle them next to your range hood. You could also choose to do the same for your cooking utensils, baking trays and cutting boards! For smaller utensils and accessories, you can suspend them on the wall next to your cooktop for easy access, and for even smaller items, like measuring spoons and cups, you can hang them on the inside of your cabinet with the baking ingredients.
As you work hard to simplify your kitchen, don’t forget to catch your breath. Take your time and enjoy the process!
Anthony Conti, director of digital marketing at Spencer’s TV & Appliance. For more than 47 years, locally owned Spencer’s TV & Appliance has grown to 10 locations through maintaining a focus on personal service and customer satisfaction. Throughout the years, Spencer’s has been able to work hard with suppliers to bring its customers the best prices on the market. For more information, visit https://www.spencerstv.com/.
