Get Inspired to Reorganize the Kitchen

The key to organizing your home is to tackle bite-sized projects and avoid an all-or-nothing approach. This is especially true in the kitchen. If you can’t find what you need or feel like you’re always cleaning around items stored on the countertop, you’re losing time and energy. The kitchen is often a hub of activity—make it more functional and productive for your family.

Last month, I offered ways to make your pantry space more functional. This month, it’s time to take a broader look at the kitchen. For many people, the kitchen is the heartbeat of a home. It’s where meals are prepared and families gather. It’s also where you can reclaim prime real estate, as in your countertops, with a few organizing strategies.

Streamlining Your Workspaces

Start in the space you use most. Perhaps it’s an island area, where you do your prep work for dinner and all of your baking. Determine what needs to be in that space to work efficiently like knives, prep containers, baking sheets, and things you use most and need to have within arm’s reach.

Decluttering and Simplifying

Clear out items you no longer need or want, including the wedding gifts you’ve never used but feel guilty about donating. If you haven’t used it, you’re probably not going to use it and those items are taking up valuable real estate in your kitchen. The person who gave it to you didn’t intend for it to be a burden and wouldn’t want you to feel bad about a gift. Make the decision to donate it and bless someone else who could find a better use for your gently used, or never-used, item.

Refreshing Kitchen Tools and Storage

Go through utility drawers. Get rid of melted, cracked, damaged, broken things. Those well-used items collect bacteria.

Next, evaluate the state of your Tupperware or storage containers. We all have the stuff that’s missing a lid and breaking down as a result of regular wear and tear. If your containers aren’t expensive throw them all out and start again. It will require a small outlay of money but you can usually eliminate a lot of wasted time spent looking for lids.

Have you replaced your cookie sheets recently? Do you really need as many casserole dishes as you have stored under the cabinet? Consider donating items you don’t use often that could give someone else the opportunity to build the kitchen space they’ve dreamt of.

If you haven’t used it in years, it’s time to take a look at how much more you gain by gifting it to a good home. If you’re holding on to china because you think it’s worth a lot of money, you might be surprised to learn that today’s society doesn’t prize china the way it once did.

Ultimately, if you haven’t used it and it’s just taking up space, then it’s time to reclaim your kitchen and free up space to invite the family in.

Inspired action

Clear everything off your counters, give them a good cleaning, and then carefully evaluate which items return to the countertop. Consider relocating items that see infrequent use to a cabinet or alternative storage space. Just because something has always been in the same spot doesn’t mean it has to stay there, especially if it’s taking up valuable space that could be put to better use.

Inspired thought

Parting with gifts isn’t a reflection of the relationship you have with the gift-giver. Donating old wedding presents or Christmas gifts means you are gifting someone else the opportunity to create the kitchen space they hoped for.