Organizing Your Kitchen

Clutter can be the downfall of any well-run house. Not only is it overwhelming to the mind, but clutter can give the impression of "dirty" to even the cleanest home. It is also a big time-killer.

According to the American Demographics Society, "Americans waste 9,000,000 hours per day searching for misplaced items."


The Wall Street Journal reports, "The average U.S. executive wastes six weeks per year searching for missing information in messy desks and files. (That translates into one hour per day.)"

. I've found a somewhat complex way of organizing my house which completely simplifies my life. I will not share that lengthy process here today. I'm simply going to share a few tips for removing clutter from a kitchen.

1. Knick-knacks are great! But they're only great in moderation. If you find that they collect dust faster than you can clean them; or that you have no room on your counters for the completion of normal kitchen tasks, then they need to go. I suggest a garage sale or joining your local FreeCycle group as a way of sharing your wealth and removing clutter from your kitchen.

2. Plants are great! However if the vines from your spider plant are dropping their sprouts and dirt all over the counters or you can't see through the window, trim them up or move some to another part of the house.  Creating less work for yourself eases the burden of cleaning.

3. Utensils are great (and necessary)! One container sitting next to the cooking area is perfect. Or perhaps hang your utensils above your stove. Utensils thrown together in various drawers or even one over-crowded drawer is a time-waster because you must go digging about to locate them.

4. Streamline, streamline, streamline! I can't stress this enough. As a former waitress, cook and currently the owner of a cleaning service, this is weighs in heavily with me. Streamlining means cutting down steps to save time. One study showed that when a kitchen was rearranged there was “a saving of 2,191 steps and 1 hour and 3 minutes of time each day.”

It makes no sense to travel to the north side of the kitchen for a cup when the coffee maker is on the south side! Put your coffee maker beneath your cup cabinet or near your cup tree. The filters can be placed in the drawer beneath the coffee maker. Do the same with all coffee-related things. 

Then do this with your dishes. Do you serve your food from the stove directly onto plates which are then taken to the table? Perhaps the best place for your dishes is in a cabinet near the stove. However, if you set the entire table with dishes and bring the food to the table, another cabinet closer to the table would make more sense.

What about your food preparation area? Is it near the food? The utensils? What about your canisters of flour, sugar, cornmeal? Are the sitting on the counter that you prepare baked goods? I'm sure you get the point. Streamlining reduces the number of steps your travel and helps you accomplish your tasks in a more efficient manner.

5. Organize your food cabinets. Cans, boxes, pastas, breads, etc. Again..coordinate this to where you will be using them.

Kitchens can be a great place for family time, having coffee with the neighbors, or studying. Why not spend more time enjoying those activities and less time feeling overwhelmed by the clutter. Clutter is the #1 enemy to any organized home.