Offering principles and techniques to simplify your life.

The key to organizing your kitchen

Make the tools and dishes you use as accessible as possible. You don’t want to waste precious time during dinner prep looking for things. Ask not where ingredients and tools fit; ask where you will be using them.  When you have egg whites forming stiff peaks, an oven at 400 degrees, and butter melting on the stove, a hunt for kitchen supplies can have catastrophic consequences. The most efficient organizing principle is to group things by activity and keep them stationed around the starring appliance. That means placing the items you use close to where you use them, and easy to pull out and put away. For instance, pots and pans go near the stove, and dishes near the dishwasher.

Anything that doesn't fall under the main kitchen-activity categories — baking, cooking, serving, and storing — doesn't need to be taking up valuable real estate. Larger serving dishes and roasting pans should go on low or high shelves in the kitchen or pantry.

It goes without saying everyone should go through their kitchens and get rid of equipment they don't use or need anymore. Paring down the amount of stuff in your kitchen will make everything much easier to locate.

If you're really strapped for space, store seldom-used and seasonal items, such as birthday-cake molds and cookie cutters, away from the kitchen entirely. Be sure to label the boxes or storage containers so you know what's stored where. As for never-used fondue sets, chafing dishes, bread and ice-cream makers, snow-cone machines, and creme brulee torches, share the wealth at your next tag sale.

If re-organizing the entire kitchen seems like an overwhelming, time-consuming task, just tackling one area at a time can make you feel better and more pulled together.

Out In The Open

 Use under-cabinet space. Under-cabinet lighting strips (attached with screws or double-stick Velcro) keep the focus on the onions at hand. A battery-operated version won’t dangle a cord or steal an outlet from the microwave. An under-shelf cookbook holder pulls down when you need it and folds back up when you don’t.

Put the walls to work. Don’t let them just sit there. Put up racks or pegs to keep favorite utensils, the dinner recipe, pot holders, and dish towels in plain sight. Oversize Post-it notes or hanging rolls of paper are useful for all kinds of reminders.

Make recycling efficient, too. Having a bin for bottles and cans right next to the one for regular trash, instead of out in the garage or in the mudroom, streamlines end-of-meal cleanup.

Rolling Bins: Cleaning supplies and paper goods remain accessible without taking up valuable shelf space when consigned to the floor in tubs on wheels.

Utensil jug. When it comes to keeping essential tools handy and visible, there have been few improvements on this age-old catchall.

Things get lost on deep shelves. Try putting them in baskets that you can pull out and inspect at eye level.

Paper roll. Hang a roll of paper for service as a tear-off shopping list or a bulletin board for notes to yourself and your family.

Mini-Prep Processors are a real time-saver if your favorite dishes typically call for things like chopped garlic, onions, and parsley.

Under the cabinets. Tap into this underused piece of hot-zone real estate and add lighting or a cookbook holder/
 
Under-cabinet cookbook holders flip up out of the way when not in use.
Try a battery-operated under-the-cabinet light fixture.

Pull-out recyclers have two five-gallon bins on a sliding rack.

CABINETS
Tackling those cavernous lower-level cabinets where most people keep their pots and pans is a good place to start. Chances are you don't take full advantage of this space. Adding shelving can double the amount of storage space you have. Even with this additional space, you will probably still need to stack some of your pots one inside the other. To avoid having the accompanying loose lids clattering around your cabinet, try attaching a lid rack to the inside of your cabinet door. If you have deep cabinets, consider putting bins on gliders into your cabinets. In general, you want to place heavier items within easy reach. Those that are rarely used but have some heft to them should go toward the back of a midlevel shelf.

Wood cookware rack storage stands keep pot lids tidy in cupboards.

Prioritize it. Next, items should be shelved in zones based on how often they are used. Anything taken out mostly for holidays, like an oversize lazy Susan, can be tucked away on the uppermost shelf — which can be reached using a folding step stool. Other cookware, such as baking pans and serving bowls, can be stored on the next two shelves. The bottom shelves can hold essential foodstuffs, like flour and sugar, front and center.

Stand it up. Removing things from the top of bakeware shelf to get at a pan on the bottom can be like a vaudeville juggling act.  Vertical racks allow you to slide individual pans on and off the shelf like books

Drawers: Stackable, labeled plastic drawers keep things like loose tea bags and soup mixes from getting scattered.

Baskets and Crates: Topless containers keep often-used items, such as spice jars, visible and ready for the cook to grab. Handles make woven baskets easy to slide forward or lift off the shelves.

REFRIGERATOR
"It's always daunting to take on an appliance that dwarfs you," Perhaps you never thought about actually organizing your fridge, but doing so will actually insure that your food stays fresher longer. Here are some specific guidelines:

Because the fridge door sees a lot of temperature changes, store condiments and other items that don't spoil quickly here.

The lowest shelf is actually the coldest, so dairy products and other perishable items should go toward the back of the bottom shelf.

Produce truly does stay fresher in the designated crisper drawer because the drawer has a slightly higher humidity level compared to the rest of the fridge.

Taking items from their original packaging and storing them in glass and Tupperware containers not only keeps food a little more fresh, it also makes things easier to see so you won't forget about them and let them go bad.

PANTRY
Carry this trend of removing food from its original packaging over to the pantry. Nothing looks messier than a pantry full of half-empty bags of dried beans, rice or flour. Facing an army of plastic storage containers is much more appealing. But keep in mind Lesser-quality containers are susceptible to stains and can warp after multiple trips through the dishwasher. Look for impact-resistant polycarbonate (really hard plastic) containers with sturdy lids. These are particularly well suited to freezing and will stand up to the heat and force of the dishwasher.

Never use flimsy containers from the grocery store or deli for long-term food storage - they are not airtight enough and are typically made of substandard materials.

Try to keep heavier pantry items on midlevel shelves for minimal hefting. Crackers, cereals, pasta and other light items can sit on higher shelves. If you are lucky enough to have a large pantry, you might also consider keeping your linens in the pantry. They look nice neatly laid out in a wicker basket. Plus, they will be less likely to wrinkle, while also freeing up valuable space in your kitchen or dining room drawers.

Out with the old and in with the new: Cleaning up a closet requires some serious purging, but it also means adding a few things — namely, organizing tools and hardworking storage accessories. For details on six of the products used in the Kupers' closet, see 6 Pantry Organizing Tools.

Light it up. Don't leave a pantry’s corners and top shelves in darkness. With two new battery-operated lights on the pantry walls, there’s always enough illumination to distinguish the cardamom from the cumin.

Door Organizer: Extra-wide wire baskets on the back of the door keep canned and bottled goods together in one place.

Bakeware Racks: Each pan and muffin tin slides into its own slot on a chrome-coated storage rack.

Clear Jars: Bulky boxed goods, such as breakfast cereal, take up less space, look more uniform, and stay fresher in airtight see-through containers.


ODDS 'N ENDS
Tool drawer: Tired of your cheese grater, potato peeler or measuring spoons getting caught up in your tangle of wooden spoons and spatulas? You can now buy small metal or plastic-coated grids to hang on the wall or inside a cabinet door. Then, you can hang all of those pesky tools on the grid. Sometimes you see people hanging pots and pans on bigger versions of these.

Recipes
Many people who like to cook have a messy pile of recipes clipped from magazines and newspapers. If you have a pile like this in your kitchen, it's time to devise a personal recipe book to keep the papers in order. First, if you have a recipe that's over a year old that you're yet to make, toss it. Chances are you'll never make it. Then, paste the recipes onto larger pieces of paper or slip the recipe itself into a plastic sleeve. Arrange these sleeves in a three-ring binder and file the binder with the rest of your cookbooks.
Spices
If you spend a lot of time in your kitchen, you've probably managed to accumulate a collection of unusual spices that you don't often use. Having a million jars of spices cluttering your spice rack makes it darn hard to find that basil or oregano. If you're willing to invest a few bucks, you can buy individual flat, round containers that hold spices. These then fit into a large flat box that slips neatly into a drawer or cabinet.