Posted on June 4th, 2020
The kitchen is a very “high-use” area of the home: It’s where we cook, eat, and socialize daily; in some homes, the kitchen also serves as a laundry area. According to data from Statistica, Americans devote six hours every week to cooking and another six hours to cleaning the kitchen. Over the course of the average lifetime, that amounts to approximately six years spent working in the kitchen.
This explains why kitchen organization is so important and why it’s so hard to maintain. Knowing where everything in your kitchen is located can shave hours off your weekly routine, but it’s hard to manage items that see such frequent use. It’s too easy to haphazardly shove things in the back of drawers, cabinets, etc., when you’re rushing to tidy up, for example, only to spend hours rummaging around for those same items a week later.
At DeluxeMaid, our team of cleaning professionals can organize your space for you if you would prefer to relax and let us do the dirty work. To prevent these kitchen organization disasters, you’ll need to develop a consistent, effective, storage system that makes staying tidy simple — starting with your kitchen drawers. Try these easy organization hacks!
1. Identify items in your kitchen that are broken or rarely used.
Most of us have chipped mugs, cracked glasses, and warped utensils lying around the kitchen – not to mention small appliances that we haven’t used in years. (Remember the bread maker fad of the 1990s?) Decluttering broken and disused items before you start organizing can free up a lot of space around your kitchen, thereby allowing you to move items that don’t belong in your drawers to a more appropriate location. Ideally, your kitchen drawers should be used to store items you need for cooking and washing up, not miscellaneous things like paper plates, takeout flyers, or plastic containers.
2. Pick a theme for each of your kitchen drawers.
Storing similar items together creates a logical, easy-to-remember organization scheme. For example, your eating utensils should all be stored in one drawer, along with related items like cans and bottle openers and vegetable peelers. Another drawer should contain dishwashing supplies, like rubber gloves and dish towels; another might hold plastic wrap, tinfoil, parchment paper and so on.
3. Organize drawers in order of use.
To speed up kitchen activities and make it easier to put things away, place the items you often use in your top drawers and work down from there. A common organization scheme is to keep eating utensils in the top drawer, larger utensils, scissors, and other tools in the second drawer, oven mitts and towels in the third drawer, plastic wrap, foil, ziplock bags and closures (e.g. elastics and twist ties) in the fourth and little-used items like candles and batteries in the bottom drawer. But, it’s important to remember that every family’s needs differ. For instance, if you have a toddler, you’ll want to put potentially dangerous items like matches and candles up high. Alternately, if you take medication, putting it in the top drawer near your utensils may be a valuable way to make sure you don’t forget a dose. Ultimately, your drawer layout should reflect your priorities.
4. Use kitchen drawer dividers wisely.
Drawer dividers are a great way to keep different types of items separate, thereby preventing your kitchen drawers from becoming cluttered. They also make cleanup a breeze: When you have dividers, you can easily remove and wash them in the sink, which is much less awkward than bending down to wipe out drawers thoroughly. You should take a moment to quickly wipe away dust before reinserting your clean dividers. Before choosing dividers, measure the inside of your kitchen drawers and note down the dimensions. Then, purchase dividers that will fit snugly in your drawers while accommodating the items you plan to store in each one.
5. Make sure everyone in your household uses the same organizational scheme.
Even the best organization scheme is only as effective as those who use it. After all, it only takes one person putting items away in the wrong places to disrupt your routine and put your family back on the slippery slope toward kitchen chaos.
After you’ve figured out the best possible layout for your kitchen drawers, have a “family meeting” to show everyone you live with how to use the new system. If you have kids, try removing items from your kitchen drawers and asking your kids to put them away in the right place. Practicing a few times will help them adjust to your changes.
Effortless Home Maintenance with DeluxeMaid
Decluttering and organizing your kitchen alone can be overwhelming. So, if you need extra help tackling messes around the home, we highly recommend contacting our local home cleaning experts near you. DeluxeMaid will get your kitchen and whole house gleaming in no time, leaving you free to do the things you love, like cooking and spending quality time with your family and friends.
Schedule a one-time cleaning with us today!