5 Steps to Creating an Efficient Kitchen

Whether you’re starting from scratch in a new home or are looking for a way to reorganize your existing kitchen to make it more efficient you should find the following tips invaluable.

An efficient kitchen is essentially one that reflects your lifestyle. It involves organizing systems that meet your daily needs and help streamline your activities. An organized and efficient kitchen is also a neat and tidy one because everything has both a purpose and a place.

Let’s walk through the five key steps to make your kitchen flow better.

Step 1

Go through your kitchen and be ruthless. Give away or sell things you don’t use. Toss food, spices, and medicines that are beyond their expiration dates.

Step 2

Remove everything from your kitchen cabinets and drawers. Wash all shelves and interiors with warm soapy water. Rinse, let dry, and add fresh shelf and drawer liners.

Step 3

Designate certain zones for each task you perform in your kitchen. Each zone should also have a related storage area which includes all the necessary tools to perform the task(s) done in this particular area of your kitchen.

For instance store pots, pans and cooking utensils close to your stove. Nest pots and pans together to conserve space or hang a pot rack. Cooking utensils can also be hung on hooks, stored in drawers with dividers or if you have room, stored in a container on your kitchen counter.

Things like your everyday dishes and cutlery should be stored close to your kitchen table as well as your sink and/or dishwasher. Helper shelves make the retrieval of everyday dishes easier (you don’t need to remove the lunch plates to get to the dinner plates) and divided cutlery trays help maximize drawer space.

Step 4

Keep like items together e.g. canned goods, baking supplies, snacks etc. Alphabetize spices to make them easy to locate.

Store food your family eats on a daily basis in an easily accessible spot. One of the first foods our kids accessed on their own was cereal. If they got up early, it was nice to know they could easily retrieve their own bowls, cereal, spoons, sugar and milk.

Step 5

Clear your counters of excess clutter. Remove large and seldom-used appliances. Store them instead in either an appliance garage or kitchen cabinet. If the appliance is rarely used get rid of it altogether or at the very least, store it elsewhere in your home.