This blog post is about how to re-organise your kitchen at home, the easy way! So you never have to open more than one cupboard to find what you need. Take a seat and read on.
I admit I have a bit of an obsession with streamlining and making my life as easy as possible at home. Maybe it is because I rented for so long, maybe I am just a weirdo, but I hate my surrounding not to be efficient and mindful of me as a user and it is pretty much how I approach how I decorate in general and why this blog is called My Mindful Home.
I’ve been meaning to get serious in shopping at Zero Wast Shops, there is a new place opening up near me in a month and I am planning to check it out. But first, I needed a properly organised pantry/storage system. This combined with the desire to make way for healthier habits and perhaps also because I watched one too many Marie Kondo Netflix Special. By the way, I already wrote about her book which was published about 5 years ago on this article if you want to have a read My top 5 books for starting a Minimalist and Simpler Life.
All I can say is, I definitely got the push I needed to re-organise my pantry. I will make an article specifically how to get ready to start Zero Waste Shopping but today I wanted to share about my Kitchen Organisation System which makes my cooking experience so much pleasurable and mindful and therefore I extracted 6 simple kitchen organisation tips to share with you.
Without further ado, here are the tips:
1. Only keep items you use every day on your worktop
By only keeping items you use daily, you worktop will be free from clutter and means you always have space to start using the kitchen immediately. To be honest, I do have my KitchenAid Mixer, but it definitely “sparks joy” for me so it will stay there in the corner.
Consider getting drawer inserts and boxes to organise smaller items. They make a huge difference in getting organised. The ones designed to fit your drawer width will avoid any dead space and make small space storage really efficient.
2. Store less often used items away from the immediate cooking zone
3. Divide your kitchen cupboards by areas
In order to find what you need, you need to know roughly “where it is supposed to be” and therefore you need grouping areas in the kitchen.
Create an area for each:
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The mindful home tip:
Consider grouping crockery, glasses, cutlery together next to your sink/dishwasher so they’ll be faster to put away.
Consider grouping pots, pans, spices next to your oven and hob so they’ll be faster to reach when you are cooking.
4. Get your Pantry organised by areas
A Pantry can get messy if you don’t have a system. I know I have been there only a few weeks ago. Moving flat to flat in London, I always carried my pantry items with me because that cost money to build a new pantry from scratch. Plus, dried herbs and most pantry items last months if not years.
So since we moved to our own home, I didn’t sort out my pantry, as we had so much more important projects to do. I have a pivot corner pantry which is quite dark and whenever I needed something I had to spin it back and forth until I found it. Not the most efficient (not mindful!). So, I definitely recommend coming up with a system and organise the pantry per area.
Pantry Grouping Areas ideas:
These will depend on your lifestyle and diet preferences but this is a good starting point:
- Easy access to your top 5 items: cooking oil, salt, pepper, rice, pasta, etc.
- Cooking: Cans, Vinagre, seasoning, tomato concentrate, etc.
- Breakfast: Coffee, Tea, chocolate, jam, cereals, etc.
- Baking: flours, Sugar, Baking soda, chocolate chips, etc.
- Nuts/Health/Fitness: seeds, almonds, protein powder, etc.
5. Keep your items and colours to a minimum
Why would you need 20 forks if you are a family of 3, right?
Consider re-selling excess items. This will free your cupboard and bring you some cash. If you don’t want to deal with the hassle of reselling your items, consider donating at charity shops, some also take kitchen items.
Have too many glass containers? Some Zero Waste Shops (which are popping up in every corner these days) will be delighted if you make a donation as they can re-use them.
Keep visual colours to a minimum. Similar colours create a visual harmony which is more relaxing. Marie Kondo said it so. I think she was talking more about bottles but that is something I apply everywhere at home actually to provide visual calmness. Check this article if you are interested in that topic: 10 Ideas to Create Pockets of Calm Areas in Your Home
6. Decant items into glass or storage containers.
I like to transfer content onto storage containers. They are easier to pile up and to store than having plastic packaging of awkward and irregular forms. Plus they will become handy to bring with me at the Zero Waste Shop, as I now know what I need.
Hope this was useful, if you could please pin or share on social media, it would really be appreciated. It helps my little blog.
Thank you!
Marlene x
Picture credit: All lifestyle pictures are property of mymindfulhome.co.uk, all individual pictures in the Kitchen Organisation Pick list belong to respective brands: Ikea.com, roseandgrey.co.uk, Bloomingville.com, iittala.com.
