Guest Post: Organizing Your Kitchen
In my previous post, I mentioned tasks that HAVE to be done. Not including our spiritual tasks, one of our most important tasks would be feeding our families, don't you think? (I know my children like to eat several times a day!)
There are two main things that I have decided about my kitchen:
1) I spend a lot of my time in there, so I need it to be bright and cheerful. It needs to be a room I enjoy being in.
2) In order to accomplish everything that I need to do in my kitchen, it must be a functional and organized place.
So, to take care of the bright and cheerful part, I stripped off the dark wallpaper, painted the walls yellow, and put ivy and daisies on the windows. (Ah, it is so nice.)
And, to accomplish the functional and organized part, I work continually to stay on top of things. (Remember Tuesday's post? Being organized isn't something you are, it's something you work to be.)
Here are my kitchen organization highlights:
1) Keep the countertops free of clutter. This means keep up with all the mail, keep up with dishes, keep up with dirty socks (trust me, I find dirty socks on my countertops sometimes--and they AREN'T mine!). It is so much easier to cook meals for your family when you don't have dishes and papers (and socks!) all over the countertops.
2) Keep your cabinets organized. Work to keep only the cooking tools that you absolutely need. Don't just throw bowls into the cabinet--stack them. Take the extra four seconds to put something away nicely so that it will be easy to find the next time you need it.
3) Keep the refrigerator cleaned out. Wipe it all out so that it looks nice, eat up your leftovers, know what you have in there. Refrigerators can quickly become big messes full of half empty ketchup bottles. Work to keep it cleaned out.
4) Keep your freezer and pantry stocked and organized. Don't just throw things into your pantry. Stack up canned goods, put dry goods in pretty jars so you can see what you have, put similar items together. Stock your freezer with the things you know you'll need. Watch for frequently used pantry and freezer items to go on sale and stock up! You'll find a detailed list of my favorite kitchen staples to have on hand here.
My ebook Do the Funky Kitchen gives more detail about organizing each of these key areas of your kitchen. It also has my "kitchen essentials" list--the list of all the items in my kitchen that I would have a hard time doing without.
Once the countertops are cleaned off, the cabinets are organized, the fridge is cleaned out and the pantry and freezer are nicely stocked full of food, that's when I get to sit down with a pretty menu planner (this goes along with the bright and cheerful part!), and write down the yummy meals I want to feed my family for the week. I love this part! Knowing that I have an organized kitchen stocked with everything I need makes my job so much easier.
It's such a joy for me to plan and prepare meals that will bless my family and make them feel loved and special. And, blessing my family and making them feel loved and special is one of the best jobs I have.
-Laura Coppinger has been married to Matt for 13 years and is mom of four boys ages 3-10. Visit her blog for more encouragement and practical homemaking ideas.Have you gotten your Bargain Ebook Package yet? In it, you'll find great tips for making your kitchen more functional, ideas for making your kitchen more kid-friendly, and lots of delicious recipes using old-fashioned ingredients! It's only $5 for all 6 ebooks (plus some bonuses!) this week. Get your package here.
Graphic from AllPosters.com
posted by Crystal Paine at 10:25 AM
7 Comments:
I haven't been able to get the links to work in this post.
These are excellent tips, thank you for sharing. The link for the menu planner isn't working.
My apologies on the incorrect links--they should be fixed now!
The links aren't working for me either.
The links still don't work ...
They now take one to a page that says, "Oops! You've reached a page that no longer exists, due to a recent upgrade of our website."
I enjoyed this post. I'm not able to access the "kitchen staples" or the "pretty menu planner" via the links.
Okay, the links should really and truly be working this time--let me know if they don't for some reason, though!
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