‘Tis the Season…to Organize Your Kitchen

With holiday cooking, baking, and socializing right around the corner, November is a great time to organize your kitchen. Usually, kitchen organization is focused on de-cluttering your space, stocking only foods you need, and storing often-used items within easy reach. The holidays bring different challenges. Some holiday meals and baking tasks require ingredients you might not keep on hand during the rest of the year. You also might enjoy holiday decorating, or hosting gatherings that make use of the kitchen.

To organize your kitchen for the holidays, we recommend the following steps:

• De-Clutter: This is always the first step when you want to organize your kitchen, and it’s especially important when you need to make room for additional holiday ingredients and guests. If your countertops are cluttered with spices, get a spice rack and hang it on the wall. If your liquor cabinet is full of nearly empty bottles, rinse and recycle them. If you’re still holding on to pots you never use, this is a good time to donate them to a thrift store. And if you haven’t taken an honest look at your kitchen drawers in months, dump them out one by one, file or dispose of old receipts and user manuals, and dispose of or donate items you’ll never use. Any space that is cluttered with un-needed items causes you to expend extra effort to sort through the mess before handling the simplest tasks. Don’t let your kitchen be one of those spaces, especially during holiday time.
• Clean: In our previous post, we discussed four basic cleaners that will help you clean your kitchen. Once you’ve gotten rid of excess clutter, give your kitchen a thorough cleaning. You’ll enjoy the space more if it’s spotless. There will be plenty of holiday messes to clean before you know it, and they’ll be harder to take care of if they’re layered on top of dust or ground in dirt.
• What about the freezer and refrigerator? This is a good time for a “fridge dump” – dispose of expired items and make room for holiday goodies. The same goes for non-perishable items stored in cabinets – if they’re still good but your family won’t eat them, donate them to a local charity.
• Make a shopping list of holiday foods and beverages: Are there holiday cakes or pies your children love? How about that special dish you always make for neighbors’ parties, or the wine and cocktail mixes you like to have on hand? Make a list of the holiday foods, ingredients, and beverages you’ll need over the next month.
• Make room for ingredients: Now that you know what foods and ingredients you’ll need in the coming weeks, make room in your cabinets, refrigerator, and freezer. If you’re having trouble creating enough storage space, consider installing organizational accessories from a company like Downsview Kitchens. Downsview offers a slick tambour unit for storing your small appliances, for example, along with a revolutionary lifting mechanism for opening a wall cabinet and a special pendaflex drawer frame that helps you keep your home files organized. Stop by one of our showrooms to ask about Downview’s offerings, along with other premium kitchen accessory brands.
• Go shopping! Your kitchen is clean and de-cluttered, you’ve made room for holiday goods, and you have your list of foods and ingredients handy. Now it’s time to go shopping! Pick up the items you’ll need and stock up your kitchen for the delicious meals to come.
• It’s always a good idea to store like items together. For example, you can establish a baking work zone by storing baking ingredients, pans, and appliances in one area of the kitchen near ample countertop space – and the oven.
• Cook, bake, and enjoy. Now that your kitchen is organized and fully stocked, there’s nothing left to do but cook delicious meals, bake tantalizing treats, and host friends and family in your busy, festive kitchen. Enjoy!