Decor And The Dog: Tidy Kitchen Tips

Monday, January 7, 2013

Tidy Kitchen Tips

I often get asked a series of multiple questions about our kitchen.

Your kitchen is so clean. How do you do it?
Does your kitchen always look like this?
Do you all cook? Because your kitchen is way too clean.

The answers are as follows.

Yes. Read below.
Mostly. Except when we’re cooking. We are horribly messy cooks. Seriously. Awful.
We do cook. I would love to eat out all of the time but then we’d be poor and unhealthy. And that would make me sad. We generally only eat out once a week (sometimes twice). Breakfast is eaten at home. Lunches are packed. All but one or two suppers are prepared in our kitchen.

Today I’m going to share with you my secrets. They don’t require multiple expensive storage containers. They aren’t super time consuming. They aren’t rocket science. I swear. Pinky swear.

Tip #1:

Have a place for everything. At the end of each day, put everything back in it’s place. If you don’t have a place for something, get rid of it!

It’s simple. Everything in your kitchen must have a home. If it doesn’t, do you need it? If it does, find it’s permanent home.
Do you only use that turkey platter and gravy boat one time a year? Maybe store it in your storage area (basement, closet, etc). Who wants to fight with the turkey platter every time you try to grab a dinner plate? Not this girl.
How many pans do you really cook with? Do you need 15 bread pans? (I’m talking to you, Mom.)
I also realize that I have a lot of kitchen storage. Our last house had a smaller kitchen and it was equally as tidy. I just stored more things in our basement/owned less kitchen items.
(I shared this tip over at View Along the Way last week. Be sure to check out other great organizing tips there!)

Tip #2:

Don’t go to bed with dirty dishes/counters/appliances.

This is one that I picked up from my mom. I don’t ever remember waking up to dirty dishes and it’s something that has always stuck with me.
I spend 10-15 minutes every night washing up the dishes from the day, putting things back where they belong, and wiping off the counters. 10-15 minutes. That’s it.
- Most nights I just use a wash rag to wipe the counters. About once or twice a week I use Method’s granite cleaner to clean the counters.
- I use Rubbermaid’s Stainless Steel cleaner on the appliances once a week.
- I wipe down the cabinet faces about every other week or when visibly dirty.
- I clean the stovetop when visibly dirty.

Tip #3

Be neurotic/borderline being diagnosed with OCD.

That should probably be tip #1. And it probably explains most of our kitchen. But keep reading for more helpful tips.

Tip #4.

Clean out your fridge often.

It sounds simple but even I can be known to find a melted kiwi in the fruit drawer from time to time. Keep like items grouped together. Healthy stuff up front, of course. I also place leftovers up front so I don’t forget about them.
Throw away leftovers after 3-4 days. Again, sounds simple but do you do it?
I have also found that meal planning cuts down on fridge waste. Leftovers are planned to be eaten. We only purchase what we need for meals. Nothing more.
I wipe the fridge shelves down every 3 months or when visibly dirty.

Tip #4:

Use those pantry doors as a kitchen command center. Don’t have a pantry? Use the back of a cabinet door.

Our pantry houses a list of items in the freezer, our weekly grocery list, and a spot to record leftovers so they don’t get lost in the fridge/freezer.
- Having lists will seriously make your life easier. It’s takes a little set up time but maintenance is easy.
You will notice that my pantry is organized yet not super duper pretty. It doesn’t have a hundred pretty glass containers, chalkboard labels, or any of those other dream blogger pantry necessities. I don’t know about you but I don’t really care to spend $5 on 100 containers to store all of my pantry staples. I also don’t want to spend an hour each week dumping cereal, noodles, etc into containers. I have Downton Abbey to watch. I don’t need chalkboard labels to tell me where my cereal or canned goods are located. Got it covered. I do have some random baskets that I picked up from the Salvation Army that corral things like baking supplies.
Again, meal planning has also helped us reduce the amount of items/waste in the pantry.

Tip #5:

Keep your utensils in one location and within easy reach.

We are nothing on the counter type of people so our utensils go in a drawer right next to the stove. A utensil caddy is perfectly acceptable in my book as long as it’s not overflowing.
We group all of our utensils with their similar friends. Spoons together, spatulas together, measuring spoons together, etc. This makes cooking very easy. Again, a place for everything and everything in its place.

Tip #6:

Organize your spice cupboard. It will change your world.

Our spices are stored on cheapo Wal-Mart spice racks. They are alphabetized because ~~I’m neurotic~~ like to be able to find spices quickly.
- Again meal planning comes into play. I can easily glance through the racks to see if we need to purchase any spices for the upcoming week’s meals.
We have kept this spice cupboard like this for almost a year so the system works. And it works well.

Follow these helpful tips and you too will have a tidy kitchen. *Cue infomercial music*

Are you a person with a tidy kitchen or are you a “Why bother. It’s just going to get dirty again” person?” What’s your #1 tidy kitchen tip?

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