The kitchen is the heart of your home, and this vital room’s many pieces must work together to function properly. After clearing out your old kitchen, you swore you’d never block good workflow with cluttered drawers, mismatched container lids, or jumbled utensils ever again. If you’d like to streamline your kitchen, our expert partners at The Maids have shared some tips to help keep things running smoothly.

Time and Place

Ask yourself how often you use an item before deciding where it should live. Save your sanity (and your back) by keeping your go-to dishes and appliances close at hand, stored on eye-level shelves and in easy-to-reach cupboards. Store infrequently used kitchenware on awkward high shelves or at the back of the cabinet. If you don’t play favorites, buy a few lazy Susans to up the reachability of every item. Invest in a collapsible step stool or small ladder for the times you do need extra reach.

Lids and Trays and Boards, Oh My!

Use racks or baskets to house rogue lids and keep them from looking like the aftermath of a tornado. You can also place vertical pairs of tension rods in your cabinets to create space for upright cutting boards, trays, and other flat dishes for easy slide-out access.

Double-Duty Doors

Don’t let the inside of cabinet doors shy away from their potential—attach corkboards or magnetic sheets to keep recipes, coupons, and lists in line and out of drawers. You can also apply adhesive hooks to this spot to hang measuring cups and spoons. Install small towel racks for their intended purpose or to store cookware lids—the handles rest on the bar as the lid props against the door.

The interior door of an under-the-sink cabinet is the perfect spot to adhere to small baskets, which can hold sponges, dish soap, rubber gloves, and brushes.

Shelves, Shelves Everywhere

If your new kitchen has limited cabinetry, install shelves on any available wall space or on exposed cabinet sides. Open shelving is great for storing your more attractive dishes and appliances, as well as flour, sugar, pasta, and grain containers.

Get as many things as possible off the counters and onto shelves. Repurpose a wood milk crate by hanging it on its side above the stove to keep oils and spices, or, if you lack free wall space, place the crate on a counter for extra levels of storage.

Keep it Contained

Kitchen containers come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Unique vessels add design detail to exposed shelves, while simpler versions are easy to find in stackable shapes that can fit tight spaces. Whatever your preference, the right containers go a long way in staying organized and tidy.

Now that you’ve got the kitchen down, read more organization tips from The Maids.

This post was written by our pals: The Maids

Categories: Moving Tips