Kitchen Remodel #3:  How to Set Up and Organize Your Newly Remodeled Kitchen -if you didn’t hire us to do it…

Remodeling your kitchen provides a great opportunity to organize your belongings in ways that really work for you.

Give categories priority or non priority spaces according to their frequency of use. If it’s used quarterly or less often, even if it’s a big collection of things, it should not be given priority space unless your kitchen is big enough to allow for it.

Priority spaces are hip to just above eye level — the spaces that are easiest to see and reach.  If you have to squat, bend or reach high to access it, it’s not a priority space. For drawers, the top two are priority.

Also think about grouping things by category of use. Baking supplies with baking supplies. Pantry staples together.  Measuring and mixing tools with — you get the idea.

Some small appliances fall into the funny area of taking up a lot of space but not being used often (hello waffle iron and ice cream maker!). These are good candidates for lower cupboards, or storage spaces on the periphery of your kitchen.

Optimizing Storage

Sometimes the key to storage is to use space more effectively.  We’ve probably all experienced the “Bermuda Triangle” corner cabinets and shelves so deep and dark you’d have to practically crawl all the way in to find your crock pot. (I have a feeling that if you spent enough time in one of those you actually would find all those missing Tupperware lids.)  

If you’re finding you simply need more space than your new kitchen allows, consider a wall of shelves someplace outside the kitchen to store infrequently used appliances and specialty items together. You might find that even though it’s farther away, you use your rotisserie machine more often when you can see it than you do when it’s a pain to get it out from behind your electric wok which is Tetris’d in by your emersion thingy balanced on top of something that’s been there so long you don’t even recognize it anymore.

Same idea goes for platters and other items use for occasional entertaining. A lot of people use a buffet or china cabinet to store entertainment pieces and keep their kitchens for daily use gear.

Miscellaneous Tips

Here are some more things to consider as you prepare to move back in to your kitchen:

  • Always line the area under your sink with a water resistant material. Likewise, line any area that might get sticky storing things like honey, molasses, or greasy peanut butter jars.
  • Don’t be shy about putting things in clear containers so you can see exactly how many lentils or how much trail mix is left.

One concept we started this month with was the idea of kaizen — continuously making improvements.  Whether you’ve completed a full kitchen remodel, or simply cleaned out your cabinets, congratulate yourself on a job well done.  Little steps and big steps alike when taken over time, take you closer to your goal — and that’s kaizen!

In case you missed the 1st two in this series. Here they are: