5 tricks you can try to organize your kitchen in a usable way
Even if you love to cook, you probably dread entering your kitchen when it’s in total disarray. Spices tumble out when you open a cabinet, pots and pans clank as you search for a particular lid, bags of vegetables sit in precarious looking stacks in the freezer—you’ve probably been here before. But as a new season dawns, one that promises freshly grown ingredients, it would be a shame to shy away from the kitchen. So instead, make your kitchen space more usable with these organizational hacks.
- Add a mounted spice rack. When you want to infuse your summertime dishes with some extra panache, one of the simplest ways is to dust them with paprika or add a sprinkle of cilantro. But actually locating these dried spices in your kitchen cabinets can be a challenge. A mounted spice rack makes use of dead air behind your cabinet door and simplifies the process of finding the pepper. You have tons of online options to pick from, and you can also opt for a simple set of spice shelves that requires no installation (though it will take up some usable room).
- Organize with mason jars or tin cans. If your spatulas and serving spoons are currently mixed up in an undignified jumble in one of your kitchen drawers, perhaps it’s time to put them proudly on display. Use cute containers such as mason jars or (thoroughly washed) tin cans from your favorite product to wrangle your serving utensils, cutlery, and anything else that needs organizing. You can even mount jars side-by-side on a piece of wood and use temporary adhesive to affix it to your backsplash.
- Transform magazine holders into freezer shelves. If you’re a frozen food hoarder, it’s pretty impossible to keep all of those hamburger patties and frozen mixed veggies in line. Instead of stacking everything in messy heaps, repurpose plastic magazine holders. If you slide them into your freezer horizontally, stacking them one on top of the other, they add some much-needed order to a topsy-turvy freezer.
- Try magnetic shelves on the side of your fridge. One part of your kitchen space that you’re probably under-utilizing is the side of the fridge. It’s useful for more than just save-the-date’s and postcards. You can buy small magnetic shelves that are strong enough to hold lighter items, like extra sponges or salt and pepper, and stick them right to the side of your fridge.
- Hang pots and pans. No matter how much cabinet space you have, there’s just never quite enough for the whole collection of pots and pans. Somehow they always seem to end up in a knee-deep pile that’s a real chore to sort through when dinnertime comes around. A time-tested hack for unruly pots and pans is a pot rack. Traditionally, these racks hang from the ceiling, which requires a fair amount of installation. But contemporary designers are coming out with an array of racks that either affix to the wall like a shelf or stand alone entirely. Look for whatever type of rack suits your space the best.
27 Lifehacks for Your Tiny Kitchen [BuzzFeed]
48 Easy Kitchen Storage Hacks And Solutions That Will Instantly Upgrade Your Life [MakeSpace]
Kitchen Hacks: 31 Clever Ways To Organize And Clean Your Kitchen [LifeHack]