Organize the Kitchen to help it run Smoothly

The kitchen is the “heart” of every home so it’s very important that it is well organized and its function doesn’t make you skip a beat.  I want to show you some of the ways I have organized my kitchen to help it run smoothly.  When we moved in, our kitchen was dark, old and outdated (click here if you want to see the full transformation).  In order for a kitchen to “feel” clean and organized I think it needs to be bright, airy and open.  Since we have a galley-style kitchen my only options for making it “feel” that way were to use fresh colored paints and open up the cabinets.

By removing 4 cabinet doors I made the kitchen feel bigger, more open and it shows off how organized the cabinets are!

Because my kitchen is small, I also had to be very strategic in where everything was placed.  I created “zones” so that things I use at the same time, are all very close together.  Here’s what my cooking and baking zone looks like: spices, prepping ramekins, pots & pans are all located next to each other.

My kitchen only has 4 1/2 lower cabinets so I had to be VERY creative in how I stored my pots and pans.  Luckily my cabinets are pretty deep so I was able to layer them and fit everything all into one cabinet!

I am lucky enough to have a pantry but it’s very tall, very narrow and very deep which, if not organized well, would make it hard to find anything.  Because I need to use every inch of the pantry I used baskets to store my food items. With everything in baskets I can easily access items on the back of the shelf by simply sliding the front basket out of the way.  Before implementing the basket organization I was only able to store about 1/2 of what I have in there now!

I use baskets in my other cabinets too.  They are a great tool for keeping items together, that would normally fall over easily.  I use them to store my martini shakers and shot glasses, as well as all of our water bottles and to go cups.

Another very important organization tool in my kitchen is my brain, I mean my chalkboard message board.  Without having this chalkboard in the kitchen I would forget so many things!  Having an easily accessible message board I am able to write down our meals for the week, items we need to pick up at the grocery store, our schedule, my “honey do list”, etc. This keeps all my “to do” lists off the fridge and counters, and puts them all on one cute little chalkboard!

So now that you’ve seen how I organized my kitchen, how will you organize yours?  I can’t wait to see what creative solutions you come up!