Where Should I Start When Organizing My Kitchen?
Knowing where to start when organizing any space in your home can be the most difficult part. We often get questions from clients like, “Where should I start?” and “What is the most important thing to organize?”
Start with What You Can Accomplish
When you’re first starting to consider organizing your kitchen, where you begin is often determined by what is causing you the most stress in your kitchen. For some people, it’s the pantry, which might be completely disorganized and filled with expired and unused items. For others, it might be the fridge. And for some, it’s that drawer that never opens on the first try because something always catches. Wherever you start, set a goal to simply accomplish that one small piece of the kitchen in one go.
Why Not Just Organize the Whole Kitchen at Once?
Unless you have a tiny kitchen or a lot of time, trying to tackle the entire space at once can be overwhelming and may end up backfiring. It can take many hours to really organize the whole kitchen to your satisfaction, and while that might be the ultimate goal, breaking it into smaller pieces that you can complete in 30 minutes or an hour or two can give you a sense of accomplishment and the motivation to keep doing more.
What’s the Most Important Part of the Kitchen to Have Organized?
We often start with the pantry or spice cupboard, especially if you cook a lot. It’s aggravating to not know what spices and ingredients you have, or to think you have something for a meal only to discover it’s out of code. That’s why we include the pantry in our 5-Day and 30-Day Organizing Challenges. No matter where you decide to start – and you CAN start today even if you only have 10 minutes – you can use our approach to organizing your space:
Remove everything from the space
Sort through everything and categorize into keep, donate, and throw away piles
Clean the space
Return what belongs to the space
How Do I Prepare for Organizing My Kitchen?
The most important step before organizing any area of your home is mindset. You have to not only be willing to commit some time to making it happen, but you also must also be disciplined and honest with yourself about why you’re keeping something. If you’re keeping it just because it cost a lot when you bought it but you’ll never use it, donate it or toss it. And never be afraid to ask for help! Sometimes, asking for help and getting fresh perspective on how to best organize your space is the best way to get the end result you’re looking for.
Organized Means Different Things to Different People
Don’t feel like you have to somehow have your kitchen looking like Martha Stewart works there in order to be successful. Being organized looks different to different people, and what you’re trying to do is make your kitchen less stressful and more functional for you. That’s why it’s important to start with the area of your kitchen that bothers you the most, and why, when you do organize it, there are no rules about how to organize your kitchen. For some people, organized means having cupboard space for every appliance so that all of the counters are completely bare; for others, it means the items stored in each cupboard make sense in terms of how and when the cupboards are accessed (for example, cooking utensils and pans near the stove).
Should I Buy Containers Before Organizing My Kitchen?
While we think containers are the best way to organize most spaces, we never think you should buy them before you organize. Until you take everything out of the space and know what you’re putting back, you’ll have no idea what containers you might need. Many people end up having containers – baskets, bins, buckets – that can be repurposed for use when organizing your kitchen, so you may not have to purchase as much as you think. It’s always better to wait and see what you’ll need to make the space work for you.
How Do I Know What to Keep, Toss, or Donate?
When you’re organizing your kitchen, there are some things that should just be thrown out, like expired food and spices, or broken appliances or utensils. If you have food or spices that is not expired that you know you will not use, we recommend contacting your local food bank. They will often be able to use donated items. And if you have two, three, or four of the same item that you only need one of (it happens!) donate the extras.
Happy Organizing!