Getting Organized…in the Kitchen

Happy March break (if your kids have one.) I am so looking forward to this week of fun kiddy activities like an indoor water park, maple syrup making/eating, birthday celebration etc.

For the Nest’s 100 Days of Organizing which I am a part of, I decluttered and organized a few areas in my house.  These are some of my tips for organizing in the kitchen.

When we bought our home through a builder, I added this desk area with a file drawer, two drawers and open shelving for cookbooks. The floor plan ended where the pantry is (on the left in the photo above.) The wasted space was just calling out for a desk.  Even though I have a home office with more file drawers and tons of storage, having this space in the kitchen is convenient and really does keep me organized. It actually doesn’t always look this tidy. My daughter’s school papers/forms are usually out where I can see them and her lunch menu is tacked to the pantry side.

The upper cabinet also houses more cookbooks, cooking magazines and recipes torn out of magazines over the past 20 years. That’s my next project – going through and keeping my favourite recipes!

 

This is the “pencil drawer” in the desk. These bamboo boxes are perfect for desk drawers to hold pens, chargers etc.  Before I bought these, the drawer was a mess (I’m sure we all have the “catch-all” drawer.) I could never find a paper clip! Now everything is where it should be.

 

With the builder, I also increased the number of drawers in the kitchen – I have 18 (including the 3 in the desk.) One of the drawers is designated for spices which makes finding the right one and seeing what you have, a cinch.   

What I also do is label the spice on the back with the date I purchased it. Spices have a shelf life of 1-4 years only and it’s quickly how time flies without realizing it. It doesn’t mean that the spices have gone bad, it just means that they lose their flavour.  Read an interesting article here.

Do you have any tips for staying organized in the kitchen?

Have a happy week!

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