The kitchen is the heart of any home, but for many of us the sight of that heart may cause cardiac arrest. It’s an unbearable mess. You have tons of Tupperware and lids, but none seem to fit together. The pots and pans have been forced into a cupboard and stacked haphazardly to form a teetering game of Jenga. And the shelves that hold the dishes and glasses offer no discernible order at all. In short, your kitchen is a daunting sea of chaos, and just looking at it makes your left eye twitch.
Fortunately, this problem is easily rectified. With a few tips and choice tools, you can perform a triple bypass on the heart of your home and get it into proper working order.
Hang Everything
If it will fit on a hook, hang it up. Since most kitchens lack enough drawers and counter space, take to the high ground. From pot holders to ladles, if you would normally stick it into an overflowing drawer, use adhesive hooks to hang it instead. You can hang over-sized pots and pans from a ceiling rack, too. This method frees up prime real estate in the doors and drawers of your kitchen and also adds a multidimensional aesthetic appeal to the kitchen itself. By hanging everything, you no longer have a leaning tower of skillets and pots waiting to topple onto the floor. Your cooking utensils are neatly ordered and easy to reach.
Choose Quality Appliances
A Whirlpool dishwasher is an ideal appliance for the tidy and slightly OCD kitchen tenant. In general, a dishwasher is a necessity for an orderly kitchen as it allows you to keep your sink free of dirty dishes and the unpleasant odors that come with them. The Whirlpool models have additional features if you are a neat freak, such as the overnight wash mode that simulates dish soaking, versatile set-ups for fitting more dishes in one load and a removable upper rack that gives you room for your over-sized dishware, pots and pans.
Use Drawer Dividers
It’s a strange phenomenon, but silverware has been known to quietly expand and multiply within its drawer. Even if you organize the drawer decisively, somewhere along the line, the silverware rebels. Instead of using the pre-formed bins that limit the length of your spoons, knives and forks, use adjustable dividers. These account for whatever mischief goes on in that drawer in the dark. The dividers are also great for your cooking utensil drawer and can be inserted into any junk drawers you may be hiding. Order is only maintainable when everything has its predetermined place.
Put Lazy Susan to Work
Honestly, the woman is a miracle worker. Use a countertop Lazy Susan with deep shelves to hold your potentially messy items. Kitchen staples like honey, syrup, salt and pepper are all likely to take a tumble eventually, and the deep shelves help contain the mess. Lazy Susans can also be implemented under the counter for organizing groups of items like spices, and they can be used topside as a counter centerpiece to hold fruit or candy.
If the heart of your home has become a den of disorder, it may be time for a jump start. Get your kitchen back into working order and you’ll feel better in no time.