Tips on Organizing and Maintaining your Kitchen
By Megan Sarah Johnson

You know you’ve been there: the clock’s creeping towards the time you curl up under the covers, but you’re stuck wrapping up the leftovers from the evening’s dinner. Is it Murphy’s Law that we can never find the correct Tupperware top for each container?

It’s almost guaranteed that somewhere in your kitchen, there’s a stash of containers, along with a pile of mismatched tops to go along with it. Kitchen organization is definitely a tricky situation, especially if you live in a tiny apartment like mine. But there’s hope for all of you out there who don’t treat Martha Stewart Living as your Bible. After pouring over kitchen stores, friends’ cabinets, and endless copies of Real Simple Magazine, here’s our research that offers you the best ways to maintain your kitchen, whether you live in a studio apartment or a sprawling mansion.

Carrie Bradshaw wasn’t the only person to use her oven for storage. I’ve definitely considered the idea myself, except I realized I’d probably end up with a pre-heated oven stuffed full of cashmere sweaters and leather boots. Carrie’s thinking was right; sometimes it’s the untraditional places that work the best for storage. Certain items can be kept on the stove, if you feel like you use them frequently enough to leave out. Tea kettles look very pretty on the corner burner, while high end cast iron brands like Le Creuset® are regarded as art by many kitchen connoisseurs. Their brightly colored exteriors really jazz up a kitchen. If you use your wrought iron skillet almost every day, give it a permanent home on the front burner of your stove. For less attractive items like reusable totes, garbage bags, and kitchen tools, consider investing in a butcher’s block. Not only is it an extra cabinet’s worth of storage space, but the surface isbig enough to house larger items, like a microwave.

"A clear kitchen counter is a happy kitchen counter. Nobody likes to see them clogged up with dishes, junk, and appliances.

Do you have bottles and packets of spices strewn about? It’s a shame to relegate such attractive items to dark, dingy shelves, but sometimes we just don’t have a better choice. Many people line their spice bottles up on the top ledge of the stove, but that’s not always feasible, especially if you have one of those tiny gas stoves frequently found in studio apartments. If you have an exposed shelf, lining up your spice bottles is an aesthetically pleasing and useful way to utilize your kitchen space. For large spice quantities, think about purchasing small jars at your local grocery store. Their clear glass means your spices are easily identifiable and pleasant to look at. Metal tins are also attractive, but this would require the use of a label maker or permanent marker in order to identify them. A rotating turntable is a cheap and useful way to organize small bottles, so you can find your spice of choice without knocking everything over.

A clear kitchen counter is a happy kitchen counter. Nobody likes to see them clogged up with dishes, junk, and appliances. If there are foods you use every day and frequently leave on the counter, think about storing them in clear plastic containers. Instead of leaving a 3 pound cardboard canister of oatmeal on top of the fridge, replace it with a plastic one. Not only does it look better, but pesky rodents and bugs won’t be able to burrow themselves in. As for appliances like a microwave, toaster, and coffee pot, they are simply used so much of the time that it’s best to keep them out in the open. “I try to organize it by functionality,” Darcy Hopkins, an account manager for a marketing company in Connecticut tells us. “It’s all about ease of navigation, rather than where things typically go.” For example, instead of keeping the coffee in the pantry and the coffee liners in a plastic bag, keep the coffee, tea, liners, sugar, and coffee cups together in the cabinet above the coffee maker. That way, you don’t have to move all around the kitchen in order to make coffee in the morning. But don’t leave all your appliances out for everyone to see. Nobody wants to be mistaken for a hoarder! Keep rarely used items, like a standing mixer, food processor, and electric skillet in the cabinet.

Pots, Pans and Skillets

Everyone needs pots and pans, but you know what we don’t need? A bunch of pots and pans strewn around in the cabinets under the counter. While it’s easy to just open up a cabinet and throw your pots in, the low cabinets aren’t ideal storage spaces for a variety of reasons. First off, it’s rather dark under there, so finding the specific pot you need is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Second, warm, cozy, and dark corners of low cabinets are the fantasy homes of legions of rodents. I’ve recently dealt with an outbreak of mice in my studio apartment, who found a lovely home in the cabinets under my sink because of their close proximity to the pipes under the stove, which was their entry point. When it comes to the storage areas under your sink, keep this rule of thumb in mind: Anything that you may eat out of or cook with is best placed elsewhere. Any sort of plastic container is like a five star hotel for a mouse. Chances are they’re going to drop anchor, and won’t leave until you discover them. If you have the wall space to hang pots and pans, consider installing a variety of hooks up and down the wall. Not only will it give you a kitchen that looks like it came straight out of a Julia Child cookbook, you also won’t have to worry about cramped cabinets and potential visitors of the rodent variety.

If you’re building your own home or remodeling your kitchen, definitely consider the elbow grease you’re willing to put in when doing chores. Having cabinets that run very deep is a real pain when you’re trying to find something specific. But if can’t change the measurements of your cabinets, you can change their functionality. The cabinets above your sink should be organized by order of use: Always keep coffee mugs, water glasses, and sippy cups (if you have children) in the closest cabinet to the sink. Chances are that’s the first type of dish you’re going to reach for every day when you wake up, and you want them to be near the refrigerator or water faucet. Also, by placing frequently used dishes in the cabinet on top of the dishwasher, you can easily empty the dishwasher and replace the items in the cabinet without having to switch positions. Bending and craning your neck repeatedly is pretty much begging for a sore back. Also, consider the idea of installing Lazy Susans, which are rotating shelves that can be spun around to find the item you’re looking for. By pulling the cabinet out or rotating in a circle, you don’t have to stick your head into the dark space to hunt for that certain something.

If your mind isn’t exactly made for organization, don’t feel overwhelmed. There are stores specifically created to make this process easier on you. One highly valuable resource is The Container Store, which has a section specialized in kitchen organization. By utilizing pull-out shelves, easy glider racks, and turntables, you can turn your kitchen into a well-oiled machine in no time. You don’t have to drop hundreds of dollars at specialty stores, either. Check out the websites of popular home magazines like Martha Stewart Living™ and Real Simple™, along with TV channels like Home and Garden TV™, which has a section designated for kitchen organization. With a little help from the domestic gods and goddesses in the world, you can have your culinary enclave looking like Martha Stewart’s in no time.

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