Kitchen Organization and Cleaning

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The kitchen – guests gravitate toward it,family members congregate in it, cooks create in it. Despite changing lifestyles, the kitchen remains the heart of the home. Here’s how to keep it working smoothly. The kitchen is not just the place where meals are made and sometimes eaten, the kitchen often does multiple duty as home office, family center and hobby room. No matter how many square feet it measures, a kitchen seldom seems big enough. The challenge is to put the space you have to its best use. Smart organization of your kitchen equipment and supplies is the quickest way to make the room seem more spacious and efficient.

Kitchen Organization

There’s no avoiding some reaching and bending in a kitchen. However to make it easier on yourself, try to store items that you use everyday no lower than knee level and no higher than 10 inches above your head. Reserve the higher and lower shelves for things you don’t need to use very often. You should put lightweight items such as the stemware that you save for parties on the highest shelves. Then you won’t have to hold heavy things over your head as you remove them from the cupboard. Put awkward and hefty equipment such as infrequently used small appliances and large Dutch ovens on the cupboard’s lowest shelves. Try to store cooking tools and utensils near the area where you normally use them. Keep pots and pans, spatulas, wooden spoons and hot pads for example, by the stovetop. In the same spirit, put knives, cutting boards, measuring cups and spoons, and mixing bowls near the food-preparation counter.

Not everything has to go into a drawer or a cupboard. You may find it even more convenient to take the tool that you need off a hook on pegboard or a wire rack that’s mounted on a wall, off a magnetic bar designed to hold utensils that’s fastened on the side of a cupboard or out of a handsome wide-mouthed pottery jar or pewter mug that sits on the counter.