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Built-in
incentives spur office organization. Job performance and
financial goals are often at stake. But where is the motivation
at home? Will you be fired from your job? …lose money
because the dishes are in disarray?
The
home is your haven from the outside world …your final
destination each day …a space of your own design and making.
The motivation comes from your desire to enter this space
and experience calm, order and a sense of control. This
is where you hope to relax and enjoy life. This is where
you LIVE.
American
kitchens are busy places. Today’s women spend an average
of 1,092 hours a year in the kitchen, along with everyone
from husbands to friends, teenagers and dinner guests.
This room puts up with a lot of traffic, so organization
is essential.
Identify
Kitchen Zones
The kitchen often epitomizes our abundant lifestyle.
We have more pots/pans than we need. We have more mugs
than we can use. We have more dishes, more serving platters,
more utensils then we have space to house. We are ready
for anything! We think we have all that we need, but what
we really need is to purge our excesses, sort our necessities,
and organize our work areas into zones.
Think
of a kitchen “zone” as an area of major activity or functionality.
What occurs in that area occurs over and over, not just
occasionally. For example, you might have a food-preparation
zone, baking zone, serving zone (dishes, glasses, flatware,
linens, etc.), dry-food storage zone (pantry), cleaning
zone, or miscellaneous equipment zone. If you grow your
own produce, you might want to designate a canning zone.
If you collect cookbooks and like to capture recipe variations
in writing, consider a meal-planning zone.
Invest
Both Time and Thought
To begin organizing your kitchen, plan ahead.
Schedule the hours needed to complete the job. Attack
areas of greatest concern first, and be realistic about
the amount of time you will need to complete each area.
There is nothing more frustrating then getting yourself
into a mess of sorting and purging, only to realize that
you’ve no food in the house for dinner or it’s time to
rush off to a meeting.
Consider
your cooking habits, kitchen flow, and areas of convenience
(zones). Do you need to have the glasses close to the
sink or the refrigerator? Do you love to bake bread or
preserve fruits or vegetables? Should the dishes be close
to the eating area or near the dishwasher?
Sort,
Then Purge
Systematically remove everything from the drawers and
cabinets. Sort items into categories that make sense to
you. Throw away broken or chipped items and objects that
don’t have all their parts, like those plastic containers
without lids. Give away duplicate utensils, excess glassware,
bowls and platters that have never been used.
The
biggest clutter item I see in kitchens these days are
the “freebies” people collect — souvenir glasses, mugs
and plastic tumblers (with straws bearing ugly lipstick
stains). Save a few, and throw or give away the rest (though
I hesitate to add to someone else’s clutter). If you must
keep a treasure, but don’t use it, pack it away in a box
and store it in the attic or basement.
The
same system of purging and sorting works for your pantry
and refrigerator. Sort out the food items that you know
you will consume, and throw away food that is stale, old,
or indecipherable. Create menus that use leftovers and
canned or packaged goods that have been sitting in the
pantry for decades. Get in the habit of reviewing the
pantry and refrigerator at least once a week in order
to determine your grocery list. (I had a client whose
pantry held 10 cans of tomato soup because she could never
remember if she needed soup when she was at the market.)
Assign
Everything a Home
In The 15 Minute
Organizer
(Harvest House, 1991), author Emilie Barnes urges, “Things
that work together should be stored together.” Good advice.
It means pots, pans and utensils for stirring, flipping
and scraping should be near the stove. Bowls, mixers,
measuring cups/spoons and other baking paraphernalia should
be in your baking zone. Seldom used items should go on
top shelves or in awkward corners of cabinets. Appliances
should find a storage space together or near the specific
work area where they will be used. Put the coffeemaker
near the sink, breakfast table, or entrance to the kitchen,
and store sugar, creamer, filters and coffee close by.
Groceries/foods
should be grouped together — cereals, snacks, canned goods,
oils/vinegars, salad fixings, etc. A client of mine routinely
emptied her groceries into any space that was open, resulting
in chips sandwiched between jam and syrup. A sticky habit
to break? Not if you focus on the incentives. Remember,
you are seeking calm, order and a sense of control.
An
organized kitchen will give you a place for everything,
as long as you put everything back in its place, and will
help you find what you need in a hurry. Assigning everything
a work zone and then a home will save you time and steps.
Be sure to have the family buy into your new kitchen environment.
Show them the layout, and ask them to help you preserve
it. Lead by example.
A
final word from Emilie Barnes:
“Organization
frees you from your kitchen mess
And gives you total rest
In this big area of your life.”
Sally
Allen, Professional Organizer
A Place for Everything, LLC www.aplaceforeverythingllc.com
"Organizing for Stress Free Living" at 303-526-5357
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