“Arg…I have no idea what to cook today!”
“I wanted to make so and so but I don’t have the ingredients!”
“Why is it so hard to come up with a meal every single day!?”
These are things I have said a million times and I am sure you have too. I LOVE to cook but even then, sometimes I can find it to be such a chore and exhausting to keep coming up with meals to make that satisfy the whole family. We are a family of 6 here – my husband and myself, my 3-year-old twin boys and my elderly in laws. As you can imagine, everyone has their favorite foods as well as foods they don’t like.
Over the years, I have learned that I am my best in the kitchen when it is cleaned, organized and well stocked up. For whatever reason, when my kitchen is this way, it really motivates me to get in there and make delicious meals for my family. And hey, if that’s what it takes to get me to put a meal on the table every day, then so be it!
So, what are some of the routines I have incorporated into my life to stay organized in the kitchen? Well, that is exactly what I will be sharing in this post. So, sit back with a nice cup of hot tea and enjoy!
I think my biggest piece of advice and something that needs to be done before anything else is to DECLUTTER YOUR KITCHEN. The last thing I want to do when trying to make dinner is to have to pull 100 things out of a cabinet to get 1 pot. I strongly believe in minimalism. You don’t need 50 different pots. You don’t need 20 cups or 5 different sets of dishes. KEEP ONLY WHAT YOU NEED AND USE and get rid of the rest. If you haven’t used something in a year, chances are you won’t really ever use it so just say goodbye to it. Having a clutter free kitchen puts my mind at ease and just makes the cooking and cleaning up process so much easier and more enjoyable as well.
Another thing I do once a week, typically the day before trash day, is GO THROUGH ALL AREAS OF THE HOME WITH FOOD. So of course, that is mainly the kitchen area and then I also have an extra freezer in my garage I go through as well. Now I’m not saying I clean all of these spaces out every week. What I do is just skim to see if anything needs to be tossed, used up or restocked. So, I will check the extra freezer, the spice cabinet in my kitchen, the fridge and pantry as well. While I do this, I get a few things done. I get the spaces decluttered, I prepare for trash day, I start making my grocery list, I come up with meals I will be making in the upcoming days and I clean the areas as well if they need it. Now if that’s not efficient I don’t know what is!
Another routine I have incorporated is a NIGHTLY KITCHEN CLEANING ROUTINE. This is what is on the to-do list every single night: dishes washed and put away or dishwasher started, counters wiped down, floor swept, stove cleaned, and sink scrubbed out. These are absolute must dos and make a big difference on my productivity in the kitchen the next day.
I wasn’t really into organizers before. I felt like they were just another thing to keep clean and that if you just don’t have a lot of things you don’t really need organizers. Boy was I wrong! I recently got into ORGANIZERS, especially for the kitchen and they seriously changed things up so much. I’m not going to get into all of the products I love right now but I do need to give the lazy Susan a special shout out. I have recently added 2 into my fridge and 2 into my spice cabinet and they are making so much of a difference when it comes to keep things organized and making it so easy to grab things quickly and put them away. A small confession: I usually spin my lazy Susan at least once a day for no reason what so ever but the satisfaction it gives me haha.
The last tip is to KEEP THE COUNTERS AS CLEAR AS POSSIBLE. Limit the amount of décor in the kitchen and try to keep appliances such as toasters, blenders, etc. in cabinets. If you follow my tip of keeping a clutter free kitchen then you should hopefully have the space in your cabinets to store these items. This not only makes your kitchen instantly look clean, but it makes cleaning up easier as well and just gives you more space to prepare your meals.
And there you have it! Those are just some of the tips I have to keeping your kitchen clean and organized so that you can be the best you when it comes to making meals for your family. Let me know in the comments if you have any other routines you swear by. I would love to hear from you!
Check out my latest video where I deep cleaned and decluttered my whole kitchen! I also share some of my favorite kitchen cleaning products as well as some organizers for your fridge drawer!
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