The kitchen is the hub of any home: it’s where families gather after school and work to talk about their days; where mothers and fathers create nourishing meals for their kids, and where children explore their creativity while learning to cook and bake.
However, a cluttered cooking environment can make mealtimes unnecessarily stressful. What’s more, setting up your kitchen correctly can encourage you to eat healthier and cook more meals from scratch. With this in mind, here are three top tips to help make your family kitchen more user-friendly.
Get Rid of Fridge Clutter
To fully optimize your fridge space, you need to get rid of clutter, inside and out. Take everything out (yes really, everything) and clean down the shelves and compartments with a damp cloth. Then, get rid of anything that has exceeded its use-by date, has mold growing on it or looks past its best. Be sure to check old jams and condiments, as these can take up valuable space despite never getting used.
Once you’ve cleared the inside of your fridge, put everything back in an organized fashion and take stock of what you’ve got. It’s a good idea to do this before your grocery delivery if you can, so you can start afresh each week.
Next, remove all notes, letters and old magnets from your fridge door. The front of your refrigerator is valuable space that can be used to make your life easier, so don’t clutter it up with junk. Instead, stick your calendar, food plan and weekly schedule to your fridge doors and leave space for photos that will cheer you up after a bad day. Rather than having lots of different snaps that fall off every time you open the door, you can use an online picture collage maker and keep them all on one handy sheet.
Keep Essentials Close
When you are cooking, you want the process to be as streamlined and stress-free as possible. Make sure you have easy access to the fridge, stove and pantry. As well as keeping these areas close together, you should also aim to keep all of your cooking utensils, spices and cooking books accessible.
Using electronics can also make your life easier when you’re cooking, so look out for phone and tablet stands that are designed for kitchen use. Most people use their devices to look up recipes rather than relying on cookbooks, so it makes sense to keep your electronics docked by your cooking station.
Use Labels
Free your food from ugly packaging and use labeled jars and containers instead. You could give your pantry a complete overhaul by using pretty wallpaper or covering shelves with contact paper to spruce it up. Also have large jars for grains, oats and rice. Make sure to recycle all packaging you throw away though! This way, you’ll be able to see exactly what you’ve got in your cupboards without having to rummage. This method will also make your kitchen look cleaner and better organized, inviting you to spend more time cooking up your creations.
