I just recently moved, which means I had the opportunity to evaluate how I had my last kitchen organized. I reflected on how my fiance and I would bump into each other while cooking and cleaning, and how our decently sized kitchen actually felt extremely small. It wasn’t till I moved that I realized, it wasn’t actually a small kitchen, we just put all of our stuff in bad spots.
My cabinet doors are currently off since we are refinishing them. I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to show and explain my thought process on the reorganization.
(Also, I apologize in advance, our kitchen is definitely a work in progress)
Consider the layout
My kitchen is a U shaped kitchen. It isn’t open concept at all, but has a wonderful layout. It isn’t that big, but it’s bigger than any kitchen I’ve ever used! The sink is in the very middle under a window, and the stove, oven, and fridge are all on the left side of the sink(See pictures below). Originally, my fiance put all of our dishes to the left of the sink. I had to explain to him why that was such a bad idea.
When you’re cooking, do you usually grab dishes, or do you usually grab spices and cooking ingredients? Cooking stuff of course! Let’s say someone wants to get a glass of water while another is cooking. When that happens you’ll be on top of each other! (Which is exactly how it was at our last place) Alas, after a few seconds he understood and let me organize the whole thing.
All spices and savory cooking ingredients are placed to the right side of the oven, since we are both right handed, it made the most sense to us. On the left side of the stove, right side of the fridge, we have our baking things. I’m the baker out of the two of us. However I like to bake mostly paleo desserts, so not only are they not very good a lot of the time, I don’t bake that often because no one wants to share with me! That being said, I put all the baking stuff in the top shelves on the left side since that is definitely going to be the least frequently used cabinet.
No matter how you decide to organize, just make sure things are in logical places. I prefer all my cooking items near where I cook, and all my dish items be where all my countertop space is, as far away as possible from the “chefs” side.
My fiance and I have not bumped into each other once since I organized the kitchen, and it is wonderful. If you feel like your kitchen is too small, try organizing and see if it helps you!
