Organizing My Kitchen

This week I focus on the kitchen - the heart of a home. Welcome to my kitchen!

As many of you know my family and I moved into our new home at the end of October 2012 so I have a lot of organizing to do. When you move into a new home it takes awhile to figure out where you want your stuff. I stood in my kitchen and really thought where I wanted items, what items did I use a lot, and what cabinet should hold what items.

So I broke my kitchen down in sections starting with the dishwasher side first. I thought about emptying the dishes, some times the dishes drip. Did I really want to carry dishes across the wood floor to the other side of the kitchen? No, so all around my dishwasher are my main, everyday dishes - plates, cups, bowls, serving bowls, silverware, and kids dishes. I kept the kids dishes low so they can access them. Oh and every kitchen needs a junk drawer so I have one of those too for my odds and ends items.

 I have so much space in this kitchen that while taking down the Christmas decoration last week I decided to keep all my Christmas dishes and serving piece in the upper cabinet over my double ovens. I also keep other baking items that I do not use often. The bottom drawer holds my cutting boards and cookie/pizza pans.

The other half of my kitchen contains my cooktop so I knew I wanted my pots and pans close to this area. I also made the two drawers my tools/utensil drawers and they hold my spoons, spatulas, whisk, garlic press, and more. My key in these drawers is bins - everything has a place and they don't slide around and get all mixed up. I keep my larger small appliances under the cooktop and my tupperware has a cabinet all to itself. The last drawer contains all my bags and wraps. 

My coffee maker sits on this counter so I made one side of a cabinet my coffee cabinet. My corner cabinet holds all my entertaining pieces - you know, the nice dishes you set up when your having company over to hold your cute appetizers you made!  Over the fridge the cabinet holds my small appliances, like my bread maker (yes I still have one!) and my larger serving pieces. 

 The other side of my coffee cabinet hold all my pyrex dishes. Over the microwave is my summer dishes that we use outside. My last cabinet holds all my kitchen linens, measuring tools, and my drink ware for alcohol.  

 The hardest part for me was decorating. My old house did not allow me to place items on top of the cabinets. I love/hate this feature now. I love it because I get to put cute decorations up there, and I hate it because it is a new area that I have to add to my clean list! My other problem was - what do I put up there. My theme in my kitchen is wine so I went out on a search for just a few more wine items. I used my new purchases and some items I currently had on hand to decorate.

There are still a few organization steps I would like to take in my kitchen, but organizing my kitchen to be usable and having items that I use the most at my fingertips was my goal.  

Happy Organizing!