Lonny Magazine - 10 Ways to Get Your Kitchen Into Gear This Year
What’s creeping in the back of your cabinets? Old boxes of mac-and-cheese or expired cans of beans or how about dishes that haven't seen the light of day in years?
Well, if we’re being transparent here, that’s what we (shamefully) had in ours. But, in the vein of "new year, new beginnings" mantra, we’re cleaning up our kitchens from the inside out.
Thanks to pro Wiebke Liu of Blisshaus, a service that turns crowded, cluttered kitchens into streamlined havens of sustainability, we've got a handful of tips that will leave your kitchen feeling lighter and more approachable than ever.
Whether it's tossing products that have reached their shelf life or arranging items by ceramic and glass, prepare to walk away with a very Pinterest-worthy kitchen.
Designate Glass And Ceramic-Only Shelves
"Streamline the insides of your cabinets by sorting your plates, cups, and glasses first by material and then by color. This means you designate one cabinet just for your glass items."
"This cabinet should house your glasses, glass plates, glass server ware, and even glass vases. Another cabinet or drawer should be appointed only with your ceramic dishes and mugs. If you have different colored plates and mugs, sort them by color. Not only will your cabinets look more organized and visually pleasing, but unloading the dishwasher becomes much easier since alike will live with alike."
"This cabinet should house your glasses, glass plates, glass server ware, and even glass vases. Another cabinet or drawer should be appointed only with your ceramic dishes and mugs. If you have different colored plates and mugs, sort them by color. Not only will your cabinets look more organized and visually pleasing, but unloading the dishwasher becomes much easier since alike will live with alike."
(Source: Photo: Via @pinterest/mydomaine.)
Sort Cookbooks By Color, Then By Height
"Add visual calm to your shelves by sorting your cookbooks first by color, then within each color group by height."
"The result is a rainbow of books that makes it easy to find the perfect spot for any book when you need to put it back. An added bonus is that you’ll have a much easier time finding the book you are looking for since you’ll have the color in your mind’s eye when you search for it."
"The result is a rainbow of books that makes it easy to find the perfect spot for any book when you need to put it back. An added bonus is that you’ll have a much easier time finding the book you are looking for since you’ll have the color in your mind’s eye when you search for it."
(Source: Photo: Via @Pinterest/Southern Living.)
Sort Utensils By Color
"Chances are, you have a medley crew of utensils in a drawer and an on-the-counter bucket. For super-quick results, sort utensils by material and color."
"So keep all wooden spoons together and group metal spatulas with metal tongs etc. Again, the more you can edit down to only two or three materials and colors, the more elegant your counter space and drawers will look. If you fell for those lime-green tipped tongs, consider upgrading to ones that match your other utensils and donating the old set to a local charity. It’s probably one of the cheaper face-lifts you can buy for your kitchen."
"So keep all wooden spoons together and group metal spatulas with metal tongs etc. Again, the more you can edit down to only two or three materials and colors, the more elegant your counter space and drawers will look. If you fell for those lime-green tipped tongs, consider upgrading to ones that match your other utensils and donating the old set to a local charity. It’s probably one of the cheaper face-lifts you can buy for your kitchen."
(Source: Photo: Via Pinterest/Brit+Co.)
File Your Towels And Napkins Kondo-Style
"You’ve heard about Marie Kondo and might or might not be ready to unleash her organizing discipline in your home. Even if you’re not up for origaming your t-shirts, do try folding your dish towels so that they fit into a drawer or wire basket standing up, like files in a filing cabinet."
"Place them in with the folded edge to the top. Use the rainbow rule again and sort them by color."
"Place them in with the folded edge to the top. Use the rainbow rule again and sort them by color."
(Source: Photo: Via Shop Mille.)
Declutter Pots And Pans
"Unless you have a huge professional range in your kitchen, you will never be able to cook with more than 4 pots or pans at a time. So take a serious look at your collection of pots and pans and edit out any that you don’t absolutely love or use."
"Ditch the pans with peeling non-stick coating or those pots you’ve never cooked in but held onto because they are ‘part of a set.’ Keep your cast iron pan and a heavy dutch-oven to pan roast steak and braise slow-cooking dishes. Add one to two stainless steel sauté pans for omelets and stir-fry. Pick two to three pots including one super large pot for boiling stocks, potatoes, pasta, soups, and sauces. And voila, you have five to seven cooking vessels you’ll use all the time. If you have extra room on your shelves, add a small sauce pot for heating milk and boiling eggs. And if you love grilling, a cast iron grill pan or combo griddle/grill pan will be more than you’ll ever need. oh, and when in doubt, always pick pots and pans with metal handles - those can go straight from the stove into the oven like you’ve seen on TV."
"Ditch the pans with peeling non-stick coating or those pots you’ve never cooked in but held onto because they are ‘part of a set.’ Keep your cast iron pan and a heavy dutch-oven to pan roast steak and braise slow-cooking dishes. Add one to two stainless steel sauté pans for omelets and stir-fry. Pick two to three pots including one super large pot for boiling stocks, potatoes, pasta, soups, and sauces. And voila, you have five to seven cooking vessels you’ll use all the time. If you have extra room on your shelves, add a small sauce pot for heating milk and boiling eggs. And if you love grilling, a cast iron grill pan or combo griddle/grill pan will be more than you’ll ever need. oh, and when in doubt, always pick pots and pans with metal handles - those can go straight from the stove into the oven like you’ve seen on TV."
(Source: Photo: Via Le Creuset.)
Store Pots In Your Pantry
"This sounds counter-intuitive, but if you have one of those tall, cabinet-depth pantries, consider it for your pots & pans instead of your food items. The pots and pans have long handles that fit perfectly on the super deep pantry shelves. If you invest in extra shelves, you can probably even avoid having to next pots and pans in each other. This makes pulling out a pot or a pan a cinch — which is such a delight especially in the heat of your cooking battle."
(Source: Photo: Via Pinterest/Martha Stewart.)
Put Food In Pull-Out Drawers
"So now that you emptied out the tall pantry cabinet in order to store your pots, where do all your food items go? Try those deep drawers under your cabinets. When you pull them open, it’ll be easier to see all the contents and nothing can get tucked away into the back of a shelf."
"If you invest in matching jars, get ready for serious kitchen envy by your friends. Not only does your food look stunning in jars, but it’ll also stay fresher longer. We love the stunning jars here but you can also simply save up jars from your pasta sauces to create your own zero-cost pantry.
"If you invest in matching jars, get ready for serious kitchen envy by your friends. Not only does your food look stunning in jars, but it’ll also stay fresher longer. We love the stunning jars here but you can also simply save up jars from your pasta sauces to create your own zero-cost pantry.
(Source: Photo: Courtesy of BlissHaus.)
Capture Cooking Inspo
"Isn’t it funny how you get hit by inspiration on what to cook at the store? Then, when you come home, you unload the groceries and at the next mealtime, the menu amnesia has hit you."
"You know you bought food but it seems like there is nothing to cook. To avoid the cooking doldrums, hang a whiteboard (Ikea has modern ones made from glass) on a kitchen wall or paint a cabinet door with chalkboard paint and jot down your dishes as you unload the groceries. And voila! a full menu of cooking inspiration for anyone in your home who can read!"
"You know you bought food but it seems like there is nothing to cook. To avoid the cooking doldrums, hang a whiteboard (Ikea has modern ones made from glass) on a kitchen wall or paint a cabinet door with chalkboard paint and jot down your dishes as you unload the groceries. And voila! a full menu of cooking inspiration for anyone in your home who can read!"
(Source: Photo: via Bright Star Kid/Pinterest.)
Invest In Healthy (Glass-Only) Storage
"We’ve heard all the talk about bad plastics and see labels touting BPA-free on everything from cans of beans to baby bottles. Treat yourself to peace-of-mind PLUS pretty shelves by pitching all plastic containers and buying eight to 12 glass containers with lids."
"It might not sound like enough, but seriously, if you need more than 12 containers to store food, your fridge will be bursting and the food is sure to be forgotten and will spoil. By limiting yourself to fewer containers, you create a physical reminder that you are running low on storage containers and way high on leftovers. Plus now you can store the containers with their lids on which makes for no-more missing lids. Hurrah!"
"It might not sound like enough, but seriously, if you need more than 12 containers to store food, your fridge will be bursting and the food is sure to be forgotten and will spoil. By limiting yourself to fewer containers, you create a physical reminder that you are running low on storage containers and way high on leftovers. Plus now you can store the containers with their lids on which makes for no-more missing lids. Hurrah!"
(Source: Photo: Courtesy of BlissHaus.)
Move Spices Into Drawer
"This last tip is a huge game-changer, but many folks get worried about freeing up that junk-drawer, so we saved this one for last. Are you ready? Yes? Then get out a shoebox, dump in all the junk drawer contents for you to sort later and then — move all your spices into the drawer."
"Spices add pizzazz to your dishes, but if you are like most of us, chances are your spices are a medley of jars and tins stacked five rows deep on a shelf near your stove. This makes finding the spice you need in the heat of your cooking less than glamourous. Solve this problem by declaring a drawer to be the space for all your spices. It’s worth it, not only do these precious herbs cost more ounce-by-ounce than anything else in your kitchen, but you will also be able to pull the drawer open and glance at it and easily find what you are looking for. Tip: lay jars flat so you can see their contents or get our favorite, pre-labeled tins from Blisshaus."
"Spices add pizzazz to your dishes, but if you are like most of us, chances are your spices are a medley of jars and tins stacked five rows deep on a shelf near your stove. This makes finding the spice you need in the heat of your cooking less than glamourous. Solve this problem by declaring a drawer to be the space for all your spices. It’s worth it, not only do these precious herbs cost more ounce-by-ounce than anything else in your kitchen, but you will also be able to pull the drawer open and glance at it and easily find what you are looking for. Tip: lay jars flat so you can see their contents or get our favorite, pre-labeled tins from Blisshaus."
(Source: Photo: Courtesy of BlissHaus.)
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