It’s easy to let things accumulate in your kitchen, especially with all the different gadgets and must-haves on the market. And before you know it, your kitchen resembles a kitchen supply store more than it does the space where you gather to cook and enjoy a meal.
We chatted to professional organisers who share their tips and advice on how you can start decluttering and reorganising your kitchen space so that it can be enjoyed as the heart of the home in next to no time.
If you are thinking about doing a complete cleanout of your kitchen, Clear Spaces’ owner Iolanda Goncalves-Bishop offers two methods to help you:
One is doing it over a period of time, using either 15- or 30-minute blocks or a drawer or shelf at a time. The other method is to do it all at once.
Photo by Nic Baleta
The process:
This process can be applied to both methods – get three boxes and label them: 1. Keep 2. Trash and 3. Donate. Then take everything out of every cupboard and drawer, and sort them into the three boxes. Once you are finished, you can throw out all the items in the Trash box and donate the items in the Donate box. Lastly, go through the Keep box and ask yourself, “Do I use this? Do I need this? Do I love this?” Whatever you don’t use, need or love, you can again donate and the rest you can keep.
Heidi Meyer, CEO, professional organiser and owner of Cloud 9 Organised, offers her top three tips to help you get your kitchen organised:
1. Make a conscious decision to use your beautiful stuff instead of putting it away for special occasions. This will cut down considerably on duplication.
2. Store according to category – small appliances, crockery, glasses, mugs, cups and sauces, cutlery, pots, pans and so forth.
3. Pile plates and nest dishes, pots and pans. Please note that you can only nest if they are the same shape – don’t mix round dishes with oval, square or rectangular.
Oh So Organised’s founder and owner Bryony Stephenson (Durban-based) and franchise owner Julia Adam (Joburg-based) offer their advice on how to select appliances so that they do not overcrowd and clutter the kitchen:
If your kitchen counter is cluttered with appliances, you have too many other items that you aren’t using that are taking up valuable storage space that your appliances could be in. All appliances should have homes beneath the counter otherwise they just get covered in grease from cooking.
Buy appliances that you are actually going to use! If you are a baker and love to make desserts often then buying a large food mixer is worth it. But if you only bake once a year for a birthday then perhaps it is not something that you need taking up space. Appliances should be something you use nearly every month. If you are not using them that often then you may want to question whether to donate them to someone who will.
Also, find appliances that have multiple functions; in other words, one tool for lots of jobs. That way you don’t have the clutter of keeping lots of appliances for different jobs, which also makes cleaning up quite hectic.
Photo by Nic Baleta
A round-up of products to help you get an organised and uncluttered kitchen
1. Choosing integrated appliances is a great way to make a kitchen design appear fluid and uncluttered. Miele’s new Generation 7000 range of integrated appliances, for example, offers four different design lines that can be combined virtually at will. This is because all the appliances appear to come from the same mould for a super streamlined appearance. www.miele.co.za
Miele
2. Forget the messy utensil drawer with this Joseph Joseph Nest Utensils Store space-saving set of five essential kitchen tools that can be neatly stacked together. It comes with a handy storage stand, which can be kept in the kitchen drawer or mounted on the wall. www.yuppiechef.com
Yuppie Chef – Joseph Joseph Nest Utensils Store, Set of 5
3. Chopping boards all over the counter? Make that a thing of the past with the Joseph Joseph Index Regular Chopping Board set that comes with four cutting boards that feature index-style tabs to indicate which food type they should be used for. Reduce cross-contamination of food using this simple yet effective tab system. www.yuppiechef.co.za
Yuppie Chef – Joseph Joseph Index Regular Chopping Board Set
4. The utensil drawer is probably the one drawer that always needs reorganising. The OXO Good Grips Expandable Utensil Organiser makes the most out of drawer space to store more utensils. Its adjustable dividers hold more utensils by letting you stack them in opposite directions. Say goodbye to that messy utensil drawer for good. www.yuppiechef.co.za
Yuppie Chef – OXO Good Grips Expandable Utensil Organiser
5. The Simplehuman Rectangular Recycling Pedal Bin with its space-saving design makes it easy to separate waste and recyclables. The bin has two inner removable buckets – 30-litre and 16-litre – a strong steel pedal that is designed to last, patented lid technology that ensures a smooth, silent close every time and a stay-open lid. With this bin, recycling and waste separation is now easy and convenient. www.yuppiechef.co.za
Yuppie Chef – Simplehuman Rectangular Recycling Pedal Bin, 46L
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