The Organized Kitchen

Let's face it. The kitchen is the most important room in the house. You need it to be well organized unless you have enough money to go out to eat all the time or have someone to do all your cooking for you.

Chances are that if you are either of these things you will probably be nice and organized anyway.

Some of my best memories from childhood are of doing schoolwork or visiting with my mom in her kitchen while she cooked and prepared meals.

I also loved going to my grandmother's house and visiting with her while she was cooking.

Whenever people go to parties and have people over a lot of the time is spent in the kitchen.

It's a natural gathering spot.

Since this is a natural gathering spot home designers and interior decorators have designed them with a more elegant look.

By thinking this way they have lost sight of the function.

The function is to cook. Socializing there is nice and comfortable but if the cook suffers because the look came before the function, then the layout is not very good.

I like kitchens that are set up for maximum efficiency and ease of cooking and cleanup. I think those types of kitchen look fantastic.

Your kitchen should work for you.

It is possible to have a really good, efficient work area no matter what the layout. Obviously, if you want to spend a bundle of money you can and it could really be great.

In fact my wife and I remodeled the kitchen in our first house completely. The house was built in the 1920's and was remodeled already when we bought it but it was not too great.

We gutted it and started over. It turned out fantastic. We had solid surface counter tops and white laminated European cabinets with slide out drawers, a deep stainless sink, tall faucet and all new appliances. Of course since I spent over $25,000 on it you would expect that it would be great.

I am talking about using whatever layout you have and making it work for you.

I have lived in lots of different houses and apartments over the years and have been able to cook in all of them. I didn't starve and was able to prepare meals wherever.

I'm sure you can too. It is just your mindset and looking to make the best of whatever you have.

The main idea is to put things in the place where it makes the most sense.

You need to sit down and study the layout and then put things in the proper place.

The easiest way to do this is to not have very much stuff.

My ex-wife is a gadget, utensil, plate, glass, pot and pan collector. She has multiple sets of everything.

You can see why I had to spend so much on the remodeling. There was just too much stuff to deal with.

The best way is to just have one set of what you need. If you just have to buy more, then upgrade by improving the basics and throwing out or giving away what you have replaced.

What fun is it to buy expensive, beautiful cookware and then keep the old stuff. I know the old stuff is still good, but there is just no way to have an efficient kitchen if it is too full.

Another big problem with too much stuff is that people will fill all the cabinets with plates, cups, glasses, pots, pans. etc. but then have not room for food.

You need to have half your cabinet space for food. What good is all the stuff without the food?

The best way to save money on food is to buy more of it when it is at its lowest price. You want to keep plenty of open cabinets for this food.

Cabinets without much in them are just nicer to deal with. It is easier to get the cookware out and it is easier to put it back.

Once you have settled on a basic layout then it is better to leave it alone. You will have it memorized and your efficiency will go up. If you are changing it all the time or even a few times a year then you will waste time relearning it.

The counter tops need to be kept clear of knickknacks and other stuff so that they are clear and open to prepare meals and to make cleanup easier.

If your counter tops have a lot of stuff on them it is because you have too much stuff.

You have to get rid of it. Moving or remodeling because you have too much stuff is really stupid. I know, I did both.

If your kitchen is in very bad shape and totally disorganized then you will have to redo it, but avoid the temptation to constantly be working on it.

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