Organizing My Kitchen Part 1

This is the first of, hopefully, many posts about the process of organizing my kitchen. I am reading a wonderful book, "Kitchen Organization Tips and Secrets" by Deniece Schofield - "Time saving ways to streamline your kitchen-from storage and cleaning to grocery shopping and meal planning." The book is incredibly thorough, funny, and well-written. Schofield truly takes the reader by the hand and goes step by step through the process of making any kitchen far more efficient.


So far, I have read the first three chapters and am greatly inspired. The titles of the first three chapters are:

• Time Management: The 80/20 Principle
• Creative Kitchen Storage Ideas
• Making Your Kitchen Accessible.

While many homemakers struggle with a small kitchen, this is not my problem. Actually, I have been greatly blessed with a huge kitchen which I absolutely love. Having said that, I realize that I simply do not have it organized very well at all. I end up walking around a lot during meal preparation and hunting for needed items. Making dinner always seems like more of a hassle than it should be.


The very first step Schofield suggests is to Discard and Sort. Schofield suggests using a four box method to do the big Discard and Sort. Before beginning the Discard and Sort, the hopeful homemaker is to arm herself with the following four boxes so that she can stay in the kitchen and lessen distractions:

• Trash
• Give away or sell.
• Put away.
• Don't know.

Armed with the aforementioned three boxes and the trash can in the kitchen, I have begun the Discard and Sort in my own kitchen. I am not waiting for that "huge block of time" that will never come my way - I have decided to just get started and try to work on organizing the kitchen a little bit at a time. So, today, after we were finished with school and before I needed to take my daughter to swim team, I worked in the kitchen for about a half hour. Here is a picture of the boxes which are clearly labeled:

FYI - my husband is the manager of a grocery store and the 40 oz. beer boxes are the BEST boxes for projects around the house - very sturdy and durable. We always keep a stack in the garage. We didn't drink all of the beer ourselves!

I had time to finish one bottom cupboard. I cleaned the shelving, and discarded and sorted using my three boxes. Here is a picture of the completed, clean cabinet.

Schofield, in her book about kitchen organization, recommends assigning each item in one's kitchen with an A, B, C, or D value. A's are those items that are used most often and should be easily accessible. B's are used less often but are still important - access to them should still be easy. C's are those items that are important but are used less often - not daily. C's, for me, are items in this cupboard - crock pots, apple peeler, and bread machine. In my re-organization, I want to keep all of my C items on the far side of the kitchen which is not especially convenient to my food preparation area. But, right now, I am just focusing on DISCARD AND SORT.