Kitchen clutter

How many evenings do you come home from work, and face a kitchen which needs "organizing" before you can even think of cooking? If you are like me, this happens often. From breakfast dishes still in the sink and a clean dishwasher load waiting to be emptied, there always seem to be a few tasks to perform before starting dinner.

How, then, do we make this easier and avoid what I like to call "kitchen clutter"? Here are a few tips I have found to work well:

• Appliances - Keep those you use every day (coffee maker, toaster, etc.) right on the counter to make your a.m routine easier. Appliances you don't use as often (ice cream maker, etc.) should be stored in a rarely used lower cabinet.
• Utensils - Store your often used cooking utensils near the stove (in a drawer or a nice countertop container). It makes it much easier to flip a chicken breast if your tongs are nearby! Put your silverware and other utensils used for eating near the sink or dishwasher for quick dishwasher loading and unloading. Less used utensils should be stored in a slightly less convenient area, and grouped according to their use.
• Countertop - Be sure to keep a designated prep area near the stove free of clutter at all times and ready for a cutting board and cooking essentials at any time (salt, pepper, olive oil). Keep in mind, any free/open areas on your counter near a kitchen access point can be clutter catchers. We all have a stack of mail somewhere in the kitchen, right? You can avoid this by setting up place settings at the eat-in counter, for example. Creating a physical barrier of sorts helps discourage dumping!
• Cabinets- Place heavy items in the base cabinets, and lighter items in the upper cabinets. Likewise, store less used items (fancy dishes) in higher, less accessible area of your upper cabinets.
• Pots & Pans - Keep your pots and pans together in one area, preferably near the sink or stove. If you are short of space, stack them one inside the other. (Put a paper plate or paper towel between them if scratching is a concern.) I personally love ceiling or wall mounted pot racks! Stow less used items like your muffin pans in a less accessible area, and as for items like your turkey roasting pan which you only use once a year, consider storing it out of the kitchen all together. I have a small area in my basement for these types of kitchen supplies.
• Under the sink - Oh boy, this can sometimes be a dark hole! Make sure you only store things in here that are actually used in the kitchen itself. Fortunately, there are a lot of great cabinet organizers you can easily install in this area to make your dishwashing liquid and other items much more accessible (roll out racks, for example). Door attachments are also nice for storing sponges and scrubbers. If you don't install racks, a simple trick for organizing this area is to store all cleaners and supplies in a small tub and put it on one side of your cabinet, leaving you the other side for placement of your garbage cans.

Hope this helps make your task of cooking easier and free of clutter!

Happy cooking!!!!