5 Ways To Organize Your Kitchen

Your kitchen is the heart of your home, and like a heart its arteries can get clogged if you don't care for it the right way. From cooking meals, having company over, watching Sunday morning cartoons during breakfast and more, it's safe to say your kitchen is your social hub…but it can also be a crowded mess. You may not be ready for a complete makeover, but why not take this weekend to give it that little facelift it needs? These easy tasks will help you organize your kitchen and make it function better for everyone.

1. To start, open your fridge. Move foods with an upcoming expiration date to the front so they don’t get forgotten in the back. Consider creating a food inventory of what's in your refrigerator. That way, you'll always know when your food will reach its expiration date, what ingredients you have on hand to cook for dinner for the week and when you need to go grocery shopping. By keeping this list visible—chalkboard paint a wall!—anyone running out to the store (hint: your husband) will know what other items they should pick up as well. To keep food fresh, especially vegetables, store them in see-through containers; that way you'll always be able to see what you've got on hand (without having to search) and you'll give your fridge a more organized look. Find these organizers at Crate & Barrel.

2. Can't find your whisk because of all those magazines, catalogs, dog toys, and more cluttering every square inch of counter space? They gotta go! Look around your kitchen and identify your everyday essentials and get rid of everything else. By making your kitchen a mess-free zone, it will look more streamlined and make you less stressed when dinner time comes around and you need to get cooking.

3. Next, tackle the drawers. Everyone has that one junk drawer in their kitchen filled with every type of utensil. Now is the time to tackle the task of sorting through them all. A good way of doing this is buying drawer inserts. They make it easy to sort out utensils, cooking tools and more, keeping each one accessible. (Be sure to give each of your drawers the once-over with a disinfecting wipe to get rid of any crumbs!)

4. Now turn to your Tupperware cabinet—you know, the place where you stash all those reusable takeout containers. Everyone knows the frustration of not being able to find the right sized container when it's time to put away leftovers. Try taking everything out of the cabinet or drawer and start by matching up all the tops and bottoms. Put any old maids in the recycling trash bin and then restack by size. If you've collected more than you'll ever need, pare back…less is more. Check out these stackables from the Container Store.

5. Everyone’s favorite thing to do when they don’t feel like cooking is taking out the takeout menus! When you want to order something quick, you don't want to be hunting down the coupon you got from that new pizzeria. The best way to organize your menus is with either a binder or a folder, one that you can keep in a set drawer. If you want to get really fancy, you can even divide the menus by cuisine or alphabetically—but as long as they’re all organized in one place, you and your family will be set.

Step 6 is relaxing in your kitchen over a glass of wine, admiring your handiwork and planning how to keep your kitchen organized!

Photos courtesy of Crate & Barrel and The Container Store.