Clean Plates: 4 Steps To Organizing Your Kitchen - And Your Life
Maeve offers her best kitchen and life organizing tips to CleanPlates.com.
Maeve teamed up with Lauren Salkeld at CleanPlates.com for this tips filled kitchen organizing feature: 4 Steps To Organizing Your Kitchen—And Your Life. Enjoy!
Clean Out
Toss Five: One of the hardest parts of getting organized is simply getting started. To avoid being overwhelmed, begin with one simple task. New York City-based organizing coach Maeve Richmond of Maeve’s Method recommends her “Toss Five” approach: Open the fridge and pantry and identify five items to discard. Think expired condiments, old produce, or that artisanal jam you can’t figure out how to use. Toss them without guilt or regret; they’re just taking up space. #tossfive
Organize
Group Like With Like: Think about how and when you use different foods and group them accordingly...If you establish a designated spot for kids’ snacks, they can learn to help themselves and gain independence in the kitchen, Richmond says. #likethingslivetogether
Make it Accessible: Along with using boxes, Richmond suggests repurposing #trays and #bowls for storage. Both are attractive and make it easy to see what you have on hand. Plus, if you infuse your storage with some of your own personal style—a pretty ceramic bowl you bought on vacation or a tray in your favorite color, for example—you’re more likely to stick to your new system.
Try Labeling: Larger families or those creating an entirely new system often find labeling helpful because it communicates where everything is located... And consider different labeling options, says Richmond. While words may be helpful to some, others may respond better to pictures or color coding.
Keep It Up
Work The System: The great thing about creating an organization system that works with your lifestyle—and speaks to your personal aesthetic—is that you won’t need to continually reorganize, says Richmond. Once you have that structure in place, to stay organized all you really need to do is put food back in its designated place. And with whatever method you use—labels, trays, baskets, or even new containers—the entire household will know where everything goes.
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