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©2009 Professional Organizer -
Lea Schneider is the author of
Growing-Up Organized: A Mom to Mom Guide available at
Amazon.com.
Lea provides one-on-one organizing advice via phone and email through Organize Online
division at her company website,
Organize Right Now.
Her advice is featured here at What's Cooking America in a monthly column. You may have read her
expert organizing ideas in Woman’s Day, Natural Health, College News, and Better Homes and Gardens Kids’ Rooms magazines and newspapers.
She is a member of the National Association of Professional
Organizers and the Association of Food Journalists.
Contact Information:
Lea Schneider
Organize Right Now LLC
Member National Association of Professional Organizers
Pensacola, Florida
Website:
Organize Right Now
Tele: 1-850-477-2582
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Check out all of Lea Schneider's helpful home and kitchen columns at
Organizing Kitchens, Pantries, Menus and Meals.
Prepare for the Holidays - Head Back to Basics in Organizing
With the holidays fast approaching, you could probably use a
little help in making your kitchen tidy and getting it organized.
Getting organized in the kitchen means getting down to the basics.
Here is a formula for
basic kitchen organization, based on a recent kitchen over-haul I
did. Use these basic ideas to get organized for all the holiday
cooking and company coming your way:
1. Go
for space: Clear the countertops as much as possible
in order to have room to prepare and serve food. Use a basket to
corral papers, pens, and mail. Use another basket to hold bread,
pastries, and open snacks. Limit appliances to the few used
daily and stow away the rest. Find homes for all of the
miscellaneous items your counter has attracted.
2.
Location: Put things close to where you use them. In
this kitchen, the dishes were located as far from the dishwasher
as possible. My first fix was to move plates, cups, and bowls to
the cabinet over the dishwasher.
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3.
Convenient: Place items near or next to each other so
each project is easy. In this case, we located preparation items
for coffee, tea, and hot chocolate over the microwave and coffee
pot. Grab a mug and you are ready to go.
The cabinet originally had the dishes in it but were far away
from the dishwasher. The coffee, tea, sugar, and other items
were left out on the counter because they didn't have a home.
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4. Think like a chef: A good chef loves their kitchen tools and
gadgets. Just like out in the garage, you always want to grab
the right tool for the job. Group together your tools such as
graters, measuring cups, slicers, rolling pins, and more.
The before cabinet had a hodge-podge of
items. Now the tools are handily together.
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5. Go
Vertical: Make good use of vertical spaces, such as we
did with this pantry door. An over-the-door organizer gave use
added space and meant no more hunting for cooking oils,
vinegars, and sauces. This door was empty.
Now it is a great storage area.
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6.
Divide and Conquer: In the pantry, divide goods into
use or type of item. Put all your breakfast food together, your
rice and pasta together, your snacks together, and so on.
Baskets can help you create divisions in your pantry.
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7. Keep
it organized: Label! Label the shelves and the baskets
to help keep things organized.
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