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Organizing My Kitchen {and yours too}


When Frog Prince and I moved in to our house 6 months ago today, we had a blank slate in our kitchen.  After our remodel, we have been trying out different ways to arrange our kitchen dishes, utensils and small appliances for maximum efficiency.


Please tell me I'm not the only one who arranges and re-arranges trying to find the best use for the space?!

Today, I want to share with you the top three things that have really worked for us to organize our kitchen:

1. Clean utensil drawers.  
When I have a limited amount of time to get a recipe together, the last thing I want to do is spend time looking all over for that missing Tablespoon!  Or, that missing garlic press I mentioned on Facebook.  Which, I did end up finding -- behind the bread machine in the pantry closet.  Anyway, I digress.  Having clean, organized drawers is a must for us.

 

We lined our drawers with a shelf liner, and used an old Velveeta cheese box (and by old, I mean 5+ years old, since we haven't had Velveeta in our house for that long!) to hold our measuring spoons and meat thermometer.  Corralling those loose items in one space makes the drawer look much nicer.

2. Easy Access Baking Supplies
We use a lot of flour and baking supplies, so I want these items to be easily accessible.  Arranged on two pull-out drawers in our new kitchen cabinet are 8 flour storage containers.  I find these Oxo storage containers so much easier to work with than torn flour bags.  Each 4-quart square canister holds a 5lb bag of flour.


I labeled them using our label maker and have them organized for easy access - with the wheat flours in the front, the bread and all purpose flour behind them, and the sugars, oats and powdered milk on the lower shelf.

3. Menu Plan Central
Tucked along the side of our refrigerator is a posting of our weekly menu plan.  Menu planning significantly reduces dinner time stress, decreases our food budget, encourages fellowship of Frog Prince and I in the kitchen, promotes healthier eating and saves us from that dreadful 5pm question, "Honey, what's for dinner?!"


Frog Prince gave me this rotating menu plan dry erase board a few years ago and I love it.  Each Thursday night, Frog Prince and I take a few minutes to menu plan. This is often determined by (1) what we have that we would like to use up, (2) what's on sale, and (3) what we're interested in eating.  You can read more about how we menu plan here, if you'd like.

We record our menu items on the calendar and place it on the side of the fridge, clearly visible as a reminder (oh, yeah, I need to start the crockpot before work) first thing in the morning.


If you need some help and inspiration getting started with menu planning, six bloggers {including myself} have put together menu plan ideas, and each recipe in the menu has a  printable grocery list to match!

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Over the coming weeks, I'll continue to give you sneak peaks into our kitchen -- how it's organized and how we store healthy foods in our space.  But today, I'd like to finish up this post with an organizing kick-start giveaway!

I'm sure many of you know Laura, The Organizing Junkie, and are inspired by her organization.  Well, she has just authored a book about organizing called Clutter Rehab, and I have FOUR free, signed copies for you!


In addition, I also have 3 copies of Laura's (The Heavenly Homemaker) book all about kitchen organizing - Do the Funky Kitchen e-book.

That's right -- there will be 7 winners chosen using Random.org.

Entering is easy. Just leave a comment on this post identifying the area you would start organizing first in your kitchen!

The giveaway will close on Thursday, February 10, 2011, at 11:59pm.  

Be sure to visit some other fantastic bloggers and get their insight on organization and enter in their giveaways:

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